At the mouth of the Oreto river, on the southern coast of Palermo, the former Sant’Erasmo locomotive depot houses the Ecomuseo Mare Memoria Viva and, inside it, LIDO – Bar e Cucina Costiera, the bistro that has just joined Addiopizzo’s “pizzo free” business network.
LIDO opened in October 2025, responding to a request that for years had come from visitors to the ecomuseum who wanted a place to eat and drink within that space. It is a social enterprise, owned by the association Mare Memoria Viva, that is committed to the employment of disadvantaged people and reinvests its proceeds in the business itself.
“Every now and then I think about it and say to myself: shouldn’t all businesses be ‘social’? That is, act as active players in their local areas, have a civic dimension, take care of communities,” says Cristina Alga, president of LIDO.
The idea was not to open just another restaurant, but a place in dialogue with the place that hosts it. The Ecomuseo Mare Memoria Viva, founded in 2014 from an urban regeneration project aimed at enhancing that stretch of coast, is a community museum that tells the history of Palermo’s coastline through the memories and testimonies donated by the inhabitants of the seaside neighbourhoods. Alongside the exhibition, it offers educational activities and a programme of cultural events open to the whole city. In November, for example, it will host the fourth edition of the Scuola di Immaginazione Ecologica (School of Ecological Imagination), a workshop for navigating the present and the climate crisis, drawing on scientific knowledge, artistic practices and ecological thinking.
LIDO’s connection with the ecomuseum comes first and foremost through food and social life. Thanks to the bistro, the ecomuseum is busy in the evenings too, and becomes a place to have dinner, spend time with friends or celebrate a birthday. The idea of a “coastal cuisine” was born precisely to link the bistro’s culinary work with the ecomuseum’s work on the coastal landscape, and translates into a seasonal menu with attention to ethical supply chains. LIDO also has its own programme of activities, designed in continuity with the ecomuseum’s cultural programme.
Its commitment to the neighbourhood also takes the form of very practical choices. LIDO and the ecomuseum are part of an energy community supported by EDISON Energia and Fondazione EOS, which uses the revenue from feeding solar energy into the grid for social purposes. In addition, last summer its spaces became a climate shelter, open free of charge to anyone who could not afford air conditioning.
“Joining Addiopizzo – Cristina continues – is one of the ways in which we give meaning to being a social enterprise. It is a stance, and also a way of belonging to the Palermo that chooses to take a stand and not pretend that the mafia no longer exists.”
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