Artisan Café has always been catching my attention. Already, when You are passing around it, You know that it's not just a pub or just a classic italian ''Cafeteria.'' The entrance, and the design that You can see inside is something completely different from all other bars.
I was playing with the idea to go to this bar for a very, very long time. However I never found a space for it in my free time. Until the time was right.
I met with my 2 friends and they just took me there, assuming, that I know the place for 100% if I am writing blog about cocktails, of course right? When I told them, that I have actually never been inside, despite the fact that I live 5 minutes of walking from there, they freaked out. They started to tell me, that the cocktails are amazing and the food is great too and...Wowowowowwow. Relax. I live here for last 5 years and everytime somebody got me hyped about a nice cocktail place, it was a huge disappointment. This time I will keep my eyes opened, take it easy and maybe I won't be as disappointed as always.
Dear friends. Thanks to these 2 friends I found it. The best cocktail bar, BY FAR in Bergamo. I am writing it here, without any hesistation or without making You wait until the end of the review, to tell You my final thoughts. I am writing this review now, after I visited The Artisan Café many times, so now this review will have even more depth, than normally.
It turned out, that my friends were actually not really into the cocktail culture a lot. Yes they were able to recognize, that those cocktails are something extraordinary. But here is way more than just cocktails, so why is this place so special?
Because it feels special. After You enter, You will be surrounded by the warm atmosphere of the place itself. Fantastic super cozy desing is created by the combination of the light wood furniture that greatly corresponds with the hollow brick walls. This makes the lights to produce that warmth. The orange light, that makes you settle down and relax. But this - at first glance - oldschool looking place have some incredible details in it. First and the biggest detail is the library. Eventhough it is a massive thing in the middle of the bar, that takes quite a bit of a space, it is a detail. It's hard for me to put it to words, but books have always been representing a slow flow of time for me. Then there are plenty of details, that are making the place itself more modern. Now I am talking about the lightbulbs, that are held in place by the a tangle of tubes, creating a human statue in few various positions. And a music. You can hear soundtracks from Reservoir dogs movie or even a Massive Attack. Now this old-school but modern place needs some kind of connection between the old times and new age, to make it work perfectly.
This connection is represented here by cocktails. The perfect example would be their cocktail called A4.
A4
It is an oldchool apperitivo bittersweet cocktail, with its base in Campari and fresh oranges with a Punt e mes vermouth, which is basically a half on half bittersweet vermouth, that is enriched by licorice bitters and this combination is finished with the foam made out of the Tripple sec liqueur, that floats on top.
This new-oldschool cocktail is beyond perfect. Yes, maybe it is not as classy as the BBQ cocktail served with the smoke inside the glass or as fancy as their absolutely unique and mind-blowing cocktail named Green Bat. The true beauty of the A4 cocktail lies in its fenomenal balance. Taste, smell, consitency - everything works at its best. This cocktail definitelly needs more attention from the guests. Its more classic and more simple. But still: The taste and the smell goes so well together, that it creates a unique and very rich taste.
Green Bat?
Balsamico. A cocktail made out of balsamico. If You will not try this one, You don't even deserve to enter again. Like, I personally don't like balsamico, but I swear on the health of my liver, that next time I am ordering it again. It's the combination of ingredients, that will make You lift the glass after Your first sip and wonder : ,,WHO WOULD'VE EVER THOUGHT! GENIOUS!''
It's not just the cocktails themselves. It's the creativity of those people working here. Once we decided to test it out, in its full beauty. :
One of my friends doesn't drink alcohol. For A LOT of bartenders it is a hard task to come up with their own original cocktail, that is not containing a single drop of alcohol. Here in Artisan Café, we asked bartender named Stefano, to create something non-alcoholic, a bit fruity but not to sour or sweet. He looked aside for about 3 seconds and then he said : ,,Oh I got something for You.'' In about 3-4 minutes he came back with stunningly-beautiful cocktail. Unfortunatelly, I don't remember exactly, what was the recipe, but it was containing a maple syrup, fresh juice of peach and lemon juice and 2 more ingredients, which I don't remember. Most importantly, inside the glass, there was a huge shard of ice, with caramelized sugar on its surface.
Now, don't get me wrong here. I am not talking about Stefano only. The other bartender named Miguel is just as good, however they are not the same. Both of them have their own ''handwriting.'' Anyway - going out of the brackets far beyond normal bartending, being creative and being brave enough to experiment is the key to get one step higher from the other bars all around. Am I making my judgement of the whole bar based only on their attitude? Yes, I kind of do. Because I know the good old rule no.1 of Bartending.: Bartender makes the bar.
And I didn't even tell You anything about their food, yet. Yes, a lot of people are complaining, that here in Artisan Café, they don't serve the apperitivo. Let me remind to all of those people, that are not happy about it, this : Yes, food here is not for free. You need to pay it, but here You don't pay for food. Here You invest money into the food. It is NOT a reheated pizza from the day before, which is something, that You get as food for free in at least 1/2 of the whole Bergamo city. Here, You pay a guy, who will do just for you a freshly fried, absolutely amazing and crunchy chicken nuggets with Teriyaki sauce, that will just disappear in your mouth. It was the best chicken meat I had in last 2 years. No jokes.
As Stefano from The Artisan Café himself said to us : ,,I don't want people to go here for the value of free food. I want people to come here for the value of cocktails.'' And that, my friends, is the most correct attitude, which head bartender and co-owner can ever have.
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