RED LIGHT COFFEE, VIALE ANGELICO 143-145, 00195 ROMA

Rating: Standard, decent Illy Coffee in Rome

In the Vittoria neighborhood of Rome, just north of Prati, you find wide avenues and lots of fascist era buildings. The aren’t that many cafes as in other places, but it seems that the few that inhabit here are of a decent quality. The Red Light Coffee is an interesting concept. The name, well, yes, refers to Amsterdam’s red light district. This is not what you’ll find in here, except for a very good looking barista duo. The guy, tall, dark, very well maintained in the gym, and with tribal tattoos from neck to toe, seemed extra busy on his telephone. The woman barista, a similarly very perfectly in shape gal who wore clothes, just like the guy, that highlighted their every best curve. She seemed to be running errands outside of the cafe and kept on coming in and out of the place.. Either way, they were surely a very pretty duo, and inside the bar you find loud dance music, lots of tables on the inside and outside, and in spite of that a very chill and inviting attitude.

This is what I got served:

Presentation: A familiar cup, a sign of quality here in Rome. No water offered, but he did offer water to another client when they asked. All was in order, clean, crisp, and the spoon, while not totally visible, was the Illy designer spoon that is a thin band with a flat racket like end.

Temperature of Cup: Very good temperature.

Quantity: On the short side for this very large cup. But it as a bit long overall.

Temperature: Also very good. Not boiling, but actually on the lower end of the brew scale!

Volume/Consistency: It was smooth, silky if not a bit chalky and powdery. It was a really dense espresso, full of coffee powder. Not a bad thing, but necessarily very oily.

Crema: It was dark, think well made, and yet started to die out as I drank it. It didn’t seem to contribute very much to the overall experience of the drink. But it was heck of pretty.

Odor: Warm and dark roasted coffee smell. I like that! No flowers, no juicy punchy

scent, but nice.

Taste: It was a good espresso at the beginning, thickish, not very bitter, but then as I drank more if it – it became sludgy and very dense at the end. Not a real complaint in my book as I do like Turkish coffee, but it seemed overall too heavy.

Overall: It was decent, by far, and a solid mid-range espresso compared to tons of crudge that I regularly have in downtown Rome. So definitely the machine was honed in, and the barista knew what he was doing. With a half spoonful of sugar, I’m sure it would have opened up so nicely!

The setup: They had a solid Faema E92 machine that I’ve seen over and over here in Rome, I don’t mean anything negative by that, only that here it was put to good use. The grinder was also a Faema with a small LaCimbali on demand grinder for the decaf. The coffee was Illy Caffè of course. The fun thing is that the bar had a nice variety of Illy cups… which makes for a different cup every time you come in. Fun!