Residents of South Shore in Southampton have apparently been keeping a secret from the rest of the Island. It seems that locals as well as hotel guests have been enjoying the food, ambience and service at Bacci, a new Italian restaurant at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel.

?The response has been unbelievably positive,? says Louise Smith, Bacci?s assistant maitre d? and a veteran of 17 years service at the hotel. ?Everybody leaves happy, full and satisfied.?

Located at the golf clubhouse on the property, Bacci has replaced the former Rib Room restaurant and offers what chef Kimberley Dean says is ?contemporary? Italian cuisine.

?We take classic dishes and give them our own little New Age twist,? says Ms. Dean, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Canada, who previously worked in Australia before coming to Bermuda.

?And we offer dishes and items on the menu that come from different regions of Italy to give the diners variety.?

Diners can take in expansive views of the hotel golf course and parts of South Shore in a relaxed atmosphere that plays up the Italian theme in bright, slightly rustic decor (think tastefully wall-mounted overgrown wheat stalks) with rich red, white and green accents, balanced with exposed wooden beams and tables decked out in contemporary crystal glasses and cutlery.

While some people might wonder whether Bermuda needs yet another Italian restaurant, maitre d? Pavel Melichar points out that this new establishment makes the most of being part of a major hotel to offer the highest levels of service, as well as a high quality environment for diners.

?We take advantage of the Fairmont standards for the food service, place settings and presentation and decor ? there are no short cuts,? he says.

?And we have our unique antipasti salad bar ? some people come here just for that. We have speciality items there and a very wide selection of different kinds of meats, fish, olives and such.?

And to dovetail further with the hotel, the menu also features ?Lifestyle Cuisine?, dishes that have been developed to complement the Willow Stream spa at the property which are ?created from ingredients that are naturally healthy and unprocessed...perfectly suited to today?s self-directed approach to health and wellness?.

?People?s tastes are changing,? says Mr. Melichar regarding this nod to meeting or exceeding diners? expectations and lifestyles.

?Diners are looking for much more choice as well as value. We used to have menus based on the old meal plans only, but now people want different choices.?

The idea for the new restaurant came into being during the extensive renovation of the hotel necessitated by the effects of Hurricane Fabian last year. In a shake up to the variety of restaurant offerings on the property, management decided to adopt the more traditional steak house type menu at the revamped Waterlot Inn and address previous feedback from guests about adding more Italian dining on-site.

?The restaurant became Italian really because of demand from the hotel guests,? says Mr. Melichar. ?Now we find that the ones who discover Bacci while they?re here end up coming back three or four times in a week.?

?It?s much more interesting in terms of the meals and the menu,? says Ms Smith. ?The chef has some wonderful ideas and comes up with things I had never heard of before, which the guests end up loving too.?

She has worked in the restaurant for most of her time as an employee of the hotel, spending the last six years as assistant maitre d?, and has seen it change over the years, but she definitely thinks that this latest incarnation is the best to date.

?It?s much better, a whole new different scene,? Ms Smith says. ?Everything is nice and bright, the maitre d? is wonderful, we have a great service team and it?s just a pleasure to come to work.?

That team could be seen as a mini-United Nations in terms of the nationalities represented among staff members, from Bermudian to Filipino to Canadian to Sri Lankan. In fact during her time at the property Ms Smith has seen fewer and fewer locals working at the restaurant, in line with the general decline in Bermudians entering the hospitality industry as a whole. Mr. Melichar, who is himself French and has been with the hotel for 15 years, puts this down to the cyclical nature of the tourism business and the effects of the challenges the industry in Bermuda has been facing in recent years.

?Basically the season is shorter now; people want a steady 12 months worth of money,? he says. ?Hotel work has become more like part-time for most people from here.?

?With this business you really have to love to do it, you have to love being with people and serving people,? adds Ms Smith.

And according to Mr. Melichar the service at the restaurant is ?wowing? diners as much as the food.

?We?re affordable and give good value and the food is great,? he says. ?But our team always wants to give the best service as well. The diners love our service, the Italian flair and atmosphere we have. Whether you?re a family or, later in the evening, couples here for a romantic dinner, we make sure everyone feels special.?