Well here it is, my very first newsletter. Depending on how many people actually read this I will be able to judge if I need to hire a writer for the next one, I’m not much of a writer or for that matter can’t spell very well, thanks to spell check I hope you will never really know how bad it can be.

I think I should start with a brief back round. My wife and I have always had a passion for the hospitality business, our first venture was in Hamilton back in the late 80’s with a take-out pizzeria (Bella Pizza) that we had for a short time – still around today. Our 2nd venture in the hospitality business was in 1993, this was a larger Restaurant and pizzeria also in Hamilton (Zesty’s Pizzeria & Italian kitchen), only this one had a licensed dinning room with 44 seats, out of this location we also had a large catering, take-out and delivery service serving a full menu.

After moving our family to Guelph in the mid 90’s we had decided to stay out of the hospitality business until we had an opportunity to own our own facility. Lots of opportunities came and went in the past 10 years but when we found out that La Fontana was available we knew this was the one we had been waiting for, still almost a year went by before we were able to make our move, that came in August 2006, we were the proud new owners of what was La Fontana, a fixture in Guelph for over 29 years. We knew that La Fontana had a great history in Guelph with loyal customers that had been coming for decades, stories of weddings, anniversaries, proms, special occasions, and even wedding proposals, how were we going to top that? Some thing’s are better left alone so we changed the name and direction.

Zesty’s was born again, casual dinner with a southern Italian flair, yes I’m Italian, actually Sicilian, I’m not much into fine dining but still like tablecloths and real napkins, who said that good food can’t be simple and affordable, I think all the chain restaurant have us brainwashed that good food comes frozen, and why is it that if I go to a chain restaurant in Toronto and then the same chain restaurant in Thunder bay it tastes the same? I can’t do that with fresh food, that’s what makes it fresh, and where is the adventure in the creation?  I grew up with simple tasty foods like minestra (hearty soup), pasta forno (like a lasagna), veal parmigiana, chicken parmagiana, fresh seafood. I better stop because this is making me hungry and when your wife is a chef you’re the last one to be fed. Taking about my wife (Lesley), I know - doesn’t sound Italian but believe me she cooks better Italian food than my mother, let me explain before this gets back to my mom.

I met Lesley when I was only 18 and she was 16, yes we are only 2 years apart contrary to what most customers think that I look much older than her, Thanks! (That’s what stress does and I am not going to mention were the stress came from). Lesley cooked with my mother for a lot of years and loved it so much that she decided this was for her, in the early 90’s she enrolled at Humber College in the culinary arts department. Getting back to mom’s cooking - my dad’s diet has changed and Lesley cooks like my mom use to cook so really I’m complimenting you Mom (oops sorry- my mom.)

Well that's my story ( need to save the rest for my next newsletter ), I hope you
will try our restaurant, make sure you introduce yourself to me or Lesley.
Thanks for reading.