PINK BAR CAFFÈ, VIA OZANAM 42, 00152 ROMA

Rating: Poor, lower end Roman coffee experience

This place is right next to the Torrefazione Trio, and you’d think that they’d be roasting their beans, but nope. The Pink Bar Caffè is retro, and stuck in its ways. This is potentially a good thing. Walking into the locale you feel you’re walking into 1982 or something. Pink vinyl painted carpentry, wooden booths, and just the bare minimum. An experience in and of itself.​

Asking for a coffee gets you the following:​

​Presentation: Water? What is that? None offered, but probably given. Cool cup, the handle is shaped like a coffee bean, nice. Let’s see what the rest of the coffee became.

Temperature of Cup: Yeah, great, extra boiling hot cup. Couldn’t touch it for 30-40 seconds.

Quantity: The cup was rater large, but the espresso was very short, this was great.

Temperature: Extra hot, extra extra hot!

Volume/Consistency: Given that this was just over the top hot, the espresso was runny, watery, non signs of life.

Crema: Very thin, but also, very blond, paperish… some bubbles to show it was nice and boily.​

Odor: Water? Oh, sorry, it’s the same as that, none. Quite flat.

Taste: Bitter bordering on rancid. But not rancid, this is what saved it.​

​Overall: Lower end coffee experience. The preparation of the coffee was not looked after and the result was one of poor quality. I think this coffee would have had a lot of potential given some proper care and attention.

The setup: I thin the problems are in plain sight. The three group Brasilia machine looked like the original one installed when the bar first opened… and it looked little cared for. It probably would do good from a good cleaning of all it’s parts, including the boiler. None of these places run filters, and water in Rome is chalk full of … yes, chalk! Calcium to make your teeth grow back. The grinder I couldn’t make out. It of course was Italian but it lost it’s identity over the years. The basket on the grinder seemed seemed full, or so densly caked that it gave the coffee just that extra little rancid kick it was missing…and I liked the anonymous tamper. This is real pride in ones’ work.​

The coffee, interesting, it was Caffè Gran Brazil, a roaster that works out of Cervereti. Its got a sister brand ‘Bartolomei’ coffee, and from the looks of it, it should be giving out a better espresso than what was served here.​

For now, I’d stop in again just to study and try to figure out exactly what parts of the locale are original to its opening day. Definitely a retro experience. I made me think of Tron and of Miami Vice. Not bad!​

Here’s a photo stolen from google. This is of course, showing its best face! Wasn’t quite like this when I walked in…​

Pink Bar Caffè, Tellamo Vincenzo

Via Ozanam, 42

00152 Roma