La Ciotola, where the culinary tradition of Bergamo city rules

A restaurant in Bergamo, in the city center, on a prestigious street

This Restaurant is placed on the elegant and central boulevard called Papa Giovanni XXIII, a street that brings you to the fascinating city center, from the station to Porta Nuova, with the Upper town in the foreground that makes the city view more complete and shows the whole beauty of Bergamo city to whoever comes there.

Coming from the station, you will find this restaurant on the left side of the road and you can get there by passing through a short tunnel. It has the warm and welcoming style typical of taverns, which was created by their owners Antonella Testa and her brother Ferdinando, who have managed this activity since 1952.

“My parents - says Antonella - opened the historical “Trattoria America” in 1952 in Guglielmo d’Alzano street that proposed the cooking typical of Bergamo, which is still present in the menus of La Ciotola restaurant. That experience ended in 1992, in the meantime I travelled to the United States and I came back home full of new ideas and projects, such as offering the so called “ciotole” (bowls), which were anything but the big salad that nowadays you can find practically everywhere. At the time they were not so famous, so we called our new restaurant like this to give value to that new dish”.

The gastronomic proposal with typical food in Bergamo

La Ciotola restaurant is continuing the culinary tradition of the typical dishes from Bergamo. Despite changing every season, the menu is composed by some dishes that can be eaten all year long.

The owners’ main aim was to recall the traditional dishes of the old tavern “America”, such as boiled meat, Nosecc (rolled filled savory cabbage), baked rabbit, boar meat, casoncelli alla bergamasca (ravioli typical of Bergamo), cold cuts selections, cheese, and much more. The following raw materials are bought by the local producers from Bergamo and its suburbs: formaggella (Italian cheese) from Casazza and other cheese wheels produced in the valleys, fresh pastas by Benedetti pasta factory, pastry products by Giovanni Pina, the cold cuts from “Il Botto”, the Salera flours, the bread made by “Garibalda” and some Valcalepio wines (Bonaldi’s cantine, the castle of Grumello and La Rocchetta).

Finally, you cannot but taste the “traditional dish”, a mixture of different braised meats with red Valcalepio, coffee-flavored rabbit medallion, grilled sausage, mushrooms and polenta taragna.

The restaurant also offers the classic pizza, cooked only in the wood-fired oven.