Checchino dal 1887

Class and tradition reign at this famous restaurant in Rome, Italy

The Mariani family started this elegant temple of traditional cuisine six generations ago as a blue-collar wine shop patronized by workers from the slaughterhouse across the street, men who received the undesirable "fifth fourth" of the day's butchering (offal, tails, feet, and so on). Checchino has turned these remains into culinary masterpieces of poor man's food, like rigatoni con patata and bucatini alla gracia. This is the family that nearly 100 years ago managed to make an oxtail appetizing by inventing coda alla vaccinara (it's stewed with tomatoes, celery, white wine, bittersweet chocolate, pine nuts, and raisins). They also offer flawless but less adventurous Roman and Italian dishes like the specialty abbacchio alla cacciatore (spring lamb browned in olive oil and flavored with anchovies, vinegar, and pepperoncini). You can sample more than two dozen cheeses, lots of homemade desserts, and glasses of wine from among the 500 labels in Rome's most extensive wine cellar.

Via di Monte Testaccio 30 (at the southerly end of Testaccio)
tel. 06-574-3168
www.checchino-dal-1887.com
Closed Sunday, Monday, and August