How to end a meal here
There are more amari on our list than there are cocktails. What to do with them once the plates have gone.
The plates have gone, nobody has committed to dessert, and there is still half a glass of wine on the table. This is the part of dinner Italy takes seriously and America mostly skips, and it is the cheapest way we know to make a good evening longer.
Start with an amaro
Amaro means bitter, which undersells it badly. There are more amari on our bar list than there are cocktails, and they are not interchangeable.
If you have never ordered one, ask for Montenegro. It comes from Bologna, it is bittersweet and floral, and it is the one that converts people. If you want something rounder, Averna from Sicily is rich, with orange and caramel. If you want to be taken seriously, Nonino Quintessentia is barrel-aged and genuinely elegant. If you want to regret it, there is Fernet Branca, bitter and mentholated and closer to a dare than a drink. Some of us have it every night.
Then there is grappa
Grappa is made from what is left of the grapes after the wine is pressed, which is either thrift or genius depending on the bottle. Ours run from a chamomile-infused Poli to a Gaja, and none of them is a punishment. Ask what is open.
Or a coffee, corrected
A caffè corretto is an espresso with a splash of sambuca or grappa in it. Corrected. It is what you order when you are driving somebody home and do not want the night to be over yet.
And the two we make
At the end of that list are two bottles that are ours: a limoncello and a blood orange, made here under our own label. They come out cold, in small glasses, and they are the right answer at a long table on a Friday.
Nobody is going to rush you. That is rather the point of the whole section.
