Dan and my friend, Hugh, is in the wine industry, so when we were in Rome, he sent us over a few dinner/wine bar recommendations to try while we were in town! Usually I am a little picky about people’s restaurant or wine recommendations, but this guy knows his stuff and introduced us to Portuguese wine, which led to our wedding in Portugal! Enter L’Angolo Divino, a wine bar near Campo de’ Fiori, which was definitely our hang out spot when we studied in Rome…. We called and made a reservation same day (and probably did not need a reservation). 

Despite it being late December in Rome, we walked to dinner (it was mid 50s F!) and were promptly seated at a cute table next to a window overlooking the street. The restaurant is quite small and when we visited, all of the patrons seemed to be tourists. This was a bit unsettling, but it turned out great.

Our first task was a look at the menu, which confirmed that this is definitely more of a wine bar than a restaurant. If you visit here, know that the menu is not that large, but everything we ordered was fabulous. The wine list is also huge!

Before our food, we ordered glasses of organic sparkling wine from a vineyard named Allegretto in the Piedmont region. Fun fact: Dan’s great grandfather, Fedele Guido Pizzaguerra, is also from the Piedmont region! And yes, that is really his name! Since 1 glass is never enough, we also ordered a 2013 Brunello di Montalcino to decant while we drank our sparkling wine. 

We finally got around to ordering food, and we started with bruschetta with lard, Roman Pecorino, and local honey. Some people may think this sounds strange, but Italian lard is totally delicious and paired perfectly with the local honey and Roman Pecorino. L’Angolo Divino serves a few types of bruschetta (i.e. toasted bread topped with something, commonly tomatoes) and all were served in pairs of 2 – perfect for splitting!

For our main courses, we split two classic Italian (well, at least in the US) dishes: meatballs in red sauce and a pasta with pesto! First up for me, the pesto pasta; one of my favorite dishes, which I usually only get further north (in Liguria). At L’Angolo Divino, the pasta was cooked perfectly and the pesto sauce was delicious, although a tad bit different (and darker) than I am used to.  In any case, I would 100% order this dish again! The portion looks a little small in this picture, but this was more than enough for one person.

The second entree, which, again, we split, were meatballs topped with red sauce with a side of roasted potatoes. The potatoes were just ok, but the meatballs were so, SO good! I would also note that its not terribly common to find meatballs like this in Rome – their home is a bit further south, but these were GOOD. It was also a treat to unexpectedly try meatballs in Rome!

We skipped dessert and dessert wine if favor for a walk and a stop at a beer store we passed en route to dinner.  We successfully found the beer shop post dinner – Johnny’s Off License Beer shop – and it was such a fun surprise. Besides selling Cantillon and a European collaboration with Hill Farmstead, they had an adorable beer dog AND excellent beer. We bought a couple bottles of Cantillon to bring back to the good old USA. Side note for beer geeks, Italy is a great place to buy Cantillon. Put it in a wine bag in your checked luggage and it should be fine to drink at home.

STEAL OUR DINNER

L’Angolo Divino: Via dei Balestrari, 12, 00186 Roma RM, Italy (close to Campo de’ Fiori). Open Tuesday – Saturday 11h – 15h, 17h – 1:30h. Reservations probably not required. Casual dress. Thanks, Hugh, for the recommendation!!

Johnny’s Off License Bottle Shop: 4A-4B, Via Veio, 00183 Roma RM, Italy. Open 10h – 22h. Closed Sunday. Great craft beer selection.