The Gambardella Cafe in Vanbrugh Park, Blackheath – the oldest café in south London – is hailed as one of the best Formica ‘caffs’ in London. This is the sort of place where you can eat honest food, where you can be anonymous and where you can simply watch the world go round. Ask Jools Holland. He used to live locally and was often known to tuck in to egg on toast.
The Gambardella is also a bit of a movie star having made appearances in The Boat that Rocked (with Bill Nighy and Kenneth Branagh) and the ITV drama, The Fixer.
The café was opened in 1927 by Andrew Gambardella, a former ice cream maker from Naples, Italy. It is now run by James and Alex Petrillo, his grandsons (pictured above).
The caff is also being used in a new television advertisement for Heinz Tomato Ketchup, a key ‘caff’ brand if ever there was one. A caff without Heinz Tomato Ketchup isn’t really a caff.
The ad – which was screened in June and again in August – celebrates the many iconic ways that Heinz Tomato Ketchup is enjoyed and is costing Heinz £2 million. In the ad, people from different generations are seen patting, squeezing and scraping an invisible sauce bottle onto their delicious meals.
It goes without saying that Gambardella has been a staunch fan of Heinz Tomato Ketchup for over 80 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment