Ninety-two years on Elm Row: Edinburgh’s Italian families and where to eat with them

The espresso at the Caffè Bar behind Valvona & Crolla’s shop on Elm Row is Carlo’s Blend, which Carlo Contini put together in 1993, just before the café opened, and which the shop still sells at £7.90 for 250g. It is a good place to start, because the family that opened the shop is still running it.

Italian-Scots families built much of Scotland’s café, ice-cream and chip-shop trade, with large communities in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Valvona & Crolla has traded from the same Elm Row premises since 1934 and calls itself Scotland’s oldest delicatessen and Italian wine merchant; the Contini family still owns it, with Philip Contini as chairman. A few minutes down Leith Walk, Alberto Crolla opened Vittoria in 1970. His grandsons Leandro and Alberto Jr now run it with their father, Tony, and the family’s Vittoria group also owns two fish and chip shops, Bertie’s on Victoria Street and Landy’s on North Bridge, so the old chip-shop line carries on too.

Where to eat with them now

Valvona & Crolla

Book the Caffè Bar for a late breakfast or lunch, and go through the shop on the way in. Any wine on the shelves can be drunk at the table for £8 corkage, which turns hundreds of bottles into the restaurant’s wine list. Take home a packet of Fonteluna, the sausage made for the shop, and a bag of Carlo’s Blend. In August the bookshop becomes a 70-seat Fringe theatre.

Elm Row, top of Leith Walk · £8 corkage on any shop wine · Mon–Sat, last orders 4:45pm · book or walk in

Vittoria on the Walk

The dish to order at the Crollas’ first restaurant, on the corner of Brunswick Street, is the one marked “since 1970” on the menu: Tagliatelle Vittoria, fresh pasta with bolognese, porcini, spicy Italian sausage and a little cream, for £15.95. This spring the family cut the menu from 21 pastas and 18 pizzas to nine and ten, and the tagliatelle survived. Children get three courses for £10, and on Sundays they eat for £1 with each adult main, so this is the one to book for a family Sunday.

Brunswick Street, Leith Walk · Tagliatelle Vittoria £15.95 · from 5pm Mon–Thu, noon Fri–Sun · book

Amorino

Leandro Crolla’s group brought Amorino, the gelato chain, to Scotland in July, opening its 45th UK shop on North Bridge next door to Landy’s. It sells tiramisù, cremino, stracciatella and amarena alongside seasonal flavours, takeaway only, and stays open until midnight from Sunday to Thursday and 2am on Friday and Saturday.

North Bridge, Old Town · takeaway · open until midnight, 2am Fri–Sat · walk-in

Checked October 2026.