page_title: Sacarello's
section_title: Starting a family business
hierarchical_section_title: Sacarello's / History / Starting a family business
caption_attribution_description: English: Bartholomew Sacarello, founder of Sacarello's in Gibraltar, and his family.
context_page_description: P. Sacarello Limited, more commonly known as Sacarello's, is a coffee roasting family business and coffee shop/restaurant in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Originally Italian, the Sacarello family first established itself in Gibraltar in the late 19th century and, despite economic upheavals, has served the Rock for over 125 years. The Sacarellos have owned a merchant house at 57 Irish Town, on the corner of Tuckey's Lane, since 1906 which now houses their coffee shop.
context_section_description: Gibraltar has always had to import almost everything it consumes; this was no different in the late 19th century when Gibraltar was a British garrison with few civilians. Bartolo was able to take advantage of this fact by supplying the local population with all and sundry - "from safety matches to flour, from buckets of lard to spaghetti". By the turn of the 19th century, the business was the top provisions merchant in Gibraltar. Soon Bartolo expanded into the Spanish and Moroccan markets and before long became rather wealthy. He soon realised that the future of his business lay in coffee which over a few years became an increasingly profitable part of the business, perhaps from his dealing with Spain. In just a few years coffee had generally become big business in Gibraltar which was probably partly down to the profitable smuggling trade which had become part of daily life on the Rock. Coffee, as well as tobacco, were the two main exports historically smuggled across the land border from Gibraltar into Spain. In 1906 Bartolo purchased a merchant house designed by renown Italian architect, Giovanni Maria Boschetti, on the corner of Irish Town and Tuckey's Lane.
caption: Bartholomew and Josefa Sacarello with their children. Federico, eventual heir to the family business is seen sitting on his mother's knee
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