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An Italian restaurant which blamed its closure on residents of an affluent London neighbourhood received a zero-star hygiene rating just weeks before it shut its doors. Inspectors found mouse droppings, out-of-date seafood and open jars of mayonnaise and breadcrumbs at Don Ciccio in Highgate, north London, it has today emerged. They said "major improvement (was) necessary" in all areas following the visit on August 8. But the establishment announced its permanent closure on or around October 21 , following which owner Marco Claudio Valente took a swipe at locals for choosing to grab takeaways elsewhere . He said staff were often left "humiliated" by the empty dining tables at the restaurant, which opened in 2019 and survived the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet the hygiene inspection seemingly put strain on the eatery, as the Food Standards Agency report reads "pest nesting materials" were spotted across the staff changing room, and out-of-date food was discovered in the fridge, including frozen pasta, sausages, salmon and prawns, which had decayed. A packet of breadcrumbs sat opened in the changing room, yards away from the nesting materials and droppings, while an opened jar of mayonnaise was placed below a slab of raw meat, according to the Daily Mail. It has seen, in full, the scathing report issued by the Food Standards Agency, for Camden Council. It says inspectors also noted a chaotic backroom setup at Don Ciccio, finding that there was essentially just one person in the management team. They expressed this "doesn’t meet/provide capacity for delivering duties". And mouldy strawberries were spotted in the kitchen, while some of the food at Don Ciccio, including mussels, seafood and cured pancetta, was unlabelled, meaning staff could not track when it was first opened. When Mr Valente initially took aim at locals last month, he faced criticism. However, the entrepreneur, who now wants to open a new hospitality business, doubled down on his remarks in an interview with a reporter at the end of October. In it, he said: "Of course I stand by my words. They are still there [online]. We had a lot of very nice customers, but it was very tough. We were struggling there and were somehow humiliated in this place. "When you are an Italian restaurant, and sometimes you do just £40 or £45 per day total revenue, it is very frustrating. It's very humiliating. Probably we could have been supported better by the community." But Mario Seyho, who runs local newsagent Brooksby, said at the time: "He's (Mr Valente) upset... Nobody was going to his restaurant. How many times have restaurants at that spot closed down? I know another that has got problems."
