PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — If you’ve ever had a pre-dinner drink and a small bite in Italy, you’ve probably already fallen in love with the Italian tradition of aperitivo.
Now, you don’t need a ticket or a passport – just pop into the brand new Bar Cicci in Center City Philadelphia.
It’s an all-day aperitivo cafe, where you will feel like you stepped right into a bar in Milan.
“A cicca is like a little thing, a little love, a little bite,” explains owner Ellen Yin. “Cicci is the plural of cicco.”
And that’s what Bar Cicci on Sansom Street is all about. In Italy, those small, savory bites are called cicchetti, and they are enjoyed during aperitivo, an Italian pre-dinner social ritual.
“I want them to feel like they stepped into an Italian bar, away from their stress,” says Yin.
First, the sips.
“You could start with a martini and go all the way to espresso or a shakerato,” she says.
A shakerato is an Italian iced coffee made by shaking hot espresso, simple syrup, and ice together in a cocktail shaker.
The James Beard Award-winning restaurateur says she was inspired by her Italian travels.
“And then we took the team to Venice and Milan in February, and we did a whole cicchetti tour,” she says.
Yin and her team then brought that culture, along with color-drenched Italian vibes and authentic little bites back home to Center City.
“We have prosciutto and meats. We have cheese. We have 20 different types of bites at least,” she explains. “You could make a dinner of it.”
At Bar Cicci, you can start the morning with coffee and one of their cornetti, a sort of Italian version of a croissant.
“They have all different fillings, like pistachio and mortadella,” she says. “We have the maritozzi, which is the one stuffed with cream.”
There’s also a creation of their own, the cannoli cruffin, where cannoli cream is stuffed inside the cornetti dough.
Around lunch, sandwiches and other savory snacks join the party.
And don’t miss dessert, like the Campari sorbetto with a side of prosecco.
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