A Guide to Venice’s
Best Bacari

BY IAN D'AGATA | MAY 13, 2018&nbsp;

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). <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257408778-Traffic+hour+in+Venice...only+there%21+copy.jpg"> 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.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257335684-Space+being+what+it+is+at+most+bacari%2C+a+little+creativity+goes+a+long+way+in+stacking+up+the+food++copy.jpg"> 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. 

A list of the
most famous cicheti of Venice includes grilled small squid, cuttlefish and peas, octopus
in various sauces, marinated anchovies, some version of saor (a real Venetian staple, any saor preparation consists in the main ingredient, usually sardines
but it might be something as different as pumpkin, marinated with onion, pine
nuts and raisins in a mix of oil, vinegar and white wine), marinated eels,
deviled eggs, eggs with anchovies, dried omelette
with red Treviso chicory, polenta (in Venice, you’ll find it most often made
from white corn meal, not yellow), baccalà
mantecato (salted cod), meatballs,
nervetti with onions (nervetti
are the veal’s cartilage of the shin and knee), boiled beans, and fresh-fried
anchovies. While the food
is hearty, simple and very tasty but not especially different from bacaro to bacaro, the wine lists can differ immensely, with the wine range
spanning from cheap, cheerful and very local, to famous and much sought after.

Some of Venice’s bacari are truly historic and have been around for what seems like
forever. These are some of my personal favorites.&nbsp;

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.aciugheta.com/en/">Aciugheta</a>

Campiello Santi Filippo e Giacomo, 4357; tel. +39 041 520-8280

Aciugheta is more
bistro than bacaro and offers lots of
space and bright lights. The food is solid if not memorable and the wine list
impressive, though on my most recent night there I was miffed by just how many
different wines on the list were unavailable. Perhaps I just had bad luck on this
night out with my wine choices, but this is something that hopefully won’t
happen again on my next visit (otherwise, it will be my last time there). The
place is run by the folks of Il Ridotto, the famous restaurant right across the
small square and in fact one can choose to ask for that wine list too.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257125725-the+sleek+modernist+bar+at+Aciugheta+copy.jpg">The sleek modernist bar at Aciugheta All'Arco

Sestiere San Polo 436, Calle Ochialera, 3012; tel. +39 041 520-5666

All'Arco offers a
range of traditional dishes from Veneto as well as Venice such as marinated
anchovies and baccalà mantecato, that
all can be washed down with a decent choice of local wines.&nbsp;

Bacarando
in Corte dell’Orso

San Marco 5495; tel. +39 041 523-8280&nbsp;

Bacarando in Corte dell’Orso is an upscale and large place, but getting to
the bar counter and the food come lunchtime can be akin to scaling the Everest,
given how packed it. Remarkably, nobody ever seems to blow a fuse, despite the
kilometric wait). Once you have chosen your rather good-looking cicheti, the baccalà mantecato, fried calamari, and polpette are all quite good, the wine list is replete with wines
from Veneto and Italy and choices are both good and varied.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257435183-Typcial+bacaro+fare+at+Bacarando+copy.jpg"> Typcial bacaro fare at Bacarando 

Bacaro
Risorto

Campo S. Provolo 4700; tel. +39 340 301-7047

The ultra-traditional Bacaro Risorto lies just beyond Aciugheta, over a bridge and a small
square. This is an archetypical Venetian bacaro:
small, unbelievably cramped (you cannot open one of the doors to get in, for
everybody is either sitting or leaning against it, so your only hope is to
enter from a sliding door off to the side which proves far more efficient in
letting you get in). Bacaro Ristorto requires you not to mind close human
contact or to like eating at off-hours (really off-hours); try eating at the
normal lunch hour and I guarantee you’ll feel like a water buffalo trying to
get a drink in the desert’s only watering hole. The food at Bacaro Risorto is
simple, tasty and honest, as are the rather idiosyncratic wines available.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257383749-The+wine+never+stops+flowing+at+Bacaro+Risorto....+copy.jpg"> The wine never stops flowing at Bacaro Risorto 

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.osteriabancogiro.it/">Bancogiro</a>

Campo San Giacometto 122, Rialto; tel. +39
041 523-2061&nbsp;

Bancogiro is both a bacaro and an osteria, is
one of my favorite spots of all: the cicheti
are copious, the wine list excellent (lots of choices from all over Italy)
and the view, especially if you are able to snag a stool at the back in the
main room is totally Venice, as you’ll have the water and beautiful old
buildings staring right back at you. It’s the sort of place that Venice does so
incredibly and uniquely well, and gives “grabbing a bite to eat” a whole new
and very Venetian meaning.

<a target="_blank" href="https://cantinadospade.com/">Cantina Do Spade</a> 

Calle Spade San Polo 860; tel. +39
041 521-0583

There is
something like 600 years of history at Cantina Do Spade another one of the places where Casanova
apparently liked to hang out (this bacaro,
now actually more of an osteria where
you can sit down, takes its name from a duel between noblemen on a nearby
bridge in the 15th century).

Cantina Do
Mori 

San Polo 429; tel. +39 041
522-5401&nbsp;

Cantina Do Mori, once better known simply as Do Mori, and located near the Rialto fish market, was founded in
1462. Apparently Giacomo Casanova was a regular. It is a beautiful, old-fashioned
place with many demi-johns from which to pick wine, dark wood everywhere, and
copper pots and pans hanging from the walls. It’s the only bacaro in Venice that has two entry points from two different calli (the calli are the alleys of Venice) and has been run by the same
ownership duo for something like twenty years. It’s the place to go for
outstanding baccalà, the francobolli (or “stamps”, in English), Venice’s
famous ultra-small sandwiches, and many varieties of meatballs, but they also
have some primi should you feel
especially hungry. Make sure you are not too tired to stand and wrestle with
the hungry crowd.&nbsp;

Ca d’Oro
alla VedovaCalle Ca d'Oro, 30121; tel. 39
041 528-5324

When it comes to meatballs, Venice’s best are
those of Ca d’Oro alla Vedova. Tucked away in a small alley; it is another of
Venice’s oldest bacari (established
in 1891). Today it is part bacaro and
part osteria (mostly osteria, actually) but if you want to
sit down, you must reserve ahead (at lunchtime, the place gets so amazingly
packed that even standing there while trying to gobble down food and wine becomes
a chore). The wine list is small but is full of excellent estates, such as Primosic
and Pieropan.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257530892-Venice+food+in+a+nutshell+octopus+and+potatos%2C+sarde+in+saor+copy.jpg"> Venice food in a nutshell - octopus and potatoes, sarde in saor<a target="_blank" href="http://www.cantinaschiavi.com/">Enoteca Cantinone Già Schiavi</a>Fondamenta
Nani 992, Dorsoduro 30123; tel. +39 041 523-0034&nbsp;

Wine is one of the main calling cards of Enoteca
Cantinone Già Schiavi, where the impossibility of sitting
down stings less thanks to a selection of five hundred different wines.&nbsp;

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.airusteghi.com/">I Rusteghi Osteria</a>

Corte del Tentor; tel. +39 041 523-2205&nbsp;

I Rusteghi Osteria is also upscale, but
amazingly small (something like two or three tables only inside tightly packed
quarters and an even smaller standing bar area) but features outstanding salumi and above average wine
selections, including older vintages of famous Italian wines and a solid lineup
of French greats.&nbsp;

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.osteriaalportego.org/">Osteria al Portego</a>

Calle Della Malvasia Castello
6014; tel. +39 041 522-9038&nbsp;

Osteria al Portego is
another dining spot that offers a bacaro-osteria
combo that is one of Venice’s best; in fact, be aware that should you
decide to reserve a table and sit down in the room’s back area, dishes such as
the delightful pastas can be quite inventive (the bigoli mori con castagne and ossobuco, for example) and the
portions quite copious. While the bacaro
area upfront can get quite packed and noisy, the back room is quieter and more
relaxed. I think it is fair to say that the wines here are few and local, but
not the main cause of attraction.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257281842-Portego%27s+bar+counter%2C+or+where+cicheti+rule+copy.jpg"> Portego's bar counter, or where cicheti rule 

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/Osteria-ai-Promessi-Sposi-181819751868585/">Osteria
La Bottega ai Promessi Sposi</a>

Calle de l'Oca 4367, Cannaregio,
30121; tel. +39 041 241-2747

One of my favorite dining stops is the Osteria La Bottega ai Promessi Sposi which is a little brighter and more spacious
than most other bacari. The food is
very good and very fresh, and the wine list, though simple, is well above
average with rare regional wines by the glass or by the bottle, such as
Serafini &amp; Vidotto’s excellent Recantina (a medium-bodied red wine made
from the local native grape of same name). <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1526257226900-Inviting+food+display+at+Promessi+Sposi+copy.jpg">The inviting food display at Promessi Sposi&nbsp;&nbsp; 

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