Deep green hotel offers 360 degree care

Taking dinner at the Anastasi shows they care about everything their businesses touches

The moment you enter the Anastasi family hotel you feel happy. You wonder, is it the décor, is it the lighting, the scented candles or is it the warm welcoming smile on Giorgia, the manager’s face?

The fact is they all count, because every single facet of this small hotel’s operations are affected by the family’s principles – perfection, responsibility and care in simply everything they do.

Green tourism principles, actually have an effect on every single aspect of the hospitality industry. They don’t just relate to the environment however important that may be, they also relate from the way business and marketing is done to interactions with society and culture and to economic stability. Moreover the proof of the pudding is the effect hospitality businesses have on their clientele. The fact is that green-awarded hotels offer the sort of service that makes their guests very, very happy and wanting to repeat the experience again and again.

Such a business is the Anastasi Hotel in Cervia. A small 3 star hotel, close to the sea that has been awarded a Silver grading with Green Tourism.

Cllearly, the eponymous family behind the hotel care about each and every aspect of the hotel’s operation. Of course, they’ve been checked out by Green Tourism inspectors so you can take for granted the fact that they are doing the right thing environmentally, socially, culturally and economically but it’s the little extras that you notice. Like, for instance the fact that Giorgia proudly displays the small special kitchen near the breakfast room for mothers to prepare their children’s breakfasts (and other meals) when they have special requirements. Like, for instance, the washbasins in the public loos that have smaller sizes for kids. Like, for instance, the range of free pushchairs and bikes especially for small children and like, for instance, the muted starry backdrops that father Anastasi has applied to the bedheads.

One day we caught son-in-law `award-winning chef Andrea  examining vast spreadsheets. We were told they represented three weeks daily menus, each meal painstakingly chosen and sourced specifically. Looks great in principle, but what’s it like in practice, we thought – after all this isn’t the Ritz – it’s just a three star family hotel.

So, a little later we came back to test the menu. Then, obviously, like any other guest who had been charmed by the Anastasi, we came back again, and, naturally, again.

The first meal we had involved a lovely wild rice with avocados and vegetables, a pea-cream with julienne of baby squid, fried pasta and bacon followed by a prawn and prosecco risotto. Then came a fillet of mackerel stuffed with basil and vegetables. We were treated to a "Little Surprise" before our dessert – the most lightly fried and tender anchovies ever. The dessert triumph was a flambéed peach with a gelato covered with fruits of the wood.

It was all served beautifully, plated precisely and arranged artistically. The meal would have done justice to any five star hotel.

But, of course, consistency is the mark of a really classy kitchen, so we came back a few days later for another try!

The smiles were warmer than ever, the hotel as beautiful as ever. But what would the food be like?

Andrea hit us with Carpaccio of sea bass with citrus and a white Martini jelly, followed by black (infused with squid ink) and white tagliolini with a fish carbonara sauce. Main course? Cylinder of perch with honey vegetable salad and creamed perch with double-coloured polenta. Dessert surprise? Strawberries parfait with beetroot crumble and strawberry sauce.

Sensational world-class cuisine at its very best.

The next week we had a couple of guests with allergy problems like gluton-free, no dairy at all, no "nightshade vegetables" (tomato, peppers, eggplant, potatoes) nor legumes (no beans, no peanuts). What would Andrea cook for these demanding clients you may ask!

And Andrea’s answer was…

Calamari salad with lettuce, oranges and almonds, Risotto with clams and pumpkin, Fish with mayonnaise carrots, sweet and sour red onion and ‘Lemon Air’  and finally a panna cotta created with soya topped with a saffron and strawberry sauce.

The proof of the pudding is, of course, in the eating, and these guests ate every single morsel.

What can you say? Other than a perfect green 10 out of 10 for hospitality, food and consistent, painstaking, meticulous attention to detail that warms your heart every single time.

Congratulations to the Anastasi family.

Valere Tjolle

@ValereTjolle [email protected]

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