THREE Italian restaurants in East Lancashire have triumphed in the The English Italian Awards.

Burnley’s Bellissimo cafe bar was selected as the best Italian cafe while La Locanda in Main Street Gisburn was the ‘Best Italian restaurant under 50 seats’ in the country.

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The Pack in Belthorn was runner-up in the best pizzeria category.

Thousands of restaurants across the county were nominated and five in each category were shortlisted to the final held in Manchester.

Lancashire Telegraph:

The success of Burnley’s Bellissimo cafe bar is a real family affair, according to joint owner Lynn Scibetta, who runs the Parker Lane venture with husband Giovanni and sons Roberto and Gero.

Lynn said: “There are so many beautiful Italian cafes in Britain that we were really pleased just to get to the finals.”

Not only did Bellissimo triumph in the best cafe category but Lynn was also placed in the top 10 for baristas at the same awards.

She believes the edge at their eaterie is provided by Giovanni, who is originally from Sicily and brings in the punters with his signature ‘pizza pasta’ dish.

Judges asked the Lowerhouse family to come up with seven different specialist coffees in 10 minutes, which they carried out with time to spare.

Owner of the La Locanda Cinzia Bocchi said: “We are absolutely delighted we won this award and were extremely happy we have set such a good standard of dining for our customers.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

Karl Elsworth has run The Pack in Belthorn with wife Jo-Ann for the past four years.

The Pack, formerly the Pack Horse, has been an Italian for around 30 years and made it onto the judges’ shortlist at the awards in two categories, Best Pizza and Best Pizzeria.

Karl said: “One night a month we change the menu and have a tapas evening and as luck would have it that’s the night the two judges arrived, all the way from Scotland.

“They offered to come back but it only took a little while to heat up the pizza oven so it was crisis averted.

“They ordered pepperoni and onion pizza, as they had at all the other finalists.

“We’re delighted to have been named runner up nationally and thank our customers for supporting us.”