A Taste of Italy with Cinquanta Spirito Italiano

"Ciao, ragazzi!"

Caffe Dante x Cinquanta Spirito Italiano

Allora! Dante’s Katie Collopy Brown knows a thing or two about Negronis.

Earlier this spring I chronicled Caffe Dante’s “Taste of Italy,” where the award-winning Greenwich Village bar hosted notable Italian bars to takeover their space and present a special menu of signature cocktails (with $1 of every cocktail sale donated to God’s Love We Deliver).

And this week the series returned with a two-day residency featuring Cinquanta Spirito Italiano. Located in Pagani in the province of Salerno in Campania (about an hour’s drive from the Amalfi Coast), Cinquanta Spirito Italiano was founded in 2021 by Alfonso Califano and Natale Palmieri, who were both on hand along with Giancarlo Mancino, whose namesake vermouths and line of aperitivi (along with Amaro Lucano) were featured producers on the limited-edition menu.

Giancarlo Mancino (Mancino Vermouth), Roderigo Octavio Leme (Dante), Natale Palmieri, and Alfonso Califano (Cinquanta Spirito Italiano).

At Cinquanta, which was ranked second in World Class Italy in 2022, Alfonso and Natale seek inspiration from the mid-century local Italian bar and present that experience through a thoroughly modern lens. They’re a bar that’s a fabric of their local community and a place you can stop by throughout different phases of the day.