Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Rating: Standard, mid-range Roman coffee
The Lepanto Bar Caffè is a low-key affair. It’s on the Lepanto exit of the Prati neighborhood and apparently has a varied clientele- from the tourist in the summer to the vagabond, to the regular John Doe living upstairs. I got this feeling from the way people where using the ‘building’ of the L-shaped locale (people sitting on its windowsill, etc.) but also from the constant come and go of totally different people constantly. The baristas offered a warm smile and where pretty non-chalant about everything. Some cafes you walk in and you feel as if you’re in somebody’s living room, not here. And this is positive. The interior has a mix of bar- café eclectic décor with lots of pictures and old adverts for coffee, cigarettes, liquor, and whatnot historical glimpse of the Prati neighborhood. It’s a neat place.
Asking for a coffee got me this:
Presentation: No water offered, while there wasn’t a tide of people- they guessed I’d never be back and the might be right. Cup was rather boxy, largish, nice and crispy and had the cafe’s logo on it in a nice 1980s generic font. Spoon was to measure, all OK.
Temperature of Cup: It was good, warm and helping my espresso along.
Quantity: It was a good sized espresso, not terribly long in this cup, so we’re good.
Temperature: The coffee was also a good warm temperature, probably brewed in the lower end of the spectrum.
Volume/Consistency: Silky, more than I expected, it wasn’t raspy, it wasn’t thin. It wasn’t voluminous either, but subtly thick and made it’s presence in my mouth as if I was having tea with milk.
Crema: This was the trick, while it was thin, no tiger-stripes, or dense oil formations, it was still not particularly over-extracted, and showed lots of up-front non-scalding temperature to the brew. It was rather good. It was very persistent and definitely added to the texture of the cup.
Odor: Not really present. No surprise, and in Rome, it’s usually bonus. Go figure!
Taste: It was bitter as expected- very bitter, very strong and stout, but it wasn’t rancid in any way. It kept its distance. No caramel, no other strong bright flavors, just straight Roman deeply bitter coffee.
Overall: It was right in the main with other dark-roasted, majority Arabica bean blend. It was OK, and nothing to complain about. It’s silkiness in this shot made it stand out and made me enjoy it more than I initially thought. At the sight of a good espresso size, I’m usually hesitant about the thinness of the drink. Not here.
The setup: They had what I think were two Faema E-78 and a like branded grinder. This is a whole lot of horsepower for the locale and it lets you know that they can be busy as hell. All good stuff. Now to the coffee, well… they told me that it wasn’t Hag caffè as you can see on some of the cups, but actually Morganti Caffè, a East-Roman roaster from the 1890s that I just found out about last week. Not a bad version of it!
Bar Lepanto
Vaccaro Domenica
Via Marcantonio Colonna 37 [53]
00192 Roma
Tel. 06 321 7095
Comments