BOLZANO. You see them and think: how much they love each other. Marco, Emanuela, Paola and Dolores Winant. One brother and three sisters. United as a fist, they worked side by side for forty-two years, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. «Many discussions, never arguments», they say in chorus. Forty years on this street. Within these walls. Always together. It’s the last day in their restaurant, the Alexander in via Aosta. Since yesterday (Sunday 20 October) shutters closed.
«We’re closing. After so much work, the time has come for retirement.” The word “restaurant” is reductive, it does not convey the idea of what this place was for the neighborhood and for Bolzano. Just look at the continuous procession of customers who pass by to say hello. Kisses, toasts, hugs, laughter, memories, tears. Lots of tears. «I’m not saying that we know them one by one – says Paola Vinante – but almost. Life, death and miracles. Just as they know us…”. A very strong relationship, cemented by hundreds and hundreds of dinners, lunches, coffees, coffee-killers, sambuches with and without flies, desserts, confidences, joys and even mourning and pain. The voice breaks. «It was a wonderful adventure. Sacrifices? Yes, but, if it were up to me, I would start all over again tomorrow…”.
The head goes to January 1st 1983, «when we opened». Alexander had been started a few years earlier by his cousin Antonio Vinante. Who called Emanuela to give him a hand. (The Vinantes are originally from Amblar, in the Non valley, under the Roen). «I was a little girl catapulted into a big city. I quickly learned everything there was to learn. And then I already knew how to cook.” In 1982 Antonio put the business up for sale. He asks her if she wants to take over. Quick family consultation. Emanuela talks about it to her brothers Paola and Marco. Parents say: “Okay, we’ll give you the money to get started.” No sooner said than done. January 1st 1983, we said: Emanuela is eighteen years old. Marco, the eldest, who has just finished his career, nineteen; Paola seventeen. Dolores, the youngest, is still in middle school, but in the summer and on Sundays she comes down to Amblar to lend a hand where it’s needed: cooking, bar, cleaning. «Our parents – Paola recalls gratefully – gave us only one condition. Never fail to follow what we call the “three rules”. We have respected them every day for forty-two years.”
Recite the three “commandments”. First: whatever happens, always stick together and support each other. Second: kindness, courtesy, cleanliness and absolute respect for the customer. Third: always bringing good food to the table with genuine products. «We were amateurs at risk – says Marco Vinante -. None of us had attended hotel school, no one, apart from Emanuela, had experience in the field. We threw ourselves into it with passion, enthusiasm and curiosity. And honesty. We have always been honest in everything we have done.”
The four divide the tasks. Emanuela in the kitchen. Marco and Paola in the room. Dolores, who in the meantime joins the team full time, at the bar and in the kitchen. The place (which has been renovated three times over the years), always spick and span. Marco always impeccable in suit and tie, “in summer and winter”. Paola always with a smile even after twelve straight hours on her feet. Emanuela, “our column”, in the kitchen with the endurance of a marathon runner. Dolores, explosive, managing the orders. Rhythms to crush Mike Tyson. They do everything, even the cleaning. Only one day of rest, Saturday, which however is often missed due to baptisms, birthdays and weddings. Open all year. Open when others close. «We realized – continues Marco – that in Bolzano there was nothing on holidays. Christmas, New Year, Easter, people didn’t know where to turn if they wanted to eat out. It seemed ethically right to us to provide this service, which, I want to say, is a public service to the city”. For the Christmas Eve dinner and the Christmas lunch, the demand is so high that we would like three Alexanders, one next to other. “It was heartbreaking to have to leave out so many loyal customers.” A bond so special that it convinced them to give up the buses that came into the city in the early days of the Piazza Walther market. «To make room for tourists we would have had to say no to those who trusted us every day. It didn’t make sense. It was like breaking your word.”
Determination and a lot of work, so, year after year, the “Vinante da Amblar” win the bet: to get a restaurant in the suburbs off the groundin a narrow and blind street (a side street of via Milano), and, above all, without parking. In the early 1980s the road was abandoned to itself, dark in the evening, overlooking the then disreputable Lungo Isarco. A suburb of the suburbs. The Vinantes turn on the lights, bring people, open the terrace onto the street. A peaceful garrison that gives a good clean up to the area. Alexander becomes a point of reference not only for those in the neighborhood who want to eat well while feeling at home, but also for many aficionados who move from the center every day to Via Aosta to sink their fork into a dish of pumpkin tortelli, pork cheek or potato tortel, prepared by Emanuela according to the Nonesa tradition. «The key to everything – says Marco proudly – was word of mouth». The place over the years is an obligatory stop for the city’s football clubs (Virtus and Oltrisarco above all), and for the world of entertainment. From photo novels to TV, from cinema to music, they all passed through here.
The photo album takes us back to an Italy that grips the heart: Massimo Troisi, Lino Banfi, the legendary Maurizio Merli. And again: Frank Zappa, Claudio Amendola, Lino Toffolo, Toni Santagata… Memorable that time Miguel Bose he was forced to escape from the cellar. «The girls were climbing on the windows, it was a frenzy», says Paola amused. «Our strength – he says, still using the present tense – is us. Being so united. We can argue about the menu or the wine labels, but in the end we always find an agreement. In forty years we have never argued. Never”. Marco explains the recipe without much embroidery. «A place like this can only stand up if it is managed by a close-knit family that works hard, keeps expenses low and doesn’t have problems with timetables, holidays or rest. For example, we have never had an accountant.” He has always kept the accounts together with his wife Rossella. «If you have staff it’s impossible. Both for costs and for availability. Young people do not want to work on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays. So you can’t do it. We are closing today. I’m sorry, because there’s nothing around here anymore, and it’s a shame.” The business is for sale. But it’s not “sell to sell”. «I’m clear: when someone comes along who wants to take it over and hire staff, I tell them no. So you just lose money. Don’t last. Only one family can make it here.” A family like the Vinantes. And tomorrow? What will it be like to no longer be here, between the tables, the kitchen and the bar counter? «I don’t know – says Emanuela -, it all seems unreal to me». «Sad – says Dolores -, but this is the right moment. Also to do other things.” “Sad – says Paola -, I will miss everything about these years. I would relive all forty-two of them.” “With my soul at peace – says Marco -. We worked hard, we gave our best. And then… we will always be us. Always together. Tomorrow morning, when I get up in our family home in Amblar, I will go and wake them up one by one. Because breakfast isn’t breakfast without Emanuela, Paola and Dolores.”