Bialetti

the espresso here is the thing to start with, pulled short and drunk standing at the bar the way rome insists you should. bialetti sits on viale guglielmo marconi, a long practical artery in the prati-adjacent stretch of the city where locals actually live and eat rather than perform living and eating. that matters because the clientele shapes what gets prioritized: consistency, speed, a cup that holds up on a tuesday morning. you won't find a lot of ceremony, and that's precisely the point. specialty roasting in a roman neighborhood context means the coffee still has to work as coffee, not as a concept. the locals have clearly decided it does. come back for the afternoon espresso when the street quiets down a little.