LIVORNO. Salviano’s Bon Ton also passes into the hands of Chinese entrepreneurs. Since the beginning of March – after the “twin” bar in Via Pian di Rota was sold a year ago – the historic property, with the Livorno Massimiliano Caleo of the Baracchina Rossa Group, has sold the business to some oriental restaurateurs. However, it is not the Zhang family, who took over the other place on the border between Stagno and the northern outskirts of the city, but compatriots who live in Massa and who run various similar businesses in Northern Italy, for example in Verona, but also in Lombardy: «We are concentrated on Stagno – they explain from the Zhang family – and we don’t even know those who acquired the bar in via dei Pelaghi».
In short, the current owners of the restaurant in via Pian di Rota have never shown interest in the “twin” in via dei Pelaghi. And in fact they never even made an offer to take it over. No comment, however, from the new management of the Salviano pastry shop, which has long been a point of reference for the people of Livorno, given that it is open 365 days a year, from morning until late at night. «The owner – they explain on the phone – returns after Easter, Tuesday 2 April, and at the moment he is abroad», the words of an employee.
Therefore, the number of Chinese-run bars and restaurants in Livorno is still increasing, now several dozen. «I don’t think the Chinese are better at managing bars than the people of Livorno, but they certainly have a great desire to work. In Livorno I have never seen a failed Chinese bar. The people of Livorno? They complain because they don’t want to work, there’s no point in beating around the bush. Especially when summer arrives. They can’t wait to go to the beach. The bar owners here do nothing but raise prices as a solution to the crisis. But that’s not how the situation is resolved. At the same prices we can keep the quality unchanged, we do it. Furthermore, we are not “lazy” like some people from Livorno. We know how to deal with service, we are kind”, she said in an interview with Tyrrhenian one of the city’s best-known oriental entrepreneurs, the forty-one-year-old Zujun Zhang, appreciated restaurateur at the head of the Jambo bar-restaurant in via della Madonna, in the centre, just after the news of the sale of the first Bon Ton, the one in via Pian di Rota, to the Zhang family (to whom he is related, among other things).
In recent weeks, several rumors have also circulated regarding a possible sale of the Baracchina rossa, the flagship venue of the Livorno group. In any case, at least at the moment, the business remains in the hands of the same managers. It is not excluded, however, that there is an ongoing negotiation for a change of ownership. «The Bon Tons in Salviano and via Pian di Rota have been sold – the words of an employee of the seafront bar – but not us, anyone who says otherwise is spreading unsubstantiated news».
The structure of the Bon Ton in via dei Pelaghi will not change: it will most likely always remain a pastry shop with the possibility for customers to have quick lunches, given that it is a well-established reality that in the opinion of the new owners it makes no sense to upset. The tobacco shop, however, remained unchanged in its ownership.
