How to Avoid the Line at All’antico Vinaio
I hate to say it, but the hype is WARRANTED!
Romans claim that you can’t trust a restaurant with a line. According to every Roman I’ve met, there’s no truer way to know if the place you’re eating is for tourists or true Italians than to see a line of people snaking out into the street. So when my friend and I walked by a sandwich shop right by the Pantheon with a crowd of at least 80 people queuing up out front, I rolled my eyes. “There’s no way that’s worth the line,” I decided immediately, saying “Scusa” loudly to break my way through the mass of people.
Having successfully dodged the line, we walked to the piazza in front of the Pantheon, where essentially everyone in sight seemed to be chowing down on a sandwich from the store. I had to admit they looked pretty good: these sandwiches were massive, an array of toppings on huge pieces of crusty schiacciata bread, wrapped in simple wax paper with the name of the sandwich shop, All’antico Vinaio, written over and over again in a red script.
Cut to the next Tuesday, when I was walking by All’antico Vinaio again around lunchtime and noticed that there was no line to be seen. Fine, I sighed. I’ll guess I’ll get one of these fancy sandwiches.
Here’s where my preconceived notions broke down: first of all, these sandwiches are not fancy, either in preparation or in price. Each of them has at the most five ingredients, and they’re prepared right in front of you, like a five-star Italian Chipotle. A bunch of young men behind the counter move at light speed taking orders, slicing paper-thin slices of meat, and spooning toppings onto book-sized slices of schiacciata bread. If you blink, you’ll miss your turn; when the closest guy looks your way, you need to step up to the counter, scream out the name of your desired panino, and then step back. Within two minutes, someone will stuff the thing in your hands.
I got the sandwich called “LA BOSS”: prosciutto crudo, arugula, semi-aged pecorino cheese, and truffle cream. We’re talking fresh bread, incredibly fresh ingredients, and a massive portion size — all for 7 euro. This sandwich blew me away. I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough moisture, but the truffle cream saved the day; with its strong taste and subtle lubrication, it pulls the whole sandwich together. Watching the man slice the prosciutto I ate made it taste even more salty and delicious. And the pecorino — I’m used to hard, well-aged pecorino, but this younger cheese was soft and chewy, closer to the texture of mozz, but with a distinct pecorino sourness. God, and the bread? Okay, now I’m overdoing it.
The All’antico Vinaio brand was actually born in Firenze, not Rome, at the large, capable hands of founder Tommaso Mazzanti. His sandwiches have made him very popular on social media; in most of his videos, he greets the camera with a “Ragazzoni, buongiorno a tutti” (“Hey, big boys,”), and then cuts open a slice of focaccia and says in an exaggerated Florentine accent, “BADA COME LA FUMA” (which translates to something like “Beware how it smokes”) as the steam floats upward from the hot bread. It’s undeniably charming, and helps explain the fact that the sandwich shop has 596K followers on Instagram alone.
The long lines at his shops are a testament to both his charisma and the quality of these sandwiches. As loathe as I am to admit it, I was wrong. All’antico Vinaio is worth the wait.
Here’s how to beat the line at Rome’sAll’antico Vinaio. First off, eat early: for Italians, the lunchtime window doesn’t really begin until around 1pm, so if you can stomach eating before then, you’ll have better luck. Second, there are exponentially more tourists in Rome on a weekend than there are during the week. If you’re in Rome over the course of a week, save visiting the Pantheon for a weekday, and stop by All’antico Vinaio on the way.
For me, the best part of this discovery is that Mazzanti has recently taken his brand global. He has locations throughout Italy, but luckily for us, he has also just started franchising in the US. In fact, the second All’antico Vinaio in New York actually opened in October 2022 right near NYU; and despite my well-documented line aversion, you can bet on the fact that I’ll be queuing up there soon enough.
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