01
Passion
Cooking that comes from a family — not a focus group. If a dish is on the menu, somebody at home cooked it for us first.
The Story
A Milan kitchen.
A Yorkshire arch.
Italian food, the way it actually is at home — landed in Leeds in 2012 and never put on a costume.
Arch Z, Granary Wharf · LS1 4BR · open since 2012
Chapter 01
Milan, 1980s.
Mattia Boldetti grew up in his parents' restaurant in Milan. He learned to fold ravioli before he could spell — the way Italian children of restaurant families do. The recipes that come out of our kitchen at Granary Wharf are theirs: passed down, written nowhere, cooked by feel.
When he moved to the UK, the "Italian food" he found here had been laminated into a parody of itself: chicken in the carbonara, sweetened tomato sauces, garlic bread that nobody in Italy has ever eaten. He decided to open a restaurant that cooks the way his mother does. Not a concept. A kitchen.
A whole wheel of Parmigiano · finished tableside, lava-warm.
Arch Z · the dining room is a restored 19th-century railway vault.
Chapter 02
Granary Wharf, 2012.
We took the lease on a Victorian railway arch under Leeds station — vaulted brick, the river outside the door, the light terrible at first. The arch itself dictated the room: long, narrow, warm.
The kitchen sits where coal once did. The pizza oven was built on-site, the wood shelves hold 30 cured meats and cheeses we still drive down for ourselves. Twelve years on, the recipe hasn't moved.
What we believe
Four non-negotiables.
02
Tradition
Roman, Neapolitan, Ligurian, Tuscan, Sicilian — Italian regional cooking is not one thing. We respect each region's rules, even when they're inconvenient.
03
Integrity
Real ingredients, named on the menu, sourced from where they should be. Parma ham from Parma. Mortadella from Bologna. Beef from Yorkshire.
04
Simplicity
Three ingredients done correctly will always beat seven done incorrectly. The carbonara has four. We don't add cream.
"Italian food in this country had been frozen and breaded into something else. We opened LIVIN'Italy to put it back where it started — in a family kitchen, on a long table, with one bottle of red between everybody."
— Mattia Boldetti · founder · born and raised in Milan
What's at LIVIN'Italy
Bar. Restaurant. Deli.
Three operations under one arch. Order from any of them — for here, click & collect, or to take home in deli form.
The bar
Italian classics — Negroni, Aperol, Garibaldi — and a cellar list weighted to small Italian producers, not the big names you'd find anywhere. Aperitivo runs 5 to 7.
The restaurant
Antipasti, pasta, pizza, and the Yorkshire-bone-in rib-eye that's earned a small cult. Open to walk-ins or book a table; we'll always squeeze you in if it's just two of you.
The deli
Cured meats by the gram, cheese by the wedge, focaccia, olive oils. If we serve it on the menu, you can usually take it home in raw form too.
In print
- The Times
- The Guardian
- Good Food Guide
- Italian Awards
- Yorkshire Evening Post
- Confidentials Manchester