Drink & Think VENICE: the author’s choice of bars and cafés

We asked author Robin Saikia to explain which bars he recommends in his invaluable Drink & Think Venice – The Story of Venice in Twenty-Six Bars and Cafés. Here are his descriptions of 10 of them:

Each chapter of Drink & Think Venice begins with an introduction to one of my favourite bars and a recommendation as to what one might drink there: the “Drink”. This is followed by an extended piece on a Venetian theme, the “Think”. Some topics are well-known, others less so.

Harry’s Bar (Calle Vallaresso)
A stiff vodka martini, followed by a hymn to Harry’s and a firm swipe at the many visitors who complain that Venice is “too expensive” – the age-old debate of price versus value.

Schiavi (Fondamenta Nani)
A beaker of Chiaretto at one of Venice’s most charming wine bars, followed by meditations on the history of Baccalà (creamed stockfish), and on Tintoretto’s The Last Supper in the nearby church of San Trovaso.

An ombra at Schiavi




Hotel Villa Laguna (The Venice Lido)
Watching the sunset with the help of a Spritz Select, and an assessment of the various Spritz hybrids currently available, and an overview of how the drink was developed and marketed over the last century.

Al Todaro (the Piazzetta)
A beaker of refreshing but non-alcoholic Gingerino, the better to contemplate in sobriety the dramatic havoc wrought on Venice by Napoleon, including his destruction of the Bucintoro, state barge of the Doges, and his demolition of the old church of San Geminiano.

Hotel Palazzetto Pisani (off Campo Santo Stefano)
My new cocktail, The Red Priest, in the bar of this superb boutique hotel hidden away behind the Conservatorio - and a celebration of Antonio Vivaldi with an account of Ezra Pound's part in the rediscovery of many of his lost concerti. Further celebrations, of Winnaretta Singer de Polignac and Peggy Guggenheim, two prominent American heiresses whose palaces can be seen from the bar balcony overlooking the Grand Canal.

Ba’Ghetto (the Ghetto)
A sparkling and kosher glass of Bartenura Moscato d'Asti, and a celebration of the life and work of Michelaneglo Guggenheim, the great C19 Jewish-Venetian art dealer and decorator whose family migrated to Venice in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars.

Al Remer (near Rialto, overlooking the Grand Canal)
A bottle of Malvasia at this enchanting courtyard restaurant-bar overlooking the Grand Canal, and a look back at the Lion family, who built this unusual palace after the disastrous Siege of Acre in 1291, when they were forced to flee the Levant and return home to Venice.

Rosa Salva (Campo SS Giovanni e Paolo)
A warming glass of orange punch, a selection of Venetian biscuits, and a celebration of Dr. Giuseppe Jona, hero of the Jewish Resistance in Venice during WW2.

Caffè Rosso (Campo Santa Margherita)
A Mojito (as favoured by the throngs of Venetian undergraduates who congregate here) followed by an unusual tale about an enterprising local hotelier who declared this area the "Republicca di Margherita", shortly before WW1. Later, what had been little more than a "Republican" dining-club became a symbol of local resistance to Fascism in the Twenties, when pitched brawls took place in the campo between factions of the Left and Right.

Torcello
Finally, not a bar, but a hip flask, charged as always with a honey-scented grappa from the Poli Distillerie. A long walk in the meadows and enchanted marshland beyond Torcello - and a visit to the basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, to inspect an exquisite C11 relief plaque depicting wing-sandalled Kairos, the personification of the Opportune Moment, so easily found in Venice, and yet so easily missed or lost.

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