How Tuscany's Food and Wine Power Couple Took Over West London

"Trogolo may look modest from the outside, but it's got some serious pedigree - its owners are Lara Boglioni, managing director of London-based, Italianate lifestyle brand Petersham Nurseries, and her winemaker husband Giovanni Mazzei, heir to the 600-year-old Tuscan wine empire Marchesi Mazzei. The couple are based with their children in Chianti Classico but keep a foot in west London - and it's here that they saw an opportunity to create a restaurant that reminded them of home."

""Trogolo means 'trough' in Italian," says Mazzei, "and that's because the Tuscan approach to cuisine is very down-to-earth. We want this to be the kind of place for enjoying long, loud, generous meals with friends." But all the same, adds Boglioni, "it is Italian trattoria-meets-Notting-Hill, so expect something slightly more contemporary - the team wear Kappa tracksuits and we play Italian disco from the 1970s and 1980s.""

"The long, narrow space has been warmed with dusky-pink limewash; marble tables are dressed with butcher's paper placemats and potted plants; seating is wooden benches and rustic-looking stools. Cases of wine are stacked in every corner; a tiny interior courtyard lets in light from above, while downstairs more tables are ranged alongside a counter groaning with salamis, rounds of cheese and a leg of ham. Trogolo is cozy, noisy, convivial - and very appetizing."

Trogolo blends Tuscan trattoria warmth with a Notting Hill contemporary edge. Owners Lara Boglioni and winemaker Giovanni Mazzei split time between Chianti Classico and west London and created the restaurant to evoke home. The interior features dusky-pink limewash, marble tables with butcher's paper, potted plants, wooden benches, rustic stools, stacked wine cases, a tiny interior courtyard, and a downstairs counter laden with salamis, cheeses, and ham. The seasonal menu showcases Tuscan dishes such as artichoke frittata, beef carpaccio with white truffle, and wild-boar pappardelle. The wine list emphasizes Tuscan labels, notably Mazzei's single-vineyard Sangiovese IPSUS.

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