ANTICAFÉ ROMA, VIA VEIO 4B, 00183 ROMA

Rating: Standard, surprisingly light and good Palombini

It was nice to run into the AntiCafé. I was walking around the San Giovanni area heading toward the Piazza Re di Roma, and saw it. I thought it looked promising, it had an alternative name, its decor was upbeat, light, and hipster-like trendy. So I thought, maybe this is a third wave establishment. But when I came to order, the barista asked me if I’d take the coffee at the bar or sitting (which is something almost nobody does!). And I had some time on me, so I said, what the hell, I’ll sit down (as I normally don’t ever sit at a cafe here in Rome). But when I said this, then she presented the ‘concept’ of this cafe. It’s an ‘internet-work cafe.’ Essentially, you get free Wi-Fi, plus drinks, food, etc. for a flat hourly fee. So it’s a work-center cum cafe. Not bad. The prices seemed OK if you’re in need of a temporary office for the day, and the staff there was super nice. Overall, a very nice place to know of in Rome, as they’re very scarce here! To close, the AntiCafé seems to be a chain as they’ve got places in France, etc… so here they are in Rome.

Asking for the coffee at the bar, I got the following:

Presentation: No water was offered, but when I asked, I was very kindly given a full big glass of water, sans cost. The cup was clean, crisp, and littered with the brand name of the coffee being served. I’m skeptical of Palombini, so this was going to be a challenge to overcome. It wasn’t a Third Wave establishment, but let’s see…

Temperature of Cup: It was good, not scalding hot, it was great to hold and could dive right into the espresso without hesitation.

Quantity: Given the size of the cup (rather large) the espresso filled quite a lot of space in it, so it was generously large.

Temperature: Good, I could taste the coffee without fear, and could taste the coffee comfortably.

Volume/Consistency: Here’s the trick to this shot, it was watery, not thick, nor creamy. I’ll explain why this is the ‘trick’ in a bit…

Crema: The crema was uniform, rather light, lacking lots of oils and thin without persistence. Not the best crema in the world, but not bad.

Odor: Slight odor of darkly roasted coffee, I was happy!

Taste: Here’s the deal, it was bitter, very bitter as expected from Palombini, but it wasn’t rancid in any way. This was the best part of the espresso, I could drink it comfortably.

Overall: So it’s wateryness proved great. If you’re going to sit at an establishment drinking coffee all day and working like crazy, you can’t down five super strong espressos. This coffee was good, bitter, not rancid, and definitely not offensive. I’m sure that if you coupled it with any of the pastries being offered for free to the paying customers, it’d be great. Overall, it was a very good interpretation of Palombini coffee.

The setup: And I can see why this was nice, they had a very nice Astoria Perla 2 troup machine with a super cool Astoria grinder. I love Astoria and this is a setup that can produce miracles, consistently! The coffee being brewed was of course, Palombini.

Here are their current prices (excuse the blurryness!)

The interior was nice, go on their website for more cool pix.

AntiCafé Roma,

AntiCafé Italia S.R.L.

Via Veio 4B, 00183 Roma

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