ITALY - Best of Europe 2014 - page 1121

those ordering full lunches or dinners; but between meal times you can enjoy a drink or a
snackatfineprices.Afterdinnerhours,theBancogiroStretchbecomesayouthfulandtrendy
night spot. Before or after dinner, this strip is one of the best places in town for a spritz.
Here's the rundown (in the order you'd reach them from the Rialto Bridge): Bar Naran-
zaria serves Japanese and Italian dishes (€15-20 plates); Caffè Vergnano , your cheapest
option—especially during meal times—is just a café with no cover (€9-12 salads, pizzas,
and pastas, and a busy microwave oven); Osteria al Pescador is a more serious restaurant;
Bar Ristorante Bancogiro is really good, with the only full kitchen on the strip, romantic
dining upstairs (no canal views), a passion for the best cheese, and good cicchetti options
at the bar (€16 pastas, €22 secondi, nice €15 cheese plate, €3.50 cover, closed Mon, tel.
041-523-2061);andthemoremodern BarAncora ,whichseemstobemostpopularwiththe
local bar crowd (€13 pastas, €17 secondi, cicchetti at the bar).
The Cicchetti Strip: Four Venetian Tapas Bars
(See “Hotels & Restaurants near the Rialto Bridge” map, here . )
The 100-yard-long stretch starting two blocks inland from the Rialto Market (along Soto-
portego dei Do Mori and Calle de le Do Spade) is beloved among Venetian cicchetti enthu-
siasts for its delightful bar munchies, good wine by the glass, and fun stand-up conviviality.
These four places serve food all day, but the spread is best at around noon (generally open
daily 12:00-15:00 & 18:00-20:00 or 21:00; two of the places I list are closed Sun). While
each place offers a fine bar-and-stools scene, you might instead choose to treat one like a
restaurant, order from their rustic menu, and grab a table. Scout these four places in advance
to help decide which ambience is right for the experience you have in mind. Then pick one,
dig in, and drink up.
Bar all'Arco, a bustling one-room joint, is particularly enjoyable for its tiny open-face
sandwiches (closed Sun; Francisco, Anne, Matteo).
Osteria ai Storti, with a cool photo of the market in 1909, is run by Alessandro, who
speaks English and enjoys helping educate travelers (€8 pastas, €12 secondi, 20 yards from
Cantina Do Mori—listed below, around the corner on Calle San Matio).
Cantina Do Mori has been famous with locals (since 1462) and savvy travelers (since
1982) as a convivial place for fine wine. They serve a forest of little edibles on toothpicks
and francobolli (aspicyselectionof20tiny,mayo-soakedsandwichesnicknamed“stamps”).
Go here to be abused in a fine atmosphere—the frowns are part of the shtick (closed Sun).
CantinaDoSpade isexpertlyrunbyFrancesco,whoclearlyliststhe cicchetti andwines
of the day (also good for sit-down meals, 30 yards down Calle de le Do Spade from Osteria
ai Storti at #860).