"I don't work because I'm gay. Help me not to close my restaurant».
Mariano Scognamiglio , chef who three years ago participated in the "Four restaurants" program hosted by Alessandro Borghese , launches an appeal on the web to avoid the closure of his restaurant.
"Da Mariano" in via Vittorio Veneto in Arezzo, 30 seats, opened in 2009, is in the darkest crisis. The customers are very few, says Mariano, of Neapolitan origins, and for a specific reason: he is homosexual.
According to him, the beginning of the end should be attributed precisely to the participation in the restaurant contest: in fact, during the episode Mariano kisses his partner Gianfranco.
From that moment the room began to be increasingly empty. But that's not all: a series of offensive phone calls began to arrive (with the police managing to identify the person responsible).
Stalker aside, there are many people from Arezzo who would not have appreciated that the place is run by a couple of men. «All the colleagues of Quattrorestaurants work well except me», says Mariano.
A situation aggravated by Covid, the stellar costs of bills and the increase in the price of raw materials . With such low revenues, concludes Mariano, who during the week teaches mechanical technology as a substitute teacher in a high school in the province of Arezzo, the place runs the risk of closing its doors: «Help us catch up before the State or the bank take it all."
(Unioneonline/D)
