Saucy new venture for Tony

Leading Northern Irish chef and restaurateur Tony O’Neill is to launch a range of Italian sauces for retail. The products being planned will be sold, initially, through the three Belfast restaurants – Il Pirata, Coppi and Barking Dog –that Tony runs with his two business partners. The next stage could see the products being available through social media and then retailers here and further afield.

A former executive head chef at the five-star Merchant Hotel in Belfast, Tony has a wealth of experience of the trade and marketing his restaurants online. He has already set up business in a production kitchen to develop the new sauces that will be sold under the Coppi brand.

Specialising in simple Italian classics, Coppi is Belfast’s first cichetti / bacari restaurant that’s inspired by those found throughout Venice.  And the success of many of the Italian dishes on the menu there has encouraged Tony to make the sauces and pasta more readily available. The business has also launched the distinctive Coppi Truck to bring Italian dishes to the developing street food sector in the city.

“Tastes are certainly changing and becoming more cosmopolitan in Belfast with younger diners asking if they can buy our sauces,” Tony told LCN. “It seemed good business sense to explore the possibility and the opportunity to sell outside Northern Ireland.”

The objective is to provide quality food that diners will enjoy either in the restaurants or at home.