
Leading Seafood Restaurant in the Italian Riviera opened by Tonino and his wife in 1952 and located in the historical setting in the Porto Maurizio Harbour, and now with his son Massimo under the third generation of family management.


THE START FEBBRAIO1953
FROM TRATTORIA “ANCORA” TO LANTERNA BLU
The Blue Lantern was born in Porto Maurizio from the chance meeting of two young "children of the war": who were both very far from home as Lucia, 15, was born in Sicily, in Augusta (Syracuse), while Tonino was a young Neapolitan who came to Imperia to complete his military service at the Port Authority of Imperia when he was almost 20. An accidental meeting triggered the spark between the two young southerners, precisely in what was then the restaurant "Ancora" and which shortly thereafter - but Lucia and Tonino did not know this at the time - would become a culinary institute of the city (and not only).
Lucia and her mother settle here in the autumn of 1952, while the purchase of the license takes place after a few months. The deed of purchase, written with a fountain pen and still jealously guarded within the walls of the Lanterna Blu, is dated February 1953. The interior space measured about 30 square meters with a strawberry grape pergola hanging outside. There was the public telephone 01837959, the table football, and the wooden barrels from which the wines coming directly from Sicily, were tapped and served.
The Lanterna Blu was born therefore from a former trattoria bought by a Sicilian mother and daughter, from a family of migrants, and this is precisely the trait that characterizes the beginning of this story: From the intertwining passions of Sicily and Campania that meet, the spirit of that Lanterna Blu which turns seventy today, will develop later.

MATERIAL
MATERIAL THAT MEETS TASTE THE EXPERIENCE
FROM CUSTOMERS FOR CUSTOMERS
Material, combined with experience that meets taste: This is our concept of being a professional restaurant. As with a nineteenth-century painter, we start materials and then with passion, good taste, culture and the comparison with our guests we work, study, experiment. These are the factors that led two self-taught young people, Lucia and Tonino, to celebrate 70 years of activity in Borgo Marina (Imperia).

Everywhere in the world. Lucia and Tonino, in fact, have always listened to and accepted advice with great humility, with a view to continually improving the level of the restaurant. A special thanks, therefore, on the occasion of the 70 years of activity, goes to all the friends who have passed through the Lanterna Blu, leaving something to this story and allowing Lucia and Tonino to make their meeting so long that at the beginning it was absolutely casual, but full of romance and love for one's work. In these long years we have been accepted and loved but also discussed: for a certain period, the quality / price ratio of the Lanterna Blu was difficult to understand since it was inexplicable for an unprepared public. Over the years we have achieved extremely high-quality standards to satisfy the demand of an increasingly exclusive public; our cuisine has always tried to support them and make them happy, because this means being professionals: we choose an audience that has chosen us, and we share a path together.

The culmination of this path was reached in 1991 with the recognition of a star by the authoritative "Michelin Guide". We have customers who have spent the first twenty years of our history with us, customers who have discovered us in the last 5-6 years hearing about this "legend" and we have customers who are still here, and after 50 or 60 years they arrive, almost ninety years old, accompanied by their children and their grandchildren.
