"We're one of the only ones left really. There aren't many of us left in Newport." Owen Emmanuel is chatting with me by the unusually large bar of Vittorio's, one of the many features of the charming family restaurant's interior which has remained unchanged since it first opened 34 years ago.
Of course there have been a few tweaks at Vittorio's over the years. There's the prized pizza oven, which was installed by Owen and his wife Rebecca during the coronavirus pandemic, and some spruced-up branding. Some of its signature dishes have been modernised a little, but Vittorio's has otherwise retained much of the traditional charm that keeps customers old and new walking through the doors decades later.
"We've done quite a lot to it, but only in the last three years," Owen, 39, told us. "We abused the fact that we had to shut [during the pandemic] and took advantage. The bar is at it was. This is how I remember it but just slightly different, new chairs and tables. We tried as best we can to modernise it without losing what is a really traditional Italian restaurant. You wouldn't get any other restaurant with a bar as big as this - you'd have ten tables in, you wouldn't have a chandelier in like we do! I love it, I wouldn't change it."
