‘Chaos’ at Tony Macaroni but has Sep Marini found an escape hatch?

In an Edinburgh flat last Sunday morning, server Ruairidh Lloyd was getting up and preparing for his upcoming shift when he received a text from his general manager, Max*. It was a link to a Glasgow newspaper — The Bell. The name of the restaurant where Lloyd worked, Tony Macaroni, was in the article's title. 

He opened the piece, skimming it with increasing horror. It was about the increasingly turbulent business affairs of Giuseppe ‘Sep’ Marini, the director of Viva Italia, the hospitality group Tony Macaroni belongs to. The reporting included details of eight different wind-up petitions lodged against the company, from creditors seeking to liquidate it so they could get their money back.

“Oh fuck. That’s so bad,” Lloyd wrote back after a few minutes, then sent it on to a few colleagues. The revelations in the piece, he says, caused “chaos” at work. 

Max quit the next day. Lloyd followed 12 days later, giving his fortnight’s notice. He’s now counting down the days until he leaves, deeming Marini’s stable of businesses as “quite literally the worst place” he’s ever worked. 

Officially, Lloyd was hired to staff the Tony Macaroni restaurant in Edinburgh’s Omni Centre. In reality, he was often sent over to other Marini sites, like Mozza on Rose Street or the cafe at the Yaniv Edery Gallery, where Marini runs hospitality operations. Where Lloyd spends his shift seems to be decided when he clocks in. 

In the last two weeks, conditions at Tony Macaroni’s have entered the realm of the bizarre, he alleges. Staff have been “forced” to take 90 minute breaks; managers said it was saving the company money. Shifts have been cut and messaging from those in charge felt divorced from reality. Lloyd paraphrases communications from senior management as: “nothing bad is happening [...] some places will be liquidated, others won’t”. 

It was the final straw, he says. He and his partner are house hunting; while his three months at Tony Macaroni have been coloured with anxiety over his regularly delayed salary, now he thinks he’d be worrying over whether the money would stop arriving all together. Max expressed similar sentiments, having previously had to take out a loan during his two years working for Marini, in order to cover food expenses and bills for his family.

This past week has felt like “the last day[s] of the empire,” Lloyd chuckles wryly, adding: “You know, because Marini’s a millionaire or something, with lots of property and cars, but it’s like the fall of his restaurant empire”.

A stay of execution 

You’d think so, but Marini looks to have found a way out of the immediate peril he’s facing. On Wednesday 5 August, the provisional liquidator appointed to Viva Italia by the Court of Session was recalled — aka, stood down — and the company returned to Marini’s control. A source independently told us that outstanding debt owed to landlord Deltaglobe, over unpaid rent in Dunfermline, had been settled. 

The threat of liquidation is not over though: there are still seven active pending petitions to wind up Viva Italia. Meanwhile, debts remain outstanding; on the same day Ruairidh Lloyd was reading about the inner workings of the company employing him, the Tony Macaroni location at Glasgow Fort retail park was closed. The electricity had been shut off, a source informed us, due to an unpaid bill. 

Since our 1 August report, The Bell’s inbox has been inundated with many such tip-offs. Grievances, whistleblowing and general outlandish stories; we’ve been privy to them all. A former customer even claimed the Braehead branch of Tony Macaroni restaurant once gifted her family an iPad, as a goodwill gesture after her daughter was injured at the location seven years ago. 

That wasn’t the strangest thing we heard and certainly not the most serious we’re investigating. We’ve spoken to over twenty people, from current and former employees, to residents of a central Italian village where Marini spends much of his time. 

Allegations ranged from minor complaints about poor organisation, to the more serious, like not having paid pension contributions. And then there’s the curious new court development from Marini’s fish supplier and mortgage lender, who might now be offering the businessman a way forward. This is what we can tell you for now. 

Beth here, quick note about why we paywall articles. This story has almost taken over my life for the past two weeks, and it involved four other journalists to pitch in and help - and we all need to earn a living. This is what it takes to run a quality local paper that challenges power. Only you the readers can make it happen, and that's by subscribing. So, to hear more about Tony Macaroni's ongoing issues, join today.

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