The entrance on a narrow side street leads you up a charming staircase and into the main dining room of this neighborhood favorite. The windows from the dining room look out over Piazza delle Cinque Scole, one of the oldest squares in the Jewish Ghetto, and although the room itself is fairly spare, the wood-beam ceilings soar overhead and give you the impression of dining in an old palazzo in another century. Still, Al Pompiere manages to keep its informal feel, which has changed very little over the years. Its Roman dishes, such as fried zucchini flowers, battered salt cod, and gnocchi, are all consistently good and served without fanfare on white dishes with a simple border. The traditional coda alla vaccinara (stewed oxtail with celery and tomato) is here, too. But there are some nice, historic touches like a beef-and-citron stew that comes from an ancient Roman recipe of Apicius. There was a terrible fire in a shop below the restaurant in late 2004, but the restaurant was soon back in business, the only remaining evidence being the scorch marks below the windows on the piazza. But the irony here is as thick as the kitchen's tomato sauce: Al Pompiere means "the fireman."
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