This restaurant, which often appears on social media as a particularly lively and youthful place, actually has another side to it. It offers refined seafood cuisine that is attentive to waste and committed to total quality, but which satisfies a wide range of customers. Proof that you can serve quality even when you have 300 covers a night.
We are outside the bustling and chaotic historic center of Florence and its numerous restaurants that trap unsuspecting tourists. You can't even see it from the street, but Il Vecchio e il Mare is a very large place with a vast courtyard and ready to accommodate an impressive number of guests (on Saturdays it averages 300 people) considering the quality offered. If you just look at the Instagram page, especially towards the weekend, you'll notice a young crowd looking to have fun with friends. But in reality, this restaurant has a family history and a dual soul that combines quantity with quality.
The restaurant
The story of the owner and host Pasquale Naccari is the story of a family of restaurateurs spanning three generations. They are restaurateurs but also fishermen from Tropea, Calabria. His father Gaetano was already in the restaurant business in 1967 in Tropea. The family then moved to Florence and in 2006 they brought their vision of a seafood restaurant combined with a high-quality pizzeria - not surprisingly awarded 3 slices by Gambero Rosso since 2019. Pasquale is a force of nature when he talks about his history and that of his family, and his love for the art of hospitality shines through, as does his total desire to make the people who come to his restaurant and those who work with him feel good.
Like many other restaurateurs, he is keen to emphasize how, after the pandemic, he has placed even greater emphasis on his relationship with the front-of-house and kitchen staff, giving them more time off and organizing shifts that allow them to switch off and return to work feeling more rested and relaxed. This has also helped to stabilize the workforce and avoid excessive turnover. Worth noting is the idea of taking the team members on visits to prestigious wineries in the area—and beyond—to learn about the product firsthand and further bond as a team.
Pasquale also tells me how he initially struggled with the Florentine reality, especially when it came to putting together the wine and beer list. His idea—which was probably just ahead of its time—was to only feature small producers, both in the wine and beer sectors. But the public didn't respond—and as I hear more and more often, “it's what's in the glass that counts”—so he gave space to more “commercial” names, while still maintaining a respectable selection of wines, champagnes, and beers. He also told me early on that he would be adding non-alcoholic drinks, which he did (before spring, before the phenomenon took off: another sign of his market vision). In 2024, Gambero Rosso awarded the wine and beer list the title of best drinks list in its guide to pizzerias in Italy.
The cuisine: fish and pizza
In the kitchen, you will often find Francesca, Pasquale's mother, preparing classic seafood dishes such as moscardini alla luciana (baby octopus), paccheri alla ghiotta di baccalà (pasta with salt cod), carbonara di pesce (fish carbonara), and spaghetti with anchovies, fennel, pine nuts, and sultanas. The two young chefs, Lorenzo Ticci and Simone Apicella, coordinate a wide range of dishes, including pizza, sushi, and raw fish.
Fish remains the star of the show. Large fish are purchased so that they can be processed whole: for example, tuna from Mazara del Vallo and Ancona is used in its finest cuts for sashimi and sushi, or preserved in oil to garnish pizzas. The kitchen team and the pizza team work closely together to create the toppings, thanks in part to the renovation of the restaurant's kitchen a few years ago, which now covers 180 square meters and includes a pizza area and oven.
The menu varies depending on availability but has something for everyone: there are various types of sushi and uramaki, from the most popular with salmon, avocado, and cream cheese, to uramaki with amberjack (fished in Calabria) and cucumber with black truffle mayonnaise and black tobiko. However, if the market allows, you can also find cuts of tuna that are difficult to find in “commercial” restaurants, such as ventresca Otoro.
The same philosophy of high quality is applied to the pizzas: there are many available with high-quality toppings, including homemade seafood. The dough is left to rest for at least 36 hours, ensuring digestibility and flavor; in addition, every pizza can also be prepared gluten-free and in a thin crust version. In addition to the classics, there are seasonal pizzas. If you happen to be here during the friarielli season, you must try Il friariello va al mare - a seafood version of sausage and friarielli - with pork replaced by swordfish belly and tail, to which pieces of cuttlefish are added to create a seafood sausage.
Or how about Cipolla e Tonno (onion and tuna), with homemade tuna in oil? There are also round pizzas with earthy toppings and Calabrian products such as spicy spianata or 'Nduja di Spilinga. The menu, which includes pizzas, cuisine, and sushi for every season, guarantees excellent value for money and has something to satisfy every type of customer—an aspect that should not be underestimated in contemporary dining.
Contacts
Il Vecchio e il Mare
Address: Via Vincenzo Gioberti, 61N, 50121 Firenze FI
Phone: 055 669575
Website: https://www.ilvecchioeilmare.com/
