When it’s the middle of February at 8PM, the temperature is a raw 23 degrees, it’s dark and stormy and the air is comprised of nothing but stinging ice crystals; the day is over. You are in and in is where you want to stay. Now it’s May, it’s still light and you just finished mowing the lawn or just got back from a bike ride or long walk and now what to do? TV is boring, especially when its still light out side, and no one has started dinner yet. In Rome around 8PM is when the “passeggiare” starts. Romans get up, get dressed up and walk to the center of town. They stop in for a coffee or a wine at a cafe. Everyone is checking out everyone else. Friends are meeting for dinner and hanging out even on a Wednesday. Life is beginning at 8PM.
At REPUBLIC we hope to get our own “passeggiare” going. The outside tables are a great place to watch the people parade on Elm Street. The Marble bar is inviting, the kitchen is still open and the parking is free behind us at the Wellington Trade Center lot on Lowell Street. We have the best coffee in the city and it is permissable to hang out with a cappuccino and a pastry after 8PM. Coffee is not only a morning beverage and an espresso ( it translates to essence of) has less caffeine than the stuff from DD.
Let me entice you with half price antipasti and 1/2 off everything from our draft tower ( including glasses of wine) from 7PM to 9PM at the Marble Bar Sunday through Friday, and it starts today. The rest of the menu is available and I will always have something interesting and unique on the black board.
This weekend it will be branzino ( sea bass, not Chilean) and Kelly Corner Farm (Chichester) lamb that I will be offering Moroccan style. We have fresh artichokes that we have been serving a la Romana, and baby eggplants with an aromatic red lentil stew. Wash that down with a $2.50 Guinness or glass of Washinton State Merlot for $2.75 and life is good.
Romans truly believe that they have a corner on “la dolce vita” and they may have a point, but they usurped our tomatoes so we can take their passeggiare!
See you soon,
FYI. Look for our new menu to roll out the second week of June. The chickens and ducks are just about ready from Milk and Honey Farms. Remember: No farms, No food !
Ed