Sadly, Cocaeta has changed ownership. Cocaeta (meaning little tern in Venetian dialect) is a super tiny creperie in Venice, located about 10 minutes walking distance from Venice train station. This time I have to be biased. Cause Giulio, the owner, is a dear dear friend of mine. I’ve known him since I was little because we lived in the same neighbourhood (I still live there). We attended the same schools. I really know him well.
And here’s the thing: he’s the nicest guy in the world. I mean nice nice. He is adorably shy. More shy than me, which is really something! He is super polite, always smiling back at you, always calm and patient. I never heard a swear word from him. Never. Not even when he was really upset. He is the kind of person you’d really like to have as neighbour. So I am particularly happy for him, knowing that his cute little shop is working out fine.
By the way, do you care to pronounce Cocaeta right? Koh -kah -EH -tah.
La Cocaeta is, as said, super tiny. So no place to sit. Just a shelf to place your dish. And one bench on the outside. There you can sit admiring the canal. The first thing to welcome you when you enter is the giant blackboard full of writings: all the fillings you can chose from prosciutto to mascarpone, from tomato to mushrooms, from bananas to Nutella.
All the lovely drawings (including the little seagull of the logo) were made by Giulio himself. He is very talented! Boy, I really love this guy. And I’m not that kind of person who easily and publicly declare her feelings but when a person is worth it, I have to. Plus the more I grow older the more I don’t give a damn about making a bad impression. Actually, I can’t wait to free myself from the last discretions, ah ah ah!
Giulio makes personally each crepe, at the moment. So nothing is prepared in advance or warmed up. You can find a ton of different ingredients, sweet or savoury, among which to chose and create your own crepe. As for me I’m a fan of Mies Van Der Rohe’s “less is more” saying. So I never mix too much. I like simple things. But I saw people ordering crepes with 6 ingredients!
The last time I went there I was with my friends Tomaso and Ivan. Ivan lives in London now, so he comes home every 4 months. We decided to go have lunch at la Cocaeta and then spend the evening all together in Venice.
I ordered a crepe with 3 ingredients (my “historical high”): pumpkin crème, brie cheese and speck (a delicious cold cut). As I learnt from one of my readers: scrumptious! (Thanks, Jennifer!) The first time I saw this word typed by Jennifer referring to a photo of mine (some food, I don’t remember) I thought: “Oh my God! My pic must be horrible”. Because, you know, in Italian this strange word, scrumptious, doesn’t sound so well 😉 so I googled it and I found out it meant delicious ah ah.
Then, as dessert, I ate a crepe with mele cotte (stewed apples), chopped walnuts and caramel. Very good! But I preferred the one I had the previous time (another day fyi): fresh strawberries and melted white chocolate (mmmm).
Inside the shop there’s a fridge and you can help yourself choosing a bottle of water, a bier, a sparkling wine or a soda. To my pleasure there are also the Baladin sodas (made without colourings and preservatives). My favourite is the citron one, cedrata [cheh -DRAH tah].
Compared to other bars in Venice, la Cocaeta is also very cheap. In fact I still doubt my friend manages to earn something!
At the end of the shift, Giulio closed the shop and we went for a walk in the Cannaregio sestiere, which is less known and crowded than other Venice areas. Some of the pics were taken by me and some by Ivan (I asked his permission to post them). Cannaregio is also the neighborhood where I attended a wonderful blog tour. If you love local craftmanship, read my Venice Artisans Tour here!
WARNINGS
- Keep in mind that you could find a queue. So, since Giulio makes the crepes one by one at the moment you could wait… up to 40 minutes. So it is better to come in advance, order and go for a walk in the meantime. As for me I’ve always been lucky, I never waited more than 10 minutes.
- Always check the opening hours on the Facebook page! Since Giulio works alone, sometimes he has to change them.
- Cocaeta doesn’t accept credit cards. See? I told you the truth on Facebook!
I must admit I was doubtful. I wanted to write a post about la Cocaeta but I wasn’t sure, because Giulio is my friend. For months I preferred not to publish anything. But now I made up my mind. Not because he’s my friend. But because I think he really deserves more recognition. Plus Cocaeta is an affordable place where to eat in Venice, so I thought it would have been useful to my readers. I had another qualm: crepes are not Italian. That’s undeniable. But
- The style is Italian
- Ingredients are local when possible
- I personally heard two French customers saying the crepe was “superbe”. So…
If you’re in Venice and you don’t want to eat another pizza or a panino, go and try la Cocaeta. It is also perfect for an afternoon merenda. Then let me know, mi raccomando!
Cocaeta
facebook.com/cocaeta
Cannaregio 548 B, 30121 Venezia, Italia
Directions if you’re at the Train Station. Go out, go left and follow the street. At the Ponte delle Guglie, i.e. the bridge with the 4 white steeples (do not pass it!), turn left and continue till you’ll find the Cocaeta!
