A Guide to Venice’s Best Bacari

BY IAN D'AGATA | MAY 13, 2018 

I live in Venice anywhere from one weekend to one week a month. There is nothing in the world I like more than a good “bacaro”, the city’s historic standing bars where patrons order and drink directly at the bar counter. Over the years many bacari have expanded, also offering table service more in the style of the city’s osterie).

Traffic hour in Venice...only there!

The word bacaro (pronounced bàcaro, with the accent on the first “a”) derives from the Venetian habit of referring to a glass of wine as an ombra (what in Friuli Venezia they would call a tajut), the Italian word for “shadow”. This is because of the ancient practice of those who sold wine in Venice to place their stalls in the shadow of St. Mark’s bell tower in order to keep the bottles wine as cold as possible, for as long as possible. In fact, it is still common for us in Venice to say andar per ombre (or literally and poetically “going for shadows”) which means hitting the various wine bars during the mid-day morning break or for aperitivi at night.

Historically, bacari were never full-blown restaurants, and were never the place where to have a complete meal. That was the realm of the osterie. The bacari were much simpler affairs, one of humanity’s original wine bars, ideal watering holes for all those who could not afford the time or the money for multi-course meals. In fact, the original bacari did not serve food at all, but limited themselves to serving drinks. People might stop for a quick bite on the go or grab simple (but tasty) food in the frittolin, small shops specialized in the frying of small fish served out of a paper cone and eaten while walking about, a local ancestor of street food. In this specific case, “walking” meant “walking over” to the nearest bacaro in order to wash down the fish fry with a good glass of wine.

Space being what it is at most bacari, a little creativity goes a long way in stacking the food

Therefore, all bacari are rather simple, even spartan, in their looks. Typically, they are very small, and do not have any chairs. Guests just eat and drink while standing at the bar or bring their drinks outside. Of course, not suffering from claustrophobia or anthropophobia is a big help as bacari can get quite packed with hungry (but usually well behaved) throngs of people. Through the centuries, the typical look of a bacaro has never wavered: dark wooden chairs, dark bar tables, a more or less small glass encased area where the cicchetti (or cicheti) Venice’s typical food snacks (similar to Spain’s tapas) are placed in full view of the hungry bacaro-goers. The food at most bacari is remarkably similar. Hearty and simply prepared, it is the freshness and quality of the ingredients that sets the various bacari apart food-wise.