All'Oro and The H'All Tailor Suite, the new challenge of chef Riccardo Di Giacinto and Ramona Anello

We had left them on 6 December 2015 with their closing service in 5-star hotel The First Hotel on via del Vantaggio. Before last spring’s opening of Madre the couple welcomed the birth of little Eivissa. The latest news is that the countdown is rolling to an end with the final touches on the couple’s new Rome project. Riccardo Di Giacinto and Ramona Anello will open the doors to the brand new All'Oro shortly. The restaurant will also contain a hotel, or rather ‘tailor suite’. 

The H'All Tailor Suite

Let’s talk about the name: The H'All Tailor Suite. “We wanted the name to be in line with our restaurant (named after the Italian name for the laurel plant and goldsmith shop owned by Riccardo’s father, Oro Enzo). We wanted to continue on the play of words and apostrophes for the hotel too”. The term tailor suite too, refers to how to space is tailored on the customer’s needs. “We designed the entire project, putting ourselves in our clients’ shoes. The initial plan envisioned 18 rooms, later tweaked to 14”. Fourteen rooms fitted with all manner of amenities, from a PlayStation console in the family suite, to a collection of cigars in the balcony suite. “The smallest room is 25 square metres, some rooms have an en suite queen bathtub and all beds are king-size. Guests can even pick their pillow from a special menu”. Furniture has all been custom built by the Expo Mobili di Marcello Socievole manufacturing. Riccardo and Ramona personally selected all materials for the furniture, from the sanded glass for the showers hailing from Murano, to the Carrara marbles used for the bedside tables. Prices? “Prices will be in the average Rome bracket, around 200-250 Euro”. Costs aside,“we still need to make final calculations, but one thing is for sure, this is the investment of a lifetime”. The couple can’t wait to open the doors and allow guests and friends the fruit of the last 15 months’ sacrifice. “Our will be one of the few Rome accommodations with an important restaurant – we are more accustomed to similar formulas in less touristic locations, for example Reale by Niko Romito or L'Argine a Vencò of Antonia Klugmann – but we’re not aiming to be the classic hotel, it will more properly be the house of All'Oro”.

The restaurant

The area is the Flaminio neighbourhood, in a gorgeous building, covering 900sqare metres divided on three floors (including the ground floor where the restaurant s located). The location is outside of the blue ZTL restricted traffic area, yet only 500 yards from Piazza del Popolo: “After seeing many venues, when we arrived here we were won over immediately. Friend, partner and contractor Renzo Valeriani shared our same enthusiasm”. The couple is the sole proprietor of the restaurant. I twill be open daily, including on weekends for lunch. The new All’Oro will have two rooms, one with shaved cement walls and brass lamps, where seating can be at a single communal table or two separates, overlooking the open wine cellar, “which is protected by a small gate that draws from the graphic elements of the hotel’s wallpaper”. The other dining room is totally different. Dark wood panelling on the walls, beamed ceilings, fireplace (Riccardo’s dream) and glass credenzas, suggesting the intimacy of old English homes. There’s also a “secret” door that directs to the powder room without having to cross the other room. This second room is ideal for private dinners. Everything however revolves around the 130 square metre kitchen, which even houses a wood-burning oven (another dream of the chef). “After years of work, I finally designed and build my kitchen the way I needed it. The stations rotate counter-clockwise: dishwashing, pastry kitchen, starters, appetizers, storage, supply room, pass and dining room filter. This space allows customers to see into the kitchen but not hear noises and staff conversations”. The kitchen brigade is made up of 12 loyal collaborators who in the meantime have been busy working at Madre, the multi-functional space opened by Di Giacinto in Monti while construction was happening at All’Oro. In April All’Oro will also open its outside seating area (still on the drawing board). This will be a kind of greenhouse that will also welcome hotel guests for breakfast.

The menu

As far as the menu, the general line will be constant with the All’Oro offer, that is Riccardo’s traditional-contemporary cuisine. “We will include a few dishes that are completed at the table, like the ‘T'Agliata’ of the ‘Cacio e Shaker’”. Focus will be on the dining room, this means careful training of the wait staff. “We consider the dining room to be an active part of the offer. In a few years it will be hard to find professional waiters. Nowadays chefs bone your fish, portion foods, garnish and in some cases even bring the dish to the table… Some are lamenting the lack of pros in the service end of the restaurant world, no wonder”. Hence the idea of the T'Agliata, a carved skirt steak "dressed" in black garlic, seaweed and capers, which is carved and portioned at the table by the server. Same goes for the shaker used by the waiter to mix and then serve diners their plate of Cacio e Shaker.  

The H'All Tailor Suite – All'Oro | Roma | via Giuseppe Pisanelli, 25 | March 2017

by Annalisa Zordan
translated by Eleonora Baldwin