.IT — gossip, bass & bad decisions
Section 05 of 05 — 24 curiosities
Chefs, cocktails, aperitivo and the late-night snack that saves the evening.
The Italian early-evening ritual of a drink and a nibble before dinner, built on a word that literally means opening.
Sunbeds, lunch and music on the sand. The Riviera's most famous one began by feeding a film crew on Pampelonne beach in 1955.
Breakfast and lunch fused into one late, leisurely meal, proposed in 1895 as a kindness to people who had been out on Saturday night.
A cook famous enough to be recognised without the apron, a species that first appeared on British television in 1937.
Wine sold with a famous name on the label. Francis Ford Coppola got there early, buying a Napa estate in 1975 with Godfather money.
The podium habit of spraying the bubbly rather than drinking it, started by Dan Gurney at Le Mans in 1967.
The table closest to the kitchen, where diners get a front-row view of the stoves, and the title of a Netflix series that made chefs into film stars.
The formula where the table and the dance floor share a room, perfected in 1990s Paris under a four-metre Buddha.
The set of rules on what to wear to get in. Royal Ascot has some of the most precise ones, down to the width of a hat.
The coffee cocktail born in 1980s Soho, when a customer asked a London bartender for a drink to wake her up.
The traditional final stop of a European night out, owed in large part to a 1972 food stall in West Berlin.
The slice that rescues the end of the evening. Its most famous origin story, the queen and the Margherita, is probably a legend.
The most coveted star in cooking was invented by a tyre company that wanted people to drive further for dinner.
A grand title for a bartender that began life in 1856 as a joke, then came back in the 1980s and never left.
A Milanese twist on the Negroni with sparkling wine instead of gin, whose name means wrong and which went viral thanks to a TV star in 2022.
The Japanese way of saying the chef decides. Even a US president went along with it in a Tokyo basement.
A restaurant that opens for a few weeks and then vanishes, which is exactly why everyone suddenly needs a table.
A bar on top of a building, where the view is part of the price. One in Bangkok even has a cocktail named after a film.
The one drink a bar, hotel or wedding wants to be remembered for. Venice's Harry's Bar set the bar high with the Bellini.
A hidden bar behind an unmarked door, born in the Prohibition era and now recreated, minus the raids, with a password and a bookcase.
Northern Italy's orange-tinted early-evening drink, named after a German word for a splash and finished with a slice of orange.
Once a rural American roadhouse with steaks and relish trays, now also a secret dinner in a stranger's flat. Both involve a long evening.
A long parade of tiny courses chosen by the chef, where the bill is fixed and the only decision left is how to pace yourself.
The soft barrier that separates the inside crowd from the hopeful queue. Studio 54 turned it into a symbol of the night.
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