Located on the site of the former Pickwick’s wine bar in Chiswick, The Italian Job will serve a rotating range of draught and bottled Italian craft beers as well as wine and spirits.
The pub is a joint venture from Giovanni Campari and Manuel Piccoli, founders of Italian craft brewery Birrificio del Ducato, Marco Pucciotti, who owns a number of pubs and restaurants in Rome including Hop & Pork, Barley Wine and Epiro, and Giuseppe Verdoni, an Italian food and beverage specialist based in London.
“The Italian Job will be Birrificio del Ducato’s flagship UK pub, and it will serve a range of their beers as well as handpicked beers from other microbreweries we deem valid from the Italian craft beer scene,” explained The Italian Job spokesperson and ‘craft beer ambassador’ Giacomo Pelizza.
The food offer will include a menu of burgers and street-food, as well as charcuterie and cheeses sourced from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, where Birrificio del Ducato is based.
“We want to cater for what is in demand right now so we will have burgers, but with an Italian twist,” said Giacomo Pelizza. “We would like to have more traditional Italian food too but we will see how the customers respond to it. Our chefs are Italian, one is coming specific from Italy to work here and the other was already in the UK.”
If the concept proves popular, the founders will look to roll it out across further UK sites.
Italian craft beer
Italian craft beer has become increasingly popular over the past 10 years, and is now a vibrant scene with more than 700 microbreweries and contract breweries.
“The Italian craft beer scene is very interesting because Italy does not have a tradition of brewing beer,” said Pelizza .”While this might be seen as a limitation because we have a lot to learn, it also means that we are not constrained by tradition.”
Italy’s craft brewers import barley mow and hops from Germany and other beer producing regions, but add a local flavour.
“Italian brewers often use particular ingredients from their region – there are fruit beers, beers with flowers and chestnut beers all linked to a particular area where the brewery is found,” Pelizza explained.
The Italian Job will open at 13 Devonshire Road, Chiswick, London W4 2EU on 13 February