27-09-2016
Fifty years for one of the historic establishments in Italy’s fine dining scene, Da Romano in Viareggio. They turned fifty last April, we waited for the season to end to evaluate together one year and half a century, together with Romano and Roberto Franceschini, father and son, always up to date (in the photo with Franca, respectively wife and mother)
Fotogallery della nostra cena Da Romano, qualche giorno fa. Gli scatti sono di Tanio Liotta. Si inizia con qualche fritto: sogliolina di Viareggio, gamberetti di fondale, calamaretti e fiori di zucca farciti con scampi
Carpaccio di scampo, maionese di pesca, limone salato, uva bianca, germogli di carote selvatiche, pomodoro cotto a bassa temperatura
Altro sempreverde: sogliole, triglie, sugarello, sparnocchi, gambero rosso, scampo e cicale di mare con fagioli schiaccioni di Pietrasanta
Scampo e fagiolini su letto di pomodoro
Sogliola, pomodoro e rucola (il pomodoro è in molte consistenze: come maionese, come composta, poi crudo e confit)
Triglia impanata col panko, stracciatella di bufala, origano e battuto di melanzane
Calamaretti ripieni di verdure e crostacei
Linguine alle vongole 3.0 (la prima versione era una linguina classica, nella seconda la pasta cuoceva nell'acqua delle vongole, in questa l'acqua stessa viene montata a maionese con l'olio e poi c'è il prezzemolo in crema)
Risotto Acquerello con cicale, scampi, gamberi rossi, sparnocchi, polvere di crostacei e il suo ristretto
Ombrina di fondale e verdure
Finocchio, arance e biscotti alle mandorle
Fresco d'estate: pesca, melone, yogurt e karkadé
In 1966 Luna 3 touches ground on our satellite, river Arno floods Florence, the first episode of Star Trek is broadcasted, the United States begin massive bombings on Northern Vietnam, Simon and Garfunkel launch Sounds of Silence, Ignis Varese wins the world’s basketball championship while England triumphs in the world football cup. In 1966 a very young Romano Franceschini, 22 at the time, opens with his wife Franca his small restaurant in Viareggio, which had welcomed him six years earlier. He came from a family of farmers in Montecarlo (Lucca) but moved to the city on the coast attracted by its boom, «La Bussola had become famous, Renato Carosone was singing there, then Peppino Di Capri, and then Mina». Golden years. He started to work in 1960 in a famous pizzeria-cake-shop. It was called Rizieri and it’s still running.
Baby calamari filled with vegetables and crustaceans: a super classic
This is not the only possible comparison: this story is completely founded on a family, where children follow their parents inheriting their experience and adding a touch of modernity: as with the Cerea who, it may be by chance, also celebrated their 50th birthday this year, a few weeks ago (read the article on the celebrations and the two episodes - here and here – of our exclusive interview). Thus 50 years for Da Romano, just like Da Vittorio, and then 20 for Norbert Niederkofler (read here), and 10 for Mauro Colagreco (read here)… Now cuisine is such a widespread success and sometimes seems dominated by a futile and fugacious frenzy, greatness means knowing how to last without losing touch with the times.
Romano Franceschini and his wife Franca Checchi with the young team: Andrea Papa, Elisa Cecchi, Imane Pisani and Marco Piatti
“He works beside him”, we say, and not "substitutes him": because the father, born in 1943, is still very active, «I don’t sleep until 10, the early bird gets the worm. Every morning I visit the fishermen to get the best catch. Langoustines instead arrive in the evening. I still have fun this way».
At Da Romano you can still find the years of the excellent fish catch in Versilia, of good manners and of an elegantly looked after dining room, for instance with the historic and now impossible to find underplates by Richard Ginori, «the best ever». The summer season was a big success, the Franceschini – Romano, Franca, Roberto, his daughter Cristina… - are thrilled. So when they tell their story, there’s the pride of someone who’s managed to go on, not the nostalgia of those who look at a now faded past success: «When we first opened, a meal at the restaurant would cost 1,000 lire – the patron, as fit as ever, recalls – Already in 1967-68 we were working very well. In 1969 we won a culinary contest launched by newspaper Il Tirreno so the following year we were admitted to the Festival of seafood cuisine that was to take place on a boat in Venice. We met Gigi Veronelli, Luigi Carnacina…». It was the dawn of the real success.
Raw fish “fantasia”
Yet have the clients changed, over this time? «They haven’t, in the sense that today people in their 40’s or 50’s come who were already coming as children. Of course there weren’t so many widespread food allergies. And today they all ask for more lightness and pay more attention to seasonality». Franceschini’s cheerfulness, instead, is always the same: «My biggest satisfaction? Growing constantly. And seeing that people appreciate». Easy, isn’t it?
PS: we get one last episode worth telling from the press release celebrating the 50th anniversary: "In 1985, less than 20 years after opening, the first important acknowledgement arrives: a star from the Michelin Guide which they’re still keeping after 30 years. In those days, two people were dining in Via Mazzini: Carlo Petrini and Stefano Bonilli. At Da Romano – as later confirmed in an article by Petrini – the Arcigola manifesto was born, which later became on one side Slow Food and on the other Gambero Rosso".
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief