When in Rome eat as the romans do…

Even though the old “adagio” goes: “when in Rome eat as the romans do”, do not expect anymore to find them eating amatriciana & carbonara every day.

Despite the recent right-wing party success at the national and municipal election held in April and the consequent raising sentiments of intollerance directed to immigrants and clandestines, the Eternal City is little by little being conquered by new culinary tendences represented by an unexpected appetite for Indian, Japanese and Middle East cuisine. Read the rest of this entry »

Open Colonna, just another try.

Yep, even today I lunched at Antonello Colonna’s new restaurant in Rome named Open Colonna and based within the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.

As mentioned in my previous post the formula is quite amazing: 15 euro for a complete menu including first and second course, dessert, coffee, water and wine.

Actually there’s no menu a la carte: there’s only the menu of the day where you have can choose between 2 available first course, 2 available second course and 2 dessert.
For example today’s menu included: hand made gnocchi with pesto e ricotta cheese or a cereal soup, veal with green peppers or small cuttlefishes, panna cotta or cheese cake.

Ingriediends are fresh and genuine. Eating is a pleasure also for your eyes due to the exciting architectural feature of the building where the restaurant is hosted.

Antonello Colonna is spending most of his time doing PR or chatting and meeting collaborators in order to get things get going: the new adventure is just at the beginning and he has a lot of suprises in his chef hat!

Open Colonna: a new restaurant in Rome

Re-opened this week, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome is back after five years restoration with some interesting exhibitions dedicated to Mark Rothko, Stanley Kubrich and Mario Ceroli.

But my favorite attraction is the new exclusive restaurant named Open Colonna after the acclaimed chef Antonello Colonna who is responsible for giving the restaurant its particular style.
The restaurant is located within the “serra” or conservatory, which is an exciting new architectural feature of the building with striking impact.

Today, at lunch time, I’ve spent an hour with some colleauges trying for the first time the menu.

Well, the menu, in terms of quality and pricing, is really surprising and valuable for Rome, which remains quite an expesive and often dissapointing city for the quality of its lunch consisting typically in pizza, sandwiches and salads: so 15 euro for a first and second course, water, wine, dessert and coffee prepared by a Michelin starred chef is trully a bargain!!!

If you consider that this is the opening week, we can expect that the daily menu in the next days is going to get better and better; so my suggestion is: at lunch or at dinner it really worths a try!

And then don’t forget Rothklo and Kubrick: good food and art are a really great combination!