From Tuscany with passion
Gioacchino Guarnacci, Nino for short, was born in Castelfranco di Sopra in 1897, in the province of Arezzo. One of the most beautiful villages in Tuscany and in Italy.
Straight after the First World War, it was impossible to find a job in Castelfranco and Nino travelled from the north to the south of Italy trying out many different trades. He arrived in Rome, with his brother Mario, where they began to work as employees in the restaurant business.
They soon realised that this would be their future, and used their talent and determination to open their very first restaurant.
They opened in via Rasella in 1933 Success arrived quickly and in 1939 they also opened a restaurant in Via Borgognona.
The restaurant immediately boasted a large and varied clientele that soon turned into loyal and long-standing friendships.
The personalities of Nino and Mario
Nino and Mario had different personalities, the former more enterprising and flamboyant, the latter more reserved and judicious. These differences did not hold them back and, quite the contrary, brought organisational opportunities and advantages to the firm: they complemented each other with a shared responsibility of mutual esteem and deep understanding, with the aim of achieving a common passion.
Nino, an extrovert, intuitive, with exceptional communication skills and a friendly manner made an art of this trade. Those who met him recall his sociability and his generosity. Qualities that allowed him to establish a friendly relationship of mutual respect with the clientele. Without feeling intimidated by the famous celebrities or noble representatives of Rome’s high society who flocked to his premises, he welcomed and treated everyone as if he were the master of the house and not a simple host.
Boasting beauty by nature, he furnished the restaurant without cutting corners, choosing beautiful and prestigious furnishings that still characterise the classic elegance of the Restaurant even today.
He also had a window transfer made showing a hunting scene to divide the entrance from the kitchen where you could – and still can – see the kitchen and the cooks at work.
Probably NiNo was the first to design an open kitchen in the history of catering
It is difficult to list how many well-known celebrities from the entertainment, art and public figure worlds ate at Nino’s, so we’ll mention just a few: Dino De Laurentiis con Silvana Mangano, Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren, Rizzoli, Dino Risi, Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Rossellini, Alberto Sordi, Anna Magnani, Audrey Hepburn, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Lucio Dalla. And also the artists Guttuso, Manzù, Vaccari, Tamburi, Vaccari.
Present day
Maria Guarnacci, with the support of her siblings Egidio and Anna, the help of her daughter Francesca and the irreplaceable team of waiters and kitchen staff, currently manages the restaurant, following in the footsteps of the founders.
The Restaurant still shines, because it has preserved the genuineness of the ambience and the traditional dishes whilst also keeping abreast of the times with new eno-gastronomic proposals.
The clientele
It is varied and international: couples, families, professionals, tourists, politicians, actors, journalists.
Our loyal customers are dotted all over the world and every time they are in Rome they come to visit us as if it were an unmissable part of their journey; they tell us how many years they’ve been coming and what their favourite dishes are, always encountering the same warm welcome and same wholesomeness of the dishes.
We take this opportunity to thank them sincerely for their loyalty and affection
