The revenge of the sports bar, between cocktails and Italian style

"We chose not to fill the bottle rack with tons of gins or expensive products just for show," adds Di Guida. "We preferred to have twenty or twenty-five vermouths, and many more bitters and amari. If you come to Viper, you come to drink Italian." Alongside the great classics, there's also a "nostalgia" corner, featuring bottles from various origins that have all but disappeared from cocktail bars over the years, but which continue to evoke personal memories and stories. These include Chivas, Cachaça 51, Monte Alban, and many other labels that today seem to belong to another era, some of which are intentionally left on display as mementos of their time.

The menu contributes to the storytelling; the graphics, in fact, deliberately recall the old price lists of Italian bars, with fonts, images, and layouts that seem to have come straight from the 1970s. "It's done that way on purpose," explains the bar manager. "It seems easy to reproduce that aesthetic, even if it's 'ugly', but in reality it's very difficult. We wanted the menu to speak the same language as the restaurant."

And from an initiative launched by Di Guida and co., a new initiative was born, conceived in response to the recent restrictions that have challenged the habits of Neapolitan nightclubs. "The ordinance, which saw early closures of venues and a ban on takeout after 10:30 PM, was the spark," explains Davide Di Guida, "that sparked the Io Bevo Italiano project." This project begins by highlighting the Italian drinking tradition and transforming it into a contemporary narrative, featuring blended drinks with a Made in Italy base and a full-blown election campaign to get people to vote. This format brought cocktails from across the region to the Viper bar between June and July, from I Giardini di Marzo in Aversa to Santa Monica in Scafati, from Serazac Vintage Club in Angri to Grida in Pozzuoli, and even Neapolitan establishments like Nick & Nora, Mosto, Buco Pertuso, and Pepi Vintage Room. At the Viper, each guest presented three cocktails made exclusively using Italian ingredients—from Martini to Branca, from Molinari to Opificio Nunquam to Nazionale Spirito Italiano—developing twists on Negronis, Martinis, and other national mixology classics, transforming the evening into a showcase of Italian drinking culture, but also a full-fledged competition, complete with social media voting. "I didn't want to simply organize evenings with different guests," explains the bar manager, "I was looking for a common thread. The idea of ​​an election campaign allowed us to approach a serious topic with humor, without losing the lightheartedness typical of our industry." In October, there will be an evening to announce the four contestants with the most social media engagement, who will compete in a bar battle. At the same time, interviews conducted during the event will be published. "The next edition," promises Di Guida, "scheduled for 2027, will also be open to a national audience, inviting bartenders from all over Italy."