Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Rating: Standard, low-end Roman Coffee
Crossing the Ponte Garibaldi from Trastevere and heading towards the Largo di Torre Argentina ruins, and you pass the Park and Hotel Cairoli. You pass the ministry of justice buildings on your left hand side. Sneaking into the via della Seggiola, you walk right into the Pica Caffè Bar. After I left, I found out it was actually called the Gelateria Alberto Pica, and its past owner was a big name in Rome's ice cream world. With that said, it was a surreal experience. I felt like I walked into a movie set- it was rather quiet, no music. The place had the current owner couple at the deep end arguing about numbers and what to include, the barista was busy fumbling over some food, and there were two clients sitting in chairs. One was on the phone the other looking at a magazine. Either way the place seemed drenche by a an odd silence, it was just too still. That lasted for five minutes, since cops and judges and the sort started pouring in. The place is yet another of those Roman places that is stuck in the 80s or late 70s with its décor. You should visit this place, just for the experience of ‘time travelling’ if you man. Now as to the coffee…
Asking for a coffee got me this:
Presentation: Water was served up immediately. Nice touch. The coup was unbranded and rather large. Spoon fit just nice and it wasn’t all around a unpleasant unsemble.
Temperature of Cup: It was surprisingly tepid! Not something that I’m used to here. But a good type of surprise.
Quantity: It was a good solid espresso shot.
Temperature: It was also quite tepid. This was again, positive in my book. I could taste the flavor and could ruminate in the coffee freely. Good.
Volume/Consistency: It was silky I will admit, it had a certain weight that I wasn’t expecting, simply because the coffee seemed off-balance somehow.
Crema: The crema was uniform (except for this crack in the middle of the cup), but thin, non persistent and didn’t seem very laden oil.
Odor: No odor here.
Taste: Well, things were going more or less better than I thought, until I tasted the espresso. It was bitter, but had a deep metallic taste to it. It was very bitter-metallic, but not rancid. The ferrus taste that the coffee had really spoiled it.
Overall: Overall, there was simply something off here. It was the weird aftertaste that left me questioning what was going on. The tepid cup and rather luke-warm espresso seemed more an accident than intentional, and gave me the feeling that what was going on in that espresso machine was more a ultra-hard water caked heating element in the water boiler, than a conscious low temperature setting on the machine.
The setup: This looks like a mid to late-80s model of a Faema E-78 that I once used to own. They’re semi-automatics and very dependable. The grinder was also Faema. And the coffee, its interesting, but it was Morganti Caffè, the local roman roaster that seems prevalent in this part of town.
So yes, before finishing this post, it would be worthwhile to come back and taste the ice cream. As this is what they were famous for.
Pica 1971 S.A.S.
Di Miani Maria Giovanna
Via della Seggiola 12
00186 Roma
Comments