Sponsored by
Leeds: Meet the man behind La Bottega Milanese
CHANGING VOCATION: Alex Galantino.
Although he was born and raised in Milan, coffee shop owner Alex Galantino, 36, came to Leeds 15 years ago and now lives in Churwell with his girlfriend, Katie.
He was a soldier in the Italian army’s parachute regiment and a shop assistant for Dolce and Gabbana, but he quit his main office job after 10 years when he received devastating news about his health.
Rod McPhee found out why the man behind La Bottega Milanese in The Light and on The Calls decided to change his vocation so drastically.
Click here to register and have your say on the news stories and issues that matter to you
“When I was 30 years old I was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. I’d been feeling out of breath and passing out after playing football and one day I went for a scan at Leeds General infirmary and that was that. I’ve had to have several operations to fit a metal valve in my heart and last year I had to have emergency surgery after getting a blood infection which dissolved the stitches fixing the valve inside my chest. I’ve been through years of hell and shouldn’t be here really. Since then my philosophy on life has always been to just go for it. I’d worked in IT for about a decade and I decided to quit, take out my savings and set up the coffee shop. It was something I’d wanted to do for a long time. I decided that if I was going to die I didn’t want to die stuck at a desk in an office, I’d rather do it at a coffee machine doing something I love.
“The one thing I couldn’t live without would be my moka pot cafetiere. It was the first thing I packed when I left Italy for the UK and I’ve used it ever since. I just love coffee.
“My first job was working in a coffee bar in Milan, but I wasn’t even let near the coffee machine for months and months because in Italy it’s like an artform, almost a science. You have to learn the art gradually and it’s a lot of responsibility. But they eventually let me on there and trained me up and it was something I carried on doing up to my late teens when I joined the parachute regiment of the Italian army when I did my national service. That contributed to me losing my hair by my early 20s - it was already thinning by my teens but pulling berets and helmets on and off all the time really didn’t help. If they ever find a cure for baldness I’m going to grow my hair right down to my shoulders, just because I can.
“My childhood was good, though not entirely normal as my mum, a chef, and my dad, who was a greengrocer, split up when I was young. But it was still amazing growing up somewhere as big and cosmopolitan as Milan. There are two types of Milan, the one that everyone knows which centres around fashion and tourism, and the other one I knew growing up where we’d just be kids kicking a ball round in the street.
“People ask me every single day why on earth I left somewhere like Milan to come to somewhere like Leeds – I wish I had a pound for every time I’ve had to answer that one. The best thing about Leeds is the warmth of the people and the fact that it isn’t as big a city as Milan is, so you get greater intimacy.
I came here in 1997 after meeting a girl, a Leeds University student, on holiday in Corfu. The romance only lasted a few months, but after coming to live in Headingley I decided to stay on because I loved it so much. I loved everything about the place – little things like going down to Hyde Park and kicking a ball around with people, and of course all the cafes and restaurants and shops. While I was over here I went to other cities like Manchester and Newcastle and I didn’t like the people there as much as I like the people in Leeds.
This city also has a certain individualism that other places don’t have. One of its strongest points is the amount of independent retailers, cafes, restaurants, even the unusual architecture. A lot of other cities look like clones, but Leeds has always kept its unique character and I wanted La Bottega Milanese to be a part of that.
“The best piece of advice I ever received came from my father who said: don’t follow other people’s example, just be exemplary. Which is why I always try to do thing a little bit differently.
My most embarrassing moment was after my last heart operation when I was taken out of theatre into the intensive care unit and I was completely naked. They lay me down on the bed and covered me up but somehow left my bottom poking out. Unfortunately my girlfriend was there with her parents and they could see everything. Almost every time I see my father-in-law he likes to remind me that he’s seen my bare bum. He thinks it’s hilarious, but I’m just mortified.
“The last time I cried was when I had to give up my Alsatian, Lucio. I couldn’t take dogs with me where I was going to live so I sent him off to live on a farm. I still get emotional every time I see dogs on a TV show , particularly if it’s about abandoned dogs or anything like that. My girlfriend always ends up turning the channel over.
If I could meet anyone alive or dead it would have to be the Rat Pack. I’ve been fascinated with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and all of them for years. I love the movies, the books. I would give anything just to have one night out with them. I just think they come from a really interesting period of time.
“My first crush was on Vanessa Paradis. Yes, I know she was very young at the time she came out with Joe le Taxi but I was about the same age anyway. But later I had the hots for Italian actress Monica Belucci.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.