Felice and Patrizia Pollano were running a staff agency for the restaurant business when the two people who established the restaurant asked them to take it over.

One of London’s few remaining family-run restaurants, Ciao Bella has stayed open every day since 31 August 1999. The Pollanos have spent most of their 33-year marriage managing the restaurant, and together they now run a team that includes their two adult children, Patrizia’s 16-year-old niece from Italy, and 63-year-old waiter and grandfather Lello.

The restaurant has a few famous regulars, including Rupert Everett, who helps organise Lamb’s Conduit Street’s annual raffle, and AN Wilson likes to pop in for lunch too. But Patrizia says her favourite thing about working on Lamb’s Conduit Street is serving patients from Great Ormond Street Hospital.