Farewell, Inverness

I'm packing up the old suitcase ready for my train journey back to Glasgow this morning.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in Inverness so a massive thank you to Zizzi for giving me the chance to meet some of you fine folk.

At the restaurant opening last night, one diner told me - 'Think of Inverness as your second home."

I think I'll do just that.

Until next time, Inverness.

Ciao, xo.

Opening Night!

The time has come! Zizzi Inverness has opened its doors for the very first time! There has been a real-build up of excitement today amongst the staff and us artists and writers in residence alike. It's been a great privilege to be part of a team which shares such drive and passion for the success of their restaurant. After all, it is their restaurant. Team Zizzi Inverness have invested so much time and effort into preparing for tonight. It represents a part of them. It has been theirs from the building stages to the finished product. Now, let it be yours.

Zizzi Inverness invites you to sample their beautiful Italian cuisine whilst you are surrounded by views of the River Ness. Your city, your restaurant. By speaking to a wide variety of residents, from 'true Invernesians' to those who have relocated and are now proud to call Inverness home, I have learnt something. The city remains a 'big town', enjoying all the benefits of larger stores and restaurants like Zizzi, whilst mantaining the charm and comforts which come from being a smaller part of the world.

It's 5.30pm and Zizzi welcomes its first guests into the restaurant. General Manager Ross Sharratt is on hand to greet the diners with a glass of wine. Soon, Zizzi is filled with curious locals, eager to test out some of the culinary delights on offer. The guests take their seats, ready to sample a wide variety of dishes that are circulating the restaurant: rustic pizzas on wooden boards; large dishes of calamari and taster portions of pasta to name but a few. I doubt there will be leftovers tonight!

One of my personal favourite interviewees, Robin Munro, returns to give his opinion on the restaurant as a finished product: "It's looking great, definitely!" Several diners comment on the beautiful layout of Zizzi: "It's so spacious inside even though there are lots of different placs to sit. I can't believe how stunning the views are. Especially at this time of night. The river when it's lit up is just gorgeous and it's great to be able to take it in with a glass and wine and good food!"

It certainly is shaping up to be a wonderful night, filled with, first and foremost excellent food, wine, conversation and the chance to meet a bright and enthusiastic Team Zizzi Inverness. As two of the restaurant's very first diners are leaving, I get the chance to find our their thoughts on the night. "The authenticity of the food is really what makes it. The pizzas were just excellent. The calamari as well was to die for. To say that Zizzi's is just another pizza/pasta place would be ridiculous. You can really taste that authentic Italian cooking. I'll definitely be booking a table and coming back. It's a great contribution to Inverness."

As the first round of diners leave, a fresh wave enter the restaurant and there's one thing that everyone can agree on – the food is outstanding! The diners all tuck into the freshly prepared courses. I manage to sneak a tiramisu. Delicious. I think my best plan of action is to befriend one of the waitresses and blink forlornly at the dishes whizzing by me. It works. I sample one of their vegetarian boards. Sundried tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, buffalo mozzarella. I really do like my job sometimes.

Anya, a local resident, is kind enough to chat to me about her first Zizzi experience: "It's fantastic. I work in a B&B very near to here and I'll definitely be recommending it to all the guests. I'm from Poland but I have lived in Spain and sometimes I really miss that Latin spirit. So here, it's great. It's like I'm sitting at the seaside of some Italian village."

One thing's certain – tonight's guests have the makings of great regular customers!

Teresa Machado Perez

Teresa Machado Perez, originally from Spain, is the store manager of H&M, and tells me why she's proud to call Inverness her home.

"I was born in a small village in Spain which had 15,000 people.  Nearly 20 years ago, I moved to the UK and lived in Brighton, staying there for 5 years.  I then went travelling around the world and spent all my money!  I decided to come up to Inverness because my partner knew people here.  We knew that that would make it easier to set up home here.  We were thinking about only staying a year and then it turned into 5 years.

We've since bought a flat which meant that we were definitely going to stay here for much longer.  Just now, we're quite happy here.  It took us a while to make friends here but now that we have really close friends, we're definitely going to stay for a long time.  I guess when you get older, it just takes a bit longer to make friends!  The scenery really makes me want to stay here but, to be honest, it's just the people in Inverness.  That's what makes us really want to stay here.  My partner's not from here either so together we've found a brand new place that's home to us both.

Working in Inverness compared to other places is definitely a lot quieter.  Because I work in the Eastgate Centre, it's always a lot more happening there.  Compared to Spain, apart from the weather of course, it's just a different way of life here.  Much more relaxed.  I miss my family but I will go and visit them quite a lot.  That's always what you miss the most, the people in different places.  I definitely see Inverness as my home.  When I go back to Spain, I say I'm going on my holidays.  I never say I'm going back home.  When I'm there for a bit of time, I always say that I'm ready to go back home!

Here, at Zizzi, is such a lovely spot.  I always wondered why the space wasn't being used for so long because it's beautiful here.  It's nice to be able to sit and watch the chefs at work and look at the river.  I didn't realise it would be so big inside.  There's lots of tables and the kitchen look very good.  You can even watch the pizzas being cooked in the big fire ovens."

Lindyann Alvares

Lindyann Alvares, 26, has lived in Goa but discusses why her plans to return there have been put on hold since having children in Inverness.

"I was born in a place called Bettyhill which is actually 2 hours north of Inverness. There were about 500 people spread over 5 miles. So everyone knows everyone and everyone's related to everyone! There's no buses or anything.

I only moved to Inverness 2 years ago. I've lived in Goa, India but me and my husband moved here initially to save money for our wedding. Now, we've had a baby and there's another on the way so we're here to stay!

I'm looking forward to raising my children here. We were actually meant to be moving back to Goa permanently at the end of next month but now that I've got another baby on the way, we're definitely going to wait! I think we're going to wait around here, try and save some money again and then possibly move back to Goa. It's just too cold here in the Summer!

It's looking fabulous in the restaurant. I had a prior motive for popping by because my friend's the assistant manager. It's just fab that there's somewhere bright and open. It's something different for Inverness. There's so many restaurants here already but this just seems to have more of an edge."

The Run-up to Opening Night

It's day four in Zizzi which means that opening night is upon us. The chefs are busily organising the kitchen, making all their final touches in preparation for this evening. In comparison to the laughter and activity in the restaurant yesterday, there's an entirely different atmosphere when I take my seat at a back table to set up my laptop. Instead of proudly showing off their pizzas, as was the case yesterday, the staff have been set an entirely new task.

Each member of the waiting and front of house team have a table to themselves and are quietly concentrated, heads down, fussing over a test paper. Think exam hall! I pass them, heels squeaking on the floor, breaking the silence. Well, every examination needs an invigilator. The team leader tells me that everyone is being quizzed on what they have learned over the past week's training. "You know when you're doing team exercises and there's always that one person who answers everything?" she asks me, stopping for a quick chat, "well, this way, we can test everyone to make sure that it's not just that one person who knows all the answers!"

I watch the staff as they scribble down their answers, flipping over the pages of their questionnaire. I'm pretty sure they've got this material sussed. No notes under the desk or answers written on the back of their hands. The team leader assures me that this focussed silence isn't going to be the order of the day: "Don't worry, we'll be getting back to some fun team exercises and role-play in a minute!" Phew, the school day's over and thankfully the chefs have prepared something a little more appetising than packed lunches.

As well as the team getting organised for tonight's launch, artist Katy Thomson is dedicatedly applying brush strokes and pen lines to her enormous work of art. Everything is going smoothly for the young artist with the exception of her ladder! "It's ok for the lower sections but when I need to get to the highest bits, I have to enlist somebody to hold my ladder steady for about 20 minutes!" Not a fun job for the person on the ground, but all in the name of artistic progress. And, well, health and safety.

At tonight's opening launch, you can watch Katy for yourself as she transforms the walls. It's strange to think that less than a week ago, there was little more than white paint. It's been fascinating to watch it develop and become more and more defined each day. Katy's confident that she will have it completed for her deadline – Sunday. However, if not, by her own admission, she'll be staying until it's finished!

My Final Day in Zizzi

Well, it's Friday and that means my last day in the restaurant.  Make sure to come in and bid me farewell between 1pm and 3pm.  It's your last chance to share your stories and get a picture of your mug on the blog!

Robin Munro

Robin Munro, 66, is a charming, local resident who provides me with a wealth of insight into the changes that Inverness has seen over several decades.

"I moved to Inverness 20 years ago from Buckie which is along the coast but I was born on the Black Isle which is just on the other side of the bridge. I used to work in the building just over the bridge. I don't think people would want to know what I worked as because I was the tax man! I studied history at university so I'm interested in history to a degree. I think that history is where we come from and that's very important.

When I was a very small boy, back in the late 1940s, we lived in Inverness for a short period. In the 40s, it was much, much smaller. The thing is, over the years, Inverness has doubled and re-doubled in size. There are pros and cons to the expansion of the city. It has got much more in the way of facilities than it used to have with the shopping centres and so on.

There's also a lot more restaurants. There's a good array of restaurants so Zizzi will be in good company! This particular restaurant is on the site of an old, old house called 'Queen Mary's House' which they decided to knock down in the 1960s along with other buildings on this corner. Inverness does have enough history but not enough of the historic buildings left which reflect that.

I've more or less raised my family in Inverness. My son would have been about 7 or 8 when he came here and my daughter was just a few months old. My daughter regards herself very much as an Invernesian. It's a beautiful place to raise a family. It's close to wondeful scenery. 2 or 3 minutes away and you can see everything. The river's wondeful, I like that. It's a pleasant walk to the islands down the river. You can cross from one side of the river to walk down and come back on the other side. Really beautiful. Inverness was the place that I thought I'd be retiring in and I'm happy to be retired here. It's probably the best place I've lived.

As a very small child, I remember being taken by a neighbour who had the leasing of the salmon fishing on the River Ness. He had two boats and men working with him. We rode out onto the river with our nets. We made a loop and pulled back in the net with the salmon. That's quite a pleasant memory of Inverness that I have from being a small boy. That would have happened not very far from where we are now in Zizzi. Salmon fishing doesn't exist here anymore as an industry but there is still salmon fishing on the river today. You can see a great stretch of the river here from the restaurant. I like that you're able to watch the chefs at work too. That gives you extra confidence in your food!"