When Rita Vella was serving dinner to Cardinal Robert Prevost at their famous Mġarr restaurant Il-Barri, little did she know the man would be pope a year-and- a-half later.

“Who would have told us,” she told Times of Malta with a proud smile yesterday, standing in her restaurant on the spot where the now-pope sat that day.

When Prevost was announced as the new pontiff from St Peter’s balcony on Thursday, the name sounded unfamiliar to most Maltese people.

But, since his election, it turned out the man was a more frequent visitor to the islands than many locals ever imagined. And, near the end of his most recent visit in 2023, he dined with some fellow bishops and cardinals at Mġarr’s popular restaurant Il-Barri.

In November that year, Prevost had visited Malta just after he was made a cardinal by Pope Francis, to participate in the Plenary Assembly of the Council of the Conferences of European Bishops, organised by the Maltese bishops.

That is also when the then-prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops celebrated mass with fellow bishops at the Mosta Basilica.

The future pope sat next to Archbishop Charles Scicluna.

'They asked for an informal dinner'

A few weeks earlier, Il-Barri owner Stephen Sammut received a call from Fr Claude Portelli, from the Malta Curia, saying they needed to bring the conference participants over for dinner.

“They specifically asked for an informal dinner so that they could mingle in a relaxed atmosphere after a day of meetings,” Sammut told Times of Malta.

“That’s how we hosted them for dinner, and Pope Leo was among them. He was sat right here, next to Archbishop Charles Scicluna.”

Stephen Sammut and Rita Vella are "very honoured" to have served the would-be pope. Photo: Jonathan Borg

The menu included Maltese traditional spaghetti, soup, rabbit and bragioli.

Rita is not quite sure what Prevost chose for dinner that night but she believes it was rabbit.

“It was probably rabbit. Most of them chose rabbit that night,” she said, giggling. “They were really nice with us; we chatted with them a lot that night. It felt like a meal between friends.”

When Prevost was elected pope on Thursday, it was not immediately clear to Sammut who the man was. “But my uncle said: ‘The pope may have eaten at our restaurant.’ I forgot about it, until this morning, when I got another nice call from Fr Claude confirming it,” Sammut said.

“He said: ‘The pope had dinner at your restaurant’. We are extremely honoured.”