ROXY BAR CAFFÈ, VIA BALDO DEGLI UBALDI 86, 00167 ROMA

Rating: Standard, lower-end Roman coffee

The Roxy Bar Caffè in the Aurelio neighborhood is a small compact place, reminiscent of many others. It serves as a one stop pit-stop for food coffee and coctails. In its interior I found a group of three guys working the bar (father and sons) and the girlfriend talking and complaining about money. Things are always hard for coffee houses in Rome, the earnings are skim-skim. The interior is full of mirrors to make the place look bigger, and lots of prices tagged all over the place. Its inviting and the staff not necessarily friendly, but duly courteous.​

Asking for coffee got this placed on the table:​

​Presentation: No water offered, just a straight cup of Palombini. The cup was a bit big, but not overly large.

Temperature of Cup: Super hot cup! Was I to expect something different from Palombini? … or Rome?

Quantity: Very short, this was good.

Temperature: Quite hot, in spite of the long wait for the cup to cool down.

Volume/Consistency: Very watery, typical now of Palombini brews.

Crema: Thin crema, light, not oily nor persistent. Too uniform. Looks like it was photoshopped!​

Odor: Non here, whatsoever.

Taste: So here’s the positive part, it was very very bitter, but NOT rancid! Voila a good point in the Palombini basket. ​

​Overall: As you can see from the above-photo, it was not oily, nor thick, and I could finish it without a problem. It wasn’t an offensive coffee, but very bitter for the consistency. Overall, lots of other places better than this within 2 minutes’ walking distance, so indeed a bit lower end normal coffee.

The setup: They had a Palombini rebranded ‘EspressoRoma‘ coffee machine, that looks like an Astoria of some kind, with a like grinder. I’ll have to look into what machine it is, but off hand I don’t recognize it. The coffee, of course, is Palombini.​

Roxy Bar Caffè

Giordano Felice

Via Baldo degli Ubaldi 86, 00167 Roma