Cuneo (restaurant)
The Cuneo is the first Italian restaurant in Hamburg .
The Italian Francesco Antonio Cuneo opened his restaurant on May 5th, 1905 in St. Pauli at Davidstraße 11, a side street off the Reeperbahn . It was the first eatery in Hamburg to offer Italian cuisine . Moreover, besides the meal service it was a small distillery and wine shop.
The owner came to Hamburg as a member of a group of street musicians and is said to have pursued his passion as a singer in the restaurant. At the beginning of the 20th century, only a few non-Germans had settled in Hamburg. A quota of approx. 2.5% foreigners was determined for Hamburg and a quota of 3.4% especially for St. Pauli. Therefore, an Italian restaurant was something special and exotic. The first guests weren't so much the people of Hamburg, but more the guest workers who, for example, were involved in the construction of the old Elbe tunnel .
Francesco Antonio Cuneo managed the restaurant until 1927 and passed it on to his son Giovanni , who continued to run it until 1960. He also ran the restaurant during National Socialism and the time of the British occupation forces. In addition to the everyday life of the war and the suffering of the post-war period, it was also difficult to deal with those in power. At that time the guests were mostly seamen from different countries. From 1960 to 1963 Mafalda Cuneo took over the eatery for three years .
Franco Cuneo , the founder's grandson, has been running the restaurant in the third generation since 1963. Among his regulars and friends is the artist Bruno Bruni . In the 1960s , the restaurant was on the verge of extinction. However, it was able to operate successfully again in the 1970s with the increasingly popular Italian culture and gastronomy . In addition to Italian cuisine, the restaurant made a name for itself in the 60s and 70s because of its political solidarity. Among other things, the then culture minister of the Sandinista government of Nicaragua Ernesto Cardenal and Salvador Allende, who was overthrown in 1973, were supported with art sales. Today the restaurant's walls are littered with photographs of former famous guests and works of art.
Web links
- Website of the restaurant
- Cuneo - nights full of laughter and tears. Anniversary: How in 100 years a still in St. Pauli became a cult restaurant. By Anika Riegert in: Hamburger Abendblatt from April 19, 2005.
- One hundred years of “Cuneo” in the neighborhood , article in the Allgemeine Hotel und Gastronomie newspaper, issue 17/2005.
- Restaurant Cuneo - Greetings from the kitchen , Sebastian Kempkens, DIE ZEIT, No. 18/2015, April 26, 2015.
literature
- Ernst Christian Schütt: The Chronicle of Hamburg, Dortmund 1991, p. 355.