A 50-year-old long story
It all began one day in 1972 when Alfeo Dussin was asked to start a recently built bar in Piavon di Oderzo with a tiny kitchen. He previously had gained solid experience in the world of catering and hospitality in several important places in Venice and of the Veneto coast. Alfeo Dussin asked to have a look at the place and, after consulting with his young wife Elisabetta and some reliable friends of his, he quit his job and came to Piavon.
As a matter of fact, Alfeo had seen in that small new place the possibility of a professional growth and also the chance to realize himself as an entrepreneur and restaurateur, thanks to his wife Carlotta’s cooking experience and skills. She was a native of Caorle, daughter of fishermen and cooks, therefore a great expert of fish and the ways to prepare and serve it.
From a bar to a successful Restaurant
The idea of turning that small place in Piavon into a seafood restaurant could look risky, since it was a brand new concept for the area surrounding Treviso, which we call Marca Trevigiana, but thanks to the cleverness and the courage that has always distinguished him in his work, Alfeo gradually began to serve a dish he knew people would have liked and which could have attracted gourmets: baccalà mantecato, the most ancient culinary preparation with stockfish which dated back to the early 1600s. This is how he started to flood the whole area with the smell of wonderful grilled fish.
In 1979 he decided to purchase and renovate the place, in order to make it more efficient and functional also for the customer flow who proved to appreciate Alfeo’s choices. They were attracted also by the excellent quality and freshness of the fish that Elisabetta prepared according to the ancient wisdom of the fishermen of Caorle.
The evolution of the restaurant
As a professional Alfeo wanted his restaurant to be both a reliable reference point for fish lovers, and he also wanted it to be always one step ahead of time, which is why he kept modernizing and expanding the restaurant which became popular in the province of Treviso, but also in Venice areas and in Friuli.
The time came also to seriously dedicate attention to the kitchen, so Alfeo and his wife thought they could organize interesting enogastronomic events, season after season. He thought of dedicating these events to fish, but also to the products of the territory, to the red radicchio di Treviso, to the spontaneous herbs of spring, to the asparagus of Cimadolmo, to the Piedmont mushrooms.
The renowned Dussin Restaurant
With the new century, Alfeo started thinking big. He already had very loyal customers, both locals and coming from other regions and even other countries, making his restaurant a must for those who loved a serious, honest, clean and enjoyable seafood cuisine. This was possible also thanks to the precious intervention of his son Nereo in the kitchen and his other son Eddo in the dining room, who took over after a long and fruitful internship, after Elisabetta’s early death.
In 2004 Alfeo decided to renovate the dining room in order to make it more stylish and welcoming. He constantly redecorated the rooms whose walls displayed important works of art by the famous local painter Gina Roma. He renewed tables, chairs, cutlery and he made his restaurant one of the most elegant and refined in its area.
The birth of Dussin Inn
Alfeo kept a secret dream in his heart: besides developing a high level restaurant, he also wanted to become a hotelier. And so it was. He exploited his energy and his intelligence to realize an inn capable of offering prestigious hospitality and of responding first to his ancient dream, while at the same time, measuring up to the most demanding guests expectations.
And in 2009 in the yard in front of the building that houses the restaurant a new sign was displayed: “Dussin Restaurant and Inn” and the new inn started its life welcoming beautiful guests who still come back, now and then.
His son Nereo, in the meantime, had enriched his professional experience and was qualified to lead the family business as a modern restaurateur and innkeeper, also because his wife Monica joined him in the dining room, while his daughter Giada entered the kitchen after getting a diploma as a professional cook. Meanwhile his son Eddo followed a different path, but always in the catering field with the opening of “D Bistrò“, an elegant place serving a selection of dishes , which is located in the main street of Oderzo.
New Times
Time flies. In 50 years the cuisine of Dussin restaurant has constantly evolved, but has always maintained some of its founding points, such as the baccalà mantecato, which has been served daily ever since; the Caorle seafood tradition with grilled fish, typical venetian coast fishermen parties and excellent wine.
Nereo then has two ambitions: in addition to creating a maritime cuisine of rare tastiness, tested and proved even far away from home (until Rome) and selecting wines both from Veneto and from Friuli Venezia Giulia already available in the most exclusive restaurants, he loves preparing bread, breadsticks, pastas both simple and filled, with Giada’s help. This way he not only showed his great and mature professionalism, but also a sincere love for artisan productions of taste, highly accurate even in the choice of flours, in order to offer customers a complete service of the highest quality.
Looking at the future
Nereo Dussin and his family inherited the culture and professionalism from his parents, Alfeo and Elisabetta. through the visions imposed by an increasingly demanding world, he proposes again the carefully chosen fish products of the northern Adriatic Sea area, which he serves with the extraordinary richness of the aromas and flavours of the truest Venetian seafood tradition. In the right seasons he also adds some of the local products, accompanied by outstanding wines that tell the characteristics of the best oenological areas of the Tre Venezie (Three Venetias), with precious niches also from abroad and the high quality reached by the wise work of the men of the wine.
An encounter that is always rewarding and highlighting the restaurant’s 50 years of history, with an eye towards the future, towards further achievements that Nereo Dussin’s family will be able to give.
