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Al Forno housed Brighton's very first wood-fired pizzeria, established by Dino Azzarrone in 1971. After visiting from London Dino was amazed that he could not find anywhere that made his favourite Neapolitan Pizza, so he embarked on introducing the South Coast to the delights and specialities of his native Italy and in particular Southern Italian cuisine.
First Dino had to organise the building of a traditional wood burning oven. He travelled to Southern Italy, and scoured the countryside for the right bricks and muratore (bricklayer) who knew how to build a traditional pizza oven. After a few days he managed to find someone who knew of a muratore called Luigi, on meeting Luigi he explained he needed good fired bricks to build a pizza oven. Luigi also dealt in salvage and had only recently dismantled an old villa for a new motorway project and salvaged the bricks from the villa and the brick from an old wood burning oven. Dino explained that he needed to ship the brick and the builder to Brighton, England. At first the builder thought Dino was mad but after some food and wine and a little haggling a deal was brokered for Luigi to transport the bricks and himself to England, to build the oven.
The restaurant opened in 1971 with the first wood burning pizza oven on the South Coast, to much acclaim. Set in the original house of Martha Gunn "Brighton's original bathing lady" . The oven, like the house, still stands today. The rest, as they say, is history...
The business which changed hands only once in 36 years ceased to trade on the 5th October 2007, you can find the same attention to detail and quality of food at Al Duomo 100 yards away.
Between Al Duomo and Al Forno they have served over 6 million people in over 3 decades and Al Duomo continues to serve over 175,000 cover a year.
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Introduction