The owner of a pizzeria in Marlow Bottom said he is relying on community support for his new endeavour – a top-of-the-range food truck taking a whole host of favourite Italian dishes on the road.

Gianluca Paletta, 46, founded Da Luca ten years ago after scouring the Marlow and Henley area for a suitable base and “seeing the future” at his little unit on Kingswood Parade.

In what has been a tough few years for many, if not all, independent businesses, Gianluca has successfully relied on the custom and friendship of his regulars in Marlow Bottom to offset a difficult economic climate – and describes his local community as “unique, beautiful” and thoroughly “good”.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the 46-year-old is counting on the support of that same customer base for Da Luca’s newest expansion project – the creation of a brand-new food truck, to take its popular, authentically Italian menu on the road.

Gianluca is hoping to begin catering for events and festivals around the region from mid-June or July and is cautiously optimistic about the new undertaking, which he is adamant will set itself apart from your standard pizza van.

“It’s something I really wanted to do, just to try it and see if it works or not. We’ve got quite a nice, expensive truck and we’re hoping to do a few different things with it – there won’t just be pizza, there’ll be BBQ, pasta, chips and calamari. We just want to offer people more.”

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Gianluca moved to the UK from Italy in his twenties after finishing culinary school back home, and the chef at Da Luca is one of his childhood friends whom he’s known since he was eight-years-old.

One of the waiters is another good friend of twenty-plus years, making the restaurant feel like a close-knit family business – which Gianluca is hoping to pass on to his two children, aged 11 and 12, at some point in the future.

Expanding the business through the new food truck, will, he hopes, afford him more flexibility in travelling back to Italy with his children – which he does for a few weeks every summer and winter – without worrying about who’s holding the fort.

It’s a resoundingly positive move, he says, and one that is a testament to the community he feels he has around him – something that will be celebrated further to mark a decade since Da Luca opened its doors later this year.

“It’s been a very nice 10 years here. I don’t think I would have been able to find anywhere better than Marlow Bottom – the people here have always loved and supported me. Anything I’ve needed, someone’s always been there.”