The Best Places To Drink In Rome
COCKTAILS
Drink Kong
This is one of the world’s very best bars. It’s also a place to live out your widescreen dreams. Imagine Blade Runner without the dystopian edge. Or the original Miami Vice minus the violent crime. Drink Kong is a darkly lit homage to neon-drenched, neo-noir worlds, with glitteringly inventive drinks to immerse you in the fantasy. Start with a house classic like Big Trouble in Oaxaca (Vida mezcal, pineapple liqueur, Ancho Reyes Green, Midori, lemon juice, sugar) and get bolder from there. In a basement just a few doors down the same street in Esquilino, the Drink Kong visionary Patrick Pistolesi runs a champagne bar called Nite Kong. It too is darkly seductive.
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Freni E Frizioni
Cool yet friendly. Lively yet laid-back. In an old mechanic’s workshop on the western bank of the Tiber, Freni E Frizioni has fine-tuned the perfect bar experience. The terrace is the place to be most of the year, but if you don’t go inside at all, you won’t see the free buffet. Salads, dips, cicchetti and more – help yourself. And the drinks? Classic yet contemporary. Negronis and spritzes are made well, but bravery is rewarded too. An evolving list of house specials runs the gamut from interesting to game changing.
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Stravinskij Bar
Hotel de Russie’s bar is named for the great composer, who visited with Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau a century ago and described the hotel’s secret garden as an ‘earthly paradise’. It continues to captivate today and is a source of inspiration for cocktail maestro Salvatore Calabrese, whose signature drinks list includes an elderflower sour, a pine margarita and an artichoke garibaldi. All of them are best taken on the bar’s elegant private piazza, with a view of the famous garden.
Visit ROCCOFORTEHOTELS.COM
Cielo Bar
Cielo is the rooftop bar that crowns Rocco Forte’s Hotel de la Ville. The secret’s out so you’ll want to book your seats for the hottest show in town: a Roman sunset with the chic crowd who also appreciate the talents of the bar staff. Last time we checked in, the seasonal cocktail list was throwing back to the 90s with a What Is Love (cognac, mango juice, lemon essence, spicy honey, orange liqueur), a Livin’ La Vida Loca (tequila, mezcal, lime juice, pineapple & pink pepper cordial) and even a Barbie Girl (vodka, dragon summer mix, lemon essence, Santoni amaro).
Visit ROCCOFORTEHOTELS.COM
Argot Bar
Exposed brickwork, vintage glassware, waistcoated staff – don’t confuse this speakeasy-style joint with the theme bar that briefly opened on your local high street a decade ago. Close to Campo de’ Fiori, excellent drinks and the charm of the waistcoat crew mean Argot endures as a cool late-night den.
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CoSo
The carbonara sour is the headline act at this fun bar in Pigneto. Made with pork fat-infused vodka, the drink captures the attitude of the place. In brightly coloured surrounds, the skilful team draws on Roman, Sicilian and Japanese flavours to create things you can’t order elsewhere – start with the bento box aperitivo. A small menu of club sandwiches is there to keep you poised.
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The Court
Tucked into a small courtyard adjoining the Palazzo Manfredi hotel, The Court is an outdoor bar that looks straight onto the Colosseum. The iconic amphitheatre is the star of the show, even as DJs heat up weekend nights here. Start your evening with something bitter and aromatic from the cocktail list, like the Formadibile (amaro, Cynar, lime, tonic).
Visit MANFREDIHOTELS.COM
La Punta Expendio De Agave
Part of the same group as Freni E Frizioni and the Jerry Thomas Project, this Trastevere bar probably has Rome’s best selection of tequila and mezcal. The team has spent time in Mexico learning about all things agave, returning with an outstanding drinks list and some bold interiors inspiration. Ease yourself in with an El Burro (a Moscow Mule with tequila instead of vodka) then graduate to a mezcal negroni.
Visit LAPUNTAEXPENDIODEAGAVE.COM
The Jerry Thomas Project
The Jerry Thomas Speakeasy transcends its Roaring 20s stylings with outstanding mixology. Once you’ve found out the secret word and paid the €5 membership fee, choose a comfortable chair, order a period-appropriate old fashioned and enjoy the jazz soundtrack. Know that the Speakeasy is small, but if it’s full, there’s the Jerry Thomas Bar Room, offering a similarly vintage experience on the other side of the river.
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Salotto 42
For two millennia, the Temple of Hadrian has testified to the greatness of its titular emperor. Across the road, Salotto 42 has been a temple of good taste for only two decades, but it too deserves to be preserved. In atmospheric surrounds, elegant cocktails are served to an on-point soundtrack until 2am each night.
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WINE
Cul De Sac
On an old square close to Piazza Navona, this wonderful wine bar opened as a new-style ‘enoteca’ in the 1970s, but the site has been a hospitable stop-off point for Romans for far longer – a beautiful marble countertop testifies to that. Swing in today and there are more than 1,500 bottles to choose from, with every Italian region well represented. A classic food menu runs from pâtés to pastas, and there are desserts that pair beautifully with the cellar’s excellent selection of sweet wines.
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Vesper
For a truly Roman experience, leave the Centro Storico behind and head east to Vesper. This is a small neighbourhood enoteca, so book a table before you set out. On arrival, you’ll be richly rewarded with excellent cocktails, a fine wine list and appealing small plates, all to be enjoyed in cosy surrounds beneath a showpiece chandelier.
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Ercoli 1928
Ercoli first opened as a high-end food shop in Prati almost a century ago. It now has three places around town worth knowing about. Each one comprises a deli, a restaurant and a bar, but their drinks lists skew differently. In Prati, there’s a focus on champagne. Over in Parioli, they shine a light on vermouth. At the new place in Trastevere, they are all about martini-style cocktails.
Visit ERCOLI1928.COM
Caffè Peru
On a cobbled street just off Piazza Farnese, close to Campo de’ Fiori, this is the kind of never-changing establishment on which cities are built. In an area littered with tourist traps, Caffè Peru is a place you can trust. Take a stool outside and join the locals for a glass of good, well-priced wine.
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COFFEE
Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè
Moments from the Pantheon, serving coffee this good? Romans were never going to be able to keep Sant’Eustachio for themselves. Locals now happily jostle for elbow room with interlopers, brought together by the shared purpose of procuring one of the world’s great caffeine fixes in a place that has hardly changed since it opened almost 90 years ago.
Visit CAFFESANTEUSTACHIO.COM
081 Cafe
Walk past 081 Café in the Esquilino neighbourhood and you’ll notice nothing out of the ordinary – and that perhaps is what makes it extraordinary. This is a no-frills, old-school establishment run by friendly Neapolitans who aren’t interested in making Instagram Stories about the provenance of their beans. Their focus is on southern Italian pastries and excellent coffee from a vintage espresso machine, for which the only information you need is their address: Via Merulana 83.
Tazza D’Oro
For history, location and quality of coffee, Tazza D’Oro is the only rival of Sant’Eustachio. On the other side of the Pantheon from the competition, three generations of the same family have been roasting their own beans for almost 80 years. Grab a perfectly turned espresso on site or buy a bag of freshly ground stuff to take home.
Visit TAZZADOROCOFFEESHOP.COM
Gatsby Café
Behind the porticoes of Piazza Vittorio, Gatsby Café has taken over an old hat shop, but not completely overhauled it. Some of the newsboy-style caps that used to be sold here are still on display, lending a vintage feel to the place. The coffee’s excellent and, later in the day, there’s often live jazz to go with some well-made cocktails.
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Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini
A coffee among so many plaster casts could seem like a novelty, if it wasn’t for the importance of what you’re surrounded by at the Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini. In the old studio of the master sculptor Canova, you can take your morning cappuccino amid busts and full-length casts that speak to his brilliance and dedication. We’re not sure we’ll ever be so up close with neoclassical genius again.
Visit CANOVATADOLINI.COM
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