Last year, in these pages, Paolo Marchi told the story of Ludovica Rubbini and Riccardo Gaspari, celebrating the evolution of a business project that brought a Michelin star to Cortina d'Ampezzo for a restaurant called SanBrite and two green stars, again from Michelin, one for SanBrite, and one for what we can consider the starting point of this family affair, El Brite de Larieto: a farm, rural guesthouse, restaurant, that Riccardo Gaspari's parents, Giuliana and Flavio, opened in 2004 between Cortina and the Tre Croci pass.
So 2024 is a very important anniversary for El Brite de Larieto and in just under three weeks, on August 4th, there will be a fitting celebration for the first 20 years of this tasty place that every year refreshes many mountain enthusiasts. Ludovica Rubbini, Bolognese by birth but now settled in Ampezzo, Riccardo's wife and dining room and hospitality manager, tells us what will happen soon.
“Our first thought was to create a nice day together with our long-standing customers, to have fun and eat well. We thought of an event that would start mid-morning and last all day. For the food part, the offer will fully represent us: we will open the grills to cook our meat, then many other things, from appetisers to doughnuts,
kaiserschmarren and our toast in the afternoon. There will be all the dishes that tell our story. We have also thought about adding music, with two DJs who will take turns at the console, including Nicola Zucchi, who is well known and often frequents the
Brite and Cortina. Outside, there will be small gazebos to entertain the public with handicraft activities: a lady will weave straw to make baskets, one of our guest brands will sew customised shoes by hand...”
It’s right to celebrate such beautiful and important anniversaries, but it is also important to look back and remember the long journey. It seems particularly significant to us to start with a small thought, a memory, which Giuliana, Riccardo Gaspari's mother, shared with a touch of emotion: “These twenty years have been very passionate for me. When we opened, I thought that after ten years I would feel like changing, like retiring. Instead it has been a great passion. Then when Riccardo also started to get passionate and take over the kitchen, it was wonderful.”
The two founders, Riccardo's parents: Giuliana and Flavio
“Twenty years ago,” says son Riccardo, “I would have never thought that
El Brite would become what it is today. It used to be a place where people came to eat, like a normal rural guesthouse, so with the idea of spending little. We have now managed to build a restaurant and a farm where people come on purpose: to
SanBrite, but also to
El Brite to eat, to see what we do, to visit the farm, to look at the cowshed, to see the milking. I am very proud of what we have done, it was not to be taken for granted. It has been a journey as rich in commitment as it has been in satisfaction.”
“Reaching 20 years,” Ludovica concludes, “is a very important milestone for us. We have evolved enormously. It is a significant milestone, especially because we have always remained true to our nature and values. There have been no acquisitions by outside groups, we have remained a family business, tied to our principles. So these 20 years have flown by, we have seen the company grow so much. We recently looked back at some old pictures from when we started, and the evolution is clear, in line with the gastronomic industry of the last twenty years. We are proud that we have always been consistent with our initial message. The farm has always been the heart of our business and still is, despite our growth. We started with six employees and today we have almost forty, but the farm remains fundamental.”
A thought on the future, on the next goals, cannot be left out, entrusted again to Ludovica Rubbini: “We always have new goals and currently the most important one is to make the stable more sustainable. It dates back to 1931, so it has structural issues. For example, it rains a lot in Cortina and it would be useful to make a water recovery tank for cleaning the stables. These works would reduce the energy consumption, we would like to modernise the stable not in the structure, but in the systems, making it self-sufficient with natural electricity, so solar panels, and water recovery.”
Judging by what has been done and built up over two decades (and we should also mention the Piccolo Brite dairy where all the company's dairy products are sold), we bet that this goal, although not easy, will also be achieved.
Finally, among the ambitious and fascinating projects conceived by Gaspari and Rubbini, we’d like to mention
Genesis, which Identità Golose described in its 'number zero' (
here is the complete article): an event that shows a different, alternative, conscious way of experiencing the mountains, exploring an intimate and profound relationship with nature. 2024 will see the fourth edition, scheduled from the 6th to the 9th of September, with a common thread that will lead participants to rediscover the primordial origins of cuisine, from the ingredient to the plate, through four days of workshops, culinary meetings with different chefs who will come from different parts of the world, and unique experiences in the heart of the Ampezzo Dolomites.
There is a special website where you can find out about the programme in detail and register. But if you would like to participate to the party on August 4th, just write an e-mail to prenotazioni@elbritedelarieto.it to receive all the relevant information.
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso