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USSELL NORMAN
won’t be taking a romantic break in Venice any time soon. Th e
city that has for more than 20 years been his favourite
destination for art, architecture, history, food and, yes, romance,
is now, according to his wife, all about work. ‘She says I’ve
ruined it for her,’ says the restaurateur who made his name
bringing Venetian-style wine bars (bàcari) to London.
Canoodling in bàcari turned into research for Polpo, Norman’s
fi rst venture with business partner Richard Beatty, and
subsequently into more research for the hit eatery’s fi rst
cookbook. Norman and Beatty now run three branches of
Polpo in London (in Soho, Covent Garden and Smithfi eld),
plus two other hotspots: Spuntino (a hip New York-style diner)
and Mishkin’s (Norman’s take on a Jewish deli).
Whether you call it irony or destiny, Beatty is the college
friend who fi rst invited Norman to Venice in the late 1980s.
Th e story of Polpo is full of such coincidences. Th e Beak
Street building in which their fi rst branch is housed was once
home to baroque-era Venetian painter Canaletto, and it was
on the pavement outside that Norman fi rst met Venetian
cookery teacher Enrica Rocca, whose studio apartment is
right by the Dorsoduro hotel where Norman always stays.
PRIVATCITY
Thirty-Six
‘The places that inspired Polpo
are dotted around Venice and I
visit them every time I’m there’
‘She told me off for serving capers in an octopus salad,’
he says wryly. Rocca has since become something of a
culinary mentor to Norman, though Polpo’s kitchens and
recipes have always aimed to reference Venetian bàcari
rather than replicate them.
‘Most of the places that inspired Polpo are dotted around
Venice and I need to visit them at least once every time I’m
there,’ he says. Th at’s a personal requirement rather than a
business one. ‘It’s like I have to touch base or mentally tick
them off my list of things to do,’ he reveals. With fans now
using the Polpo cookbook’s bàcari guide as a route map away
from Venice’s notoriously poor restaurant tourist traps, you can
expect his favourites to be busy.
Also on Norman’s Venetian to-do list is catching a
traghetto, one of the beaten-up gondola ferries that locals use
Previous page, left: Ai
Barbacani restaurant (and
right) whole sea bream.
Right: Polpo’s Russell
Norman was inspired by
Venice’s informal
bar-restaurants.
Below: catching a
traghetto is a must.
Bottom: warm octopus
salad (without capers)
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