Lachimera di Bacco
Lachimera di Bacco is a restaurant and wine bar in Trieste, the historic port city on the Adriatic that was for centuries the principal seaport of the Habsburg Empire. The name — a poetic compound of lacrima (tear) and Bacco (Bacchus, Roman god of wine) — evokes both the pleasures of wine and the melancholy romanticism that characterises Trieste’s literary and cultural identity. The restaurant draws on the city’s layered culinary heritage, where Central European, Mitteleuropean and Mediterranean flavours converge.
At a glance
- Type
- Restaurant · Wine bar (osteria)
- Cuisine
- Triestine · Friulian · Mitteleuropean
- Location
- Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
- Coordinates
- 45.6498° N, 13.7698° E
Overview
Trieste’s dining culture is unlike any other in Italy — it carries the stamp of the Habsburg centuries, when the city was a cosmopolitan free port connecting Vienna to the Mediterranean. Lachimera di Bacco operates within this tradition, offering a wine-forward experience that celebrates the outstanding white wines of the Carso plateau and the Collio hills alongside traditional local dishes. The name’s literary flavour is entirely at home in a city whose cafés sheltered James Joyce, Italo Svevo and Umberto Saba.
History
Trieste’s osteria and wine-bar culture — the osmiza tradition of farm wineries opening seasonally to the public — has deep roots in the Karst hinterland. Urban restaurants like Lachimera di Bacco descend from the buffet and birreria tradition of Habsburg-era Trieste, places where workers, intellectuals and merchants shared tables and shared bottles in a democratic social space that was neither purely Italian nor purely Central European but distinctly Triestine.
What you see
The setting likely reflects the atmospheric interior style typical of Trieste’s older establishments — stone walls, wooden shelving lined with bottles, the soft noise of a knowledgeable wine conversation. The menu draws on Triestine classics: jota (bean and sauerkraut soup), goulash alla triestina, local fresh fish from the Adriatic, and the cured meats of the Friulian interior. The wine list is the centrepiece, weighted toward the indigenous white varieties of the Carso — Vitovska, Malvasia Istriana — and the natural-wine producers of the region.
Cultural significance
In Trieste, the act of eating and drinking is inseparable from the city’s multi-layered cultural identity. Restaurants like Lachimera di Bacco serve as living archives of a culinary tradition that belongs simultaneously to Italy, to the former Habsburg world, and to the Karst borderland — a convergence found nowhere else in Europe.
Practical information
- Address
- Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia (check current listing for exact address)
- Hours
- Check official website or local listing for current opening times
- Reservations
- Recommended for dinner
Getting there
Trieste is served by Trieste Airport (TRS) at Ronchi dei Legionari, 35 km from the city, with connections to Rome, Milan and several European hubs. Direct trains run from Venice (2 hours), Ljubljana and Vienna. Coordinates: 45.6498° N, 13.7698° E — the restaurant is in the central urban area, reachable on foot from the main piazza or by city bus.