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Rating: Standard, Low-end Roman coffee
In the posh Sallustiano area of Rome, right below the Villa Borghese park, and next to lavish embassies, 100,000-star hotels and what not, is the Lotti Bar Caffè Pasticceria. Besides those cafes on the Via V. Veneto, there's not much on the East side of the street (on the West side there's a few cafes that are actually bars, so I won't review them here). On this side of the street there's mmostly national schools, office buildings, and military and police outfits. So I was glad to find the Lotti cafe nestled quietly among these rather calm and silent streets of Rome. Again, I was surprised by how locales open themselves up and reveal certain old-school charm. The place is picture perfect for tourist seeking out that 'authentic' junk (whatever it means), but there it is. Very old school interior decor, and most of the folk working the place are above 60 years of age.
Whatever, after I paid, I got this given to me:
Presentation: What a seriously cool cup! Man, this reminded me of a Ferrari or something. All sleek and designer. Vintage designer. The cup read: Fratelli Lotti Roma. Cool. It was clean, the spoon as well. No water offered, but probably given to me had I asked. It was indeed given to other clients, so, there it is.
Temperature of Cup: It was OK, not scalding, but warm. Could grip it immediately without a problem, and could present it to my lips without being afraid.
Quantity: It was a short shot for this rather large cup, so I was happy.
Temperature: Once I brought it up to drink, the coffee was warmer than I expected. It wasn't scalding however, so we're still doing OK on this old-timer bar.
Volume/Consistency: Here's where the chips start turning the other way. It was thin, but somehow sandy tasting. It was raspy, scratchy, and yet runny as an old Bunn drip coffee can be.
Crema: The crema was deep dark brown, almost jet black. It looked like pure tar, or better, nicotine injected into the coffee. Man, this looked acrid and terrifying! It was thin, and was dying as I took the picture with my phone.
Odor: Yes! Indeed there was, it was dark-roasted burnt coffee smell. This is the aroma of Roman coffee, but here it was darker, deeper than normal. But hey, I was glad that I could actually smell the coffee was tasting! A definite plus!!
Taste: Well, let us say that the crema spoke for itself. It was super, rancid-mad coffee. It wasn't metallic or any other foreign object taste, but just bitter to the bone.
Overall: This was just a painful experience. I was able to finish it, but under pain. And well, the most interesting thing is that I asked the barista, an old guy (like everybody else in there... hell, the average age of people in Italy is like 46, so no freaking wonder everybody was old here, they were just a generation older!) Either way, back to the story: I asked the barista how come the coffee was so strong, and he replied, very happily, that it's because "I did it that way". So yes, the barista was aiming for this bitter puck of steroid-like caffeine drink.
The setup: They had an older E-71 Faema Ambassador churning out the witches' brew, and I can imagine that a Faema grinder was also doing its part in the plot.
When I spoke to the barista, I also asked him what coffee it was that they were serving, and he confirmed what I saw on the bar, it was Caffè Camilloni, and I could read this on the sugar bowl: "Non si beve... si gusta." Meaning, you don't just drink it, you savor it. Damned right! So darned bitter you're forced to step back and pause before deciding to finish this monster of a drink! Either way, this is of course the defunct roaster-coffee shop that used to live right on the same piazza where the famous cafe Sant'Eustachio is. Apperantly, the Camilloni brand is part of a group-company called Espressaroma SpA, and has under its unbrella the following brands: Pallombini (the main marketing brand), Camilloni, Ficini, Kami, Mundial, Nori, and Paradiso... interesting news indeed!
Lotti Bar Pasticceria Caffè
Lotti Paola e Lotti Luigina S.N.C.
Via Sardegna 19
00187 Roma
Tel. 06 482 1902