The Italian connection
Little Italy, in Smithfield, Dublin, was founded over 40 years ago by Sylvester Rabbitte and Anna Senezio, who met in O Connell Street s famous Pillar Ice Cream Parlour - then owned by Anna s parents. They are no longer with us, but it is still a family business run by their daughters, Bettina and Marisa. Due to the pandemic, our business changed overnight, with our wholesale business decimated by the restaurant closures, Bettina told me. We had to diversify and invest in our website to make it more user-friendly as we had a lot of demand for our products. With people at home, it was great to see them cooking from scratch and tagging us in their creations.