The back of the menu at the Casa Italia restaurant in Southport used to read like a Who’s Who of the UK’s biggest celebrities.
Owners of the iconic family-run venue, on Lord Street in Southport town centre, used to design their menus in the form of a newspaper. The latest news, written in Italian, would be on the front cover and inside, with a list of celebrity diners who had eaten there on the back.
Erasmo and Eileen Grossi and their children Nick, Giovanna and Simon ran the restaurant for a quarter of a century, between 1978 and 2003.
Liverpool FC stars Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen, Ronnie Whelan and Gary Gillespie served as waiting staff to help Casa Italia raise money for charity one night.
Celebrities the Grossi family welcomed came from the worlds of television, golf, football, snooker, live entertainment, politics, art, acting and more.
They included: Gary Lineker, Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen, Petula Clarke, Jasper Carrot, Claire Sweeney, Tom O’Connor, Bill Tidy, Paul Bracewell, Bruce Forsyth, Ronnie Corbett, Gary Gillespie, Jamie Redknapp, Alan Shearer, Dave Allen, Andy Gray, Les Dawson, Nicholas Parsons, Graeme Souness, Tommy Smith, Frazer Hines, Kenny Lynch, Mark Lawrenson, Rod, Jane & Freddy, Howard Kendall, Matthew Corbett, Constantino Rocca, Joe Longthorne, Stephen Hendry, Jean Alexander, Stan Boardman, Russ Abbott, Fred Couples, Sam Torrance, Richard Keys, Matthew Banks, Norman Wisdom, Les Dennis, Dustin Gee, Berni Flint, The Chippendales, Ginger McCain, Cleo Laine, The Shadows, Andrew Lancel, Dominic Matteo, John Parrott, Dale Winton, Connie Creighton, Jools Holland, Sandy Lyle, Sergio Garcia, Gary Player, Jim Furyk, Kelly Cates, Paul Dalglish, Joe Royle, Jane McDonald, Steve Heighway, Kenneth Cope, Steven Gerrard, David Lonsdale, Paul Crone, Peter Robinson and Suranne Jones – among many others!
They rubbed shoulders with many thousands of local families enjoying the very best home-cooked Italian cuisine in the stylish venue.
In the glory football days of the 1970s 1980s for Merseyside, the Grossi family welcomed Everton and Liverpool stars celebrating the many trophies they won in their golden periods.
Italy winning the World Cup in 1982 and reaching the final in 1994 were also causes for celebration.
Golf’s biggest stars would often call in when The Open golf championship was being played at Royal Birkdale, just a couple of miles down the road.
And Southport Theatre back then attracted some of the biggest stars of the UK, and from abroad.
Giovanna Grossi said: “We had so many happy days and so many celebrities over the years. “Kenny Dalglish came in celebrating winning the Premiership with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 as well as his many league title wins with Liverpool.
“In the Everton glory days we had Andy Gray, Gary Lineker and others in all the time.
“Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish from Liverpool were regulars every week and did so many events for us to help raise money for various charities.
“They waited on once with Ronnie Whelan and Gary Gillespie and they even cooked once and Granada TV came to film it.
“Lucy Hansen and Paul and Kelly Dalglish (now Kelly Cates) all worked there as their first part time jobs.
“We used to get all the famous golfers from Gary Player to Sergio Garcia. Constantino Rocca the Italian golfer came in every night when he was here for The Open.
“Stephen Hendry the snooker player came a lot.
“We had all sorts of stars who were at Southport Theatre – Bruce Forsyth and Kenny Lynch had a big party there one night I remember.
“There were loads of soap stars from Coronation Street and Emmerdale who came in.
“There was actually a list in the back of the menu, which was like a newspaper, of the famous people who had eaten in the restaurant.”
Casa Italia was much loved for its fresh, home cooked, authentic Italian food.
It was particularly famous for its huge, aged, 70-kilo Reggiano Parmesan cheese wheels, which were imported directly from Italy.
Giovanna said: “I remember we cut one of those cheeses up and sold off pieces and gave all the money to Children In Need. It was a 36 month aged Reggiano Parmesan.
“I wish I had a bit of that now! It was such amazing quality!
“We bought them from Alivini, the company that my partner, Mario, was with. They’re Italian importers based in London.
“They were sourced from Emilia-Romagna which is the region in Italy that has the warrant to officially make that cheese. It’s a craft making and ageing it.”
Casa Italia restaurant on Lord Street was founded by Erasmo Grossi in 1978. The building was previously a florist’s shop.
At the time, Italian food was something of a novelty both in the town and across the UK.
But Mr Grossi’s huge enthusiasm for his restaurant and his country’s cuisine saw him become a trailblazer for many other restaurant owners to follow.
In 1997, he was awarded the prestigious Cavalieri della Republic at The Quirinale Palace in Rome by President Scalfaro, the equivalent of a knighthood.
That wasn’t his only claim to fame – in his younger days he appeared as an extra in the Ben Hur and Cleopatra movies!
When he was 19 he went to Rome and started working in an hotel in the Parioli district, a chic area of the city. At the time they were filming Ben Hur and later Cleopatra at Cinecittà and to earn some extra money to fund a trip to England, he applied to be an extra in both and was successful.
By 1962 he had successfully saved the money to come to England and his first stop was Southport. He fell in love with the town, working at The Prince of Wales Hotel, which was considered one of the top hotels in the north of England in those days and at The Carlton Hotel for Frank and Blanche Neame.
He met wife Eileen in 1964 and they later married and moved to Heaton Moor, where he opened a restaurant with a friend.
In 1978 he realised a dream of owning an Italian restaurant and opened Casa Italia on Lord Street in Southport which the family ran until 2003. After a happy successful career in hospitality, spanning over 40 years, Erasmo finally decided to retire.
The family created many happy memories over 25 years for thousands of local families enjoying great nights out, lunches together, birthdays, Christmas gatherings, celebrations, while eating stunning, authentic Italian food – and all the time rubbing shoulders with the stars.
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