one hundred and fifty, at least six generations. From the unification of Italy just sealed with the conquest of Rome then capital to the age of the Internet, from the rural and poor Marca Trevigiana to the Treviso heart of the Northeast model; and from those hills of toil, heroic, to the coronation of Unesco on one of the new world heritage sites.
And again until Covid, the pandemic. It was 1872, when Iseppo Arman, from Col San Martino, decided to open a shop near the Treviso market, in what is now called via Manzoni. A resale of wine, with barrels, because the people of Treviso liked that wine so much. Veneto had only entered Italy six years ago, the city still had the urban planning and building imprint of the Habsburgs. The Arman tavern is still there, a witness to the time and civilization of the Treviso area, guardian of rituals and secrets.
A century and a half laterunder the ancient sign still hanging in the portico, remains a temple of aggregation and friendship, but above all the place of that amiable conviviality and the pleasure of being together which is in the DNA of our city.
The new owner, that is Stefano Zanottowho 20 years ago inherited the management of the temple from Ettorina Arman, has decided to celebrate the enviable birthday without too much fanfare.
There is only one commemorative pin, in the large vase on the counter, requested by the most loyal customers. He says very simply “1872-2022- Arman tavern, one hundred and fiftieth». And there is the bow tie logo, Zanotto’s unmistakable trademark. A discretion on which the owner himself does not compromise.
It may be that 130 of these 150 years have been branded by the Arman family untilthe mythical priestess Ettorina, fourth generation of the dynastywho disappeared at the age of 89 after having spent 79 behind the counter where she made her debut as a shop assistant at the age of 10, first helping her grandparents Cecilia and Stefano, then her father Giuseppe and mother Eugenia.
With theand his sister Genoveffa. His brothers ran the company in Col San Martino, still owned by their nephew Giuliano. It is unthinkable to count the shadows poured, once from the bottles, the cicheti offered in this century and a half. A group of former associates had tried, dedicating in Ettorina the volume “In the shadow of one hundred thousand shadows”, hardly a fair estimate. And then the kitchen, for decades and decades. To old Treviso residents and new immigrants, tourists and young people from around the world who arrive in the Marca to study or work.
E how many characters from political lifeadministrative and social, artisans, sports traders, artists, television stars, have passed in front of that counter or sat down at the tables, in this century and a half.
E the art exhibitions, on those facing bricks that are so resistant to time and still make many places in Treviso unique. And the big dinners, not only of politics, of the most modern start-up companies. Ettorina is always portrayed in the fresco near her counter, with her husband.
around, the icons of Zanotto’s passions (one is George Best, then Elvis and basketball), but there remain impromptu works by Beppe Mora, sports pennants.
In 2003, Ettorina recommended two things to Zanotto: «Continue with the traditional cuisine, don’t change, and keep the old people playing cards before dinnera».
She had just dismissed, irritated, the Chinese who had arrived with the cash money to buy the tavern. She entrusted him with the family tavern with a last warning: “Treat everyone equally, locals and foreigners, rich and poor, well-dressed people and those who are badly dressed”.
Zanotto has always interpreted it as a professional legacy that he wants to perpetuate today in the wake of a tradition that exceeds 150 years of activity. Maybe you want to focus onimminent anniversary of his 20 years of management, after summer? Or will it be because time, in that microcosm that has now become a large community, becomes an accessory, for a small twist of fate?