As you can see the railings have some really beautiful ironwork, people that are really
helping to get in here like this. Espresso's glass case as well as a large piece of tile. Thank you. No, this is Monnie Stark.
Hello, this is Lonnie Stark of Stark Silver Creek and I'm here in Loretto Baja and we're at a newly opened restaurant here that serves exceptional Italian food.
And I'm here with the owner and entrepreneur Manuel. Can you tell us a little about your restaurant Il Campanillo?
Well, this is a restaurant that I designed and opened 11 years ago and for some reason closed down and then I reopened and decided to reopen it and I'm pretty excited about it and I'm glad that you guys are here.
When did you actually open this restaurant? You said 11 years ago but you decided to reopen it so when was the grand opening?
Well, we haven't had no grand opening yet. We will in the future. We opened in December 31st for New Year's Eve.
How was that? New Year's Eve back in this place that you started 11 years ago?
Well, it was something magic, something that I wanted to do. When I went back to the States and got a school there, I did that with a friend of mine in Del Mar, California.
And so my family being from, you know, Spanish and Italian backgrounds, so it's there. So I have this as own for that. So I grew up in Cabo San Lucas and my godfather owned a couple of restaurants there.
So, you know, it inspires me to do that and I like it.
So you mentioned this place being Loretto. It sounds like you've been in the States. You've been in Cabo and a little time in Florence.
What is it about Loretto that sort of draws you here? What's special about it to you?
I think Loretto has a lot more potential than any other town here in Baja. It has a lot more than Cabo.
I mean, even though that Cabo is so beautiful, but here at the mountains, the history, the mission, the museum, the whales, I mean, the islands, there's magic here.
So I think it's a magic place and, you know, it takes a while for people to kind of like really discover that. But, you know, to me, I discovered right away.
I want to talk to you a little about the food here. Actually, so we've been talking about your background.
I hear a lot of the food here is handmade, like some of your raviolis, everything else.
Can you tell us a little about sort of the process you go to make some of these dishes?
Well, the lasagna we make here and we make the ragout. It takes us like about five hours to make it, you know, time cooking.
Yeah, to get the desired flavor to it and also everything is handmade, you know, the pastas.
They're made in the kitchen and processed and so I think when we start everything from scratch, the flavor comes out rather than open a package and cook that.
So it's definitely going to be a little better than the sort of ragout package pastas and stuff I have at home sometimes.
Now, you said five hours of preparing the food. Are you open for lunch? What time does the kitchen actually start then in the morning?
Well, every night I go late to bed and I work back there to do the sauces and stuff, you know, like the sauce for raviolis, the sauce for the lasagna
and the spaghetti. So what I do is more like my free times, I do a little bit here, you know, the day after I do more or the apple pie that I make here too.
Oh, you make the apple pie?
We buy the apples that are Granny Smith and we make the apple pie here. And, you know, I enjoy it.
It's something that I wanted to do and I enjoy it. It's a therapy to me, you know, and I'm glad it's turning out good.
I'm glad that it's tasting good. I'm glad that people are coming back.
So you don't actually even start early in the morning. You start late at night to making some of this and I really get a sense you're passionate about the food that you make.
And you mentioned Granny Smith and it's one of my favorite apples to make apple pie from just because of the tartness of the apples, holds up well with the sweetness and the pastry and everything.
So do you find being in Loretto, it must be different and more challenging having a restaurant here than in other places in terms of sourcing some of the ingredients.
Do you find it challenging or do you find that you're able to get what you need here in Loretto?
Well, to tell you the truth, it was very challenging when I first opened 11 years ago and now it's easier.
You know, it was hard for us to find the romaine lettuce back then and before I used to grow it myself in the backyard.
I used to grow my own vegetables, something that I enjoy too.
And now you find most of the things or else I just bring the stuff from La Paz or from T.J. or from the state itself, you know.
So that's, I don't think I find it difficult or hard.
It used to be hard not anymore because I'm from Baja and so I love Baja and I really learned to appreciate what I have as part of me.
It's in my heart and I'm very good Mexican, so very patriotic. So, you know, I'm proud of being that and I'm proud to come back and see that Baja,
the jewel that he hasn't gotten lost, it glows and it's pretty and I have something to offer and I'm proud of it.
So, besides making pastas from handmade and your great, you know, apple pie that you were mentioning, what do you do outside of running this restaurant?
Where are some of your hobbies that you enjoy?
Well, I love surfing. Sometimes I go to Scorpion Bay and I'm hiking.
I love to go to the ranch, you know, and I have my friends at the ranchers where I go and get the wood for the pizza oven, which is a fire oven pizza.
So, you know, yes, I do enjoy going out to the country and have contact with nature.
So I go up to the mountains and little trails and hikes and, you know, lately I haven't been able to do it, but I will again.
So for people that are interested in visiting this restaurant, can you just tell people the address and where it's located?
How do they get here if they land on a, they come here by plane, land in Loreto Airport?
Well, the big palapa, it's on Benito Juarez and esquina with Ayuntamiento and it doesn't have a name right now, one of the reasons,
because I didn't want to spread it out yet until I want to make sure that the staff would be very used to what they were doing.
And pretty much we're to that point and we're going to start, we're going to put the signs soon and, you know, they'll be able to locate us easier.
Well, thank you. I mean, your staff's been doing a great job so far tonight. We're really enjoying our time here.
I want to really thank you for spending the time today to talk with us. I know it's very busy and we really appreciate it.
And I want to thank you for sharing this jewel of your restaurant with us tonight.
And I really look forward to tonight's meal. So thank you.
This is Lonnie Stark of Stark Silver Creek in the heart of Loreto at the new restaurant here, Il Campanillo here in Loreto.
This is Lonnie Stark of Stark Silver Creek in the heart of Loreto Baja at the latest restaurant that's open here, an Italian restaurant.
So if you have a craving for great pasta, homemade apple pie, definitely check it out. The restaurant's name, Il Campanillo here.
And as you can tell, I need to practice my Italian. As you can tell.
So this is Lonnie Stark of Stark Silver Creek. Thank you for joining us.
