To have a successful independent business is a feat in itself, but one family are taking it further as they’ve got three separate businesses running in a row on the same street in Croydon. The Ianelli family are the brains behind barbers Franco & Pino, Italian restaurant Luca Mio and café Angulina all on Wickham Road in Shirley.
They are each well respected and popular in their own right with one recent visitor to Luca Mio branding it a ‘little gem in the heart of Shirley’ after eating there for the first time and leaving a Google Review. While is praised for its ‘delicious’ food and ‘top’ coffee as well as the ‘friendly and welcoming’ owner.
And the original business out of the three – Franco & Pino, run by Pino Ianelli – isn’t short of rave reviews either. One customer wrote on Google Review: “Franco is very friendly and welcoming. Have been going there for almost 20 years!!”
Franco trained as a barber with dad Pino who set up the barbershop in 1999. Franco is now at the helm of the barbershop and he’s also in charge of Luca Mio nextdoor, named after his son Luca.
Running now for two years, Luca Mio has a growing core of regular customers. From barber to restauranteur may seem an unlikely move but, as Franco explains: “I was always interested in food and cooking is something I inherited from my mother who had been in the catering business.”
He added cooking has always been a huge part of his family’s identity: “Mother, father, grandparents, you name it. All the people in my family cook.”
“I had a lot of help along the way, we’ve got very close friends and a family who have experience of owning restaurants for years. I used to work in a restaurant when I was about 15 or 16, and the knowledge has always stuck with me.”
Another string to the family’s entrepreneurial bow comes in the form of busy sandwich and coffee shop Angulina which is run by Franco’s sister. The three businesses stand side by side in Wickham Road and together employ 11 people.
“It all starts and ends with family,” added Franco whose wife makes the dough for the pizzas which form an admired part of an extensive Italian menu. And the businesses seem set to stay in the family because Franco’s son Luca, now 16, is training as a barber under his dad and grandad’s guidance.
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