Renata and Raffaele Giacobazzi with Roberto Cenciarelli outside the deli in Hampstead

IT’S farewell to a long-standing Italian deli that has been a staple of the South End Green community for over three decades.

Raffaele and Renata Giacobazzi have announced they are retiring and shutting up shop at their business Giacobazzi’s delicatessen, which they have run for nearly 36 years.

On Friday, their last day of trading, friends and customers were stopping by to wish the family-run business the best.

The quintessential deli has served fresh Italian goods, including salami, cheeses, wines and fresh sauces as well as its famous porcini lasagna, since the shop first opened in Fleet Road in 1991.

Raffaele Giacobazzi said: “I will miss working in the morning, making my food, even though I do want to have six months without thinking about making any food. Mostly we will miss our many loyal customers we have had for many years. Yesterday we had a man come in who said he had been eating our pesto since he was one year old. Another little boy, when he realised we no longer make tomato sauce, he cried. It’s heartbreaking but at the end of the day it shows we must have done something right.”

Mr Giacobazzi is from the small Italian village of Montese in the province of Modena.

After marrying Renata, the couple decided to open a pizzeria there but moved to London after a year in 1990. The following year they opened the deli in South End Green, living above the shop at 150 Fleet Road.

Giacobazzi’s is now closed

“When we first arrived in South End Green it was completely different shops – the fruit and veg shop, the fishmonger, a shoe shop and our neighbour used to be a bric-a-brac shop,” he said.

“Restaurants have come and gone, chains have moved in.

“There are too many cafés. In Italy, the Town Hall could decide how many cafés there are in a small area, and then everybody could survive. Since we opened the shop, everything has become a café. I understand it is a part of the coffee culture but still sooner or later, they will go because they cannot all survive.

“What I would like to see is more variety, more independent shops, because this is what is important. Chains are chains, you can go on any high street and see the same thing everywhere.”

Two years ago the New Journal spoke to the deli about plans for a controversial “streatery” in South End Green, and proposals to “dump buses” directly outside their door which they said would ruin their business.

Mr Giacobazzi said: “The plans for the streatery were one issue but people are more careful with spending money. We have always managed to keep our head above water and it hasn’t been as difficult as the recession, but it’s not been easy.”

He also said the pandemic was a challenging time, adding: “It’s heartbreaking to leave, it has been almost 36 years – a long time to be in the same place. Normally businesses don’t last that long in general. We really tried to keep strong with all the adversity we had during this year.”

The 67-year-old said that, in retirement, he and his wife planned to travel more often to Italy, and elsewhere in the world, as well as spend time with their family in Devon.

The couple have found a buyer, but are unsure exactly what the plans for the premises will be. However, they said the shop will remain a food business.

“When you say you are 67, plus 13, it is already 80, and if you are lucky you can get some free time,” he said.

“We’ll take it while we have got it.”