The newly launched L’Italiano is housed in the same space and is owned by some of the same people behind The Vesper House. The establishment itself has gone through several alterations in both décor and food over the years.
Vesper Café and Restaurant had carved a niche in Patan’s Jhamel restaurant neighbourhood. After its quaint red mud-brick house was damaged in the 2015 earthquake, it reopened almost immediately next door to continue to cater to wine and cheese lovers.
Post-pandemic, it has reinvented itself into a fine-dining Italian restaurant with new décor, and with inputs from Cannalire, will specialise in pasta dishes, hand-cooked and in genuine Italian al dente style, so that the pasta has a little bite to it.
Ashank SJB Rana of L’Italiano realises the challenge of maintaining the high-quality set by the Italian chef, and plans to bring Cannalire back every year for refresher training for his chefs.
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“To have good quality food, you don’t always need to import ingredients, you should know how to play with locally sourced produce as well,” says Rana who studied wine management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “Our goal is to give our clients an authentic taste of Italy. But this does not mean it will be an uber-sophisticated space.”
The Vesper House suffered much like any other establishment during the initial days of the pandemic. But as the impact of the Covid-19 declined, people started dining out, its usual expatriate clientele was largely replaced by Nepalis.
The Vesper House’s is one of the biggest importers of fine wine in Nepal and has a large collection from Australia, Spain, Germany, Italy and France and its extensive wine cellar will continue to be a part of the new establishment. Vesper also has its own wine label appealing to a wide variety of pallets, and works with restaurants to advise them on their wine menus with Nepali customers typically prefer Merlot and Chardonnay.
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