Anima Mundi, Rome

Anima Mundi

Your first impression, after You will get in this bar, will be : ´´?´´ The interior is really nothing special… Bar desk is situated on your left with only a few barstools, leaving enough space for people passing towards to the back of the bar, where are tables, chairs and a biiig TV on the wall.

The desing itself is nothing worth describing except of one thing :

Whoever was designing the working area deserves punch into the face. This ´´engineer´´  left Z-E-R-O personal space for the staff working on the bar and even in the kitchen. By Z-E-R-O I mean that You, as a guess sitting on any barstool, can witness every single move of every member of the personell. Sure, for guests it's nice, because You can watch your orders being prepared, but from the point of the bartender it is very exhausting to ''be on display'' for the entire shift. By the way, the kitchen is very, very small and even there, there is definetelly not more space than for 1 person – chef. And here starts the trouble again : The service will automatically get worse, as your waiter will be eating right next to You at some certain point of the night, which looks horrible. Serving the beverages from bartenders to waiters goes over the bar too, thanks to the lack of space, which led staff to remove a few barstools to get AT LEAST some space.

But don't get me wrong. Anima Mundi is a big bar with a lot of capacity. Just the desing is … nightmare for personell.

And even here the very popular style of smoking in front of the bar, in duty time, in uniform comes again. If You are careful/regular readers of my blog, You know what I think about it…

My big, big disappointment got a little bit eased by opening the menu, chatting with my bartender and eating FANTASTIC piadina. Here in Anima Mundi are quite original. They have a bunch of their own homemade syrups, infusions of spirits and great-looking garnishes.

My first cocktail was a twisted Aviation : a classical recipe up to the standards with its base change. Instead of a classic gin You will get a Gordon's Gin infused by rose petals.

,,We use Gordon's for these infusions, because the taste is sharp and its aroma is even sharper´´  says the bartender : ,,If You will infuse a very aromatic gin, by adding another aromatic substance, it will multiply its effect.´´

Hell yeah! He is absolutely right. ,,By the way, are you Stefano, by any chance?´´ I am asking carefully. He laughs and replies that he is not, however Stefano will come later, as he is the main boss of Anima Mundi. He got a little bit suspicious to me, so I had to explain, that I have a message for him from Simone that is working in Lockwood bar in Paris. ,,OF COURSE I KNOW SIMONE!!´´  He yells so loudly and happily, that even other guests are turning their heads towards to us. ,,How is he doing? How is the bar? How was Paris? Is he happy there? ´´ he is just shooting  all these questions at me…

,,Woowowowwowow, man – easy, easy please.´´ I am trying to calm him down, before he will get a hearthattack. ,,Lockwood is definetelly a place to be, if You are in Paris, and Simone is surely enojoying the time he is working there...´´

By the end of this conversation my cocktail was finished.  I ordered next one without any hesistation:

Le Roobois

-        Gin infused with Roobois tea - aromatized by orange, pepper (green and pink) and a ginger

-        Fesh grapefruit juice

-        Fresh lemon juice

-        Rose syrup

-        Orange bitters

Very refreshing, very aromatic drink with golden colour absolutely got me. Not so sweet, but not quite bitter, not too strong or weak and yet not watery – this perfectly ballanced cocktail is very hard to put to words. In this cocktail You will be able to appreciate very entertaining combination of mutliple tastes, perfectly matching each other. I honestly hope, that this cocktail will stay there even after the menu will change. Please Anima Mundi, make it house brand cocktail!

Few moments later I was about to finish my cocktail and I was ready to leave the bar, so I prepared a napkin, where was written :

                                                          ´´To Stefano,

                                                           Simone from Lockwood bar in Paris says Hi to Anima Mundi!

                                                                                - Random guy with Barguide4u blog.´´

I gave it to the bartender and I asked him, if he can give it to the main boss when he arrives. He nodded like 100x and said of course, of course no problem! And then he looked at the door and there was one person standing.

,,Actually, Stefano is him´´ he laughed and gave him the napking right away. The boss of the Anima Mundi came to me, introduced himself and looked down at the napkin. His reaction was unbelievable. I was so happy that I didn't leave the bar before, because I would miss this : ,, Mio Dio, Simoooneeee!´´ And then a little smile appeared on his face, he took a deep breath and then he started to laugh out loud. You could read from his expression : ,,Aww, those good old days.´´ We had a nice, short, friendly chat like : ,, ,,How is Simone? How is the bar? How was Paris? Is he happy there? ´´ ….

I could probably choose a better place to go, however I regret nothing. My mission was complete and together with a great cocktail and great piadina it was worth it.