Owner of Derry's new Italian café and deli 'overwhelmed' with support since opening

Salumeria Mariuccia located in the Diamond, serves deli meats, delicacies and Italian coffee and has been incredibly popular since opening their doors. Antonio met his Derry partner when they worked together in the Netherlands but decided to move back to her home to work for themselves.

"I'm nearly 51 and I always wanted to do something for myself because I had always worked so hard,” he said. “The idea was to start an Airbnb but everyone seems to be buying with cash now and we couldn’t afford it. Around three years ago, my partner and myself went for a trip to Tuscany in Italy. In Pisa, we saw this place that was selling raw meat on the sandwiches and whatever else. I already knew about these types of places but my partner, who is from Derry, hadn’t seen something like that before and she absolutely loved it. That’s where the idea came from.

“Last year, we visited some friends in Scotland and we went by this place called Salumeria Santines and I decided to go in. We had a foggy idea of what we wanted before that but it was suddenly clear, like sunshine. We realised then that that was what we wanted. We looked at a few different places in Derry but they didn’t work out until we found this one. We were delayed a bit because my father wasn’t well but we came back and went for it. We got everything set up, working hard to being able to open and the only thing left was to find a name. Salumeria in Italian means deli and we knew we wanted that but we couldn’t think of the second part. We were thinking about maybe Pepe, which is our dogs name and means pepper in Italian but one night my partner woke me up and told me she had a name; Mariuccia. I started crying. My mum passed 33 years ago and my partner never met her but I always talk about my mum. She was called Maria and her nickname was Mariuccia.”

“Two days before we opened we had an evening for friends and family and when I went out the door that night, I had such a strong feeling of ‘we did it’. It was so emotional because we had been working towards this for three months, day and night and we were finally there. We put blood, sweat and a lot of swearing into this place and to see the response on social media is just amazing. People are being so nice and they’re taking time out to write lovely things about us, it makes you think you must be doing something right.”

Since opening their doors, Salumeria Mariuccia has been very busy, with people queuing out the door during the lunchtime rush. Although it was a surprise for the team to be so busy and they struggled at times to cope with the demand, Antonio says they are ‘incredibly grateful’ for all the support from the patient customers and their staff and family members who put so much time and energy into the first few days.

"We’ve been so busy since we opened, a bit too busy really! We got a big slap in the face because we didn’t expect so many people to come in on the first few days, we thought we would start slowly and work our way up but that didn’t happen. We had one full-time staff member so we took on someone else and have another starting shortly as well. My partner and her mum have been helping out whenever they can too and we couldn’t cope without that. I’ve been here on my days off making tiramisu and cannoli. I knew that it would be a lot of work because my friends opened a restaurant a few years ago and I told them then that doing a job like that becomes your whole life but, maybe because I’m 50 now or something, it’s taking a lot out of me!

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t enjoy the first couple of weeks because it was a lot of work and we just weren’t prepared for it but we’re starting to love it now. It’s a labour of love and we are just delighted to be open and doing what we’re passionate about. It has been, in some respects, way better than what we would ever imagine. There are a lot of customers coming back already which is lovely to see.

"I really want to thank the support we have because it's been amazing. From the people that helped me; the electrician to the joiner to the plumber and now to the customer. I want to give a special thanks to my partners mammy, she has been with is since day one and has always been helping us in any way she can. We wouldn’t be able to do this without her. The support from everyone is just overwhelming.”

Salumeria Mariuccia is located in 28 The Diamond, between Austin’s and Oxfam and opens Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 9am-3.30pm and Sunday 10sm-3pm. They are closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Antonio says they intend to open longer hours in the future, including late evenings to answer to the needs of the community.

For more information on Salumeria Mariuccia, including their menu, search for them on social media.