They opened it in 1884. The Offelleria bar remained active for 140 years , still in Corso Umberto. Now the curtain has fallen on the first real bar in Tortolì. The story is over. On December 31st Peppino Contu served the last coffee , then lowered the shutter. Forever. "The conditions were no longer there: today we spend more time on social media rather than in physical meeting points", confesses Contu, 60 years old, the last 40 of which were spent behind the counter.
In the early 1980s his father, Francesco, who was a pioneer of the bar service on the Orrì coast and in the rest of Ogliastra, had taken over the management of the business from the Guiso family, who for a period had called the place Caffè Trieste , to honor the city and celebrate its return to Italy in 1954. The last descendant of the owner family to have worked at the bar was Nina Guiso, born Giovannina Ghisu, who passed away in January 2018 at the age of 104.
Signorina Nina had served for over sixty years, serving the first artisanal ice creams, family-made sodas, home-made liqueurs and sweets. «Over the years - adds Peppino Contu - many dynamics have changed. It was time to leave. I'm leaving with regret, but on the last day of work the atmosphere was relaxed and we drank coffee with friends with a smile ." Meetings of local administrators have also been frequent among the tables of the Offelleria over the years. For a coffee or an aperitif with politics always in the foreground. «Many people gathered at the bar», recalls Peppino Contu.
