“So, you want to know the story of La Lombarda?” Fabrizio Necchi asks me. The faint sound of Italian music playing in the background of the iconic King Street restaurant suddenly disappears. I’m all ears, and nod eagerly.
“After a three-year engagement, he agreed to [the] marriage,” Fabrizio, who is originally from Borgo Val di Taro near Parma, went on to say. He was referring to his wife Monica and her father Giuseppe (Joe) Berni, who opened La Lombarda in 1922. It sold hot drinks, sweets, cigarettes and ice cream which was handmade by Joe himself.
Monica was Joe and his wife Wilhelmina (Ina) Copland’s only daughter. “Before, no. Because until she was 25, I wasn’t [permitted] to marry her.
“My father-in-law was a typical Italian. Very old fashioned in his ways, but extremely generous towards his daughter.” Fabrizio lived in London for two years in the early 1950s, and from 1955 to 1961.
He married Monica in 1964. “Eventually, we got married. He [Joe] said to us ‘what are you going to do?’,” said Fabrizio.
“I said, well, I might go back to London. He said ‘you’re not taking my daughter to London, that’s for sure’. If you want to, you can run La Lombarda.
” The newlyweds did just that. Fabrizio and Monica brought back La Lombarda name after its change during World War Two La Lombarda was known as The Corner Café at this point, after being renamed in 1939 when World War Two broke out. At the time, it was common for Italian-owned business.