Restaurant owners Mario Cassandro (left) and Franco Lagattolla sampling the cuisine at 'The Trat', 1968
Mario Cassandro, who has died aged 91, changed the face, as well as the taste and social attitudes, of London restaurants. With his partner, Franco Lagattolla, he created a brand of raffish Neapolitan elegance that caught the 1960s zeitgeist perfectly. When Time magazine published its famous 1966 issue about swinging London, and reported that "a new eating style is visible on all sides", it was to Mario and Franco's trattoria La Terrazza in Soho – "the Trat", as it was known – that the world flocked to dine, lunch and rubberneck.
Out had gone the solemn Italian waiters in black tailcoats and bow ties, serving precooked spaghetti and Milanese with chips. Out, too, went the checked tablecloths and candles in wax-covered Chianti bottles. In came ceramic tiled floors, head waiters in tailored jackets and polo-neck sweaters, with smiling servers in striped jerseys, purveying house specialities such as petto di pollo sorpresa, osso buco, baby octopus and spaghetti with clams.
The decor, in the parlance of the day, was cool. And so was the clientele, which included the actors Terence Stamp, Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole; the models Jean Shrimpton, Paulene Stone and Tania Mallet; the graphic designer Raymond Hawkey; and the photographers Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy, David Bailey and Terry O'Neill.
While Franco played a crucial role watching over the kitchen and business affairs, Mario's warmth and ebullience established him as the star of the business. Struggling writers were attracted by the Trat's modest prices. Before credit cards were common, Mario would invite people he liked to set up monthly accounts. When I was a show-business journalist on Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express, to entertain rising stars and be able to sign the bill was irresistible. Mario would occasionally invite my guests to open accounts of their own. "But you don't know me," protested Robert Shaw, whose film career still hadn't got off the ground in 1963. "Don't worry, my friend, I'm going to," Mario told him. Ten years later, Shaw gave his opening night party at the Trat for The Sting, the film that made him a star.
The Trat was where Len Deighton – "comforted with fresh pasta, grappa and powerful espresso"– wrote chunks of his bestseller The Ipcress File. It was where he first met Michael Caine before they dreamed of the fame Harry Palmer would bring them both.
Some of Mario's clients were already making good money, but many were not, and Mario always seemed to know when to run a discreet tab, or to quietly "comp" a meal. When David (now Lord) Puttnam, then a photographers' agent, confided that he planned to start his own film company, Mario said: "Look, it's tough out there, son. I don't want to lose you. I won't give you a bill until you're on your feet. Just tell me when the business is making money and you can start paying me."
Later, Mario and Franco opened a second restaurant, the swanky Tiberio in Mayfair. The American PR executive Michael Baumohl recalls the night Mario called him and said that Princess Margaret had been in with a party of 10 and it was a disaster. "She left without paying," he said. Baumohl told Mario to send the bill to the palace – and he would make sure that the press found out that the Tiberio was one of her favourite haunts. Peter Sellers, John Wayne, Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra all became regular customers.
Mario was born in Naples, the third of four children. When he was nine, his father died and he left school to help his mother support the family. A deeply sentimental man, proud of his humble beginnings, he once – on the way to his villa in Capri – took me to the Naples market from which he had stolen fruit and vegetables to survive as a child.
At 18, he was conscripted into the Italian army. Four months short of his 21st birthday, Mario was captured by the British at Tobruk. Shipped to India, he spent the rest of the duration in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bangalore. In 1947, he came to England to marry Mary MacDonnell, an Irish nurse he had met in India. At Hatchett's, a popular West End restaurant, he became friends with Franco, a fellow waiter who enjoyed his company but felt Mario "was too pally with the customers. He behaved more like a comedian than a waiter. That just wasn't done in those days."
Nevertheless, it was Mario's way, and by 1958, he had become head wine waiter at the Mirabelle, one of the best restaurant jobs in London. The following year, they quit their jobs, pooled their savings and, with an additional bank loan, opened La Terrazza. After paying the first week's salaries (for two waiters), the partners had exactly 30 shillings left. In 1968, Mario and Franco Restaurants Ltd went public, and they became millionaires. In the 70s, disagreeing on the pace and direction of their development, they sold up, leaving a legacy of Mario and Franco trattorias across the country.
Last year, on the publication of Alasdair Scott Sutherland's book The Spaghetti Tree: Mario and Franco and the Trattoria Revolution, Mario had a nostalgic reunion with many of his famous customers and members of staff. Several of the waiters had become successful restaurateurs in their own right.
Franco died in 1980. Mario is survived by his second wife, Hilaire, and their daughter, and by the two sons of his first marriage.
• Mario Cassandro, restaurateur, born 14 April 1920; died 26 June 2011
Out had gone the solemn Italian waiters in black tailcoats and bow ties, serving precooked spaghetti and Milanese with chips. Out, too, went the checked tablecloths and candles in wax-covered Chianti bottles. In came ceramic tiled floors, head waiters in tailored jackets and polo-neck sweaters, with smiling servers in striped jerseys, purveying house specialities such as petto di pollo sorpresa, osso buco, baby octopus and spaghetti with clams.
The decor, in the parlance of the day, was cool. And so was the clientele, which included the actors Terence Stamp, Albert Finney and Peter O'Toole; the models Jean Shrimpton, Paulene Stone and Tania Mallet; the graphic designer Raymond Hawkey; and the photographers Terence Donovan, Brian Duffy, David Bailey and Terry O'Neill.
While Franco played a crucial role watching over the kitchen and business affairs, Mario's warmth and ebullience established him as the star of the business. Struggling writers were attracted by the Trat's modest prices. Before credit cards were common, Mario would invite people he liked to set up monthly accounts. When I was a show-business journalist on Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express, to entertain rising stars and be able to sign the bill was irresistible. Mario would occasionally invite my guests to open accounts of their own. "But you don't know me," protested Robert Shaw, whose film career still hadn't got off the ground in 1963. "Don't worry, my friend, I'm going to," Mario told him. Ten years later, Shaw gave his opening night party at the Trat for The Sting, the film that made him a star.
The Trat was where Len Deighton – "comforted with fresh pasta, grappa and powerful espresso"– wrote chunks of his bestseller The Ipcress File. It was where he first met Michael Caine before they dreamed of the fame Harry Palmer would bring them both.
Some of Mario's clients were already making good money, but many were not, and Mario always seemed to know when to run a discreet tab, or to quietly "comp" a meal. When David (now Lord) Puttnam, then a photographers' agent, confided that he planned to start his own film company, Mario said: "Look, it's tough out there, son. I don't want to lose you. I won't give you a bill until you're on your feet. Just tell me when the business is making money and you can start paying me."
Later, Mario and Franco opened a second restaurant, the swanky Tiberio in Mayfair. The American PR executive Michael Baumohl recalls the night Mario called him and said that Princess Margaret had been in with a party of 10 and it was a disaster. "She left without paying," he said. Baumohl told Mario to send the bill to the palace – and he would make sure that the press found out that the Tiberio was one of her favourite haunts. Peter Sellers, John Wayne, Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra all became regular customers.
Mario was born in Naples, the third of four children. When he was nine, his father died and he left school to help his mother support the family. A deeply sentimental man, proud of his humble beginnings, he once – on the way to his villa in Capri – took me to the Naples market from which he had stolen fruit and vegetables to survive as a child.
At 18, he was conscripted into the Italian army. Four months short of his 21st birthday, Mario was captured by the British at Tobruk. Shipped to India, he spent the rest of the duration in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bangalore. In 1947, he came to England to marry Mary MacDonnell, an Irish nurse he had met in India. At Hatchett's, a popular West End restaurant, he became friends with Franco, a fellow waiter who enjoyed his company but felt Mario "was too pally with the customers. He behaved more like a comedian than a waiter. That just wasn't done in those days."
Nevertheless, it was Mario's way, and by 1958, he had become head wine waiter at the Mirabelle, one of the best restaurant jobs in London. The following year, they quit their jobs, pooled their savings and, with an additional bank loan, opened La Terrazza. After paying the first week's salaries (for two waiters), the partners had exactly 30 shillings left. In 1968, Mario and Franco Restaurants Ltd went public, and they became millionaires. In the 70s, disagreeing on the pace and direction of their development, they sold up, leaving a legacy of Mario and Franco trattorias across the country.
Last year, on the publication of Alasdair Scott Sutherland's book The Spaghetti Tree: Mario and Franco and the Trattoria Revolution, Mario had a nostalgic reunion with many of his famous customers and members of staff. Several of the waiters had become successful restaurateurs in their own right.
Franco died in 1980. Mario is survived by his second wife, Hilaire, and their daughter, and by the two sons of his first marriage.
• Mario Cassandro, restaurateur, born 14 April 1920; died 26 June 2011
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