the restaurant
A Brazilian story the restaurant A leading local restaurant for forty years. The recent renovation of the restaurant has brought freshness to this cosy venue. Luciano Alessandri, in the dining room with his son Massimo, a producer of quality wines, and Nicoletta with Ivana in the kitchen, welcome guests with their specialities, in which the products of the vegetable gardens of the Albenga plain and the best fish from the Ligurian Sea are combined to perfection.
Love and respect for the land result in dishes of rare harmony and high quality. The menu follows the seasons and the arrival of boats and, in autumn, there is never a shortage of mushrooms and truffles from the hinterland.
The wine list is extensive, and there is always excellent home-made oil.
IL PERNAMBUCCO
In the Albenga plain you can admire trees full of a very sweet and juicy fruit: the Pernambucco, the symbol of our restaurant. It all starts in Brazil.
During the Portuguese domination of the state of Pernambucco (whose current capital is Racife), a Ligurian sailor from Val Maremola, above Pietra Ligure, was serving on a sailing ship that transported timber overseas.
Upon his return from one of these voyages he brought back seeds, cuttings and young seedlings from that region with him.
He cultivated these vegetables on his small plot of land and among them was the orange, which he wanted to call the Pernambucco, in memory of his trip to Brazil.
As a result, this orange, easily recognisable by a protuberance, improperly called a ‘frutticino’, spread throughout Liguria and then throughout Italy.