An international business – but family, and Liverpool, is at San Carlo’s heart

With 25 restaurants in the UK and more across the globe San Carlo is a hugely successful international business.

But at its heart is home, and the family who launched it more than 30 years ago.

Marcello Distefano, CEO and son of founder Carlo said:

“100% San Carlo is a family-run restaurant and that will always be our ethos and our heritage,”

“One of the fears my father always had was that he didn’t want to be seen as a chain restaurant, but as a family business with lots individual restaurants, and each city to feel like that restaurant was their own.

“And we have definitely achieved that in Liverpool.

“We are part of the community, and it’s great that generations of people have come to us. And that’s what it’s about – the people, from the customers to the teams who work for San Carlo. You can have the best-designed restaurant, and of course you always make sure the food is good! But it’s the people who make it.”

Marcello adds:

“A restaurant is a place where people develop memories, whether they’re of a birthday or a wedding celebration, or even a business meeting. A restaurant has to provide an atmosphere, and that feel-good feeling, because that’s what hospitality is about.

“It’s somewhere you can go and have a great time and forget about your worries of life.

“And Italian restaurants can do that so well, there’s a certain flare and personality.”

San Carlo, though, excels: “And the team in Liverpool is amazing! You walk in, and they make you feel special; they bring the whole thing to life.”

Launched successfully in Birmingham in 1992 and then elsewhere, San Carlo arrived in Liverpool in 2009, quickly establishing itself as a ‘must-go-to’ venue.

“Liverpool was, and is, really important to us,” adds Marcello. “Opening a restaurant there was a natural progression for us in the north. Liverpool has a great buzz, and a great going-out culture. People love getting dressed up and I love all that; I think that’s something that’s been lost over the years.

“Manchester was a huge success for us, our whole business exploded – and Liverpool was the right place to go to next.

“There really wasn’t anything else on Castle Street at that time, but Bar & Grill was around there then, and we knew that’s where we wanted San Carlo to be (obviously Castle Street has developed massively now).

“The one thing we realised about Liverpool is that, even though it’s a big city, it’s a community here where everyone knows each other and it was important to get it right, to become part of that community and embed ourselves in it, and we seem to have hit the nail on the head.

LFC Parade — Credit: San Carlo Liverpool

“We have had great teams over the years, and San Carlo is still absolutely smashing it in Liverpool.

“San Carlo seems to have a place in the heart of the people; and San Carlo Liverpool has a very special place in mine.

“For one I’m a Liverpool supporter and I love the fact that we get the players in,” Marcello smiles. “Over the years we’ve had a good connection with the club – we used to go to Melwood to cook for the players sometimes. Steven Gerrard used to ask us to go and cook all their favourite dishes; and we’d cook at their houses sometimes if players couldn’t go out because they had a game coming up.”

When restaurants were closed for nine months during Covid, as with other restaurants it gave San Carlo time to reflect on who they were as a company, how things were changing, and how they evolved as an aspirational restaurant to go to.

San Carlo decided to reinvent some sites – and Liverpool became the test bed for all the new ideas and refurbishments, and what San Carlo was.

That meant focusing on its Italian heritage through the design and the artwork that adorns the walls, and £3.5million was spent transforming an already great venue into a spectacular one.

“Liverpool is my favourite one that we’ve done. Sometimes everything comes together and in Liverpool it did. We commissioned artist Jessalyn Brooks to come from LA to create all those fabulous murals that you see, it’s the best.”

When it comes to food, Liverpool’s favourite dishes are no different from elsewhere, the pasta dishes, the steaks, the lobster… but there is a huge difference in what’s drunk in the city’s San Carlo.

“Our champagne sales are some of the best in the country in Liverpool. That reflects that culture of going out, and really enjoying yourself, and we love that!”

Marcello is quick to add, however:

“We wanted to create a restaurant in Liverpool that would wow people – and it does.

“But my father used to say it was important to create a restaurant too where people felt comfortable; where you could spend £10 a head – it was years ago, pre inflation – and have a great time, or spend £100 and have a great time – and feel comfortable and be treated the same.

“He said if you do that, you’ll always have a busy restaurant. That’s still our aim, where everyone feels special, and good.

“That the key for us, for the family.

“We love Liverpool because of the banter and the humour, and there’s a spirit that you don’t find anywhere else.

“San Carlo is proud to be part of the community and the city of Liverpool.”

Find out more about San Carlo here.

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