capo

<i>She mentions many places in the bed they frequented</i>

Very funny typo, mclaurie!

bacci, one place we ate at which seemed to have a local feel was the tiny Trattoria San Basilio, near the San Basilio vaporetto stop. It's mentioned on this website which says &quot;It is family owned and operated for over 30 years . . . Stefano is the host and bartender, very personable.&quot; I second Stefano's warm personality. He was perhaps the most engaging person we met in a restaurant in Venice.

http://www.rentvillas.com/PropertyDe...CatalogId=4994

Patrick

funny, Capo, but St. Basilio Trattoria is the place I mentioned in the other Venice locals thread. I mentioned we had our best meal there, and surprisingly it was all locals that night. It seemed like it should be lots of tourists, just because it was on the water and at a vaparetto stop. I thought maybe we just happened to hit it on odd night. I do laugh about how they offered a special that night of tuna. When my partner ordered it and said he likes it rare, Stefano, said something like &quot;you don't get a choice. It will be fixed the way my father likes to fix it.&quot; It was delicious, anyway.

capo

Grazie, Patrick. I hadn't noticed that you mentioned it elsewhere. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned (except by me) on any thread about Venice.

Good to hear that you guys had your best meal there. I actually remember the tuna on the menu because I love it and was going to order it but we got there a bit late in the evening and they had run out.

How did you hear about it? We heard about it from a Canadian couple we were sitting next to the previous night at Casin dei Nobili, a restaurant near our locanda. They said it was a small out-of-the-way place with great food, and they were right.
It's exactly the kind of place I love, unpretentious (it reminded me somewhat of a dining car) with good cooking.

Hope you enjoyed Stefano as much as we did. We love music and had a fun time talking about that with him, since he was playing some very good music while we were eating.

Patrick

I said the other day that all our meals for the week were based on places I had made notes on from this site. So perhaps it was your suggestion that put it on my list. In most cases we walked tons every day, and checked out all the places on the list, then either made a reservation for that night or later, or in some cases just took our chances and went. We booked the same day at San Basilio in person, but Stefano told us what time to come -- fairly late as he said they were really busier earlier. So it could easily be that the &quot;tourists&quot; had come and gone before we got there.

Patrick

By the way, the other thread where I listed my week's worth of restaurants is titled only slightly different from this one: &quot;Venice restaurants where locals eat&quot;. I'll see if I can find and top it.

capo

Grazie again, Patrick. Out of curiousity, I just did a search on this site for &quot;San Basilio&quot; and my comments on a few threads were the only ones I found so you must have indeed noted it from my recommendation. How cool that you not only went there but enjoyed it so much!

I don't recall making a reservation at the San Basilio. We had a long day (on a Saturday) and just got there late, not long before closing. I'm sure it gets some tourists (wouldn't nearly any restaurant in Venice?) but perhaps the look of the place might be off-putting to many people.

I just read your comments on the other thread and noticed that you sat outside at the trattoria, at a table right on the water. That sounds nice. Even if they had the outside tables available the time of year we were there (early April) we wouldn't have gotten once since we arrived after dark.

I also noticed you wrote this...

&quot;<i>We ate as we always do in the beautiful garden at Locanda Martin -- but admittedly that is a place for Venetian special occassions and otherwise tourists.</i>&quot;

The Locanda Montin (pardon the correction)...another place we loved for dinner! It's also where we stayed for our week in Venice. The garden looked absolutely wonderful but, unfortunately, was not open yet for the season when we were there.

Thanks for helping to bring back some nice memories.