From Naples to the Bavarian Forest: How Giuseppe Guarino Went from Being a Glass Cutter to an Ice Cream Maker
Recruited as a glass cutter by Spiegelau glass factory, Giuseppe Guarino came from Naples to the Bavarian Forest in 1959. He married a local and stayed – out of love. In 1971, he fulfilled a long-held dream: Giuseppe Guarino wanted to run a restaurant like his father before him, who had run a trattoria in a suburb of Naples. Together with his wife Erika, he opened a pizzeria together with an ice cream shop in the former prison building in Grafenau and dubbed his restaurant with his nickname “Da Peppo”. His was the first pizzeria in the Bavarian Forest.
Delicious gelato is still being made there following a secret recipe. The former prison building was torn down in 1982 and the pizzeria and ice cream shop moved into the building across from it, which the Guarino family renovated. Sons Bene and Raphael took over the business in 1996. The Guarinos donated part of the pizzeria’s original decor as well as an ice cream machine and the ice cream cart Guiseppe Guarino used to sell ice cream at Grafenau Fair to the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte’s museum.
Sources/Literature: Eyewitness interview by the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte