This is a story about personality as much as pasta so bear with me. On a warm afternoon, after dealing with the usual tourist mayhem that is called walking the streets of Venice, the Rx of a beer was in order. Did not need a fancy sitdown place. Pasta e Sugo, brightly lit and welcoming albeit a mostly standup or takeaway place, had the answer. Ugo, "Mr. Jovial" served up a cold 'Menabrea bionda' and I was able to revive while watching him prepare and serve a variety of pastas to a truly international clientele. End of story? Not. I had been tasked by my sister with finding a certain shop where she bought some necklaces during a visit last July. She thought she remembered the place but her clues left me trying to a find needle in the proverbial haystack. Next day I thought about going back to Pasta e Sugo and combining a happy hour libation with a request for assistance. Ugo, with limited English and my limited Italian, put our heads together and finally were able to figure it out. Turns out the shop was about 50 feet down the street from Ugo's place! Net: Pasta e Sugo can be your enclave for afternoon R & R, a casual (and served fast) pasta meal and, if you find yourself dazed by the maze called Venice, a refuge of friendliness. Grazie, Ugo, my "amici per sempre." read more
