“It’s been great! We’re so happy we’ve done it,” says Jen. “We’ve exceeded our expectations which has been fantastic, although it’s not been without challenges. It’s been a lot to get to the year mark.”
Jen always wanted a “piece of dirt” on the West Coast. “We didn’t necessarily know it would be in Reefton,” she says, ”but then we found this place and jumped at the chance of buying it. Things are happening in Reefton, more people are coming to invest and it gave us the confidence to take the risk.”
Living and working in Christchurch, both Nigel and Jen were at a crossroads and thinking about what they’d like to do over the next ten years. “We had a restaurant in the 1990’s and so we knew we could work together well,” says Jen. ”We also knew we didn’t want to do anything in Christchurch and felt like a change in lifestyle. We decided to put our house on the market, it sold really quickly and so here we are.”
Nigel and Jen aren’t strangers to Reefton as Jen is originally from the town. “I was born here, my parents Janet & George McLennan were born here and I have friends and cousins here,” she says. “Although we left when I was nine, I have vivid memories of living here, and am happy to be back. One highlight of our first year of business was my brother coming to visit from London and bringing my parents with him over the hill as they have a deep connection to Reefton. They were here for the Christmas parade and absolutely loved spending time with us here, seeing our restaurant for the first time and trying our pizza. It was a very special time.”
The restaurant is named after Jen’s ancestors in both Europe and England, traced 17 generations back to Bassano del Grappa, in the Veneto Region of Italy. Jen’s grandmother Enid and great-grandfather Frank Bassano emigrated from Birmingham, England to the West Coast in 1908. “The name Bassano was lost when Grandma got married so it’s been really cool bringing the name back to life and sharing their story,” says Jen.
It was a huge amount of work to get the building ready for the equipment, including building a giant steel structure under the building for the main attraction – the bright orange 2 tonne Marana Forni pizza oven imported from Italy. They also took the time to run a test kitchen. “It was really worth it and made such a difference,” says Jen. “It meant we could get the bases right, test different ingredients and choose the best.”
Feedback over the last year has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s been amazing,” says Jen. “We’re getting a lot of people through word-of-mouth. We have customers coming from all over just to try our pizzas, sometimes driving for hours. It’s incredible. It blows us away that so many people are excited about pizza!”
They pride themselves on using top quality ingredients and won’t settle for anything less. “We just want to be known for being the best pizza that people have ever had,” says Jen.
In the future, they’d like to extend their opening hours and introduce a delivery option. “We’d love to be open more days a week, especially over the summer,” says Jen. “Our challenge this year is finding enough experienced staff and accommodation for them to increase our team.”
Visit bassano.co.nz for more information.