A century
on Via Marittima

The chapters of the story

1. Chapter I

   1926

   Grandmother Arcangela’s dairy shop

   It all begins with Vincenzo’s grandmother, Arcangela Bartolini: a dairy shop with tobacconist’s licence number 27. The post station was nearby, with horses coming in from the railway station.

   The little refreshment stop becomes a canteen for the post, with water for the horses and a hot meal: an old-style trattoria, serving the simple dishes of the farming tradition.

2. Chapter II

   The bar

   The high school café

   Then the helm passes to Vincenzo’s father, who turns the trattoria into a bar. The students of the nearby science high school are already regulars: generations of people from Frosinone have their very first coffee here.

   

3. Chapter III

   1956

   The great snowfall

   Via Marittima buried in snow, the town transformed: it is the memory Vincenzo reaches for first when he talks about Frosinone.

   And then the street festivals and the carnivals of the old days, when every family in the neighbourhood brought something to share: fini fini, falloni, pane rosso.

4. Chapter IV

   1984

   Enter Vincenzo

   Vincenzo Minotti takes over the café and changes everything. In Rome he takes the first AIBES bartending courses, when few people in Frosinone knew they existed, and in 1986 a gelato course in Milan.

   With his wife Maria Teresa he travels the world, and what he sees he brings back to Via Marittima.

   «I love bars, I’m a ’localaro’: I go around looking for what’s new.»

   

5. Chapter V

   The ’90s

   When Saturday night meant Via Marittima

   Frosinone becomes a true provincial capital, and on Saturday nights people come in from the surrounding towns: Via Marittima is full of life, and the Minotti is one of its landmarks. Champagne is poured by the glass here when other bars sold little more than soft drinks.

   Karaoke arrives, with a sound system the town had never seen and compliments from Fiorello. Morandi, Pappalardo, Cocciante and Finardi all stop at the bar. For a while, a boa constrictor even lives in a terrarium in the café: his name is Benito, and his fame travels well beyond the town.

   «When we were selling fizzy lemonade, Minotti was selling champagne.»

   

6. Chapter VI

   2017

   The new living room

   The café is renewed: a European-style veranda, the red velvet Chester sofa, the crystal chandeliers and the green wall. The brass sign stays in the window, and in summer the garden becomes Shabby.

   

7. Chapter VII

   2020

   #JustApe, aperitivo at home

   Lockdown arrives and the Minotti does not stop. From 17 April 2020 the aperitivo comes to your door: full boxes, drinks and Vincenzo’s artisan gelato, every day. You order by phone or WhatsApp in the morning for lunch, in the afternoon for the aperitivo.

   In the same months Vincenzo starts making his gelato again, in a glycol-cooled display case bought for the purpose: the first step of Vick’s gelato.

   

   Aperitivo boxes, drinks and gelato delivered at home, Monday to Sunday: how the Minotti kept its living room lit even with the doors closed.

8. Chapter VIII

   2023

   Vick’s gelato

   Vincenzo’s gelato gets its name. Il Gourmet Errante names it among the three best gelati of the year, and the City of Frosinone honours Caffè Minotti among the town’s historic businesses, open for at least forty years.

   

9. Chapter IX

   2024

   Gelato in Terracina

   In June Vick’s gelato opens in Terracina, on Piazza Mazzini. And for Il Gourmet Errante it is again among the three best gelati of the year, this time top of the list.

10. Chapter X

    2026

    A hundred years

    Caffè Minotti turns a hundred: the story of a family and of a town, to be celebrated with everyone in Frosinone. And Vick’s gelato is getting ready to arrive in Piazza Turriziani, the new square in the upper town.

    «This place belongs a little to every one of them.»