The Peter George-owned Buzo Osteria Italiana restaurant officially opened its doors yesterday welcoming Jamaicans to savour the tastes of northern Italy.

Located at 1 Park Close in New Kingston, just below the Marriot Courtyard, and with views of Emancipation Park, the restaurant is George’s third iteration of the Buzo brand in the Caribbean; the other two being in his native Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, the Trinidadian magnate shared that his Trotters Restaurant Group portfolio now comprises eight eateries in the three countries — Buzo, which had its inception in 2017; the group’s flagship Trotters sports bar; brew pub Tommy’s; Mediterranean-styled Amara’s; and Blue Star Diner, a 50s-styled American diner.

Explaining the concept behind Buzo Osteria Italiana, the Trotters Restaurant Group’s foray into Jamaica’s hospitality market, founder and CEO George noted, “Our style is different, it’s northern Italian…There is focus on high-quality produce; focus on fresh seafoods, poultry and meat; and fresh sauces made of traditional [Italian] herbs and spices.”

Further differentiating the restaurant’s offerings, he said it has “moved away from the Westernised style of Italian food” and attempts to replicate as close as is possible the cuisine of that’s country’s northern region, which also lends itself to using Calabrian-styled sausages, meatballs and tomato-based broths.

“Our pizzas are thin crust as opposed to thicker crust that you’ll find in other parts of Italy. We don’t put things like potatoes on our pizza; our pizzas are traditional,” George told the Business Observer.

“Our best-selling pizza — and people don’t know why — is called the Rado because it’s pepperoni, green pepper and white onion,” he continued, explaining that each ingredient represents the tricolour of the Italian flag of red, green and white.

So why would a Trinidadian businessman introduce northern Italian cuisine to Jamaica?

George explained that “Jamaica is the epicentre of Caribbean culture,” adding that the city of Kingston has earned its “cachet” throughout the world for its heritage and music punctuated by the contributions of the legendary Robert Nesta Marley. Moreover, he pointed out that in comparison to Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica has larger population, is a geographically closer to the United States and is a regional hot spot for tourism.

While noting that Jamaica was a “natural fit” for the Trotters Restaurant Group, the CEO further highlighted the economic opportunities available in Jamaica to grow and scale including a far greater collaboration between Government and business than he has witnessed elsewhere.

“We’re a business that wants to bring experiential dining to the Caribbean…Jamaica has a burgeoning food scene. I think it needs some time to continue developing and we want to be a part of that development,” George informed the Business Observer.

Though steering clear of quantifying the investment in the operation, George revealed that capital expenditure has ballooned beyond the original budget.

“It was well into the couples of millions,” he said, adding, “That was because of COVID, so from an investment perspective it would have been US$2 million but it ended being blown out of that.”

“We were heavily impacted on the financial side, so the rest is well, well, well over budget because of that [COVID] but…we have to roll with that but, as you can see, we are happy with the final product. There are some imperfections due to COVID that we couldn’t redo. We had to kind of cosmetically fix those but, like I said, we think the product came out well,” George said.

Guests, upon entry to Buzo, are met by a rendition of Italian artist Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus painting. And while waiting to be seated at a table or the restaurant’s well-stocked spirits bar, their nostrils enjoy the aroma of herbs such as basil and oregano wafting through the air.

Buzo boasts an open kitchen design, with bottles of olive oil and canisters of pastas accenting the restaurant’s modern décor.

Still, completing such a project has not been without its own challenges. George related that in addition to travel restrictions during the height of COVID, which prevented him from monitoring the progress of the construction, the retrofitting of the space has faced issues associated with supply chain disruptions.

“There were things that were supposed to be delivered in 2020, that when we called in November 2022 and we thought would be delivered a month later, they said supply chain disruptions. So the delays were significant after,” he said.

This, however, did not stop the restaurateur from investing further in a bid to ensure quality control, consistency of service delivery and product, and the knowledge transfer to Jamaican staff. To this end, George outlined additional spend in air travel, accommodations, local transportation and even groceries to facilitate the training of local Jamaican talent employed to the establishment.

Sharing his outlook that Jamaica’s service sector “has a tremendously bright future”, though he believes it has some catching up to do, George is eyeing another location for another restaurant here.

“My key staff who are here from Trinidad have already said, ‘Boss, where is the next one in Jamaica?’ — just from being here a week or two and seeing the work environment and the work ethic, the warmness and the fellowship,” he shared.

Though conceding that he cannot answer that question at this time, the Trinidadian disclosed his preference for the Corporate Area, notwithstanding opportunities to tap into the tourism market.

Clarifying his response, George pointed out that his target market in the tourism sector will be those “business tourists” who come to Kingston for a few days.

“When I came to Kingston to promote blockchain technology, after working you want to go out and have a drink and network. From that perspective I think tourism manifests itself in many ways. Are we particularly keen on beach tourists…no, that’s a different type of market and that doesn’t exist in Kingston. But I think there’s very much [a place for] business tourism [and] eco-tourism in Strawberry Hill in the Blue Mountains,” he stated.