Mannering Brothers Model Dairy 1920-1942

Bexhill’s oldest established family-run Café/Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlour is celebrating a double anniversary this year. John and Christine Di Paolo and family celebrate their silver Jubilee on 18th September 2006. John bought it as the Criterion Café, as it was then known, from his cousins the Capaldi family, who had owned the Café at 5 Marina, Bexhill-on-Sea since 1946. Prior to the war years the Café was known as Mannering Bros Model Dairy.

Criterion Cafe, Capaldi Family 1946-1981

It was the Mannering Bros Model Dairy who started the long tradition of ice cream making at the 5 Marina site in the early 1920s using fresh milk collected by their own horse-drawn milk round. Luigi Capaldi developed the ice cream making to a professional level in the early 1950s and 60s when he created a purpose-built factory unit at the rear of the Criterion Café which produced over 10,000 gallons ice cream annually.

John Di Paolo bought the Criterion Café from the Capaldi family on 18th September 1981. John grew up and served his apprenticeship in the nationally famous family business DiMarco Bros of Wellington Place, Hastings, which was started by his grandfather Lorenzo Di Marco in 1905.

Di Paolo’s Cafe, September 1981

John’s mum and dad, Luigi and Emilia Di Paolo, and his two uncles, Mike and Phil DiMarco, continued to run DiMarco’s until it closed in March 1985. By this time John had already moved to Bexhill and established Di Paolo’s Café for over 4 years. Since 1981 the Café has expanded to incorporate a purpose-built restaurant section which opened in May 1989. This is open seven days a week for lunches 11:30am to 2:00pm and is also available for private parties and evening functions by appointment. The café section is also open seven days a week from 8:00am to 6:30pm serving hot meals all day, fish being a speciality of the house.

Pasquale, John and Luigi Di Paolo, August 2006

Di Paolo’s has one of the largest selections of home-made Italian ice cream style gelati on the south coast with over 18 different flavours available on a daily basis. The ice cream is still made on the premises to a traditional Italian family recipe handed down by grandfather Lorenzo which uses only the finest quality ingredients and absolutely no preservatives.

Popular ice cream include vanilla, chocolate, banoffee, hazelnut, mint, rum’n’raisin, cappuccino, mandarin and fruit yoghurt, and can be bought in take-home blocks as well as in cones.