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ROSCIOLI CAFFÈ PASTICCERIA, PIAZZA BENEDETTO CAIROLI 16, 00186 ROMA


Rating: Standard, mid-range Veronese coffee in Rome




The Roscioli Caffè Pasticceria opened recently, a few weeks ago (Jan' 2016), and I came to know about it because its owners Alessandro e Pierluigi Roscioli (who own the La Salumeria Roscioli) are keen business entrepreneurs who were able to drive up a media storm with lots of publicity and reviews online in anticipation of their new ‘venture’. If you look at twitter, and google, and facebook, you’ll see lots of gleefully buoyant reviews - 'great'. I’m particularly skeptical of things of this sort, so it’s already a turnoff for me. But thanks to a friend who pointed me to Hande Leimer’s VinoRoma.com instagram post. There it showed a pour over coffee (yes, drip coffee people, old fashioned d-r-i-p coffee…) being served at Roscioli Caffè. I had gone searching for this place right after new year’s but somehow missed it. Hande pointed out that it is indeed there, and that I should definitely visit it. Now I realize why I missed it’s existence- it is because it very quietly and discreetly occupies the monolocale where the Bernasconi Pasticceria used to be! They just closed in mid 2015.... I’d actually seen this old dilapidated but historically renown place before, and realized that Roscioli have seen the opportunit and they’ve taken it over and revamped the same locale.​

​Well, let’s look at what this place is- Is it a Third Wave coffee establishment? No, not really, and at that by a long shot. Incidentally, at the same time that my friend told me about VinoRoma’s post, he also pointed me to the opening of Jacobsen og Svart Kaffebrenneri. Take a look, they’re in Trondheim, Norway, far from Rome, but this is the real deal. Either way, the Roscioli Caffè Pasticceria isn’t too far from any normal and more poor Roman cafe. Its got lots of pastries, with a little bit of everything you can think of to make you happy- Oyster apperitivo with white wine in the afternoon, anybody? Hamburgers and salami tasting platter, etc. But it does serve pour over coffee, regular Bunn brewed American coffee, and some south American coffees. But more about this below…. So in that sense, it is indeed a bit of a different offering. It’s not serving your standard Danesi coffee and calling it a day- Good, yet again. Getting to the heart of the matter, let’s just finally look at this damned espresso!​


This is what I got from the three very hipster, although very courteous, white and black suspender-clad clad cum complimentary bearded baristas:​

​Presentation: Well before I got this very nice, clean straightforward cup of java- I had to wait. They had three Fiorenzato grinders, all empty. So it wasn’t that late, probably 6pm, and they had cleaned out their machines. Good sign, nothing rancid left in there from the morning. So one of the baristas opened a new bag and dumped it in there and I got, literally, the first espresso from the batch. Couldn’t be fresher than that (depending on the roast date of that batch… that’s another story- see below). I got a cup of water immediately, without asking, and the spoon was nice and glistening. The Baristas were indeed very courteous and hip, in the kind way that I’d use this adjective in California.


Temperature of Cup: It was a cold evening in Rome, so at first I couldn’t tell the real temperature of the cup. But it was good, it wasn’t terribly hot, because if you’ll see below, they had the cups lined up on 2 tiers on the machine face up, so the heat doesn’t really catch, and it lends for a cooler cup temperature. In fact, the pressure gague on the left hand boiler was quite low, so I was happy, i.e., lower brewing temperature.


Quantity: It was a rather short shot, not too excessive, not meek, nor a ristretto. The cup is rather large, so this was OK.


Temperature: The temperature was good, it was not too hot, and indeed it was brewed at a lower than normal Roman scalding temperature.


Volume/Consistency: It was indeed creamy, silky, and yet not thick, nor oily. It was thin though, in the sense that it was a light affair, an airy espresso- not heavy, nor too powerful. I could easily have had 3 of these in a row. This is a marked difference from the typical espresso at a coffee cum pastry store, where the espressos tend to be extra bitter and strong.


Crema: The crema was persistent, and added to the experience of the drink. My espresso was brewed out of the E61 head, so it was definitely going to have a nice, rich crema. It was a bit mottled, and showed signs of life. It wasn’t over extracted, so all is good.​

Odor: There was indeed the smell of fresh coffee. The smell wasn’t complex, nor could I sense hints of other types of foods or spices in the coffee.


Taste: The taste was more limited than I imagined. It was not complex, nor subtle, nor rich in adjectives. It was bitter, but not over the top. The consistency of the drink lent it a round, nutty taste, but to go into that direction is an exaggeration. My biggest impression was that it was a coffee with a very restricted taste.​

​Overall: Had I not heard the hype, had I not read that the locale is ‘an institution’ (they’re always destined to fall and crumble, no?) I would have walked in here, looked at the sleek décor, and though, yes, fancy café for folk who like to spend money on food. I would have had the coffee and would have said what I’ll write now: this is a normal fare standard mid-range Roman coffee. Nothing outstanding at least on their espresso department. Just for kicks, I walked about 30 minutes towards Termini and had coffee at a run-of-the-mill working class café- and the coffee was equally good. A bit stronger, slightly more bitter, but definitely held its own.


The setup: Well, shit, look at this! It’s a nice machine alright! ​

​It’s got four groups- the flashy levers on the outside and two beautiful, and more dependable E-61’s on the inside. Talk about steampunk lust here… Supposedly, from the marketing blurbs, there’s only 5 of these machines in existence in the world (exclusive, yeah? Usually means ‘quality’ in marketing terms) and they’re of course hand made (nearly all espresso are actually pretty much hand made, you know?) in Naples. I don’t know the brand, but I’ll hopefully get back with this. The grinders were beautiful I said above that they’re Fiorenzato’s but they look instead to be UNIC, or the MACAP coffee grinders? Will have to go back and ask. But finally, let’s get to the coffee. So we have this ‘handmade’ Fiorenzato-looking custom espresso machine, what about the coffee. The only coffee they had there for espresso was by the Verona based Giamaica Caffè (run by Giani Frasi), and it was the Afribon variety. This is a small roaster that sells through various channels (no direct sales, unless at their roasting facility), and seems to get lots of good reviews (see this nice post, and apparently one of the 10-best in italy according to this site, go figure…). The Afribon label is a 100% Arabica ‘african’ blend, so no info on origin, farms, etc. and no info on the roasting date. However, from the ‘pre-opening’ press releases of Roscioli, it appears that this Afribon consists of coffee from: Kenya, Ethiopia, and a ‘secret arabica’….) yes, here in Italy the word ‘secret’ means ‘special’ or in my book, ‘the foggies-idea market strategy’…. They’re also apparently brewing Giamaica’s south American blends from Guatemala’s Huehuetenango area. But these, again, were not out when I was there, and I couldn’t find this associated with what Giamaica Caffè coffee is available online.

Below you can see the Hario pour over equipment, and the Bunn drip coffee machine, among other things:​

​ The place is a small corridor literally with only a 'bar' and then towards the back you have a dimly lit cool hangout place, with a central table and chairs (Some chairs along the back wall too, and a counter top area pictured below on the left hand side). Overall, a very nice and chic cafe to know about.

Roscioli Caffè Pasticceria

Piazza Benedetto Cairoli 16

00186 Roma

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