My visit to the slightly creepy Meloni-themed restaurant near Albania’s new migrant centre

Honeydew melons with the Italian leader’s face superimposed on them greet diners at trattoria decorated with 70 portraits of the PM

Seventy portraits of Italy’s prime minister adorn the walls and the restaurant’s menu features a variety of Giorgia Meloni’s facial expressions superimposed on pieces of fruit.
Welcome to “Trattoria Meloni”, the slightly creepy Albanian eatery opened in honour of the hard-Right leader.
As the port of Shengjin awaits with trepidation the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants under a contentious offshore processing deal with Italy, one corner of the town at least is already reaping the rewards of the accord struck between the two countries.
The trattoria, which bills itself as the world’s only restaurant dedicated to her, is doing a roaring trade.
“We are fully booked every weekend and it’s been like this ever since we opened on August 20,” said the manager, Enis.
“We have had tourists from all over the world – British and Italians but also Czechs, Germans and French. And lots of Albanians of course.”
Italy has poured hundreds of millions of euros into the area. But Ms Meloni has also become popular across Europe as a figurehead for the populist Right. She is now a key power broker in EU politics despite her rise through a party with neo-Fascist roots.
Eating at the restaurant, which can accommodate up to 150 customers, is a surreal experience. First, there is the façade, decorated with Ms Meloni’s face in a variety of expressions which have been digitally superimposed onto four honeydew melons – an unsubtle joke about her surname, which means “melons” in Italian.
Next to the faces is an image of a fish and the word “orgasm”. Its meaning is not quite clear.
At the entrance, a large doormat proclaims “Trattoria Meloni”. Once inside, customers are confronted by walls adorned with more than 70 portraits of Italy’s prime minister. Painted in bright oils, she is depicted in all sorts of moods – from smiling and laughing to scowling, hectoring and sulking.
There are portraits of Ms Meloni, in a variety of outfits, on every wall and above every table. In one, she holds two melons in front of her chest and winks suggestively – it is an exact rendition of a photograph she once put out on social media, again playing on her surname.
Another shows her in a somewhat disturbing embrace with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, with whom she signed the offshore processing deal a year ago. Mr Rama, a former basketball player who is 6ft 7in tall, towers over Ms Meloni, who is 5ft 3in. He holds a red rose with one hand and with the other has her in a headlock.
The portraits were painted by Helidon Haliti, a celebrated Albanian artist.
The inspiration for creating the world’s first Meloni-themed restaurant came from its owner, Gjergj Luca, 58, a former actor who runs a chain of restaurants in Albania.
He said last month that he decided to dedicate the restaurant to Ms Meloni because he regarded her as “extraordinary”. “When cuisine, art and politics come together, you can make beautiful things.”
Enis, the manager, said of his boss: “He’s ironic, he’s an artist.”
The restaurant was busy when The Telegraph visited, with customers tucking into sushi, tuna steaks and seafood linguine.
“We come here for the food but we also like the artwork,” said Romario Medja, 28, who was having supper with a friend. “I like the pictures of Meloni, I think they’re done really well. She’s beautiful – both as a woman and as a politician.”
The restaurant is just a hundred yards or so from the entrance to Shengjin’s gritty port, where Italy has built one of two migrant processing centres.
Migrants trying to cross the central Mediterranean from north Africa to Italy will be transferred to Italian navy boats and brought here, hundreds of miles away on the Adriatic coast of northern Albania.
They will be identified before being transferred to a much larger facility about 15 miles inland near the village of Gjader, on the site of an abandoned Cold War Albanian air force base. From there they will either be sent back to their home countries or, if judged to be genuine refugees, taken to Italy.
The Italian government claims the two centres will be able to handle up to 36,000 asylum seekers a year but NGOs are sceptical that the authorities will be able to process people that fast. 
The centres were officially opened on Friday and the first shipload of migrants is expected within days.
Human rights groups say the bilateral accord tramples on asylum seekers’ rights, but the Meloni government denies this, saying that it has been drawn up according to international law.
Ms Meloni has not yet visited the restaurant that is dedicated to her. But the staff live in hope.
“There are rumours that she might come in the next few days, if she visits the migrant camps,” said Gerard, 20, waiter. “That would be great.”