The Hey Restaurant in Rapallo, with Michelin-starred chef Ivano Ricchebono, offers à la carte breakfasts, lunches and gourmet dinners inspired by Ligurian tradition
by Emanuela Ferro – photo by Paolo Picciotto
Those were the golden years that marked the end of the Belle Époque, and Rapallo was the favourite destination of writers and intellectuals, who stayed for long periods in the town of Tigullio, famous for its mild climate, its breathtaking views even on rainy days, and its small hotels along the seafront. After a century of decline and the post-war period, sadly marked by the overbuilding of the area (so much so that the neologism ‘rapallizzazione’ was coined), these witnesses to a golden age, closed for years, are returning to new splendour.
The menu showcases local produce with refined balance: fish is naturally the star attraction, but there are also dishes featuring meat from inland areas (such as cabannina, a native breed of cattle reared in the nearby Val d’Aveto) and a vegetarian tasting menu perfumed with the aromatic herbs that are an essential part of traditional Ligurian cuisine.
In the summer of 2025, the Hotel Riviera Splendide reopened after careful restoration, with part of the building’s original decorations recovered. In 1923, Ernest Hemingway stayed in the rooms and set his short story “Cat in the Rain” there. He was accompanied by his wife, Hadley, and the painter Henry ‘Mike’ Strater, his sparring partner in tough boxing matches, who did not miss the opportunity to portray his friend in two portraits, later reproduced on the covers of some of the American Nobel Prize winners’ famous works. Hemingway also inspired the poetics of Cuban artist Diango Hernández, whose work “Il canto delle sirene” (The Song of the Sirens) is displayed at the entrance.
Ivano Ricchebono
The reopening also saw the launch of the Hey restaurant, which the Sangiovanni family, entrepreneurs behind the most recent renovation projects in the city, entrusted to the supervision of Genoese chef Ivano Ricchebono, already awarded a Michelin star at The Cook and now busy in the capital with the new ISI Ristorante Ivano Ricchebono Chef.
The kitchen is led by Yari Sorgon, a young Venetian chef who has been working alongside Ricchebono on numerous projects for some time. Even in the restaurant’s airy, collonaded veranda, which opens onto the promenade through large windows, the retro atmosphere of the furnishings blends perfectly with contemporary art, thanks to a large oil on canvas with dreamlike shades, the work of Hungarian painter Attila Szücs.
(Hey – Refined balances – Barchemagazine.com – Excerpted from Barche, March 2026)
