Perhaps no other city in the world, with the possible exception of Paris, has been as romanticized as Venice, Italy’s City of Canals. It is not difficult to see why: Sitting in the middle of a lagoon and spread over 100 tiny islands, the city is studded with beautiful bridges, ancient churches and gondolas ploughing through the maze of waterways.
Such beauty can be both a blessing and a curse. But the city, small as it is, can be stifling under the sheer weight of tourists. It is not uncommon to hear people say that there is nowhere authentic left to eat.
How then does a successful seafood restaurant take advantage of the benefits — the fresh produce on your doorstep, a world famous location — without falling into the temptation of simply catering to the hordes of tourists? One restaurant believes it has managed to achieve this for more than 200 years.
The high-end Hostaria da Franz, not far from the famous St. Mark’s Square, has become a Venetian institution. Its establishment reflects the city’s history of travel and international relations; it was opened by Franz Habeler, a young Austro-Hungarian army soldier who came to Venice more than 200 years ago, and for the past three decades has been run by the Gasparini family. Celebrating Venetian cuisine remains the core of the operation.
“Our menu always consists of local recipes,” says Maurizio Gasparini. “I visit the fish market every day. When my father took over the restaurant 30 years ago, he was the chef, and he still supervises the purchases from the fishmongers.” Every morning, the Rialto market is overflowing with catches of the day, from tiny snails called bovoleti to turbot.
Click here to read the full story which ran in the December issue of SeaFood Business >
