La Barrique

Via del Boschetto, 41B

00184 Roma, IT

Tel.&nbsp;+39 06 4782 5953

BY IAN D'AGATA | MAY 16, 2019&nbsp; The Food:

Tongue
with salsa verde (Lingua in salsa verde)

Veal
sweetbreads with potatoes and sage
(Animelle di vitello con patate e salvia)

Chickpea
cream with sesame and roasted octopus
(Crema di ceci e sesamo con polpo verace arrostito)

Meatballs
in sauce (Polpette al sugo)

Creamed
salt cod and bell peppers au gratin (Baccalà mantecato con peperoni gratinati)

Lamb
and green salad (Agnello e insalatina
verde)

The Wines:

<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>2017 Ciro
 Picariello Fiano di Avellino&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">90</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2017 Fernand Engel Sylvaner
 Réserve Alsace</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">91</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>1976 Benedikt Loosen-Erben
 Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">94</td>
 </tr></tbody></table>

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1558027762489-The+snug+cozy+interior+at+La+Barrique_copy.jpg"> The snug and cozy interior at La Barrique One
of Rome’s best osterie, La Barrique
is located in the city’s trendy Monti quartiere,
an area teeming with good-quality, easygoing and generally quite cozy dining
establishments. Conveniently located near theaters and the Opera, La Barrique
is a haven of well-cooked, simple but delectable traditional recipes made from
high-quality ingredients. The small dining room has an endearing, warm vintage
feel, featuring wood panels, blackboards announcing the day’s dishes, brass
lamps, wood tables and chairs, shelves loaded with bottles from all over, and a
wooden bar at the entry where locals like to hang out and have a glass of wine
(or two) while you and others eat at the small tables. It all adds up to a
warm, homey feeling, not unlike that of a brasserie in the Marais or a small
Italian countryside trattoria, making
for a relaxing evening that you’ll find yourself wanting to come back to again and
again. <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1558027685045-octopus_copy.jpg"> 

Chickpea cream with sesame and roasted octopus The
menu at La Barrique is not vast (about five or six antipasti, three pastas, six or seven entrées; the lunch menu is
even more compact) but hits plenty of high notes. There are no examples of
technical wizardry or culinary inventiveness to be found here, but it doesn’t
really matter, because that’s not what you come here for. And besides, just
about anything you order will seem like it couldn’t have been cooked any
better. For example, I eat a ton of octopus, a personal staple that I never
tire of. And yet I cannot remember having had a better grilled octopus dish all
year long than La Barrique’s rendition. Sweet and deep in its flavor profile,
with good spring to its texture, the octopus meat was marvelously complemented
by a suave chickpea cream that added a welcome hint of leguminous sweetness to
the charbroiled flavors of the octopus. Decent meatballs are hard to find
nowadays in Rome (your chances increase on Thursdays, when old traditional-minded
restaurants tend to make them) but La Barrique’s are perfectly rendered, accompanied
by a delicious sweet and tangy tomato sauce that is an invitation to break out
the bread and clean up your plate (go ahead; nobody at La Barrique will mind, mainly
because they’ll be too busy doing exactly the same thing). My lamb, creamed cod
and veal sweetbreads were just as good and flavorful as everything else I tried
on this night.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1558027726560-lambwith+green+salad_copy.jpg"> 

Lamb and green salad One
can drink extremely well at La Barrique, thanks to the many wines from Italy
and abroad chosen with real acumen by owner Fabrizio Pagliardi (who opened La
Barrique with a couple of partners and his niece Arianna only a decade ago or
so) –&nbsp; and even better, without having to
spend an arm and a leg. If bubbles are your thing, you’ll find that, just like
almost everywhere else in Italy nowadays. There is an excellent selection of
grower Champagnes to choose from. For lovers of natural wines, there are plenty
of those on the list, too.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1558027745685-The+wines_copy.jpg"> 

I opted
to go with white wines from three of my favorite wine regions in the world
(Campania, Alsace and the Mosel) and could not have been any happier with the
beauties that graced my glasses. The 2017
Ciro Picariello Fiano di Avellino is its usual brilliant lemony, mineral
self, though in a warmer, slightly richer style than normal because of the radiant
2017 vintage. Also blessed with a few octanes more than is customary, the 2017 Fernand Engel Sylvaner Réserve Alsace
showcases this underrated grape variety, one that gives a whole gamut of different
wines, from brightly acidic and fresh, to rich and ripe in a late harvest mode.
This one is an absolutely lovely, easy-to-drink example of a Sylvaner wine that
boasts sneaky complexity and density of quince, chamomile, white peach and
mineral aromas and flavors. Last but not least, the 1976 Benedikt Loosen-Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese is a
work of art. From a relatively warm vintage that gave many amazing wines that
drank splendidly early on but didn’t necessarily age as well as one expects
from Mosel Riesling, this one is in no danger of falling apart anytime soon.
Characterized by an amazingly steep slope and red volcanic and slate soils,
Ürzig’s Würzgarten vineyard gives some of the Mosel’s spiciest, earthiest
tropical-fruit-infused wines. This Auslese magically combines rapier-like
acidity and honeyed sweetness, and it’s presently one of the best-drinking
wines I’ve tried in some time.

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social