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Rating: Standard, mid to low-end coffee
I was passing by on a way out of Trastevere by a street I usually don’t take, and then I saw a little white house with a sign on it. I looked carefully and it said ‘Il Baretto’… ahh, great I thought! Walking in, I was greeted with vintage items on the vitrine, and a place that looks like a hipster wonderland. Not that I’m particularly keen on these interiors (since they are all the same at the end of the day as any regular poor neighborhood bar is here…) but that usually one is met with some type of different and more carefully curated coffee. Now, first, before I go on, there’s another “Il Baretto” that’s next to Piazza Spagna, so we have two cafes now with the same name…
So asking for a coffee got me this:
Presentation: Argh! It’s yet another typical brand, but well, one that we don’t see that often in Rome. There was one in the Monteverde area, but nothing more. OK, the cup was clean, small, and a shape I like. I was asked immediately if I wanted this with water, and I got a nice full cup. But wait. What’s on the spoon? Argh,… caked with some brown crud on it… a pity. I was the only client inside the place and they didn’t take the time to look at the spoon to see if it was clean.
Temperature of Cup: Good, warm, not scalding. All in order.
Quantity: Short shot- I always like it this way. In the US some of the more adventurous cafes give you espresso that are about 2 ounces (60ml)… and I fully accept that as the coffee can be brilliant. But here, where it’s a painful ordeal, shorter is better…
Temperature: Good , nothing else to add.
Volume/Consistency: Thin. It was light, a little heavier than drip coffee. Nothing exciting.
Crema: The crema was uniform, light in color and not persistent. It opened up a porthole in the middle of the cup and just sat there disintegrating.
Odor: Yes! There was a dark-roasted coffee smell. This was about the best part of the espresso.
Taste: Very bitter, flat, no taste profile. Dark bitterness that wasn’t deep, nor robust. Just about flat and bitter. No rancid profile, this is good.
Overall: Well, I was disappointed because I expected a bit more. The amount of care they took on the décor was not translated into what they offered. But it seems the place is more of a nightclub/bar than anything a third-wave hipster café would be. In the summer, this place seems to be a great evening hangout. Its got three different areas (a terrace above, then the interior that has huge glass panes that open for open air, an then a lower terrace… all very cool to chill in the late hours of the night. So it turns out that this place (after looking at their website), is more of a US's definision of a 'bar' than an Italian 'bar'... yet, we're right on it here. A 'bar' here in Italy is coffee, alcohol and everyting that comes in between.
The setup: It was a bit retro, as any hip place should be- a nice and straightforward La Cimbali M22 and a Mazzer. The coffee is Saquella Caffè, which is a east Italian Pescara based roaster.
Il Baretto SRL
Via Garibaldi 27F-G
00153 Roma
Tel. 06 589 6055
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