#Caffe vittoria tv#

#Caffe vittoria tv#

That said, my favourite Italian espresso bar in London, Bar Italia, has a TV at the back, but at least that’s tuned to an Italian TV channel.Ĭaffé Vittoria is long and thin and the layout is pretty simple: there’s a pair of bay windows either side of the recessed door, each with a highly-prized table where you can sit and watch the world go by on Hanover Street. Of course, this being America, there has to be a television in the corner showing SportsCenter with the sound turned down, while Frank Sinatra somewhat incongruously croons quietly in the background. You’d think that one set of old ladies would show another old lady some respect… One of them was being used as a coat-stand by three old ladies on the table next to me.

Marble-topped tables with stainless-steel chairs sit on a marble-tiled floor, while the walls are festooned with art deco coffee posters, old coffee urns and vintage espresso machines in various states of decay, including some delightful cylinder models. From the very start, Caffé Vittoria is trading on the traditional Italian image. You can read more of my thoughts after the gallery.Ĭaffé Vittoria is an old-fashioned Italian Café, something of a rarity in these days of the modern coffee shop, although to be fair, it has some competition since it’s in the middle of Hanover Street in the middle of Boston’s North End, still the Italian part of town. For me, no trip to Boston would be complete without popping in for an espresso. If you want something a little different from the typical American coffee shop, then Caffé Vittoria is the place to go. It helps that the coffee is reliably good and, being an old-fashioned Italian espresso man myself, it very much hits the spot. At night it becomes more of a bar than a café, although the menus stay the same throughout the day, serving coffee, drinks, pastries and ice-cream.Īs a day-time café, it trades on my sense of nostalgia as much as anything else waitress service, a menu that is delightfully concise and to the point, and all with certain air of opulence. Spread over three floors, with four seating areas, I’ve only ever visited during the day, when just the ground floor café is open. It’s an old-fashioned Italian Café, with heritage dating back to 1929. Also, in 1995, the owners opened a cigar bar in the basement, called Stanza dei Sigari (Cigar Room) which, as of 2014, has been the last surviving smoking lounge in the city.Caffé Vittoria is something of Boston institution, or certainly a North End institution (the North End being the Italian part of town). Reliable sources say, many celebrities and politicians frequent this North End hotspot to fuel themselves up with some of the best hot chocolate, cappuccino and cannoli in Boston, if not the whole of the United States!Īll the bars at Caffe Vittoria sell liquor, including Italian Grappa, which is definitely worth a shot.

Speaking of coffee, and especially the cappuccino, it is well worth your time, and will deliciously pair with the various Italian pastries they sell here too. Small, metal-rimmed chairs and tables scattered about across the four floors of worn marble with three bars, glass display cabinets, and a treasure trove of old coffee machines and espresso makers, not to mention the prints, are good enough a reason to visit here, at least once, and is as close as it gets to a museum of the development of the modern cup of espresso. The claim seems plausible given the place's Old-World funky retro vibe resembling that experienced in rural Italian towns and somehow missing in the New England Starbucks.

Set on the North End's Hanover Street, in the very heart of Italian quarter, Caffe Vittoria prides itself on being reputedly the first Italian cafe in Boston, established since 1929.