Joanna (nee McMaster) grew up in the Bridge-of-Weir area and after a 10 year gap has enjoyed being back to her roots near friends and family. Ivan Minucci is a first generation Italian-South African who’s late parents were born in the Campagnia region of Southern Italy. Good food has played a big part in his life from an early age. He grew up eating and speaking Italian within the large Italian community in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.

Ivan (pronounced “Eevan”) met Joanna while working and studying in Switzerland, France and later England. After exploring several different areas of the hospitality industry around Europe and South Africa, Ivan was finally convinced to move to London where Joanna was working for the Intercontinental group of hotels in 1997. Slowly but surely they migrated further north through England and got married in Scotland in 1999. They have three beautiful children: Innes (born Dec 2001), Isla and Pierre (born Aug 2005). They have now lived in Kilbarchan since 2005 and have been operating the Junction Licensed Caffè in Lochwinnoch since March 2006.

Joanna is responsible for all the home baked products, which their loyal customers love, from the Empire biscuits, scrumptious Chocolate Chunk Brownies, delicious Carrot Cake, not to mention the Raisin Flapjack for the more health conscious! Ivan is involved in preparing the traditional Italian dishes and has introduced a wide range of Italian products from his motherland including: Italian Soda’s, Beer, Wine and a variety of shapes of Pasta’s. He is most comfortable chatting to customers mainly about his favourite subjects i.e. Italy and Food and how best to prepare it! Ivan, Jo and the team pride themselves in preparing food from raw ingredients and believe that in today’s busy lifestyles of fast food and always being on the move, we should sometimes take the time to prepare meals with love from scratch and with good quality ingredients. This is what “La Cucina Minucci” (Minucci’s Kitchen) aspire to producing at the Junction. A big Thank you to our team and customers for their support.