BLANCO BAR CAFFÈ, VIA DI BRAVETTA 352/354/356, 00163 ROMA

Rating: Standard, passable version of Palombini caffè

The Blanco Bar Pasticceria Tabacchi cafe is a catch-all, one-stop shop for whatever small pleasure in life you’re set on having. Its interior has the all to familiar ‘black and white = chic’ that’s seen almost everywhere in Rome, so you be the judge. It received a lot of traffic, so I guess folks like this place.​

Asking for a coffee got me this:​

​Presentation: No water offered, given when asked, the coffee was served somewhat sloppy as you can see. And before actually being able to get a coffee, I had to wait for 5 minutes when the owner of the bar (or his son) finished his very intriguing conversation with somebody (i.e., I had to wait veeery patiently just to order a coffee).

Temperature of Cup: Whatever, the coffee was bordering on too hot.

Quantity: Yet, a nice short espresso given the gargantuan cup.

Temperature: Just right.

Volume/Consistency: Silky, thick… looking better no?

Crema: Very dark, textured, oily, good, thin, yet not persistent. Remember, we’re dealing with Palombini coffee, one of the worst coffee experiences I’ve had in Rome!​

Odor: Very dark roast coffee. Quite odorous, surprising. Nothing subtle, just charred bean.

Taste: Very very bitter, bordering on rancid. Yet since the coffee was indeed somewhat silky this saved it.​

​Overall: Very strong, stout coffee. I would say that this is a very good version of Palombini, which is very robust, somewhat horrible coffee, but here in this context it was decent. I could repeat it, and I did, I had two espressos. But I’ll tell you why in a second.

First the setup: they had a Faema E-71 four-group semi automatic that was nice, the grinder was the same brand. Nothing remarkable, but all the components to make a better coffee.​

So what’s the scoop with this place? It is clean, lots of good sweets, lots of traffic because it sits right in front of a bus stop… But I had to have two espressos because the cashier (owner/son of owner) had quite an attitude. He seemed like a nice guy, but when a ‘foreigner’ walked in, and on top of it, asked for the WiFi password, he coughed up a stupid attitude. Of course, here’s a damned american wanting to sit in his damned empty caffe for an hour milking his .90 cent espresso for all it’s worth… here’s the emptiness shouting out.Yet for what it’s worth, the guy couldn’t give a crap if got onto the WiFi network, even after asking him 3 different times for the correct password. At the end, after paying for my 2nd espresso, he said, well maybe it doesn’t work.​

​…no shit.

Blanco Bar Caffè,

Corbo Federico

Via di Bravetta, 352/354/356

00163 Roma