Co-owners of the new Blanconero, Gavin Williams and Alessandro Rizzi, are planning on hosting drag nights and quiz nights at their new café-bar in the Salford Quays.
The Italian inspired café-bar has been open to the public for nine weeks, with all of their fresh and authentic food created on site by Alessandro and staff member Stefania di Nana.
Since opening, Gavin and Alessandro have created a cosy, warm and inviting venue, having designed and renovated the space themselves.
The pair met over five years ago, when Alessandro was an at-home graphic designer and Gavin worked in hospitality. Their combined skillset allowed for Blanconero to become a reality.
36-year-old Gavin said: “The customers that come in are like ‘oh my gosh you’re here again’ and it’s like of course we are. It’s our business we want to always be here that’s why we do it because we love it.
“We literally put our hearts and souls into the business- lots of the renovations we actually did ourselves, so we had to learn a lot.”
Since opening, Blanconero have created a homemade menu, consisting of the traditional pizzas and pastas as well as authentic Italian desserts.
Alessandro is now also able to make their products in-house. He said: “We have kind of evolved since opening because initially we were relying on partners to source the products so for example the tiramisu was not made by us in house but slowly as things have gotten easier we can now finally do more things in the kitchen.”
The thirty-four-year-old also commented on the teams hard work: “We literally haven’t had any breaks since we opened and we work on the weekdays and on the weekend, six days a week, but often we also find ourselves working at the laptop doing graphics for social networks.”
Despite being able to build a supportive and regular customer base, the Salford Quays café-bar do recognise the impact that local competition has on their business.
With new establishments such as Cargo opening in near-by Media City, as well as bigger and well-known brands such as Bella Italia also just down the road, Blanconero want to attract more customers through their more personal approach.
Gavin added: “The opening of Cargo is great as you have lots of independent businesses in there. It’s hard that we have to fight with a lot of the big names who have big machines and lots of cash behind them but also at the same time we have lots of support from our customers.
“I think the hardest thing we face is people finding us because we’re not on the high-street, but when a customer does find us they come back time and time again. Some people come back every day.”
Blanconero will be open until December 22 and will be reopening in the New Year to allow their staff a ‘well-deserved break’.
Alessandro, Gavin and their team are also planning comedy nights, drag nights as well as a variety of live entertainment for the New Year.
They hope that once a week or every couple of weeks there will be an event where people can come down with their family and friends to enjoy a night of cocktails and wines in a good atmosphere.
Blanconero are open Monday-Thursday 7am-4pm and are open until 9pm on Friday and Saturday.
They are, however, closed on Sunday’s.
You can find Blanconero in Anchorage Two, M503XE on the waterfront.
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