Goodbye Mimì Pirocchi, in his Cantinone lived the cenacle of Italian artists and intellectuals
He passed away at the age of 88. His restaurant was a reference point for culture and culinary tradition: Pasolini, Moravia, Levi, Guttuso, Natalia Ginzburg, Dario Fo, Amendola, Pajetta, Ingrao passed through here. Melarangelo: “A great loss for the history of the city”. Funeral tomorrow at 3pm
TERAMO – He left us at the age of 88, opening an important void in the history of this city, its culture, its traditions and great gastronomy. Domenico Mimì Pirocchi in Teramo, through his family and then with himself personally, has constituted a historical reference point for art accompanied by great local cuisine.
His Cantinone in via Ciotti, in the heart of the historic center of the capital, was an emblem under his management, a destination for gourmets and a meeting place for artists, the first place in the post-war period to serve the virtues, precisely because they are homemade and then served to tables.
Many frequented it because very often it was possible to meet faces and names of international artists, Mimì Pirocchi with her father Peppino and her mother Linda, took over the management in 1951. And for decades he was a waiter and restaurant manager. In that warm and welcoming restaurant, personalities such as Pasolini, Moravia, Guttuso, Carlo Levi, Sassu, Treccani, Natalia Ginzburg, Dario Fio and franca Rame sat at the tables.
The definition “a great loss for the history of the city from the post-war period to today“, the prime minister Alberto Melarangelo, whose family is closely linked to Mimì Pirocchi. “In his Cantinone – says Melarangelo – the dinners with the main protagonists of Italian culture who passed through Teramo remain memorable, initially thanks to the activities of the Centro Gramsci: in addition to Pasolini and Moravia and the others already mentioned, also Elsa Morante, Mazzacurati, Trombadori, as well as a large part of the management team of the Communist Party who, after the rallies and meetings, were accompanied by local leaders to the Cantinone for dinner to make a good impression: above all Giorgio Amendola, Giancarlo Pajetta, Ingrao, Natta, Bufalini and Terracini“.
A fervid cultural activity immortalized by many period photos, which is spent with the sale of the business in 1997, when Mimì retired to private life still maintaining ownership of the restaurant which was first managed by Nicola Giansante, then by Elio Pompa and by his son Paolo, then it became a pizzeria and today it works under the name of Condito.
Mimì Pirocchi’s funeral will be celebrated tomorrow, Tuesday 17 January at 3 pm in the Immaculate Heart of Piazza Garibaldi. Our editorial staff sends condolences to his wife Vienna and daughter Giorgia.