People of Conwy: Tony Parisella
People of Conwy: Tony Parisella
Tony’s grandfather, Domenico, moved to the UK from Italy in 1912 and later joined Llandudno’s growing Italian community. Tony lives in Conwy Town and proudly continues his grandfather’s popular ice-cream business.
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Transcript:
… My grandfather Domenico came to the UK in 1912, emigrated from Italy, looking to better his prospects …
… He got work in Scotland, working for a firm who made ice cream in the summer, and in the winter made Fish and Chips. He got a bit of an all-round training in that …
… In the late 40s there was a prospect of employment in Llandudno, which was an up and coming area for Italians to work in, and he started work with the Forte family, who were well known in Llandudno …
… he made ice cream for the Forte family for a few years and then decided it was something he’d like to do on his own, and in the … the 50s, the early 50s he found the perfect location in Conwy, a premises in Lancaster Square, which they opened in 1952 known as “The Continental Ice Cream Parlour” …
… In that parlour he worked with my grandmother obviously and also their three children: Leo, Irena and Joe, my father …
… and the family all got behind him, it was very much a “family business”, at the time they owned all the building on Lancaster Square, which is now the Raj Indian restaurant, but they owned all the flats upstairs, and my grandmother used to take in lodgers …
… Italian people would come over and she would put them up there and they would work in the business through the summer season, and then they’d be eating on the site as well, she’d be cooking spaghetti, and I can remember big plates of spaghetti coming out …
… and he carried on making ice cream in this little factory in Lancaster Square ‘til the mid-70s, when he was in his 80s, and he decided to retire in 1974, but the business carried on without him, my dad Joe took over as managing director …
… and going into the 90s it was obvious a ‘rethink’ needed to happen, and my dad approached myself, and the business went from strength to strength, still operating from the base in Conwy, all those years later …
… I think back in the day of my grandad, I mean it was … the flavours, it was 99% vanilla I think …
… the opportunities for experimenting with ice cream these days and making culinary based flavours, they’re just there ’cause of the suppliers coming out with great ingredients all the time, which weren’t there back in the 50s. But then again, the market hadn’t evolved yet, people were happy enough just to get vanilla, a good quality vanilla or strawberry even …
… and you know we try and cater for people according to their tastes, which my grandfather wouldn’t have been able to do, back then I don’t think we had that many overseas visitors in the area. An overseas visitor in those days would’ve probably been, I don’t know, somebody from Ireland …