Trieste | SaluMare

Scouting in Trieste for our Can’t Forget Italy visual storytelling project, I came across SaluMare. Bright and busy, it’s somewhere between a deli, a bar and a slow fast-food outlet, but seafood only, and I found the concept really genius.

They define SaluMare as a Laboratorio del Pesce, an ex-fishmonger’s where now they buy in the freshest fish to smoke or process into salami, sauces, purées and pâtés, and serve up ready to eat.

Have a glass of wine while you do some select fishy shopping. But better still, choose from a mouth-watering rebechin (Trieste dialect for snack or aperitif) menu of open sandwiches, platters or panini with home-smoked salmon or eel, tuna or mullet roe, octopus or their signature salt-cod purée. And sip on one of the excellent Friuli or Veneto wines for a refined light lunch or a leisurely happy hour.

If you’ve time to linger indoors, in understated chic surroundings, there’s a whole library of foodie volumes, restaurant guides and international newspapers to peruse; or sit outside and do some serious people-watching in the old quarter.