Anacleto making ice cream by hand in 1951

Aldo and Anacleto in 1991 visiting Marine Ices, both having semi-retired

The History of Marine Ices
1900 to present day

The story of Marine Ices begins in 1898, when Gaetano Mansi, at the tender age of twelve years old, was sent to England by his father Francesco.

Having eight other children to support, he hoped Gaetano would have a better chance of looking after himself and building a better future than in his native village of Ravello on the Amalfi coast in Southern Italy. Gaetano stayed with relatives, the Imperato family, in Bermondsey, South London who were already well established in London having emigrated from Ravello in 1883. Gaetano was a hard worker and he was able to open his first business, a grocer's, in Drummond Street, Euston, in 1928.

Business was good and soon he was able to open another grocery shop on Euston Road. Gaetano never liked to throw away the fruit that was spoiling and logically he started turning it into fresh fruit sorbet and selling it alongside his traditional grocery lines. Shortly, he noticed that people were coming from miles around just to buy the sorbet, so he started to order fruit specifically for sorbet production. At this time, one must remember that ice cream and sorbet was practically unheard of, so it is of no great surprise that demand outstripped supply. In 1931, he opened Mansi's Cafe at our present day site of Number 8, Haverstock Hill in order to cater for his customers' new found appreciation of ice cream and sorbet.

The War Years
Unfortunately, the outbreak of World War Two cut short this golden period and Gaetano was interred on the Isle of Man with other such 'undesirable aliens'. He made friends with the other Italians there, such as Charles Forte, later Lord Forte. In 1947, Mansi's Cafe was rebuilt by Gaetano's eldest son, Aldo, and became known as Marine Ices. The shop was built to resemble the bridge of a ship and an original 'porthole' can still be seen today. Aldo's younger brother, Anacleto, who had already been working in London with their father for four years before the outbreak of the War, became the driving force behind the ice cream side of the business, following his sharp business acumen when it became apparent how popular their products were. Gaetano retired and returned to his native Ravello, a successful and happy man. He died in 1959, aged 72 years old.

The 60's, 70's and 80's
In 1963, a Mr. Peter Boizot from Jersey opened the first Pizza Express in Wardour Street, Soho. He needed an authentic ice cream supplier for his new venture and turned to us. Thus began Marine Ices long history as an ice cream wholesaler to restaurants, theatres and hotels which continues to this day. At around this time, Marine Ices began to offer more traditional Italian fare such as pizza and pasta as well as ice cream and sorbets. Again, one must remember that pizza and pasta, two words which are now recognised across the world were largely unheard of novelty items, especially for Chalk Farm in austere, post war Britain. Marine Ices was busy from the start.

Marine Ices was also part of the early 1970's boom in American style hamburger restaurants. Two Americans, Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton started The Great American Disaster Restaurant Group, which included the Hard Rock Cafe chain. The two partners actually flew samples of American ice cream all the way to Chalk Farm from America for Anacleto to copy. We continued to supply them for twenty five years until they were bought by the Rank Organisation. Today, in addition to numerous independent restaurants, we supply many of the quality-focussed chains that make up the modern restaurant landscape, such as Strada, Cafe Rouge, Chez Gerard, Spaghetti House and Ponti's to name but a few.

Throughout the Seventies and early Eighties, Aldo and Anacleto were joined in the business by their sons Dante, who spent five years training at the Savoy under the famous chef S.S. Trompetto, his brother Gaetano, who managed a TrustHouse Forte and Gino, who was a fully qualified refrigeration engineer when he joined respectively. The two brothers and their cousin run the business today. Aldo and Anacleto retired in the early nineties and unfortunately are not with us anymore, Aldo passing in 2000 and his brother Anacleto some years before in 1995.

The Future
Marine Ices is still trading from the same site in Chalk Farm, still supplying daily hundreds of restaurants, bars, theatres and hotels in and around London. From the very beginning, and to this day, Marine Ices has only ever used the finest fresh fruit for our sorbets, never any artificial colouring, preservatives or flavours. We strive to source the best ingredients for our dairy ice cream. We also continue to serve freshly cooked, authentic Italian food in our restaurant and our specialist ice cream in our gelateria. We are the only such location in Britain that has a restaurant and ice cream parlour stocked with products we make ourselves. The Future Recently, Dante's eldest son and Gino's godson, Aldo has joined the business with his younger brother Benedict. Aldo spent eighteen months training at Strada Restaurants and at a marketing agency (DraftFCB) in New York, while Benedict managed the hugely successful ZeroDegrees branch in Bristol, for two years. Gaetano has two younger sons, Gianfranco and Luca, who are 'waiting in the wings'. They all represent the fourth generation of the Mansi family to work at Marine Ices and will hopefully be the ones to carry the business into its hundredth year of trading.