Anger in Italy over a chain of mafia-themed restaurants in Spain

It may be a harmless marketing gimmick for their founders, but a chain of themed mafia restaurants in Spain has infuriated Italians, with politicians calling for a name change

The chain of 34 “La Mafia” restaurants, dotted around Spain, offer a dining experience inspired by the mob, with pizza and pasta served beneath posters showing scenes from The Godfather and customers sitting on benches emblazoned with images of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano.

Regular diners can join a “Mafia Fidelity Club”, which offers a five per cent discount on meals and the chance to enter a draw to win prizes such as iPads and weekends away.

The chain has enjoyed huge success and there are plans to open another 15 restaurants, including one across the border in Portugal.

But Italians – who on a daily basis have to endure the Camorra dumping and burning toxic waste in the countryside around Naples, the ‘Ndrangheta of Calabria importing vast quantities of cocaine from South America and Cosa Nostra extorting protection money from businesses in Sicily – failed to see the funny side of the concept.

The first La Mafia restaurant was opened back in 2000 but the existence of the chain was only publicised in Italy this week with a feature story in La Repubblica newspaper.

“Imagine what would happen in Spain if somebody in Italy opened restaurants dedicated to the terrorists of [Basque separatist group] ETA”, commented the paper.

Giuseppe Lumia, a senator from the centre-Left Democratic Party and a member of the parliamentary anti-mafia commission, said: “To use the word mafia in a commercial brand is squalid and unacceptable. It’s an offence to all those people who have given their lives in the defence of legality and justice.”

He said he would lobby the Italian government and the ministry of foreign affairs to put pressure on the Spanish to change the name of the restaurants.

The restaurants were “gravely offensive to our national image and to all those who have paid with their lives in the battle against mafia clans,” two other centre-Left senators, Laura Cantini and Mario Morgoni, said in a statement.

But Pablo Martinez, a spokesman for La Mafia Franchises, the firm behind the restaurants, told La Repubblica: “I apologise to any Italians who feel offended but it was really not our intention. There are no violent images in our restaurants. Mafia is a word that attracts attention.”