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Local Sicilian produce and wines at Casanova & Daughters
Italy, Wine bars, Wine Restaurants Sophia Longhi Italy, Wine bars, Wine Restaurants Sophia Longhi

Local Sicilian produce and wines at Casanova & Daughters

Cedric Casanova – half-French, half-Sicilian – had an illustrious career as an acrobat in Cirque du Soleil, but the time had come for him to hang up his tightrope. He returned to Sicily and spent a few months thinking about what he was going to do, feasting on the olives that his family grew in the small village of Salaparuta, and eating the bread, cheese and fish from the other local farmers. These delicacies tasted so incredible that he had the idea to sell them in Paris, and so he opened a grocery. With his skills as a showman, he very quickly became friends with the big chefs of the city, like Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire, Pierre Herme, and he ended up supplying all of them with produce for their restaurants. One grocery store became two, then one in London and a restaurant in Paris called La Tete dans L’Olive, meaning ‘head in the olives’.

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Inside the wine list: Davy’s of London
Wine bars Sophia Longhi Wine bars Sophia Longhi

Inside the wine list: Davy’s of London

Davy’s Wine Merchants’ 150th birthday is creeping up and, having only just caught my eye, they seem to be wearing their age very well. Established in an era when deliveries arrived by horse and cart on the cobbled streets of London Town, and serving patrons through two World Wars and into the millennium, this group of 24 traditional wine bars and shops can perhaps give us all a lesson in longevity.

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