In Rome, time has found a new home. Sixteen years after the opening of Jerry Thomas Speakeasy, followed by Bar Room, the team behind Jerry Thomas Project has unveiled Jerry Thomas HausBar, created in partnership with the luxury watch retailer Hausmann & Co. The connection is more than thematic: here, time dictates the rhythm of the entire place. HausBar is the group’s first all-day address, with food and drinks that shift as the hours pass. Set at 47 Vicolo Belsiana, in the Campo Marzio district, the bar occupies two floors of a historic building.
The Spaces: Outdoor Seating, Cocktail Bar and Photography Gallery
“The outdoor tables face a small alley where we are the only food-and-beverage business,” says Leonardo Leuci, bartender, entrepreneur and co-founder of Jerry Thomas Project. “It’s an intimate space, deliberately removed from the large tourist venues of the historic center.” During the day, the door remains open to the street, and the handful of tables outside offer the first invitation to stop for coffee, a cocktail or a light lunch. Inside, the ground floor revolves around the bar counter, where the menu follows the course of the day while keeping the classics within easy reach. Upstairs, a smaller room overlooking the alley offers a more intimate setting, easing the transition into evening, when HausBar gradually assumes the character of a cocktail bar. A photography gallery devoted to the theme of “Wrists” draws a visual connection between cocktails and fine watches.
The Birth of Jerry Thomas HausBar
“We wanted the images to create a link between the wrist wearing a watch and the hand holding a drink,” Leuci says. “That’s why we focused less on the faces of the famous people in the photographs and more on those details, which bring the collaboration between Hausmann and Jerry Thomas back into focus.” That idea also informs Leuci’s definition of the place. “HausBar is an urban living room. It’s an American bar returning to its original purpose. To get there, we started by observing Rome’s historic center.
The constant movement of the neighborhood made us think about a different rhythm for the bar, one that wasn’t confined to the evening.” The partnership with Hausmann, Leuci says, developed almost by chance. “From our first meeting, we realized we shared the same outlook, based on a pursuit of excellence. Hausmann has applied that approach to fine watchmaking for centuries, while we try to bring it to cocktails every day. That common ground gradually developed into a shared project and, eventually, into the opening of the bar.” The same logic structures the menu, designed to move with guests through the different hours of the day. Service begins at 11 a.m., when coffee, cocktails and food all come into play.
The HausBar’s Food and Drink Menu
“The menu opens with specialty coffee, served in familiar forms like espresso and filter coffee, but also reworked through several takes on the Espresso Martini,” says Gregory Camillò, Group Operations Manager. “From late morning, guests can also order classic cocktails, Spritzes, nonalcoholic drinks inspired by the Garibaldi and fortified wines, the latter intended to be paired with oysters. Then there is a fairly extensive Champagne list of around 20 labels, devoted entirely to small growers and independent producers rather than the large houses.”
The kitchen follows the same daily progression. Conceived primarily for daytime service and inspired by the great international bars, its food is designed to converse directly with the drinks. Many dishes borrow ingredients from classic cocktails or echo their aromatic profiles. “We serve Wagyu carpaccio with an Espresso Martini dressing, amberjack tartare with a Gimlet gel and a katsu sando with a sauce inspired by the Manhattan,” Camillò says.
Feel the Time and Taste the Time
At 6 p.m., HausBar changes gears. The front door closes and the familiar peephole — a signature of Jerry Thomas venues — returns, marking the transition into the bar’s nocturnal identity. The evening cocktail list is divided into two sections. “Feel the Time looks at time through memory,” Camillò says. “We selected classics that have shaped cocktail history and that reflect the work we have always done at Jerry Thomas: researching and rediscovering classic drinks.”
Taste the Time, meanwhile, treats time as an ingredient. “This section brings together cocktails built around techniques and transformations in which every moment matters: infusions, fermentations and clarifications where waiting, as much as the action itself, becomes integral to the final drink.” It is a fitting way to articulate the meeting of two Roman institutions operating in very different fields: Hausmann & Co., which has dealt in fine watches in the capital since 1794, and Jerry Thomas Project, whose bars have built their identity around research, technique and an exacting attention to detail. At HausBar, their common language is time — measured on the wrist, transformed behind the bar and experienced over the course of a day.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
Photo courtesy Jerry Thomas, credits by Mattia Panunzio
