After Romeow Cat Bistrot, Julietta Pastry and Lab arrives, created by Valentina de Matteis' vision. A story that captures the taste of vegetables in every form of expression.
Photos by Sabrina Rossi
The Story
While eating a Lemon Tart, I thought about how paradoxical it is that places, ideas, and gastronomic proposals that are more inclusive represent the exception that surprises you. As if inclusivity were something special, outside the norm, almost unnatural in its disarming naturalness.
I was at Julietta Pastry and Lab, a non-place with an embrace that, without clichés, can be defined in its feminine essence. Smiles, soft colors, warm materials, perceived attention to detail, everything capable of giving you that elegant lightness that makes you feel good. Julietta is a vegan workshop, it's the life idea of a woman who has chosen to cook exclusively with plant-based ingredients.
She is Valentina de Matteis, and her Julietta, on Via Francesco Negri in Rome at number 25/27, is the perfect companion to the pioneering Romeow Cat Bistrot, a restaurant that on the same sidewalk brought vegetarian cuisine to Rome in one of its highest expressions. An added value that it still holds and that today enriches, as always happens when you accompany yourself well in life, with her romantic Julietta.
The venue
We are in the Ostiense district, in the first stretch, the one that still sees the Pyramid of Cestius beyond the railway bridge and that lives animatedly between the Tiber and the Garbatella in its murals that decorate entire buildings, in its Porto Fluviale where the Gazometro stands out, in the beauty of the Centrale Montemartini, and in the endless nights of the Alpheus. Via Francesco Negri is a courageous street, a reserved and dead-end corner that runs alongside the complex of the Ex Mercati Generali; here, against all prejudices, you can easily find parking.
Romeow and Julietta are adjacent shop windows, and entering Julietta immediately gives you the feeling of wanting to stay, without hurry. Although it is not a table pastry shop with a coffee service, the quarters are spacious, and you can even have the possibility of consuming the goods at the shop: you can even get a coffee. Some sweets from the display cabinet can be obtained by the slice, above and inside the counter, to approach an inevitable selection of single portions.
Wood in materials, sage in colors, and plants in the furnishings, thanks to the light from the large windows, make this space a truly stopping destination. It is also worth mentioning that in its left wing, you can find a small but refined shop of vegan products such as plant-based cheeses, ferments, fruit juices, preserves, and mustards.
The products
As mentioned, my first taste is my perennial passion, the Lemon Tart. In the pastry laboratory, there is Barbara Giovanetti, and her shortcrust pastry is crispy but not dry, the cream is soft, and the meringue is velvety. The taste is decidedly intense.
Next, I dispelled a prejudice about puff pastry by going straight for the New York Rolls. Rightly crumbly, balanced in sugars, rewarding as you bite into it, and even more so when you encounter the chocolate mousse. Shortcrust pastry and puff pastry, when you approach a preparation technique that exclusively uses plant-based ingredients, are two things you choose a bit for the challenge when you are in a beautiful place that tells you it makes good things from every corner of its space.
Elements that in the crunch of an atavistic connection with pleasure find the greatest sense of contagious gratification. I found both things not only up to that satisfaction but well balanced in moisture and overall sweetness, with creams of good consistency and intense flavor. If I had to find a coherent thread that places a person with a Lemon Tart between their teeth at Julietta's counter, it's lightness.
Obviously, there are many other things to eat, from "maritozzi" to macarons, from biscuits to leavened products that speak of plant-based panettone and Easter colombe, or cakes that tell of "pastiere" in the Easter tradition. From Italian influences to French ones, where the latter also builds the atmosphere of a bistro that accompanies the savory offer of (mini) quiches, club sandwiches, and savory cakes.
In 2014, Valentina de Matteis brought her idea of a Japanese Cat Café to life at 15 Via Francesco Negri with Romeow (Cat Bistrot) and its kitchen. Then, in 2023, at number 25 of the same street, she opened the doors to a French-inspired pastry shop called Julietta (Pastry and Lab). Romance, kindness, lightness, but above all, taste in every form of vegetable expression. So much so that the not-to-be-underestimated pantry offers products ranging from cheeses to ferments and Simone Salvo's kombucha, with special attention given to vegetable seasonings and condiments such as pesto, mushroom ragù, and "stonnata" sauce.
Exiting Julietta, you feel like you've been to a special place, a truth that goes beyond the fact of being vegan because they might not tell you, and still win you over. This conveys the idea of the value of a philosophy that, although often appearing exclusive or special, is the most inclusive in everyone's taste. So, if Shakespeare turned love into a tragedy of destiny, Valentina de Matteis has turned kindness into a tasteful masterpiece.
Contacts
Julietta Pastry Lab
Pastry Shop and Store
Sunday: 9.30 - 17.30
Wednesday to Saturday: 9.30 -19.00
Monday and Tuesday: closed
Via Francesco Negri 25-27, 00154 Rome
Phone: 06.69280419
info@juliettapastryandlab.it
