NEBBYOLO – Our Man in Rome!
Giovanni Poggi's pub La Botticella is a destination for a Pittsburgh pilgrimage
Scattered through the serpentine labyrinth of streets in Rome’s Centro Storico are some 500 or so Marian shrines called Madonnelle – paintings, mosaics or statues of Mary – sure to be sought out by the 30+ million people expected to make a pilgrimage to the Eternal City in this Jubilee year.
Just a few steps off of the eastern edge of the Piazza Navona, inside a narrow pub called La Botticella, Giovanni Poggi acts as the gatekeeper to a different kind of a shrine – call this one a Yinzerelle. Because standing atop the white marble bar is a three-foot ceramic statue of Jesus, wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers helmet.
He opened the bar in 1991 catering to English-speaking tourists and flight crews (he grew up in Rome, but went to high school in Toronto where he perfected his second language) but the dynamic changed in 2004 when he got satellite TV and a group of exchange students from Penn State and Duquesne Universities who frequented the bar told him if he’d put the Steelers on each Sunday, they’d fill the place. He did and they followed suit.
Word of mouth spread and a few years later, website videos and a front-page article in the (pre-union busting) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and his status as a bona fide destination exploded. He legitimately estimates the number of Steelers fans to visit in the tens of thousands and it’s not hyperbole to suggest that his watering hole falls somewhere in a top 5 of the Vatican, Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon on the list of must-see sites for those with Pittsburgh roots visiting Rome.
We caught up with Mr. Poggi last week via FaceTime, after last call in Rome.
The Steelers season ended with a postseason thud and Penn State’s with a playoff heartbreak, but otherwise was it another fun year of hosting games?
We had very good turnouts. Lots of people coming to watch the games. For the earlier games, the bar gets completely full and people watch it from outside. But these late games are killing me! I’ll be there until six in the morning after night games.
Now everyone has access to streaming sites and VPN. Before that, they had to come to the bar. Now, they don't have to. So the fact that we got a dozen people at 2 a.m. for the Penn State playoff game and two dozen for the Steelers, it shows that people love the experience and the comradery.
Your Pittsburgh connection goes back more than 20 years now. What's this whole experience been like for you?
Oh, it's been great. Obviously, it's been great for my business. But it's been great personally. I’ve made so many friends. I get a lot of people from Pittsburgh, and I know a lot about Pittsburgh and get to visit Pittsburgh thanks to them. But we get people all the time, like almost every day we get groups from all over the world because they or their families were from Pittsburgh or they are Steelers fans and don't even live in Pittsburgh, that they're spread all over America. When they find out there's a Steeler bar, they all want to come and see it. It's a great experience for them. It's like a home away from home. It’s like a comfort zone. So it's been really good. And Pittsburgher are really nice. I love the fact that they're so down to earth. Just good people.
Is it still a thrill when people visit Rome and seek you out or send you a picture from a game in Pittsburgh and somebody has your T-shirt on?
Oh yeah, of course. I love the people that come in, and people tell me all the time when they wear their shirts at Pittsburgh games, people always point them out, wherever they are. It's always fun.
What’s been the most unique part of this experience?
The people! People reaching out from all over. And a lot of, like, famous people from Pittsburgh. Members of the Rooney family coming here. Players and ex-players. I mean, you never know what to expect, right? I have to say, like 99.999999% of people that I've had from Pittsburgh have been awesome.
I’ve had dinner with Franco Harris, Rocky Blier, and Andy Russell, was a guest of the Steelers at their facility and had lunch with Mr. Rooney there. Got to go on the sidelines at Heinz Field. The bar is in one of the hype videos they play on the scoreboard there. Was a guest of the Penguins. Pittsburgh’s City Council gave me a proclamation. It’s been unreal.
Who are some of the notable names that have been to La Botticella?
Oh jeeze, let’s see … Art Rooney Jr., Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Kris Letang, Mark Recchi. I had Yancy Thigpen come in. The linebacker, Lawrence Timmons. The Pens coach, Dan Bylsma, he came in three nights in a row. Corey O'Connor, the councilman that’s running for mayor. He came in and he stayed till five in the morning to watch a Penguins game with us. That was cool. That was fun. He brought me a flag of Pittsburgh, the official City of Pittsburgh flag with the emblem.
I had someone bring in an Aliquippa state champions banner. A priest from St. Vincent College, Father Max, is here for Jubilee and just brought me some gifts from the Steelers. He went over to Mr. Rooney's house for Christmas, and Mr. Rooney gave him a couple of hats to bring over.
You could make a museum!
Oh, my God. I don't know where to put this stuff up anymore. People are so kind and have brought me so many things.
You’ve visited here many times – what do you like to do in Pittsburgh?
Mt. Washington is my favorite neighborhood. When you overlook the city, that never, ever gets old. I love to visit with the friends I’ve made and of course go to the Steelers games and Pens games. I like to eat at Dish Osteria, Piccolo Forno and Il Pizzaiolo. Those are great Italian restaurants. Oh, and Fat Head’s for their beer.
If you were to be a tour guide for Rome for one day, what's the one place that you would take somebody to see?
Besides my bar? Haha! Oh, wow, so I would definitely say the one place you have to see in Rome is the Vatican. The Vatican, for sure. I think there's a lot more to see in the Vatican than there is in the Coliseum. You're blown away by the beauty and the paintings and all the sculptures and – you have the basilica, the square, the cupula and the catacombs all there, plus the museum and Sistine Chapel.
And then what's the one place you would take them to eat, and what would you have?
Okay, that one dish that I would want everyone to try for once in their life, is Roman Pajata.
[Note: For the unfamiliar, per Wikipedia, pajata (pronounced pie-yacht-ahh] “is a traditional Roman dish primarily using the intestine of a young calf (tripe). As it has only eaten milk, the resulting dish is similar to cheese in a sausage casing … [it] is stewed in a typical tomato sauce and served with rigatoni.” Needless to say, it is very rich.]
Some people like it. Some people don't. I've had people eat it and they liked it. Some people didn't like it. But I’d take them to Taverna Agape, to eat some Pajata with a bottle of Montepulciano D’ Abruzzo.
That’s our best-selling red varietal.
I sell a lot of Pecorino from Abruzzo too, because that's one of the regions I like the most. I think it has a lot of potential. And obviously my roots are from there.
We have a Pecorino from Marche that’s fantastic. What other wines do you like?
The big guys up north – Barolo, Brunello, Barbaresco, Amarone. [Lazio is] not a big region that’s known for wines but we have a bunch that are doing pretty well.
We carry a line of organic wines by Monte Cecubi in Lazio, between Sperlonga and Itri.
Oh, that's right near the beach. Wow. It’s beautiful there.
Final question: are we gonna see you in Pittsburgh this year?
I don't know, man. It's been busy here. It’s hard for me to shut down. Maybe when I retire – It’s been fun but a lot of work and I'm getting old – all my hair has gone white!
LAZIO WINES
As he said above, Mr. Poggi is correct that Lazio is neither the most prolific nor vaunted wine producing region of Italy, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some excellent juice flowing from the hills beyond Caput Mundi.
Last year, Allora Wine Group began working with Monte Cecubi, an organic winery in the hills of Itri, a few miles east of Sperlonga and Mediterranean beaches (almost exactly halfway between Rome and Naples) where winemaking goes back to the days of Ancient Rome.
We offer four of their wines – Abbuoto and Serpe, both esoteric grapes native to the region that produce bold, dry, spicy wines best enjoyed with hearty meat dishes and bold cheeses; Terrae D’ Itrj a blend of half Merlot and the 2 aforementioned grapes that’s aged in chestnut barrels, and dry with heavy notes of dark berries; and Mamurra, a crisp and savory rose of the Abbuoto grape that’s terrific with seafood and pizza.
L’ABBINAMENTO – THE MATCH!
We learned a new Italian phrase recently while pursuing the DK/Eyewitness “Wines of the World” guide – “L’abbinamento, or ‘the match’ … the Italian word reserved almost exclusively for the happy marriage of food and wine.”
So, in keeping with a theme, we’ll introduce this as a new regular feature to NEBBYOLO – this month's match: Monte Cecubi’s Terrae D’ Itrj red blend with the Pappardelle with Rabbit at Dish Osteria on the South Side (below). The dry fruity wine nicely offsets the fresh pasta with rabbit in a sauce made with bell peppers, mushrooms, fennel and San Marzano tomatoes, sprinkled with Reggiano and garnished with thyme.
