HPERA

18th November 2024 I stopped for a chat with Don today who was putting up Christmas lights for the last time at La Mimosa. He told me that after 21 years, the restaurant will be closing at the end of the year and that he will be retiring. The name Don Pasquale has been synonymous with Italian dining in Cambridge for over 50 years. He and his brothers, Kim and Prospero opened their well-loved restaurant at Market Hill in 1972 - a traditional Italian restaurant that became a Cambridge institution under the Benedetto family.‘ It’s been my life’ he said ‘Nearly all my customers are regulars who have been coming for years - they have made my time here so enjoyable - I will miss it terribly’. And I will miss our daily chats Don as I’m reminded that it is people who make a city, and family-run businesses are a key element to our sense of belonging. The American political scientist, in his book ‘Bowling Alone’ calls it social capital, and I think we are running out of it.

To you, dear listener, I wish you nothing but health and happiness. But for now, it’s farewell from your local boy on your local radio.