ristorazione — Chioggia · Veneto
In Chioggia, where the historic centre narrows between canals and lagoon lanes, Ristorante Bella Venezia has kept alive, since the late nineteenth century, the memory of the Adriatic sea: an address that speaks of fishing, of Chioggia's own tradition, and of a time that is never in a hurry.
On calle Corona (a narrow lagoon lane), across from the old fish market, the threshold of Bella Venezia leads into a place that has crossed more than a century without losing its thread with the neighbourhood. Since the late nineteenth century this address has been part of the living fabric of Chioggia: not a restaurant that arrived by chance, but a presence rooted along corso del Popolo, in the memory of the lagoon city.
The interior, understated and elegant, seats up to a hundred guests in a close, unshowy atmosphere. On summer evenings a small garden at the entrance opens onto thirty more seats in the lagoon air; a private room, separate from the main dining hall, is available for meetings and business dinners. Different settings, the same register of care.
In the kitchen, Chioggia's tradition takes shape in the dishes that have made the house's reputation: granseola alla veneziana (Venetian-style spider crab) to open, sarde in saor (sweet-and-sour marinated sardines), the mixed Adriatic bollito (boiled fish and seafood), the grilled catch of the day. Every preparation follows the recipes of this lagoon-and-sea cuisine, with no concessions to effect for its own sake.
The turbot fillet in a potato crust, the fried fish, the dessert: the page tells every detail of a menu that knows where it belongs.
