Exmouth Market is an exceptional street. On a wet and blustery winter evening, there are still scores of people spilling out of Cafe Kick, Berber & Q’s Shawarma Bar and Morito et al, clinking beers, chugging wines and puffing on crafty cigs all down this pedestrianised strip of year-round urban hedonism.
It’s the perfect scene for the second outing from eccentric wine guy Luca Dusi, whose Shoreditch bar, with its ‘no list, purely vibes’ approach to serving customers has been enchanting Londoners since 2015.
Exmouth Market just got even more exciting
The new Passione Vino offers the same intrepid method. Rather than a chalkboard or menu, intuitive staff will ask what you’re into and, after a kind of sommelier-adjacent cold reading, will return with a couple of bottles for you to try, before you’re poured a glass of your favourite. Wine here is exclusively Italian (Passione Vino started life as an import company), but you’re allowed to throw out names of global grapes and knowledgeable staff will suggest their Italian equivalent. Not sure what you like? That works too, with recommendations coming thick and fast, alongside brief but impassioned explanations of various vines.
If the space looks familiar, that’s because they’ve taken over the original home of long-running Clerkenwell tattoo parlour, the Family Business (don’t worry they’ve not closed, just moved next door). The gold foil ‘Electric Tattooing’ lettering remains emblazoned on the steamy windows, and the buzz of the needle can still be tentatively felt within the plastered-walls, only with fewer nervous, shirtless men present. It’s appropriately candlelit inside, with mid-century light fixtures dangling from the ceiling and big jars of pickled things stacked behind the bar, alongside endless bottles of wine. Shiny copper-topped tables reflect the candlelight, making the whole place feel like a 1970s-era Tinto Brass movie set. It’s warm and sexy, but equally, not so sexy that you couldn’t take your mum here for an afternoon Chianti.
With this much wine, food is an imperative, and small plates span far beyond classic charcuterie and cheese plates (though both are on offer, and very good). A small bowl of Parmesan chunks with warm crackers makes for the perfect amuse bouche and accompaniment for fizzy Franciacorta, while creamy slices of porchetta from the hills of Padova come layered with crispy pink raddico, making for the meatiest salad we might have ever encountered. The hits keep coming; Sicilian red prawn tartare with a dauntless orange dressing is perfectly pudding-like, before dessert takes us in a more savoury direction; sheep ricotta accessorised with baked pear and caramelised walnuts, and jazzed further with thyme and honey. Dessert wine is eschewed in favour of a heroically sweet Cidre du Saint Bernard, halfway between Champagne and a bottle of cornershop Copella.
Exmouth Market just got even more exciting.
The vibe An intimate wine bar on one of London’s best streets.
The food Cheese, meats and fabulous fishy small plates.
The drink Italian wine and Italian wine only.
Time Out tip On Sunday afternoons until 4pm, they offer a tasting menu version of their entire menu for £35.