Italian food with a family touch

THE VITTORIA GROUP I PROFILE

The Vittoria Group of Italian restaurants is an Edinburgh institution. Starting with the opening of its Vittoria On the Walk restaurant, the group has grown to now include six restaurants, five brands and two takeaway/delivery units. More than 50 years later, the group remains owned and run by the same family. Alberto Crolla, Group Operations Director of Vittoria, spoke to us about family, food, and whether pineapple belongs on pizza. Report by Richard Hagan.

Apassionate debate between friends, families and even strangers on the internet has raged for decades: does pineapple belong on pizza?

But according to Alberto Crolla, Group Operations Director of the Vittoria Group of Italian restaurants, the question doesn’t matter.

“We’re not in Naples, we’re in the UK,” he smiled. “Whoever wants ham and pineapple together on their pizza can have it as far as we’re concerned. And as long as there’s demand for it, we’ll supply it. Personally, though, I love it. I like the sweetness of the pineapple and the savoury flavour of the ham.”

As much as this was a fun icebreaker leading into our discussion, Mr Crolla’s answer revealed much about the mindset behind the Vittoria Group’s ongoing success more than 50 years after its first restaurant opened. As he explained, the key to the brand’s longevity has been its willingness to supply and then constantly adapt to its customers’ needs whilst continuously evolving its own presentation.

“Over the last 50 years, our brand, primarily starting with Vittoria 50 years ago, has changed and evolved; it’s never really been the same restaurant. Every decade has been different. The business has moved from very casual to the modern 2021 restaurants we have now, offering fresh cocktails, pizza, pasta, steak, chicken, fish… you name it.”

Mr Crolla added: “We have five brands and every brand has continuously evolved; we’ve never settled. We refurbish the restaurants constantly, every six to eight years. They’re always up to date, always evolving and as a business, we’ve always changed, always adapted.”

Great service with a family touch

Edinburgh has been the home of Vittoria Group ever since the business sliced its first pizza for customer consumption in 1970.

“Being over 50 years old sets us apart from a lot of these private equity big chains that are filling up Edinburgh,” Mr Crolla remarked. “Even ten years ago you didn’t have all these big London firms that are dominating the main streets of the city. But they push us to improve and to get better. More competition is good.

“Still, nothing can take away from our history. Having everyone from my granddad to my father, mother, myself and my wife all heavily involved in the business is, I think, the biggest asset that we have.”

He added: “People can trust that when they come into our restaurant, it’s familyrun. They can come in and identify the people who own the restaurant. After all, it’s the people who make the business rather than the product and we’re in the people game.”

The Vittoria Group remains in the hands of the same family who established it all those years ago. Mr Crolla said that the family’s hands-on involvement in the dayto-day operations of the restaurants is a key ingredient of the group’s success, along with a program of constant training.

“We do lots of training. Our DNA as a business comes from our service and from our personal touch. The presence of the family on the floor gives us that extra edge. As hard-working as the family is, we pride ourselves on being very hands-on and, as a business, we pride ourselves on our great service.”

THE VITTORIA GROUP I PROFILE

Of course, great service doesn’t on its own make a popular restaurant business, such as the Vittoria Group, and as the old adage goes, a chef is only as good as his last plate of food. Constantly delivering the best possible food is an artform in itself.

A menu for every occasion

Primarily made up of Italian restaurant brands, the group owns two Vittoria branded restaurants, specialist pizzeria La Favorita, upscale Italian wine bar Divino, and Taste Of Italy, a coffee shop and casual dining Italian restaurant. Additionally, the group owns Bertie’s Restaurant & Bar which is the biggest fish and chips restaurant in Europe and has an impressive capacity of 320 diners.

Patrons at the Vittoria Group are served by a staff complement of between 150 and 200 waiting staff, depending on the season. Impressively, many have been with the company for over ten years but this is less by chance and more by design, noted Mr Crolla.

“We pride ourselves on having longterm staff relationships rather than just hiring brief seasonal staff. Customers don’t want too much change, so we ensure that we look after our staff.”

Each of the company’s brands offers its customers a unique atmosphere or unique experience. The two Vittoria branded restaurants are “all-round Italian restaurants, great for casual occasions, special occasions, and both large or more intimate groups,” said Mr Crolla.

Meanwhile, Taste of Italy is a large venue offering a more casual experience. It also opens the earliest of all of the group’s restaurants, at 8am, in order to draw in the early morning coffee crowd. It remains open until 11pm, serving both lunch and dinner customers as well.

Bertie’s is, as Mr Crolla noted, “all about creating the biggest and best experience that fish and chips can offer”. With its 320 seat capacity, the restaurant is designed to cater for large groups. Divino is the group’s premium offering, with an Italian wines menu topping 200 selections. It’s located down a quiet side street and is focused on upscale, slow dining experiences for between 50 and 100 covers a day. And finally, La Favorita is a wood-fired pizzeria that also offers a pizza takeaway and delivery service – a key revenue stream during lockdown periods.

Filling all of those seats every day requires offering menu items that its surrounding communities actually want. As Mr Crolla explained, that’s something that Vittoria Group specialises in.

“We’re a family brand; we’re not pretentious and we’re not trendy. We give people what they want; we meet our customers’ needs. Whether they’re young, old, or even a young family. What people want is quick, easy, tasty, filling food.

“But we also need to cater to the practicalities of our large venues. So our food has to be simple for our chefs and easy for our customers. We’ve adapted so that the

process isn’t overly complicated. We’re in the city centre where people want to be able to come in, in the middle of other things, quickly eat, and go. It’s a different type of experience but we are intentional about meeting those needs.”

Behind the scenes

In order to ensure that the company constantly ticks all of these boxes for its restaurants and customers, it has centralised the production of a number of its menu items.

“We want consistency and to keep our standards high, so we believe in keeping everything centralised,” he detailed. “Our menus are quite big, and apart from Bertie’s being the only British brand, all of our Italian brands tend to do the same sorts of things, like pizza and pasta.

“For that reason, we’ve centralised production for our bread (like Focaccia), our sauces, meatballs, Arancini, different types of Italian antipasti type dishes, and also a number of cured meats. We have a dedicated, separate team that handles all of this production. We take it quite seriously.”

On plans for the future

With eyes now set on closing the year and starting the next with renewed vigour, Mr Crolla said the restaurant group will keep evolving.

“There’s always room for expansion and we’ve always got new projects on the go,” he said. “There are a few things internally that we want to expand on in the next year – not in terms of big venue expansions, but with things like expanding on our delivery brands and on outside events.

“Internally, we are consolidating; we don’t feel it’s the time to expand and frankly, we’ve got enough on our plate at the moment. We’re putting our energy into doing the best job possible with the restaurants that we have.”

Mr Crolla concluded: “Fundamentally, we want to keep our standards and consistency, and keep our venues healthy and refurbished while looking after equipment and staff. Now is not the time to go mad!” n