Bar entertainment in Rome
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Freni e Frizioni
Everyone’s favourite hip Trastevere hang-out: in a former life, this bar/café was a garage, hence its name (‘brakes and clutches’). The arty crowd flocks here to slurp well-priced drinks (especially mojitos) and pack the piazza in front. You can eat breakfast here, have lunch, munch brunch at the weekend, and feast on the good-value aperitivo. Hell, you could even move in here.
reviewed
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Bar del Fico
At the time of writing Bar del Fico was undergoing some works to shore up its façade. By the time you read this, fingers crossed, this long-standing favourite of the capital's bohemians will have reopened and you can return to while away days and nights at its fig-tree-shaded tables. The elderly chess players never left: they carried on their games in the cobbled street beside the building site.
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Les Affiches
Once the boho-favourite ‘Stardust’, but the name-and-management change doesn’t seem to have made much difference. The hep cats in cool hats are postcard-home handsome and hang out in the cobbled street as well as in the cramped red-and-black rooms inside, and there’s occasional live music at aperitivo o’clock (early evening).
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B>Gallery
Contemporary art buffs and the design-inclined know where to head for a cultured sip. Join them in the minimalist bookshop/bar for fashionable tomes and cool Camparis, or head into the basement gallery for anything from multimedia and fashion installations to Mexican photography.
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Bar San Calisto
Those in the know head to the down-at-heel ‘Sanca’ for its basic, stuck-in-time atmosphere and cheap prices (a large beer costs €2.50). It attracts everyone from intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals to keeping-it-real Romans, alcoholics and American students. It’s famous for its chocolate – drunk hot with cream in winter, eaten as ice cream in summer. We’re reliably told that unless you have drunk a post-dinner coffee here, or a Sambuca con la Mosca (‘with flies’, with two or three raw coffee beans dropped in the drink), you will not truly know Trastevere.
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Doney H Club
A former dolce vita hang-out on Via Vittorio Veneto, the Doney is the best place to go in search of the contemporary equivalent in this no-longer-it zone. Housed in the plush Westin Excelsior Hotel, its outdoor section is like a sitting room on the street, ideal for smoking your fat cigar, sipping a cocktail, and eyeing up the other wealthy out-of-towners. It heats up around aperitivo time. There’s a DJ Friday and Saturday nights.
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Good Caffè
In a charming ivy-hung location on a cobbled street, albeit a bit busy with passing cars, this is indeed good with a cosy wood-lined interior. It's a popular place to hang out, have a quick meal, a long drink or make use of the free wi-fi (particularly popular with American students from nearby John Cabot Uni). There are weekend DJs, aperitivi (18:30 to 21:30) and a cocktail costs only around €6 (around €9 after 18:00).
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Il Baretto
Venture a little way up the Gianicolo, up a steep flight of steps from Trastevere. Go on, it’s so worth it: you’ll discover this truly hip cocktail bar, an architectural triumph. The bar is mostly huge plate-glass windows overlooking the district, and there’s a garden terrace. Aperitivo is from 7pm to 10pm, the basslines are meaty, the interior mixes vintage with Pop Art, and it’s genuinely cool.
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Fuzzy Bar
Naff name aside, Fuzzy is seriously clued-up about wine and food. New World drops are snubbed for Old World gems; the gourmet aperitivo focuses on small-scale Italian producers; and regular tasting events span oils and wines to regional cuisines. Note the kitchen closes at 00:30 from Sundays to Thursdays. If you write/read Italian, join the email list (fuzzybar@libero.it) for the lowdown on upcoming events.
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Fake
Fake has gone through a few changes of hands over recent years but this venue has maintained its popularity for its laid-back atmosphere. The pop-art décor is looking a bit tired but it's having a refit, and the floaty harem-styled seating area makes you feel like you're on holiday. Although it's a club it's laid-back enough to go for a drink; there's no admission charge and cocktails are around €10.
reviewed
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Crudo
Crudo is an easygoing yet uber-chic bar and restaurant that’s a great place for a designer drink, whether it’s a mojito (courtesy of the award-winning mixologist) or a vegetable shake. The interior is arty, with streaky walls and flickering projections, the clientele is tasty, and the atmosphere NYC cool. The lunch buffet (12.30pm to 3pm) and aperitivo (7pm to 10pm) cost €10.
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Divinum
In the corner of this enchanting square, you can sit outside and overlook the worn columns of the Tempio di Adriano. During the day try the caffè completo (around €3/around €1 seated/at the bar) - it's served with cream in a cup lined with chocolate. At night the tables are white draped and candle lit, and it's more of an eatery (pasta, salads etc) but still good for a drink.
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Vine e Olii
Forget the other bars that line Pigneto’s main pedestrianised drag, with their scattered outside tables and styled interiors. This is where the locals head, turning their noses up at newer interlopers. This traditional ‘wine and oil’ shop sells cheap beer and wine (bottles from €7.50), and you can snack on platefuls of antipasti and porchetta (pork roasted in herbs). It’s outside seating only.
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Société Lutèce
A group of Turin trendsters opened Société Lutèce, and like their other venture in Trastevere, Freni e Frizioni, it’s among Rome’s hippest bars. Think grungy and art-school (expect Joy Division and hair-raising bass) rather than dressed-up and glitzy. The music’s genuinely funky, the aperitivo is lavish, and the crowds spill out onto the piazza.
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Shaki
Shaki is a sleek wine bar with outside tables along a cobbled street, plum in the centre of the designer shopping district. It's consequently pricey for what it is but ideal for a flop to watch the fashion hits and misses wander past. Of the light meals, salads are the best bet, with fresh ingredients. There's another branch at Via del Governo Vecchio 123, near Piazza Navona.
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Il Tiaso
Think living room, with zebra-print chairs, walls of indie art, Lou Reed biographies shelved between the wine bottles, and 30-something owner Gabriele playing his latest New York Dolls album to neo-beatnik chicks, corduroy professors and the odd neighbourhood dog. Wine is well priced, the vibe intimate and chilled, and there’s regular live music, from jazz to funk.
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Ice Club
Novelty value is what the Ice Club, most tempting in summer, is all about. Pay €15 (you get a free vodka cocktail served in a glass made of ice), put on a thermal cloak and mittens, and enter the bar, in which everything is made of ice (temperature: -5 degrees C). Most people won’t chill here for long – the record is held by a Russian (four hours).
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Baràbook
Yes, it's a bar… with books, which line the walls alongside oddball retro finds and art. In the middle, at a long communal table lit by low-strung lamps, locals read, chat and sip the house speciality spritzer. Aperitivo(happy hour) comes with DJ tunes on Fridays and Saturdays from 19:30, and the Sunday brunch (12:30) is tasty fuel for cultured brains.
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Salotto 42
Facing 11 weathered Corinthian columns – what remains of Tempio di Adriana – this is a slinky, glamorous little bar, attracting a slinky, glamorous crowd. Run by an Italian-Swedish couple, it’s as close as you’ll get to a sitting-room experience in the city centre – think designer armchairs, sleek sofas and coffee-table books.
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Etablì
Italo-Chilean-owned Etablì is a rustic-chic bar-café-restaurant in an airy 16th-century building, strewn with antique Provençal furniture. It’s a laidback place, with an eclectic soundtrack – think the Who and Jimi Hendrix. Roman lovelies float in to have a drink or coffee, read the paper, have aperitivi and use the wi-fi.
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Friends Art Café
This high-tech steel-and-chrome favourite is a glitzy, cheerful, noisy spot and offers a bountiful aperitivo (around €6 to around €7). There are two other branches at Via Piave 69-73 (06 420 14 285; Piazza Fiume; ;07:30-02:00 daily except Sun afternoon) and Via della Scrofa 59 (06 686 14 16;; ;08:00-02:00). All have wi-fi access.
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L’Oasi della Birra
The Oasis of Beer is just that, and beer-lovers face a difficult decision between 500-plus varieties. But this isn’t just a beer-lover’s dream, it’s charming, with intimate seating in the cellars beneath a well-stocked enoteca and lots of good food, such as hearty stews, or cheeses and cold cuts, to soak up the alcohol.
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Latteria Borgo Pio
The marble bar at this veteran cremeria (a dying breed of bar selling farm-fresh milk) has been propping up espresso-guzzling, cornetto-munching locals since 1912 (the wooden fridge is even older). Catch up on local gossip beside the poker machine, or kick back with the paper and panini on the postcard-worthy street.
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Ferrara
While the restaurant (open from 20:00 to 23:30) dishes can be hit and miss, the snug, softly lit wine bar is a constant winner. You might need the waiters' help to navigate the two-volume (one for red, one for white) 1000-label wine list. Relieve the exhaustion with the scrumptious selection of aperitivo snacks (from 18:00 to 02:00).
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Bar Zest at Radisson SAS es. Hotel
Atop the Radisson SAS es. Hotel and opposite Stazione Termini, Bar Zest swaps Esquiline grit for cool, clean chic: we're talking Jasper Morrison chairs, eye-candy waiters, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a sexy rooftop pool (sometimes open to the public - call ahead). Sip a Mai Tai, nibble on bold Med-twist nosh and forget the mayhem below.
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