Marry a Canadian, leave your home country and family, deal with a new bureaucracy, find new friends, practice a new language, temporarily manage a motel, deal with your first pregnancy, get used to the pile of snow in town, anything else?  How about open a new restaurant?  That’s the situation that Gabriella Pelli/Lapointe found herself in fifteen years ago which led to the opening of GABRIELLA’S LITTLE ITALY PASTA PLACE.  

Originally located in the Central Hotel in Fernie, she moved her operation to the FERNIE SNOW VALLEY ski area after Heiko and Linda Socher offered her the possibility to renovate the “Pizza Pit” which was located right beside the Deer chairlift.  It wasn’t without a few difficult moguls though.   Five months after signing a ten year agreement with new area owner Charlie Locke (who changed the name to Fernie Alpine Resort) she went to the restaurant the day after skiing closed and was shocked to find a demolition crew taking apart the building. She had to ask them to leave, as no arrangement was ever made with her to kill her business. After several intense weeks of “negotiations” for Gabriella an agreement was reached to move the entire restaurant building to its new and current location, saving the business (the RCR operated Kelsey’s now sits where Gabriella’s was moved from).

In the years since she has fed skiers and boarders from around the world, including international world cup riders and many famous people, all leading to her earning awards like “ Best soup in North America” from Ski Canada (a magazine in which she has appeared twice) and the respect of all.  With the lease arrangement less than positive with Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, and no word from RCR about the future, she opened a second “GABRIELLA’S” in the Village at Red at Red Mountain Resort in Rossland.  

After two years operating the two Gabriella’s Restaurants she was approached about taking over the food and beverage operations at the Prestige Hotel in Rossland BC.  This has worked out very well and she is now able to offer and additional dining room (Goldtown Dining) a cool little lounge (the REDroom lounge) with a nice stage, sound system with live recording capabilities, and various sized meeting/convention/wedding venues which allows her to be able to work directly with clients on pretty much any event up to 200 or so for the entire year (the two Gabriella’s Restaurants are only open during the ski season).

So whether playing the powder in Fernie or on a road trip to the West Kootenays stop in and enjoy the labor of love from a truly natural Italian cook who serves fantastic food in a lively mountain atmosphere.

Ciao tutti!