Boat Drinks (Venice)

This is how beer is delivered in Venice.

Meet Angelo Zamprotta.

While sipping a Fuller’s London Pride on cask in his bar called Il Santo Bevitore (read Joseph Roth to get the reference), Angelo tells me how he came to have one of two beer destinations in Venice.

Twenty years ago, while an architecture student (his father and sister are architects) he worked in a local British pub and went mad for beer. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably had that moment.

That pub has since closed. But he wanted a place with good beer where both locals and tourists could gather. And a bar was born.

I threw that next shot in because it’s just that beautiful here.

Angelo says that in Italy, he most admires the beer of Agostino Ariole, the brewer at Birrifico Italiano. He has two BI beers on cask. I’ve put a dent in the Nigredi black IPA this week- super!

Above is the view from ISB’s canal-side courtyard.

The other craft beer destination in Venice is quite different from the Angelo’s cozy pub.

It’s called Aldo. And Aldo carries only bottles- but MAN dig the list!

Frankly Aldo’s is a tad rough. It’s a hallway of a bar with zapped snacks and a New Jersey boardwalk feel to the outdoor counter service. But when you peruse the coolers- all hesitation vaporizes.

Other than beer- I had to hit Harry’s Bar for a Bellini, sample spritz all over the sestieri, and indulged in a wonderful 2001 Amarone at Al Cantinon with my friend who shares a house with me this week. The chef, a petite pretty woman called Fiorenza Carraro, made us amazing gnocchi pillows in Gorgonzola cream with pistachios and truffled chocolate. A meal worth repeating. And I did.

My travel companion and I met over a beer at a cartography conference in Budapest. Isn’t that how the best friendships start? It’s also her fault that I crashed a bachelor party at a brewpub in Hamburg. (See Hamburg post).

Years ago at (another) cartography conference in Berne I nodded towards a handsome Dane and said to my German friend, “I have a crush on him.” She looked completely confused. With a furrowed brow and lovely accent she whispered, “But I sought you liked him. Vy vould you vant to hurt him?”

Now you know why we travel and sip together.