Toscanini opens Enoteca Capri wine bar in the Jordaan

Toscanini has a new sibling: Enoteca Capri, on the corner of Lindengracht and Noorderkerkstraat in the Jordaan. After three days of trial runs, the wine bar opened on Wednesday 11 November, fifty metres from the Italian restaurant that started in 1985.

Enoteca Capri sits at Lindengracht 63, in a corner building that has carried the Capri name for more than half a century. In the 1950s it was an ice cream parlour, then a pizzeria where the neighbourhood came to eat. ‘Nothing had been done to the building for more than 15 years,’ Leonardo Pacenti told De Buik van Amsterdam in June. Pacenti runs the new venue with Maud Moody, Susan van der Sande and Bobby Oudshoorn, who also run Toscanini.

The wine list at Enoteca Capri

Sometimes you just want a good glass of wine and a tasty bite.

The venue calls itself an enoteca con cucina: a wine bar with a kitchen, with the focus on aperitivo and wine. The team says it keeps the list compact and ready to drink. Anyone wanting more can order from Toscanini's cellar list.

The sample list on the website runs to 79 wines, mostly Italian. The cheapest are two half-litre carafes at €20: a Verdicchio from Sabbionare and a Barbera from Luigi Boveri. Bottles start at €34 for a rosato from Conti Zecca. Piedmont carries a lot of weight, with thirteen nebbiolo wines, up to a 2020 Barolo from Margherita Otto at €172. Add orange wines from Radikon and Klinec and Champagnes including Egly-Ouriet. Capri notes the selection may vary.

The list arrives in a year in which Italy's wine harvest is shrinking while its cellars stay full.

Pasta for €22 and room for walk-ins

The menu covers spuntini, classic Italian snacks, small plates and pasta. According to Your Little Black Book small plates cost between €9 and €16, every pasta is €22 and side dishes are €6. In June Pacenti mentioned charcuterie, house-made sausage and spaghetti and meatballs. ‘Sometimes you just want a good glass of wine and a tasty bite,’ he said.

You can sit at the open kitchen, at a table or at the large bar; there are 50 to 60 seats in total and no terrace. Bookings open a month ahead, Monday to Saturday between 16:00 and 21:30. Enoteca Capri is closed on Sundays. Space is always kept for walk-ins; groups above six cannot be seated.

With Toscanini at number 75 and Toscanini Deli at number 79, Enoteca Capri is the team's third address on the same stretch of Lindengracht. Anyone who cannot get a table at the restaurant now only has to walk fifty metres.