Antica Pesa is an Italian restaurant that is steeped in tradition but also has a modernist flair. With one foot in the past and the other in the future you can find food here that both appeases your desires for Italian comfort food while still being fresh and interesting. Start your meal off with the kind of cacio e pepe that your Italian grandmother would make and end it with a popsicle dipped in a chilled Negroni.
Translated from Italian Antica Pesa means the antique scales. The name comes from a customs post where scales were used to collect taxes on wheat. Later this building was converted into a tavern that feed the less fortunate locals. Later on it was converted by the Panella family into an authentic Roman trattoria.
Antica Pesa has been a client of mine for many years. I always love doing shoots for them because even though it is a lot of work it rarely feels like work. It stems from their generous concept of hospitality. Anybody who walks through their doors is made to feel like a new member of the family. The two brothers who run the restaurant grew up in their fathers restaurant in Rome. Hospitality has quite literally been infused into their blood since they were in shorts running from table to table. And it extends to everything that they do to make their guests feel welcome in their restaurant whether they’re a customer or a food photographer there for a photoshoot.
When I shoot for their restaurant I try to make the food the star. It’s not hard to do when you’re photographing the most mouth watering duck ragu. Or pan seared scallops sitting in a swirl of sauces and topped with roasted beet chips. Their aesthetic is bright warm and happy. I use three point lighting for their photography as much as possible to lift the food off the background and make it stand out. The duck ragu is the star after all.
We also photograph their menu seasonally and try to incorporate elements of the seasons into the shoots. Winter shoots are more cozy by the fire place. This is also when we typically shoot Valentine’s day and a couple roses with the fireplace in the background really completes the scene. For those shots I’ll often take a softer slightly darker approach to my lighting. Even though I’m shooting with strobe I try to make it feel romantic and candlelight. Our Summer shoots are the opposite. For those we shoot either by the windows or in the “garden.” A half joking reference to the small patio area out on the Brooklyn street outside.
