Bar Benevento and the long Italian morning
Bar Benevento is an all-day coffee and pasta bar, from the Izzillo brothers behind de Vine Food and Wine and former restaurant Wildfire. Expect espresso at the bar next to a stranger, old-school Italian music and a morning cocktail made with Strega.
Bar Benevento is named after the Campanian city where the Izzillo brothers’ father was born, and that family story runs through the whole room. Retro posters from Benevento cover the windows, vintage Italian art and delicatessen goods crowd the walls, and a giant bottle of Strega greets you at the door. It is busy, a little chaotic and exactly the kind of place where chatting to the person next to you is part of the deal.
In the kitchen, head chef and co-owner Tim Fisher keeps the southern Italian flavours familiar and finds unexpected ways to serve them. Breakfast leans big and playful, lunch brings old-school pasta specials, and the drinks list makes a morning cocktail feel completely reasonable. The wine list covers all 20 Italian regions with a focus on the south, and the prices are written straight onto the bottles.
Quick Bites
EAT: The oversized ricotta and egg yolk raviolo with Strega hollandaise.
DRINK: Ask for a Strega, with ten variations on the shelf, or pick a morning cocktail from the troppo presto list.
PLAY: It suits weekday breakfast meeting, a coffee near Town Hall before work or a lunch that drifts into an amaro.
VIBE CHECK: Friendly, social, all-day affair
