Italy’s most beautiful newsstand opens a wine bar with natural wine in Perugia

Newsstands, like local markets, are relics of a society that is now disappearing and, like certain examples of industrial archaeology, they can become something else, with a view to urban regeneration that gives new life and new values to disused spaces. This was the case for Edicola 518 in Perugia. A kiosk that quickly became an effervescent cultural epicentre. A reference point for that community that huddles around independent magazines, art books, but also a certain way of experiencing the city: informal, curious, unconventional.

And unconventional continues to be the hallmark of this spot founded in 2016 by Antonio and Alberto Brizioli. Unconventional in the rethinking of spaces, in the selection of titles, and now also of labels. Because the Edicola 518 project has not confined its work to just publishing, nor at just the kiosk: in recent years it has measured itself against the city and its tourism, it has grown with initiatives and events, and in 2019 it opened a second location, the nearby Paradiso bookshop, and soon became a base of operations. Just opposite, in recent days a further space has been added, this time dedicated to food and wine, natural, of course, but one could also define it as unconventional, to emphasise the element of continuity that links the newborn wine shop - the name has yet to be defined, for now just a number will suffice: 518, written in a font that Antonio defines as liquid, to the point of earning it the nickname of Paradiso Liquido (Liquid Paradise) - to the newsstand and the bookshop.

Continuity in style, in the prehensile gaze always on the lookout for small, innovative, quality projects, but also for the idea of community that was immediately created around the 518, made up of a public dissatisfied with the more commercial proposals, but curious, active, lively, in search of something different from the offer levelled by the large-scale retail trade, whether it be publishing or food and wine. And still on the subject of continuity, the spaces that now house the wine shop are those of an old grocery shop, a proximity shop, another category that is in trouble today, which needs a rethink of the offer and spaces, a bit like what we have seen happen in businesses such as PizziCarola (in Rome @PIZZICaROLA ) or other quality shops that have been able to catalyse a group of people around an idea, an original selection, the personality of the person who created them. This has been the case for Edicola 518 in each of its manifestations.

Edicola 518’s wine bar: Paradiso Liquido

Now the call of a glass joins that of the written or illustrated page, in that sort of agora that has naturally arisen in the pedestrian street - “one of the few in Perugia” - that divides the bookshop and the wine shop. Different souls that can interact, converse, but then have to remain separate, in Antonio's view: "I am not a believer in the idea of selling books and wines at the same counter, also because at a certain point, the wine shop takes over. We have always liked this to remain a space totally dedicated to paper. And then, “he adds, “we are fans of professions and we like that here you have a bookseller on one side and an innkeeper on the other, and as much as the innkeeper reads and the bookseller drinks, they are two different professions”.

The host is Mauro Orsini, a customer and friend with experience in the world of catering, who has been interested in natural wines for years and was on the verge of opening his own place. "Then there was a fairly natural convergence: we were looking for someone with this professionalism and he is passionate about our project and doing it with us seemed like a strong point". Said and done: a handful of square metres, a small counter with a few stools and the space outside at their disposal.

What to eat and drink

Eighty per cent of the proposal concerns wine, with a selection that is intended to be very dynamic. Approximately 150 labels, exclusively natural, many - but not all - local, with a few escapes to the rest of Italy and the world, again consistent with the project of books and magazines. A small selection of wines by the glass and a few morsels to accompany them, choosing from the blackboard, also constantly being updated, “simple things with very good ingredients”.

Knife-cut ham is a staple of the proposal, then there are sausages, coppa, Etruscan pesto with shoulder and cinturello lard from Estrusco Carni, which works with native breeds, “a butcher's shop that does interesting things, very good, you find flavours you didn't know before”, goat cheeses from Calcabrina di Montefalco, together with pinzimonio, herbs and edible flowers from La Terra è Bassa, the bread is from Pane & Companatico. On the shelves things like Patatas Nana chips, crackers, sardines, preserves, small productions that tell a precise perspective: "we have maintained the same approach as in the newsagent's, taking everything out of the large-scale retail trade, always with a direct relationship, choosing the things we believe in". According to a vision that might seem anachronistic, instead it is as current as it can be to revive spaces and trades.

Vineria 518 - Perugia - corso Cavour 22 - edicola518.com