It is from a red number 21 that the adventure of the trattoria Cavour modo21 began… An adventure on which no one would have bet a penny… And instead the success was instant and overwhelming.
But let’s take a step back, in search of the history of the red house number 21 in piazza Cavour in Genoa.
We are in front of the Porto Antico area, now a tourist destination, which until the 1980s was instead a port trade area. The premises where our trattoria is located had always housed (or almost always housed) places where dockers and transporters found a friendly place to refresh themselves with traditional Ligurian dishes.
The Colombiadi of 1992 and Genoa’s new tourist vocation changed the type of customers forever, but not the need for a meeting place and refreshment ‘alla genovese’.
In 2014, the love at first sight between the place at number 21 red and a group of friends started a wonderful story, which was propelled by Mrs Alfonsina’s Pesto recipe, which won the World Pesto al mortaio Championship that very year.
From the outset, Cavour’s philosophy has been that of the ‘trattoria’, understood as an informal, typical and popular establishment with food characteristic of a precise geographical area. And it is on this identity of the restaurant that it has continued: quality of the raw materials, simplicity in the preparation of the dishes, essential service and inexpensive prices.
The authenticity and goodness of the traditional Genoese dishes, properly prepared in the Piazza Cavour kitchen, have done the rest, leading the restaurant to great success among the Genoese and “foresti” (foreigners) alike.
The sharing of space, then, was another characterising aspect: finding oneself sharing a table with strangers was a surprising and positive experience for many guests. Although the arrival of the Covid era has stopped (hopefully not forever) this habit.
In Cavour, traditional Ligurian dishes have forever conquered the hearts of many guests, who often decide to take a piece of this cuisine home with them, with a jar of Pesto or a box of trofie marked ‘modo21’.
But that is another story…
