Bartender for Life

We all know that food in Italy is more than just way of life, it is practically a religion. The people who work within the food industry consider their occupations as a way of life too, and the lifestyle that surrounds it is a truly Italian one.

One of the first things that any tourist thinks of when sightseeing in Rome is what they are going to eat. It is sufficient to say that Italian food is at the top of any travelers’ top interests. However, there are many differences between an experience in a Rome restaurant or bar (which is Italian for a café), that are not easy to discern at first sight.

In many other countries, the job of a bartender or a waiter is a go-between job, something to suffice while a college student is working to go to school or what someone does while they are looking for a new job. In Italy, and therefore in Rome, these jobs are not a temporary fixture in the job market, but a profession that is taken very seriously.

Many bars and restaurants in Rome are family owned and run. For example, a small Italian restaurant can be owned by two brothers, where the mother helps in the kitchen, a cousin will wait tables, and the daughter will help seat customers and her mother in the kitchen. A local bar may have the father, son and daughter all working there as well. While this might sound cliché, it is not far from what one will find in many places. In fact, many of these businesses find it hard to hire staff outside of the family, because why hire someone who may not be trustworthy when there is a readily available cousin or nephew?

Due to the extreme importance of eating in the Italian lifestyle, these occupations are held in extreme importance. They are professions of food, not of service. Therefore, restaurants and bars that have kept their slow-paced, family run atmosphere can boast about workers who know how to serve food properly, make coffee the right way, or who can suggest the right wines to complement your food. True to the Italians’ wonderful ability to hold on to tradition, anyone lucky enough to walk into a restaurant or bar run in this fashion when sightseeing in Rome will be able to experience it the way it should be.  

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