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Michael Prior is the restaurant manager at Amarone in Edinburgh. The restaurant opened in July last year on the corner of St Andrews Square and George Street. Before taking the reigns at the Edinburgh branch, Michael opened and worked at the Glasgow Amarone for five years.

The Amarone restaurants are part of the Di Maggio’s group which operates the Di Maggio’s restaurants in Glasgow along with Barolo Grill. They also run the Cafe Andaluz restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In the latest of our admittedly erratic Chewin’ the Fat series, Michael talks about the new Amarone; the Amarone in Glasgow and, after a little arm-twisting, reveals which city tips best.

How long have you worked for the Di Maggio’s company?

MP: I’ve spent most of my working life with Di Maggio’s. I started with them when I was eighteen and at university. That was some nineteen years ago. I worked at the Di Maggio’s in Ruthven Lane and, way back in the day, at the food court in the St Enoch Centre. I like to be involved in new projects so I’ve moved between the different brands that they have had.

It’s quite a length of time. I’ve had a couple of breaks to go travelling around Australia and so on but I’ve pretty much spent all of my time working for Mario and Tony (Mario Gizzi and Tony Conetta, the two cousins who run Di Maggio’s).

You must enjoy being front of house?

MP: I do. I gave up university for it. While I was working part time, I discovered that I had a passion for it and hopefully a bit of flair for it as well. I tried one or two other things in the early days but I just kept coming back to restaurants because I enjoyed going to work every day.

Over the years, friends who got their degrees have ended up in jobs that ultimately they don’t enjoy. They just do it to pay the bills. I consider myself lucky that eighteen or nineteen years on, I still enjoy it.

That’s not to say that every single day is enjoyable. Like everybody else, I have off days but, on the whole, I enjoy going to work.

What specifically do you like about the job?

MP: I enjoy the buzziness of vibrant, city centre restaurants and like playing a part in making them busy. I’m not at my best in a quiet restaurant and prefer the challenge that comes with a full restaurant on a Saturday night.

Building up a regular clientele of customers who keep coming back is good as well. The best thing for me is when you have a group or party in for a special occasion and they leave raving about how good everything was. Hopefully you’ve played a part in that.

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Working with the general public isn’t everybody’s dream job.

MP: You aren’t going to please everyone all of the time. It’s good to get feedback. I introduced feedback cards in Amarone Glasgow. You do get negative comments but that’s the point: you use them to improve what you’re doing. I’d much rather know if there was something wrong then not know about it.

You also get positive feedback. Say, for example, a comments card mentions a staff member by name and says they did a great job then that can be a real boost for them. It shows them that the job is worth doing.

What is the Amarone concept?

MP: When I helped open the first one in Glasgow, the concept was to have an Italian restaurant that offered something quite different from what you might expect at most Italian restaurants in Glasgow.

The surroundings are quite bold, sleek and sophisticated. We wanted something that was more modern Milan than rustic Tuscan trattoria. We tried to do that in terms of the decor and feel of the restaurant as well as the food.

The food is not flashy or flamboyant in terms of presentation. It uses top quality ingredients in fairly simple dishes but the menu is different from other Italian restaurants. So, for example, we don’t have lasagne or carbonara. The dishes we do have are inspired by Italian cooking but different from what is on offer elsewhere.

Any difference between Edinburgh and Glasgow customers?

MP: There are little differences. There’s no differences between customers’ expectations in the two cities. In general, customer expectation has risen over the last few years and that’s a good thing. These days, customers expect a fairly high level of service and good quality of food whenever they are going out and that’s the same in both cities.

There are differences in the way the business goes. In Glasgow at Amarone, we had quite a busy business lunch trade which I don’t see quite as much of in Edinburgh. That could be a reflection of the fact that Amarone in Glasgow has been open for five years and has built up a regular clientele which Edinburgh hasn’t had the time to do yet.

In Edinburgh, our lunches are more up and down. The weekends are very, very busy with Saturday lunches doing well with shoppers and tourists. We’ve got Jenners pretty much next door, Harvey Nicks across the square and Waverley Station just two minutes away. And we’re busy in the evenings as well. As to the weekday lunches, I don’t know yet if that is just a difference between the cities or us just being new.

Who tips best?

MP: Glasgow. Why would that be? I don’t know. Let’s leave it at that.

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Does Edinburgh Amarone work as a bar as well?

MP: Yes and we’ve improved that side of things recently by changing the bar layout. We realised that not everyone wants to sit at high stools and tables so we put in more booths and that’s working really well for us. More people come in and have a couple of cocktails after work now. It’s also great for customers having a couple of drinks before and after their meal.

What’s the best seller?

MP: The menu is quite varied and we sell well across it. However, pasta and pizza are probably the biggest sellers. People are on the go so much nowadays that they don’t come in and spend a few hours relaxing over three or four courses. They like things that bit quicker.

Pasta-wise, our biggest seller is probably the tagliolini trastevere which is made with chicken, pancetta, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic and mushrooms. It’s not the most different of dishes on that menu but that’s probably why it is the biggest seller. It’s what people are looking for in a pasta. The seafood pasta goes very well as well.

You got a good review from Tam Cowan in the Record at the weekend. Does that make a difference?

MP: I think it does. No review makes or breaks you but a good review is always great. I don’t know this for a fact but I suspect that there may be more of the Record’s readership in the West so it might have had a greater effect if it had been a review of the Glasgow Amarone. That Tam Cowan interview was very good though. Any good review is very welcome.

Any famous names in yet?

MP: We’ve had a few. We’ve had Tom Kitchin in a few times with his family. We’re always very happy to see that.

What do you eat on a night off?

MP: Nights off are a rarity, especially over the last six months. To be honest, more often than not, I would either simply cook a nice piece of fish or get an Indian takeaway.

If you could eat out anywhere in the world, where would you go?

MP: I would go to Le Gavroche and hopefully have a bit of banter with Michel Roux. Having said that, after seeing the Roca brothers recently on Masterchef The Professionals, El Celler de Can Roca in Spain might be up there as well.