Aperitivo Hours

Spritzgetränke für 6€: Jeden Dienstag und Donnerstag, 16-19 Uhr

Introducing

Aperitivo Hours

Tuesdays&Thursdays

16:00-19:00

Let’s be honest here: We really like our yard in Summer. The early hours when the full sunlight is hitting or the later hours when it becomes a shadowy oasis in the center of the crowded city. It’s a good time to meet with friends. The work of the day is done, but the night is not there yet. Sipping some nice stuff in good company and not being home too late, that not only seem like a good concept, it’s culture.

A look to other countrys social rituals shows the value of this time. Especially in Italy, the Aperitivo is a central part of the everyday life, born out of the desire to separate the time dedicated to work from free time. This approach – as a ritualistic corrective for a healthy work-life-balance – maybe is one of the things that kept it popular, but it started way before the capitalistic present demands heterotopic spaces to relax: As it turns out, aperitivos been there for centuries.

Gastronomy historians date the invention of a prototypical form of the tradition back to the heyday of the Roman empire. Before tucking into their banquets, Romans of means enjoyed a gustatio, an appetiser washed down with a glass of honey-sweetened wine. The word aperitivo itself comes from the Latin aperitivus, or something that opens. In this context, it refers to opening up one’s appetite before the real food comes in. So historically, an aperitivo was an alcoholic beverage consumed by some proto-fascists before dinner to whet your appetite. Today, at least in Italy, it’s a daily ritual that also embodies la dolce vita. 

Legend also has it that the ritual in its modern form was started by in Turin in the 1780s. The creator of vermouth Antonio Benedetto Carpano claimed he had concocted the perfect pre-dinner drink that balances bitter and aromatic herbs with fortified white wine to stimulate one’s appetite. Vermouth’s popularity grew so much that the ritual of aperitivo spread throughout the country (or so the story goes). But like many drinking legends, aperitivo hour’s specific origin is contested but nevertheless, it’s hard to find a town in Italy that does not observe Aperitivo in some form. Regardless of where you go, aperitivo hour is defined by vermouth and other spirits for simple cocktails like the Negroni (Campari, sweet vermouth, and gin), Americano (Campari, sweet vermouth, and soda), and the Spritz (Aperol or another amari with Prosecco and soda).  No matter its form, the aperitivo remains a beloved tradition, a little holiday that we take every day.

Advocating the consumption of alcohol theoretically is always a double edged sword. As Trotzky stated: If we are not careful, we will drinking up the revolution. Being that a reminder of the broad and socially disturbing misuse of alcohol or the benefactors of the consumption-chain that historically and still is rooted in the capitalistic processes that also deeply affects the systems of colonisation and environmental destruction.

However, the social consumption of fun stuff was always and will always be an integral part of the human condition. So, do it with friends in a nice atmosphere. Because that is what’s important and there are more fun drinks to try than just the boozy ones.

So, we will advocate the consumption of drinks in our place, because we have a nice selection of Spritz (and other stuff). And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 16:00 and 19:00, All the Spritz-Stuff will be 6€.

Enjoy and carpe diem.