035 Zerotrecinque
It has been a while since i wrote the last review, but
that doesn't mean I was not working on the blog. The only reason, why I am not
updating this site as much as I want, is that I do not have any holidays and a
lot of work to do.
However, several independent sources brought me
reports, that there is a bar in Bergamo I should visit. So far, my search for a
good cocktail bar in Bergamo was not even worth mentioning, so every
possibility changing my mind is more than welcome.
Before I will start the review itself, it will be fair
to say that 035 is not a cocktail bar. It is an apperitivo/café bar and today I
didn't come alone, but with my friend Adam.
035 Zerotrecinque
You will find 035 very close to the main city center
of Bergamo and it has great position especially thanks to the entrances from
both sides and a small ''outside garden'' which is located just at the other
side of the passage between two main shopping streets - Via XX Settembre
and Via G. Tiraboschi.
When I noticed that it is an apperitivo/café bar, I
got very sceptic. I was really affraid, that I will end up in a similar place
like Diana Garden : Posh place suffering a lot from a coral reef syndrome.
As there are no bar stools, we could not sit on the
baritself, so we took the closest table to the bar desk. Then our waitress
came, she gave us a menu. In Italian bars, there are many cocktails containing
''Sweet and Sour'' item in the recipe. It is a pre-mix of sugar/sugar syrup and
a lime/lemon juice. From a quality point of view, the use of this pre-mix
is very degrading for all cocktails in general. It is known fact, that
especially freshly squeezed lime juice starts to get bitter in less than 10
minutes. Creating a mix from it at the beginning of the day destroys the most
important part of the lime itself - The fresh sourness. Another problem of this
pre - mix is, that it does not even belong to the recipe. Bartenders are
replacing ''lime juice'' item from the original recipe with it, and that leads
to horrible unifying, where every cocktail containing this, tastes the same...
Unfortunatelly, even here at 035 you can find a lot of
cocktails with this pre - mix so I am automatically avoiding them. Then i
notice that there is a Hemingway Special on the menu. If you have read my
review from Diana Garden, you know that was not very happy about
the way they do it there. I ask the waitress, how they do it here. She
describes it and I've decided to drink something else, since it seemed to be
too similar to Diana Garden...
Adam has visited this place before, so he told me that
I should try Mojito. He knows, that I am very picky about Mojitos and wherever
I took it, I was always complaining, that it is not well done.
I took it even here, even after 1156 +/- horrible
Mojitos all around the Bergamo I gave this very fancy looking place a chance to
shine, even with all my ''bad expectations'' and a lot of prejudice..
Result was actually beyond my expectations. It was a
first propper Mojito in Bergamo I ever had. Great ballanced taste, not too sweet
by the sugar, not too sour by the lime. With a very generous amount of mint,
this is exactly what you need on a very hot day. Bartender could just stirr it
a little bit more and he could make a nice cone of ice, to make it look better,
but like this it was good enough.
Adam ordered a cocktail called Tai-Tai. By the name
you must see, that this is some kind of a twist to Mai - Tai Cocktail, but by
the taste it was rather a Pina - Colada more than anything else. A little bit
sweeter pina colada - basically enriched by a bit of sparkling water - came at
the same time as my Mojito with a very good customer service - unusual for
common places in Italy in general. I should add ,,for now...''
When I do a review, my first impression is always the
same: ,,Wow, it is a nice place.'' Then I enjoy the atmosphere for a while and
just then I start to see things. First thing You notice, is the desing of the
place itself. It is quite fancy looking bar with modern design, situated to
light great/white colors with a lot of backlighting and a low, dark painted
ceiling, which creates a nice counterpart to all light colors.
The desing of the bar itself is quite unfortunate. You
can get behind the bar desk only from one side. This entrance is located in the
furthermost corner away from all the guests. As there are two ways how you can
enter the bar, there are a lot of people passing from both sides and the place
around the bar desk is very narrow. Waiters cannot get behind the bar, because
it is too far away, so they are taking orders over the bar and they are
returning to that part of the bar with all the dirty dishes, too. And just to
create a perfect chokepoint - straight in front of this ''waiter's desk'' there
are toilets -
Long story short: Whenever there is a waiter getting a
new order, you cannot pass or he cannot pass, if you are walking around the bar
desk, to the toilets or upstairs, or outside, or outside from the other side...
For guests it is not a big deal, for personnel it is very uncomfortable.
And maybe it is only me, but the service over the bar desk just does not look
good.
On the other hand the actual service has been handled
very well by our waitress. We were sitting just next to the ''waiter station''
so when she was getting our drinks to us, she could've just turn around and
pass it to us in her hands. Instead of that, she still used the tray, she came
to our table and she repeated the name of the drinks, and she served it in a
correct order with new napkins. The note about the napkins may look irrelevant,
but you are sitting in an apperitivo bar, where you can eat food and where you
can take napkins by yourself. And in many different places the personnel
asumes, that you will do so, therefore when you will get a drink, it can happen
to you, that you will not get that napkin. So this brings an extra point for
customer service, here at 035.
Unfortunatelly, that was the last good point. I would
love to give more, but the personnel didn't give me any chance for it,
because after we got our drinks, nobody has noticed us for a very loong time. That
gave us enough time to appreciate the apperitivo food though. The food was
amazing. Pieces of pizza, or piadina rolls with some salad, mayo and some ham
were absolutely delicious! Unfortunatelly, this food makes you
very thirsty. At that moment when we started to feel thirsty, we
finished our drinks, so there was a time for another round....
Since the moment we finished our drinks, nobody
noticed us for more than 30 minutes. Adam was about to ask one of the 3 waiters
if we can get something else, but since we were there for a review, we got to
the mood ,,Ok, lets see, how long it will take them.''
Now you cannot eat anymore, because you cannot drink
anything to that, so you are just sitting there and looking around. And then
two more guests came to the their tables (independently), they got the drinks,
then they left and then both tables got cleaned straight after. While we were still
sitting there staring to our empty glasses. Do you wonder, why the last sentence is
written i a different style? Well, I used ctrl+c/ctrl+v from the review in
Diana Garden... Exactly the same situation happened right here. Waiters are
just passing around You and ignoring You. It looks like they assume that you
came there only for one drink. And especially when it is apperitivo, you - as a
personnel - should try to keep the guests inside of your bar as long as
possible to get money, you invested to the food, back on drinks.
The fact that You are being ignored is even more
painful, because here at Zerotrecinque You could clearly see at the
begining, that waiters and bartneders know how to do their job very well, but
they just don't care. The curse of a good place is, that if you will show
off some level of quality and standards, it is expected from You to keep it.
Then after another 10 minutes finally one waitress
came to our table and without saying anything, she took away just my dirty
glass. Adam was left there with his melted ice. Oh, thanks. It is very
flattering, that i have your sympathies, but not taking away my friend's
glass is very rude and awkward. ,,Never mind, maybe she will come
back even for your glass, one day,'' I said to Adam. He said that he
doesn't think so and unfortunatelly he was right...
When You are left over like this and You are bored,
You would appreciate any distraction. Thank god that the guy, who is selling
roses all over the Bergamo just came inside. I hate those people. Basically
they are just walking from table to table and they are trying to sell roses.
They are never invited and never welcome. On many places, they are not even
allowed to get inside. But more then them, I hate personnel who doesn't care
that 1,- this people are entering your bar 2,- bothering your guests 3,-
entering your bar and bothering your guests.
The cherry on the top was, that when this
''roseseller'' came to the food section, he started to eat. It was a very
magical moment, because he decided to eat at the same time, when a waitress was
passing around him. No reaction from both sides to each other. That is a good
thing after all, I guess. Because it means that next time I will go to work, I
can just pass through 035 to grab some free pizza...
Watching this guy eating was the moment when we
deciced, that we had enough. It could be a good place with the best cocktails
I've had in Bergamo so far, and even the apperitivo food was REALLY good, but
as I said many times : having a good drinks and a good food is simply not
enough.
I left unnoticed and
nobody greeted me... Yes, another
ctrl+c/ctrl+v action from the worst review I have ever done. It is very sad,
that even here this sentence came alive.
If you want - go and visit this place. If You will pay
in advance for one cocktail and then You will leave as soon as You can, it is
still recommendable.
No comments:
Post a Comment