#02 Businesses and regulars
Bologna 29.05.24
When I think about my time in Bologna and what it means to be/live in this place, I think a lot about businesses. In Italy, a barista or waiter might work every day for a 6-day work week and make a decent living from it. For this reason, you see the same service people every time you visit a bar or café. Italian café-going culture and the universally cheap price of a coffee mean that it is not inconceivable to go to the same coffee shop every morning for weeks. For our housing in the neighbourhood of San Donato, Toffee Art Café became that spot for us.
In our first days in Bologna, I remember talking a lot about wanting to become a ‘regular’, which stems from a desire to be seen as a local rather than a tourist. Other things that indicate being a regular: walking a dog and owning your own bike. I remember the first time the barista at Toffee predicted my macchiato order and the way I was smiling about it for the next few hours. Mine and Catrin’s cappuccino order was predicted once at Bar Maurizio in the days when we went there every day after class.Â
Being a regular turns mindless café-going into something that reminds you that you are a human, social being and one who is settled and grounded into routine and place. Being said hello to by someone who displays even a glint of recognition is quite flattering, gratifying. Knowing the delicate dance of the way a business works (order first, then sit down; pay when you leave; pay at the table; pay at the cassa; here’s the line to pay but you can stand here to order; be wary of pigeon horde; ask for a tray; use cash; keep receipt; bathroom is left and downstairs, but no toilet seat) is an incredibly un-embarrassing way to go through life, never needing to look confused or be surprised or ask anyone anything. Going to a new coffee shop, by contrast, can make one feel a little small and embarrassed. Since moving neighbourhoods, I have needed to reorientate my first-coffee-in-the-morning regular spot, a daunting task.
What I’d really like to do is write a full list of the restaurants, cafés, bars, clubs, that I consider myself if not a ‘regular,’ a ‘frequentor’ and a little bio of each one with memories and descriptions. I guess that’s travel writing, or TripAdvisor. As I need to spend time more productively, I’ll hold off of that, but I do want to provide some illustrative itineraries of two particularly business-filled days that I think communicate a lot, even as a list.
24th May: Final day of the program, most friends are leaving the next day
Teddy, Dea, and Beck’s place (cramming before exam)
Via Zamboni, 32 (exam)
Caffè Rubik (macchiato)
Panini di Mirò (prosciutto cotto, squacquerone cheese, arugula, sundried tomatoes)
Piazzetta dei Servi di MariaÂ
Bar Maurizio (aperol)
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Giardini Margherita, immediately rained out
Dea’s place AKA Casa delle associazioni del Baraccano (ginger beer and patatine)
Marsalino (tagliere and lambrusco)
Gil e Bert (aperol)
Caffè Rubik (mint julep)
Trattoria da Vito (ragù, bistecca and wine and lambrusco and wine)
Cafè Paris (the most horrible shot that I can’t stop ordering, a Sex Bar, and another that I had for the first time, a Nesquik)
Soda Pops (nightclub)
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28th May: Jonathan’s last day in Bologna, last friend to leave the city
Early coffee at Oro Panzerotto Café with Josh before his train (cappuccino)
Toffee Coffee AKA Toffee Art Cafè (cappuccino, saccottino ai 3 cioccolati)
Gil e Bert (caffè, spremuta)
Pizzeria Aldrovandi (closed!)
Pizzeria Trattoria Napoletana Zii Margherita (pizza margherita, vino bianco, caffè)
Basilica di San Petronio
Chiesa di San Paolo Maggiore
Santuario di Santa Maria della Vita
The warm stones of Piazza Maggiore (nap + people watching)
Canton de' Fiori
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Dal Brillo (tagliere, amazing vino rosso)
Osteria dell’Orsa (closed)
Trattoria Pizzeria Belle Arti (tortellini in brodo, lambrusco, caffè deca)
Piazza San Martino
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