VICO EQUENSE — A small beach discovered almost by accident in the early 1950s, a rock with two palm trees rising from the sea, and a family with a gift for hospitality. Seventy-five years later, Il Bikini is one of the most celebrated beach clubs on the Sorrentine Peninsula.

Seventy-five years in the family

Il Bikini has never changed hands. Founder Franco Scarselli spotted the site along the SS 145 Sorrentina state road just outside Vico Equense, a coastal town between Naples and Sorrento in Campania, southern Italy. The rock with two small palms in the water became the club’s logo — and eventually its name. The original timber changing cabins, designed by Franco himself, still stand.

“This year we celebrate 75 years of Il Bikini. It all started with a small beach where my grandfather Franco used to come with friends. They asked him, a creative man, to open a small kitchen. From that first restaurant we have reached the third generation. Today Il Bikini is a beach club with a restaurant, music, events and weddings,” said Giorgio Scarselli, who runs the restaurant alongside his sister Cristiana, who manages the beach operation. “It is a place of the soul, where memories, passions, emotions, flavours and aromas intertwine. We are open from Easter through to the end of September.”

Mediterranean flavours, grilled by the sea

The kitchen is now in the hands of chef Pasquale Rinaldo. His cooking is Mediterranean in spirit, built almost entirely around local catch, with produce from the club’s own vegetable garden and oil from its own olive trees. “I celebrate the Gulf of Naples with a cuisine rooted in the sea and the territory. The novelty this year is the grill, the flames and the smoke on the catch, which is not zero-kilometre but zero-metre. These fish then meet summer ingredients such as tomatoes, courgettes and herbs from our own garden, including basil, parsley, lemongrass and fresh thyme,” Rinaldo said. “The fish comes from the gulf, while bread and desserts are made in-house, from a summer panettone with Vesuvian apricots to bread made with controlled seawater,” he added.

The terrace looks out over the Gulf of Naples, with Vesuvius on the horizon. On a clear evening, the volcano catches the last of the light as dinner service begins. It is a setting where the sunset becomes part of the menu.