‘The Little Wall’ has been a gastronomic success for Mayo's Al Muretto
By Tom Gillespie
WHEN restaurateur Marco Volpara arrived in Castlebar in 1998 he was looking for a name for this new Italian eatery.
He came up with Al Muretto - meaning ‘The Little Wall’ - because he was so taken with all the dry stone walls he saw in the Irish countryside.
Likewise, five years later, when he expanded to High Street in Westport with II Vulcano, he came up with the name after seeing a small cloud over Croagh Patrick which reminded him of a volcano erupting.
Both are family-run restaurants and pizzeria that provide authentic Italian food with traditional recipes from the Italian regions.
They source their meat and fish locally to combine the best of Italian and Irish ingredients. All their pastas are cooked to order in ‘al dente’ style. The pizzas are thin and crispy with an authentic Italian recipe.
Marco, who now considers Castlebar his home, said he ended up in the county originally in 1998 out of some opportunities and common friends.
He said: “We opened at Tucker Street in Castlebar on July 20, 1998. It was a family business. My father, Serafino, was involved back then.
“When we opened in Castlebar it was new to me - it was not my field. I did bookkeeping in college. It was a great idea and we progressed step by step to build up the Italian experience in Castlebar and later on in 2003 we opened our branch in Westport, II Vulcano, and we are still here after 27 years.
“I went through good times, bad times and a bad period with Covid as well. When we were closed during Covid we started doing takeaway and delivering orders. It was a complete new field that we never did before but in order to generate some revenue and keep the guys in work for a few hours we realised there was a new market that we never explored before."
He continued: “This type of business remains with the restaurant. We no longer open for lunch any more. We are just open in the evening and also for takeaway and deliveries.
“This has generated a new member of staff in a full time delivery man spinning around in the Al Muretto delivery car.
“A lot of things changed too during Covid. The habit of people, for some reason, is now dining out earlier compared with before. Before Covid our busiest weekend sittings was the 9 p.m. sitting. Now it is not anymore. At ten o’clock there is nearly no customers in the restaurant and the seven o’clock slot is now our busiest sitting.”
In Castlebar, with a staff of 14, Marco can cater for 60 customers and for 50 in Westport where there is a staff of 12.
He said: “It was a novelty at the beginning when we came to Castlebar and later on things changed also because people started travelling.
“I originally came to Ireland in 1995 and very few people then knew about Italy outside of Schillaci’s goal that put Ireland out of the World Cup in 1990, but now I consider Castlebar as home.
“I have a son who was born here and is going to school here. He is now 13.
“I always thought it was essential when moving to a different country you have to integrate with the people. You need to like the people and they have to like you. So if you are not happy where you are moving to you can always go. But after 30 years in Ireland I consider Ireland home. I feel like an adopted child.”
Referring to his restaurants, he said: “Everything is cooked to order using all local suppliers for meat, chicken, beef and fresh fish. We import directly most of the Italian products through a Galway company, Italian Pantry.
“We used to import the wines directly also but not anymore because there are so many problems now with duties to be paid before delivery. Now we use local companies.
“We always have Italian wines. We have a good selection of Italian wines from 20 regions, all of them producing fine wines.”
Al Muretto, he explained, means 'the little wall'. “The idea came when we first came to Castlebar and we realised there was so many dry stone walls dividing properties, characteristic to Ireland, and that is why we have an open kitchen with the stone walls.
“With II Vulcano in Westport we decided to give it a different name, but maybe we should have kept the same name, but we called it II Vulcano - the idea being when you see Croagh Patrick with a little cloud over its peak it looks like a volcano erupting.”
Asked if he had any expansion plans he explained that the main issue against opening elsewhere was sourcing staff.
“The GMIT used to source us a huge amount of students to work a few days a week on the floor or in the kitchen. But these things are not happening any more and I would like to know why. We were supporting the students with a rotating staff and they were paid good money.”
He continued: “Tucker Street has turned out to be a little Temple Bar of Castlebar.
“We started promoting it during Covid and the county council were extremely helpful in rising the level of the road to match the footpath for dining outside.
“But unfortunately the idea disappeared because with the problem of staff, and last year we were the only restaurant on the street that presented an application to the county council for having seats outside on the footpath.”
Al Muretto is located at Tucker Street, Castlebar, and can be contacted on (094) 9025954, while II Vulcano is on High Street, Westport, and can be contacted on (098) 24888.
Do you have a story to tell about your business? If so, Tom Gillespie would be delighted to hear from you. Get in touch at (087) 9680780 or gillespietom49@gmail.com.