Farewell to the entrepreneur Giacomino «Mino» Tomatis, for a long time co-owner of the restaurant and nightclub «La Pagoda» in Caraglio. He was 65 years old, he died yesterday at the Santa Croce hospital in Cuneo, where he had been hospitalized since before the Christmas holidays, following an illness that had seriously compromised his health conditions. Originally from Polonghera, Tomatis had moved to Caraglio in 1967 with his parents Giovanni and Giovanna who began to build the restaurant on the provincial road towards Cuneo, inaugurated on February 17, 1968 with a restaurant and two dance halls. His father “Giuanin” understood the potential of music and brought the great singers of the time to “La Pagoda”: Al Bano and Romina, Mal, Massimo Ranieri, Loretta Goggi, dozens of artists in vogue. Caraglio and the Grana valley thus became a point of reference for thousands of young people and adults arriving from all over the Granda and even outside the province.
The restaurant was then sold under management, the family took care only of the discotheque and in 1985, in a huge shed near the first club, the “Galaxy Pagoda” opened, for many years the largest discotheque in Europe, with a capacity of 3,200 people. Excellent connoisseur of music, with a histrionic character, Mino Tomatis was in charge of the artistic direction, flanked by his wife Laura Forneris. Forty shows a year, with the best singers on the national scene: from Venditti to Vecchioni, Ruggeri, i Nomadi (34 concerts), Anna Oxa, Zucchero, Baccini. And again Gaspare and Zuzzurro, Ezio Greggio and other comedians protagonists of the «Drive In». In 1993 the change of ownership. Tomatis returned to the old “Pagoda”, first opened a brewery and then a restaurant, very popular even with workers on their lunch break.
Retired since 2016, when his son David took over the reins of the renovated restaurant with his wife Maria Elena, “Mino” had “retired” to be a grandfather, proud of his grandchildren Giacomo and Alessandro. Very attached to the Alpini di Caraglio group and to popular traditions, a great football fan, Inter fan (his “clashes” in the square and the sharp jokes with his Juventus friends-rivals are memorable), he also represented the historical memory of Caraglio for the world of commerce and catering knew anecdotes and details of over half a century of urban and entrepreneurial evolution of the country. The funeral tomorrow, at 3.45 pm, in the parish church of Caraglio where tonight, at 8 pm, the rosary will be said. After the cremation, the burial in the cemetery of Demonte, the country of origin of his wife. –