Pop counter and fine dining restaurant. The wine bar just a stone’s throw from the Colosseum where Italy and France meet

by Antonio Scarselli

We mentioned it earlier this year, announcing a major change in ownership along with a few updates that signalled a clear departure from the past. This is Cavour 313, a wine bar with kitchen in the heart of Rome, where we dined a few days ago—and here’s how it went. Spoiler: very well.

The new Franco–Italian management

Cavour 313 was one of the first wine bars in Rome to obtain a licence to serve food. We’re talking late 1970s, and in terms of general offerings, it was something of a revolution: going to a wine bar to enjoy a good glass of wine and something decent to eat! How times—and our tastes—have changed. These days, when we walk into a wine bar, if we don’t find a few tempting little plates to nibble on with our wine, we immediately raise an eyebrow... Anyway, nostalgia aside, Cavour 313 has recently undergone a significant series of changes that have transformed it without erasing its identity.
We don’t know if what we’re about to say will please the current owner, but the work done hasn’t altered the soul of this place, which remains as it always was: warm, welcoming, and comforting. Speaking of ownership, it’s now in the hands of Josephine Lamuniere, a Frenchwoman from the Loire Valley, who at the end of 2023 decided to purchase the venue, make some structural changes, and breathe life into her vision—now clearly expressed in both the wine and food menus.
Cavour 313 has pulled off the incredibly tricky task of uniting France and Italy in the two areas where the countries arguably compete most fiercely: food and wine. But here, the match ends in a draw—0–0. Or, if you prefer a few goals, we could call it a respectable 2–2, ball back to the centre.

The “pop” soul of the counter

Let’s start with the kitchen, cleverly fitted into a compact yet well-designed space that grabs your eye the moment you walk in: a glass-and-iron showcase where a team of three chefs works away. If you stop at the counter, the offering is “pop”, with such a tempting line-up of dishes it’s hard to choose just one—and here, we say with some joy, France has a bit of an edge, serving up some impressive cards: frites fraîches maison with homemade mayonnaise, œuf Mayò with lemon and cucumber salad, and the inevitable beef tartare. There’s also giardiniera—homemade, too—savoury maritozzo, and homemade artichokes in oil, then deep-fried.
But take note: if you sit at one of the restaurant’s tables, you can forget about this offering—it’s only available at the counter! A rather rigid rule we’d recommend softening, perhaps by integrating a few of the counter dishes into the full menu. When we sat down at our table and realised none of those items could be ordered, we were a bit disappointed.

The fine dining offering

The menu for the restaurant is anything but dull, and while we’d suggest bringing over a few dishes from the counter, we were impressed by its tailored structure: 3 starters, 4 first courses, 4 mains, and 3 desserts. It’s a fine dining proposal—each dish the result of real testing in the kitchen and clearly backed by an idea, a concept, a thought process. We noticed this right from the starter: fried brain with oyster emulsion and tempura-fried agretti. It always takes courage to serve brain—not because it’s perhaps the most divisive of the fifth quarter cuts—but because it’s complex to prepare, particularly when it comes to cooking.
And yet here, it arrives as a beautifully balanced dish where the softness of the brain is centre stage, complemented by the crispness of the fried agretti.
On to the first courses, where just reading the menu confirms that whoever’s behind the glass knows how to handle dry pasta. Enter Antonio Sarnataro from Ischia, a true Campanian, who along with colleague Riccardo Bernabei, had us in raptures with spaghettini served like a soupe à l’oignon, tossed in an onion cream with croutons and scorched comté.
But the standout dish of the evening was this: semi di annurca (similar to risoni, made by Pastificio dei Campi) with eel, stracciata di bufala, and turnip tops.
In our view, a virtually perfect plate—sumptuous, but with just the right balance of all its components, including the rich creaminess of the bufala and the grilled eel, which here becomes a genuine asset.
As for the mains, they lean into “comfort”; perhaps less striking than the earlier courses, but solid and expertly executed—like the stuffed chicken, rich and deeply satisfying.

And finally the dessert—go ahead, choose freely and without guilt, because thankfully, the sweets arrive in just-right portions, made with few ingredients and minimal fuss with textures. Alongside the cheese selection, you can opt for a torta paradiso with white chocolate mousse or the chocolate brioche (which we sincerely hope never leaves the menu—it’s to die for), served with a chocolate and peanut cream. Less is more, especially when it comes to pastry.

The wine? A dive into Italy and France

On the wine front, Josephine—alongside Pulika Calzini, who was already part of the previous Cavour 313 team—has made a clear decision: to create a wine list where both France and Italy are represented, without worrying too much about proportions between the two. And in any case, the list is updated frequently throughout the year.
The current wine list includes around 200 wines from all the main wine regions of Italy and France. And for those who prefer something else in their glass, there are two draught craft beer lines, as well as a short list of mixed drinks and a small selection of non-alcoholic soft drinks.
Before we get to the bill, we’d like to highlight a service we appreciated for its ability to adapt to the venue’s dual character: relaxed at the counter, slightly more formal in the dining room. In both cases, there’s a real sense of competence—especially on the wine side, which is increasingly rare in restaurant service these days. On that note, we must mention Anna Mosetti, a skilled front-of-house professional with a strong background in wine, to whom you can confidently entrust your wine choices if struck by indecision or laziness.

And here’s the bill: if you stop at the counter for a glass and a plate, you’ll need to work hard to spend more than €15–€20. Of course, if the number of glasses and plates goes up, so does the total on your receipt. For dinner, on the other hand, budget no less than €60 per person, drinks not included.