Enzo Apicella — Designer 1922–2018

Work­ing into his 90’s, and even then still email­ing his chums with a dai­ly satir­ic­al car­toon, Enzo had argu­ably as import­ant an impact on UK din­ing as Con­ran, Ram­sey et al.

He came to Lon­don in the 50s hav­ing stud­ied lit­er­at­ure in Naples, served in the sec­ond world war in the Itali­an Air For­ce and began design­ing in Rome and then Venice. What he found in Lon­don was an advert­ising scene impressed by his graph­ic art, but a res­taur­ant scene still drag­ging itself out of ration­ing and cheap food.

He began work with a few Itali­an old school eat­er­ies, rip­ping out dowdy interi­ors and repla­cing them with white walls, tiled floors and bright mur­als. Bring­ing life and light from the Med to the West End.

All those down lit pools of light cen­tred on the table at which you sit, that was Enzo’s work as well.

So enjoy your intim­ate din­ner tonight wherever you are and bask in his glory.

A rela­tion­ship with Peter Boizot the founder of Piz­za Express led to his designs being spread around the coun­try to be pinched and rep­lic­ated by many rivals. And even many chums. So here he will remain with us at Cro­ma, still spread­ing col­our and light across the land. And as ever, don’t we just need it. Com­pli­menti Enzo e Mille Gra­zie Ragazzo