The aperitif in Venice is a serious matter, here we go for shadows, passing from one bacaro to another for a ombre de vin. Here are ten places tried and recommended for you in Venice.
A tour for bacari in Venice? You can't really refuse if you want to experience the city as the Venetians do and taste the culinary specialties of the Serenissima.
Here are 10 to enjoy a shade of wine (the standard measure of wine for Venetians) and a cicchetto (a sort of tapas to understand, an appetizer) in the company of the Venetian DOC.
A tip, if you don't know what it really means Go for shadows in Venice, find the technical vocabulary here.
1. Al Timon
Fondamenta Ormesini: you are more outside than inside and you can take up to 5 cicchetti per person that change according to the season, ranging from gorgonzola and strawberry to taleggio and fig. Then there are the classics, such as crostino with cod or various cold cuts.
In the summer they play live music.
2. Real Wine
Fondamenta Misericordia: small, small but large in the selection of wines and cicchetti. If you are lucky you will find an omelette with "spinach", ricotta and yummy potatoes that is perfect when it's cold and you've wandered around the streets and bridges of Venice.
3. Osteria da Filo
Calle del Tintor: a true cult place, so much so that when they open at 17.00 until closing at 23.00 / 23.30 it is almost impossible to enter the place and it is a shame because every corner has its own sitting room, a table with different and bizarre chairs. On Wednesdays they have live music and there is wifi.
4. Vecia Carbonera
Ponte S. Antonio: enter the cave of the Vecia Carbonera and you will never want to go out.
The classic cicchetti are with cod, but also with meats, cheeses and there are meatballs with tuna.
You sit with the other patrons around solid wooden tables in the back or stand in front of the counter and lean on tables obtained from the barrels.
5. Amarone
Calle del Luganegher: a little less "rough" than others, but extremely characteristic and appreciated and not only for the Amarone which is its totem wine. A red Plexiglas bathtub warms the atmosphere of the room. Here you can take a glass of full-bodied red from Valpolicella or an Amarone, in fact, but also a Franciacorta to cross over. Also great for a dinner.
6. Antica Osteria Ruga Rialto
S. Polo 692, if it is full you will miss the guest of honor "Chicco", the black cat who has been lazily spending his hours for almost 15 years moving between the tables and shelves in this bacaro. However, there is always his photograph next to the cash desk so as not to forget who the “paròn” (master) is here.
Do not miss the “raboso sparkling”, little known local wine and the meatballs with cheese. Ah! Honest raw fish dishes are also available to order.
7. Ao Squero
Fondamenta Nani: right in front of one of the last "squeri" of Venice, where gondolas are fixed. In the summer you can sit out and chat along the fondamenta, in the winter you huddle in to drink a valpolicella or a merlot. Do not miss the croutons with pumpkin cream and mushrooms. And here the girls at the counter smile as well.
8. H2NO
Campo S. Silvestro: recently opened but already targeted.
Not only cicchetti, among other things with cod in all sauces, but also musetto and "stamps", or paninetti as the Venetians call them, with cooked and truffled mushrooms, wurstel and caciotta, porchetta and eggplant and so on more put. The choice of both white and red wines and the variety of wrong spritzes they offer with gin and vodka are exceptional.
9. Ancient Dolo
Ruga Rialto 778: small, but very characteristic and with the advantage of being close to Rialto. Here you will also find cicchetti for celiacs: in fact, in addition to crostini, there are polentine with creamed cod, cod alla vicentina, one with tomato or meatballs and, when it is in season, courgette flowers with mozzarella and anchovy . The whites are good, but especially the reds. And if you just want water, they will recognize you as "foresti" (foreigners) but they will not be prayed for.
10. To the crew
Calle Galeazza: in the Rialto area, almost hidden but well known to the aficionados who stop leaning on its small parapets outside the calle even on winter days.
Few frills, but lots of variety: crostini with fried sardines, sarde in saor (sweet and sour sardines with sultanas) and so on and so forth.
The locals go from one bacaro to another, tasting cicchetti and drinking ombre de vin. There are those who boast of making seven in a row, but two in the evening are still an excellent result because the point is neither drinking nor eating, but "making ciacole" in the street or in the field.
