Stowmarket Old Fox Yard introduces new Italian café Passione D’Amore

A new café offering authentic Italian cuisine is gearing up to open while reassuring residents that the town’s business sector is ‘not yet finished’.

Biga Napoletana pizzeria in Bury Street, Stowmarket, will be opening its second business venture, Passione D’Amore, in the Old Fox Yard as part of the Stowmarket Design Quarter.

Husband and wife owners, Tom and Sylwia Polnisiak, are aiming to open the café in June as long as the renovation of the former Pickwicks runs smoothly.

Sylwia is keen to open the new shop as she believes the people of Stowmarket will continue to show the family-run business support despite recent closures in the town including Prezzo, Little Pig Bakery and M&Co.

She said: “We count on the support of local people who are sad that many businesses closed down in our town recently, so hopefully we can bring you hope that our town is not finished yet.

“Stowmarket has many great businesses and has great potential if we all concentrate on supporting local businesses and shop locally.

“We have many great ideas to bring into Stowmarket as we really love this place and our friendly and supportive community.”

Sylwia and Tom have been serving customers for two years in Stowmarket with Biga Napoletana and the new café will act as a ‘sister’ business with the ‘same high quality standards’ in the café as in the pizzeria.

After being trained by maestro Gabrielle Bonci in Rome, the team will be bringing Teglia Romana to Passion D’Amore - a special type of pizza which is baked in a tray.

They will also be selling Panuozzo - a popular street food sandwich from Campania.

Old Fox Yard owner Matthew Bell said: “I think our vision here at the Fox Yard was always to help redevelop the area and help lots of local businesses to start - we’ve done that with our own businesses here like Modece Architects, Fox Yard Studio and Pallet Bar.