Edinburgh entrepreneur launches Pronto Pizza business at Edinburgh Zoo

An Edinburgh street food entrepreneur is celebrating the opening of his third concept - underpinning plans to expand his business into a full-scale catering operation.

Edinburgh entrepreneur Michael Notarangelo celebrating the opening of his new pop up pizza truck

Michael Notarangelo, 30, embarked on a project to turn his passion for food into a career after his initial plan to go into mechanical engineering didn’t work out.

And now, he has just launched Pronto Pizza, which serves Neapolitan-style pizzas, at Edinburgh Zoo.

The new eatery was born after a request was made for a food trailer to be based at the zoo’s new hilltop dinosaur exhibit. It has been equipped with multiple Ooni ovens to serve pizzas in super-quick time and is already proving to be a big winner with visitors.

The zoo is the current home of Michael’s two other food operations under his Belmonte Catering parent company; Dog n Bone Street Food, which specialises in gourmet hot dogs, bon bons and loaded fries, and also Rolly’s Ice Cream - the first business of its type in Scotland which makes unique ice cream ‘rolls’.

Michael said: “After I graduated I got a job working on the new Queensferry Crossing but when that project was completed I found myself out of work and unable to find an engineering role suited to my skill set.

“It was on a trip to Thailand that I saw the opportunity to develop an ice cream rolls business based on the street food sellers there who first came up with the idea.

“The fact my grandad used to run an ice cream van after he emigrated from Italy to Edinburgh also had more than a passing inspiration. After securing funding, I set out to create my own bespoke operation called Rolly’s Ice Cream, developing and sourcing the equipment and conceiving all the branding and product development.”

He added: “I’ve created a new limited company, Belmonte Catering – named after the village of our family home in Italy – where we plan to offer a range of services such as catering at events around Scotland and the UK and in further developing ties with conference organisers, venues and catering operations.”

He added that his goal is to have a permanent base for the company, not only to centralise operations but to set up a home delivery service.

“People love street food, especially if it’s fun, tasty and quick – and that’s what we’ve focused on doing and to be sure we do it exceptionally well,” he said.

Now he is expanding on this new venture, Michael plans to take delivery of a new 18-feet purpose-built trailer that will replace the existing Dog n Bone truck at Edinburgh Zoo.

Ben Supple, Edinburgh Zoo director of engagement and business development, said: “We’re excited to be expanding our food offering here at Edinburgh Zoo. As a wildlife conservation charity and one of Scotland’s most iconic tourist attractions, we want to provide the best visitor experience possible.

“It’s important for us to support our communities, so we wanted to introduce local food vendors who share our sustainability values. Collaboration between communities is an essential part of making our charities wildlife conservation work possible, and in turn create a world where nature is protected, valued and loved.”