<a target="_blank" href="https://www.daromano.it/">Da Romano</a>

Via Baldassarre Galuppi, 221

30142 Burano (VE)

Tel. +39&nbsp;041 730030

BY IAN D'AGATA&nbsp;| DECEMBER 05, 2019The Food:

Boiled
spider crab meat with salad; boiled mantis shrimp with extra-virgin olive oil
and lemon; and octopus with extra-virgin olive oil and lemon (Grancevola al vapore in letto di insalata; canocchie
al vapore, olio e limone; e polipi, olio e limone)

Sardines
and scampi in saor (Sardine e scampi in saor con polenta bianca)

Romano’s
fish risotto (Risotto di pesce alla
Romano)

Esse and bussolai cookies

The Wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>2012 Col
 Sandago Wildbacher Metodo Classico</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">92</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2016&nbsp;Orto di Venezia&nbsp;Bianco Orto di
 Venezia </td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">91</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2010 Bosco del Merlo Verduzzo
 Passito Soandre&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">90</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>NV Zanovelli/Ca’ Lustra
 Moscato Naturale di Raetia</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">90</td>
 </tr></tbody></table><img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1575557737589-Welcome+to+da+Romano_copy.jpg"> Welcome to Da RomanoIt’s
four generations and counting at Da Romano, where members of the Barbaro family
have been serving hungry diners since the 1800s. Actually, in the beginning,
the Barbaros ran an emporium that sold a variety of different items but also
cooked simple dishes for the locals and fishermen who traveled to and from
Burano daily. It was only in 1920 that Romano Barbaro took over the place from
his father and turned it into a full-fledged trattoria, moving it a few times before finally settling on the
restaurant’s present-day location in 1947.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1575558314629-Beautiful%2C+multi-colored+Burano_copy.jpg"> The beautiful, multi-colored island of Burano Burano
is one of Italy’s prettiest islands, characterized by its many striking colored
houses. It’s unclear why the locals decided to light up the façades of their
small homes with such bright colors (Burano is a rainbow of vivid yellows,
oranges, blues, greens, reds and more), but theories abound, ranging from the
desire of fishermen returning home from long trips to see their homes from
afar, to (more likely) an attempt to ward off the plague by cleaning up the
walls and painting them anew; at some point in time, different colors began to
be mixed into the paint. Da Romano is one of those places that you just can’t help
but like, with its authentic Venetian cuisine, friendly service and a pretty if
cluttered interior. (There’s more breathing room and less noise in the
relatively spacious eating area outside.) Inside, everywhere you look there are
photographs, framed letters, posters, artwork and memorabilia attesting to the
restaurant’s many years of faithful service to both new and returning
customers. The place is a truly special one, and it has had its fair share of
famous clients. Romano Barbaro in particular loved to hang out with artists, as
is demonstrated by the more than 450 paintings adorning the restaurant’s walls,
by the likes of Beppe Ciardi, Lucio Fontana and Ardengo Soffici, among others,
all well-known Italian artists. Over the years, international diners have
included Stanley Kubrick, Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, Brian De Palma,
Philippe Starck, Keith Richards (who apparently always asks to finish off his
meal by going upstairs to have a smoke and play the piano), Robert De Niro,
Sylvester Stallone and Joan Miró (one of the many artists who over the years
have gifted Da Romano with artworks – in Miró’s case, a small drawing created on
the occasion of the 1948 Venice Biennale art exhibition). <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1575558341167-Cannocchie%2C+grancevola+and+polpi_copy.jpg"> Boiled spider crab meat with salad, boiled mantis shrimp with extra-virgin olive oil and lemon, and octopus with extra-virgin olive oil and lemonThe
restaurant is decidedly old-fashioned, with uniformed, mostly elderly and
charming waiters who take their job seriously and with pride. The food is also
totally classic, featuring traditional Venetian recipes and first-rate
ingredients. Clearly, as the island of Burano has a long fishing history, it is
fish, crustaceans and shellfish that play the biggest role on the menu. You’ll
never go wrong by ordering Venetian classics such as the scampi or sardines in saor, the grancevola (spider crab) or the canocchie
(mantis shrimp). Be aware that cannocchie
are heavenly-tasting critters, but as it’s particularly hard to separate the
meat from their exoskeletons, I suggest you ask to have them cleaned for you so
that you don’t end up wasting half the sweet, moist, flaky and very flavorful
flesh. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1575558350507-Sardines+and+scampi+in+saor%2C+grilled+white+polenta_copy.jpg"> Sardines and scampi in saor with grilled white polentaCall
me predictable, but I always have these three dishes to start when I go to
Romano, and I am never disappointed. However, the restaurant’s most famous dish
is the namesake risotto, made with the go’ fish (ghiotto di laguna in Italian), a small-finned creature that is
abundant in the Venetian lagoon but hard to come by nowadays due to the lack of
fishermen. (I’ve written about this fish and the specific risotto dish that it characterizes
in a previous Vinous Table; see <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-ristorante-quadri-venice-may-2015">Ristorante Quadri, May 2015.</a>) Desserts are also
good, but I personally love to finish my meal here with a few of the excellent
homemade hard cookies typical of Venice, the esse and the bussolai.
The bussolai, also known as buranelli, are made with egg yolks,
flour, sugar and almost criminal amounts of butter; they are the oldest of
these two traditional Venetian cookies. The origin of the bussolai, which are rather chunky round cookies, dates back to at
least six or seven centuries ago, when the wives of the local fishermen would
hand their husbands bags of these cookies (which keep extremely well) when they
left on long fishing trips. Then, only a few centuries ago, a local restaurateur
asked a baker if he could come up with a different shape for the bussolai;&nbsp;I’m sure the true gourmets realize,
as did the clever restaurateur, that a big, thick cookie is not especially easy
to dip in caffè latte or in a passito. And thus was born the other
famous Venetian cookie, the esse (plural
essi). Other than the shape, there is
little difference between the two cookies, though perhaps the essi are a little more flaky and less
stiffly textured than the bussolai.
In the ultimate analysis, the best shape is really a matter of individual
preference, and anyway, both are heavenly. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1575558362846-tableside+portioning+of+the+go%27risotto+is+an+artform+at+da+Romano_copy.jpg"> Tableside&nbsp;portioning of the go'risotto is an art form&nbsp;at Da Romano As
always at Da Romano, I drank simply but well.
The 2012 Col Sandago Wildbacher Metodo
Classico is a real beauty, a flavorful, juicy and precise pink bubbly made
with a little-known traditional grape of Veneto. Simply put, it’s an absolutely
delicious sparkler, packing in lots of strawberry and floral flavors. Much
better known and with quite a cult following is the Orto di Venezia, a white
wine blend made on the Venetian island of Sant’Erasmo from varying percentages
of mostly Malvasia Istriana and Vermentino, with a little Fiano. The 2016 Bianco Orto di Venezia struck
me as a little riper and more savory than usual, but it’s still an outstanding
wine. I finished off my relaxed meal with two lovely sweet wines. The NV Zanovelli/Ca’ Lustra Moscato Naturale di
Raetia is a blend of mostly Moscato Giallo with a little Moscato Bianco;
though it smells rich and opulent, it proves surprisingly lifted and fresh on
the palate and has a lovely aromatic charge that is nicely persistent. Much
richer and thicker is the 2010 Bosco del
Merlo Verduzzo Passito Soandre, which offers Verduzzo’s typically tannic palate
and opulent, caramelly, candied mouthfeel. The latter makes a perfect
accompaniment to the essi and the bussolai. And no, I did not dip the
cookies in the wine glass, which was not the case with virtually everyone else
around me in the restaurant. Actually, in thinking it over, I may well have
been the one who missed out on having even more fun than I already had. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1575558377172-da+wines_copy.jpg">

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