Until the end of the nineteenth century, the family of Mrs. Dabove Caterina had exercised an ancient and fundamental service for that time, that is, they supplied fresh horses for the diligence that led to Savona. After this activity, the lady with her husband Pietro Rossi, founder of the one ancent amaretti factory in Sassello, created the Caffè Ristorante Del Nord under the factory, on the ground floor of the building in today’s Piazza Rolla.
On the death of Pietro Rossi in 1923, the two activities passed to his sons Adamo and Emilia, the latter however, at the behest of his father, would have lost all rights on the two activities by getting married, therefore both remained to his son Adamo when his sister married groom.
Following the premature death of Adamo Rossi, the widow Jolanda Badano continued her husband’s work. Called by everyone “Jole”, in 1930 the lady changed the name of the inn thus creating the Bar Jole, which she managed for twenty-five years, a lover of her work, she offered her customers the first artisanal ice creams alongside which she also presented a wide range of fresh pastries and dry and the first chocolate delicacies.
In 1955 her son Pietro and grandson Adamo Scasso took turns until 1966 when the latter left the business to found the “Liquorificio Scasso”, while Pietro Rossi continued to take care of the bar and the amaretti factory founded by his grandfather until 1971, year in which the bar was taken over by the sister-in-law Giovanna Siri with her husband Elio Rossi, who in 1972 bought the license and thus started their business.
Passionate about mushrooms since he was a child and known by everyone, as is usual in small villages, Elio began to transform his passion into an excuse to make Bar Jole the meeting and meeting point for passionate seekers of Sassello and beyond. From this passion and tourism linked to the search for these small pearls of the Sassello woods, L ’Artigiana Del Fungo was born in 1996.
Initially born as a support for the bar, the new company immediately found a great response not only on the local Sassello market, but also obtaining important awards including the one received at the universal exhibition in Milan in 2015.
As an important recognition and source of pride for the Rossi family, in 2020 the company was registered in the register of historic Italian companies with more than one hundred years of activity.
Driven by this new milestone, the family decided to expand the old patisserie license by investing in new equipment and renovating the pastry shop, adding to the now famous production of Sassellini “chocolates with a soft heart”, that of the traditional Sassello amaretti, thus dusting off the old recipes jealously kept in a home drawer.
Even today, after several decades on the top floor of the Bar Jole, the stove and the sink for processing the almonds are still preserved, while what is left of some of the old equipment and packaging can be seen at the museum of L’Artigiana del Fungo.
