Emotional ‘last supper’ in Italian restaurant that fed diners in Midleton for 50 years

The owners of Midleton Italian restaurant La Trattoria shared how emotional it was to close their doors for the final time today after 50 years of trading.

Pasquale and Lynda Corigliano took the decision to retire, and have been visited by all their loyal regulars during their final week.

Lynda told The Echo that they were opened for breakfast, lunch, and dinner today for the last time.

A group of staff, past and present, and loyal customers had a farewell lunch today. Lynda added: “We’ve had a lot of people in for ‘last suppers’. We were booked out and had regulars coming in all week — it’s like a flower shop in here and people have been bringing lovely cards.

“It’s been a very emotional week, [Friday] night was very upsetting with a lot of regulars in. We had a full house, but regulars have been our bread and butter, so we had to make space for them and we managed to fit everyone in.

“We had a customer in his late 70s crying to my husband, asking: ‘Where am I going to go now?’

“He said he hoped we’d have a good retirement and that he’d be saying a few prayers for us.

“We’d have many of those kind of people who have the same order every time.”

Accommodating their regular customers was key, Lynda said, explaining: “We’re a family-run restaurant, we’re not a franchise so you could say ‘I’d love two fried eggs, two rashers, and chips’, and we’d make it. We have the posh stuff too, but we cook to our customers tastes and we can do a stir fry with no vegetables or whatever you want, because we cook everything from fresh.”

Pasquale’s parents came from Sicily and opened La Trattoria in 1974, with Pasquale and his late brother Greag taking over the business in 1981.

The couple’s plans for the upcoming week are to tidy up the place and clear everything out, which Lynda predicts will also be very emotional.

They look forward to spending time with their children, who are all grown up now, she said.

“We’ll get to spend a Sunday with them now, because we’ve always been working before.

“I told a customer that whether we retire now, tomorrow, or five years’ time, we will still have to say goodbye at some point, so I would rather go while we’re fresh and able and in good health so that we can enjoy what the future holds. We can leave the restaurant with good, happy memories, knowing we’ve looked after everyone in Midleton and it’s our time now,” she said.