Bar Italia has been in the Polledri family since it opened in 1949. And if it's not changed too much since then it's because they got the recipe pretty right from the start. What Soho needed then, and still needs now, is somewhere to get a coffee and a filling snack at any time of the day or night. And Bar Italia's 24 hour opening, constant supply of pizza, pastas and sandwiches etc. and coffee made the same way that it's always been - using a Gaggia coffee machine set at less than boiling point so that the coffee is never burned - gives Soho just that.
They've kept the deli feel by hanging on to their fruit machines, they buy the coffee beans from the same Italian gentleman they've always used – who blends their mix up specially – and Bar Italia is still a social hub of Italian London.
Don't expect anything fancy – these guys do coffee the Italian way, which means none of your caramello-nutty-latte-puchinos, just the original list. And remember, this is an Italian cafe... and Italians don't usually drink cappuccinos after 11am.
The feel is continental: the floor is tiled and warn, the tables formica, the cups and saucers are those small ones that look like they were made in the 50s and they have a big screen TV that's usually showing football – playing in the UK or in Italy. Before Sky and satellite TV they used to get the Italian football results phoned through every Domenica (Sunday) from Italy and then shout them out to the crowd.
If you want to find out more about the history of Bar Italia and of Soho since the 50s just check out the cafe's walls which have been accumulating a photo album of famous patrons, street scenes and Bar Italia occasions. This really is a genuine, God's honest truth Soho institution. As the writer Paolo Hewitt puts it:
"There's nothing better than sitting outside the Italia early morning, creamy cappuccino to hand, watching Soho wash away its sins from the night before and waiting excitedly for the whole world to pass by your table."
