MATINÉE CAFÉ, VIA ODERISI DA GUBBIO 218, 00146 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid- to low-end Roman coffee

On the Oderisi da Gubbio avenue, which I’m exploring this week, there is the typical high concentration of cafes. Besides tasting the coffee, a fun thing to look at is how each cafe reflects the owner’s ideas of what will draw people in, and how each cafe is a reflection of the owner themselves. In comparison to the Gran Caffè Oderisi I reviewed yesterday, which was clean, precise and serving very good coffee, the Matinée Café seemed as a small protégé. It was very clean, very precise, very minimalist in the amount of ‘stuff’ it had inside, and the staff was very attentive and proper. The décor was the white, black, and red which happens to be a theme in many cafes. It’s Roman for ‘mid-class chic & clean’. Not bad, and definitely better than a cruddy place where you’re afraid to drink an espresso. Let’s give it a go and see what they offered.

Asking for a coffee got me this:

Presentation: Clean small tight cup. Love this shape as it keeps espressi short and to the point. Like the simple, clean logo. The spoon was not flimsy, and shaped and sized perfectly for the cup. I take it black without sugar so they always sit there bored out of their wits! No water was offered, and I was surprised as the barista seemed very attentive to small details and sat there looking at how I tasted the coffee. He seemed very interested in my photo taking, yet never mentioned a word.

Temperature of Cup: Good cup temp.

Quantity: Short, excellent.

Temperature: Very good as well. A bit higher than the cup was telling me, but still very good and not boiling or cold.

Volume/Consistency: It was very thin, surprisingly thin. It wasn’t oily nor had any particular thickness to it’s body. Not a positive surprise.

Crema: Crema was nice. It was persistent, yet grainy, sandy looking, and didn’t seem to add substantially to the drinking experience.

Odor: Dark burnt coffee smell…

Taste: It was very bitter, spicy bitter. It wasn’t rancid, but a whole lot stronger than I imagined. It had a very pronounced burnt taste to the coffee.

Overall: It was a mid- to low level Roman espresso. It was too thin and the burnt taste wasn’t very helpful in appreciating the coffee. It feels like the coffee machine needed a good degreasing and cleaning, and then maybe pulling back on the quantity of coffee in porta filter?

The setup: A nice and classic Rancillio espresso machine and grinder. Very good. The coffee was Moca Caffè, a roaster based in Pomezia (still in Rome’s count) and is south-west from Rome on the coast. Here they were serving Moca’s Vigor espresso bean mix. I haven’t been able to see the bean mix on their website, but by it’s name it rings true to my experience!