Stuzzi, Harrogate

We were big fans of Salvo’s in Headingley  run by John and Gip Dammone, until it sadly closed in 2023 after umpteen years Happily Stuzzi goes on, run by four ex-employees of Salvo’s who spent four months on an Italian road trip learning about ingredients and suppliers before opening their own restaurant in Harrogate, and then Leeds.

It’s a café with a changing menu of reasonably priced dishes like arancini, frito misto, meatballs, braised octopus with potato and chilli salad, chicken stuffed with Italian sausage wrapped in pancetta, cheese croquettes with salsa verde and grey mullet with pine nuts and grapes.

It’s opposite the Conference Centre so a nifty place for delegates to drop the corporate hotel breakfast in favour of eating local on fennel sausage sandwiches, baked eggs with tomato and cheese or toasted pannafruttone and – naturalmente  – excellent coffee.

Meringues and pastries sit on the counter and fab puddings include the one we sampled: chocolate torte with macerated cherries and Amaretto sauce served with the best ice cream from top London gelato maker Gelupo. Loved it.

Concrete floors, fibreboard tables, reclaims and Ebay finds furnish Stuzzi’s cool, rough-hewn interior. Much more of this and Harrogate is in danger of getting hip.