Thurs, 16 June 2016, 12:00 pm: In the San Polo district of Venice, near the famed Rialto Bridge, you’ll find Cantina Do Mori.
Actually, you might NOT find it, unless you’re with me or someone else who knows the ropes. Like every other place you’ll read about in these June 2016 adventures of mine, Cantina Do Mori is not on the tourist drag. It takes a kindhearted local or a paid guide to explain where you’ll find the authentic restaurants in Venice. I certainly didn’t know the first time I was here. Once you know, you can choose to enlighten a select few of your friends or to keep it to yourself and help preserve what makes these places great, which is the fact that the ignorant wealthy Viking Cruise passengers never speedwalk within three alleys of ’em. (As soon as my hit counter tops a few hundred, posts like this one will be modified or deleted to make sure our secrets stay secrets. You early supporters of MATT, TAKE ME TO EUROPE deserve a little inside scoop.)
It looks like small private apartments are above the cantina. Those residents hopefully enjoy the sounds of wine glasses clinking and small plates rattling, because as many patrons of the restaurant end up congregating on the street out front as in the small interior space.
You don’t come here for some kind of expensive sit-down meal. You come here for cicchetti.
The concept of cicchetti is conveyed conveniently in this clip.
You scope out all the appetizers. You pick one, or two, or three. Simply point at ’em if you don’t wanna brave the pronunciation. Each snack is probably three bites’ worth and costs between 1,50 and 3,00 Euro. You can load up a small plate and still not spend nearly as much as you would for a regular meal at a “please be seated” establishment, where here in Venice the food quality will average between “meh” and “I paid HOW much for that?!”
Probably the house specialty of the cicchetti at Cantina do Mori is the codfish, served as a white spread on a small piece of toast.
For two bucks you can choose a generous chunk of regional salami.
While at the counter selecting your cicchetti, ask for a glass of one of the wines listed on chalkboards around the room.
Sample away. Take turns sipping each others’ wines until you find one you want your own little glass of. The joy of a cicchetti meal is in the mixing and matching. No commitment— with the appetizers and the wines, you’re just dating around.