Bar Piazza in Newport taken over by new owners tomorrow

Bar Piazza owners Mandy and Angelo Attorre have hung up their aprons after decades of running the Italian coffee bar.

The coffee bar is well known as a site for residents of Newport to experience Italian culture and is famous for its coffee, delicious cakes and great service.

The Attorres built the business from a small idea, and now it has grown into a popular spot for coffee lovers. And now they are handing over the keys to fellow Italians Rosie and Antonio Farrara

Mandy and Angelo retire after 23 years in business Credit: Rebecca Ostuni

Angelo and Mandy Attorre

In a statement the Attorres thanked customers for their support saying: “We have been privileged to see families grow, made lifelong friends and memories.

“We have grown this little business and tried lots of new ideas taken from inspiration from travel and each other.

“Our business grew with the support of our customers and a passion for serving great coffee like you get in Italy.

“We wanted to give people the very best of Italian culture in a little hide away in Newport. We will miss this place as it’s been a huge part of our lives.

“Its now time to spend some quality family time together, and we know Rosie and Antonio are perfect to take over as the new owners.”

Family of previous owners with family of new owners at Bar Piazza Credit: Rebbec

The Farraras say they want to continue the work previous owners have done - but have their own plans to add to the place.

Despite taking over the business, they plan to keep selling the same items that were served under previous owners and are very excited to take over.

Rosie Farrara will run the establishment alongside her husband and is very excited to continue providng Newport with Italian culture.

Speaking on Thursday she said: “We are very excited to open tomorrow, we are still going to run the same as before with the same coffee and cakes.

“We are also an Italian family and I think that is why they passed on the ownership to us as we plan to keep it the same.

“We can't wait to add more Italian style to the place, tomorrow we are going to do Italian food platters of meat and cheese alongside cocktails.”

The new owners also have exciting plans to extend the opening hours of the establishment by opening until 9pm on a Friday and Saturday.

They also have plans to extend the coffee shop outside with a gazebo or conservatory-like space so people can dine outside in the winter too.

The focus of coffee shop is adding more staff to help slowly build on their new ideas.

Mrs Farrara added: “We want to add more staff, we have lots of ideas that we want to build slowly. We want to add more space outside so people can still enjoy the shop.

“We've now added a cocktail section which will focus on serving Italian-style cocktails, Italian wines and Italian beers for customers to enjoy.

“We want to reassure the regular customers that we will be running it exactly the same, while introducing even more Italian styles to enjoy.”