ROSSI’S
In 1932 Pietro and Loisa Rossi moved from County Durham to Southend. They wanted to start a family ice cream business with another family also named Rossi.
Their first premises were no. 1 Marine Parade, and 37 The High Street and Western Esplanade.
In 1937 the partnership was dissolved, Pietro kept no.1 Marine Parade and Western Esplanade, and the kiosk . Their eldest daughters, Gemma and Maria, helped in the business whilst their youngest daughter Lolanda and only son Tony attended the Sacred Heart School, Southchurch. Lolanda then attended St. Bernard’s School until the outbreak of war and Tony was sent to a boarding school in Italy.
The family manufactured Ice Cream from 1 Marine Parade,
Southend until 1939 at which time they had to vacate their premises as the seafront area was closed for military purposes. They had two shops in the High Street.
Luisa and her two youngest children spent the war years in Italy, whilst Pietro and Maria remained in England, Gemma having married in 1937 to an ice cream businessman in Portsmouth. Pietro Rossi was interned as an alien on the Isle of Wight and Maria worked as a waitress to support her father
The end of the war saw the family re-united in 1946 and they resumed their business interests in Southend, selling ice cream from Marine Parade and their two sites along Western Esplanade. The 1950s and 1960s saw their business flourish and to cope with the demand, they built an Ice Cream factory in Lucy Road, Southend in 1967.
Luisa died in 1967 and Pietro died in 1968, their children having taken over the reins some years earlier.
Rossi Ice Cream had now become a favourite with locals and visitors. Their Western Esplanade premises was a local landmark and attracted thousands of visitors every year. In 1969 they acquired a kiosk at the top end of Southend High Street, which proved to be a very busy site in the summer months and demand was always high for their traditional vanilla ice cream served from stainless barrels using the ‘spoon’ to dish up the ice cream on the cone. Maria Rossi, was invited onto The Generation Game in 1983 to demonstrate this method of serving ice cream.
In 1980s Rossi won several top awards in a many national competitions
In 2002 the factory in Lucy Road, the vans and the secret recipe were on the market for £2.5 million.
Following the deaths of Maria, Lolanda and Tony, Lolanda’s widower sold the factory and kiosk and leased out the Marine Parade Shop in January 2006.
The business continues under new ownership manufacturing Ice Cream from Lucy Road to the same traditional recipe first introduced by Pietro Rossi in 1932.