The place located among the greenery of the Clarisse Park, in the shadow of the fourteenth-century walls of the city and protected by the mass of the Castle of San Giorgio, is reborn and speaks with a strong French accent. From Friday, aperitif time, it opens The Poor Clares of Apolline with the energy of a 26-year-old who had arrived in Italy to carry out a training period in the field of catering and hospitality and who today becomes an entrepreneur in the heart of the historic center of La Spezia.
Apolline Soete, a native of Bayeux in Normandy, wanted to study the agritourism formula with the idea of then bringing it back to France. Her gym was The two dormice in Calice al Cornoviglio, between organic farming and hospitality. After twenty-two months, the window to take over the bar in the park that runs alongside Scalinata San Giorgio opened and so a new adventure was born. “This place is everything I wanted: I can see the sea from where I work, we are surrounded by a park with plants and flowers – lists Soete -, cruise passengers pass by here going up to the castle museum and school groups leaving after lessons. . And then there are the Orti di San Giorgio”.
Of the 62 proposals received by the Orti di San Giorgio association, which also manages the nearby urban garden in which fifty “city” farmers sow and harvest every season, that of Apolline was the last to arrive. “We received your email on the day the deadline for applications expired – recalls the president Francesco Maria Bellacosa – and we saw each other that same morning. She convinced us immediately because she demonstrated that she understood the genius loci. This is a great example of urban regeneration, one of the very rare community garden managed by citizens that exists in Italy. And it is like a tree, which must be watered, pruned and cared for every day. And we are sure she will help us in this mission and she will be able to convince the people of La Spezia to frequent her.”
The idea is simple, yet different from previous experience. “I think I’ll open mid-morning, not before taking a step from the market to buy seasonal products – says Soete -. We will work at lunch, then we will serve a snack at snack time, both for students leaving school and for cruise passengers who see the castle from the ships and pass by here on their walk. Finally an aperitif at dusk. I’ll be in the kitchen, but I also want to be able to go around the tables to talk to the customers.”
The Apolline Poor Clares team is international: a Frenchwoman in the kitchen, an Italian in the dining room and an Argentinean at the cocktails. Wines from the Luni area, from Tuscany and Piedmont, from Bordeaux and the Rhone. Oysters from the Bay of Isigny. “But I would like to take up and revisit the local tradition – he explains -. Francesco lent me a recipe book that belonged to his grandmother to draw inspiration from. I will have my own boxes to grow inside the Orti di San Giorgio: herbs, herbs and Egyptian onion are on the list”, explains the restaurateur who in the past worked in yacht kitchens, as a sommelier in her homeland and followed a course entirely dedicated to pasta at the Alma school in Parma.
The symbol chosen for the restaurant is the scallop, which also appears on the cover of a book he wrote during the pandemic period. Is titled Coquille Saint-Jacques – Portraits & Recettes. “The shell is a metaphor for eating and drinking, but also a symbol of welcome which in fact was used by pilgrims crossing Europe – he explains -. And then I have always found that shape very elegant.”
