THERE are two things that Andrea Faggiotto misses about his native Italy: the Alps and "looking about and seeing something that is 500 years old".
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Which is why he feels comfortable on the historic Tremain's Mill site in lower Keppel Street, where he is busy getting ready to open a pizzeria, bakery, gelato and cafe business this month.
"I can't have 500 years old, but here is just about as old as I can get it," he said as he showed the Advocate about the mill recently.
Mr Faggiotto, who has been in Australia for 20 years and Bathurst for four, says the new business will be serving up a type of Italian pizza that "has never been seen before in Australia".
"Our philosophy, and that is something that we have convinced investors to accept, is that Italians can make good pizza not for any genetic privilege, but because it's a tradition that they have inherited," he said.
"There is no reason that we cannot spread and teach such traditions.
"We want to have a place that is traditionally Italian, but with Australian staff and, as much as possible, Australian ingredients."
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The pizzeria, bakery, gelato and cafe business will operate from the ground floor of the recently renovated Victoria Stores building that fronts Keppel Street and its opening will be the latest stage in the multi-million dollar redevelopment of the mill site.
On the side of the Victoria Stores building closest to Havannah Street will be the pizzeria, bakery and restaurant, including informal unlicensed area and formal licensed dining area in the back, and on the other side will be the gelato and cafe business.
Staff will work on both sides of the business.
A two-deck oven that Mr Faggiotto refers to as the "spaceship" will cook the pizzas.
"We will have some eight to 10 types of pizza on display, as well as lasagne, cannelloni, arancini, roasts, carpaccio, salads, soups and special of the day," Mr Faggiotto said.
The café will have "12 to 18" flavours of gelato, bomboloni, ciambelle, cannoli, crostatine, with fruit, jam and Nutella and pistachios, small jam biscuits, crepes and waffles.
"We will also serve breakfast pizzas and, with time, a few classic breakfast dishes revisited," Mr Faggiotto said.
And everything will be made from scratch, he said.
"We won't serve anything that was not made in our kitchen."
Mr Faggiotto, the managing director of Business Lab Enterprises, will operate the business on behalf of the company.
Business Lab hopes Bathurst will be the first of up to 10 similar operations that it opens in regional NSW, he said.
"Uncharacteristically, we are going to give the slip to Sydney," Mr Faggiotto said. "We are planning to open in other towns similar to Bathurst."
Mr Faggiotto has six young chefs-in-the-making in training ("they are coming along really nicely") as he gets closer to the opening for the new business.
And to wash down the food?
Mr Faggiotto says the new business will serve only Italian beers, a range of Vale Creek Wines and a couple of imported varieties of wines.
Tony Hatch from Vale Creek, a self-confessed "Italophile", is pleased to have his product on the menu.
"I've spent a fair bit of time there [in Italy]," he said. "I like the way things are done."
