Best Pubs in Naples: Where Locals Actually Drink
Words by
Marco Ferrari
The Best Pubs in Naples: Where the City Really Loses Its Inhibitions
I have spent the better part of fifteen years drinking in Naples, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the best pubs in Naples are not the ones you will find on any English-language travel blog. They are not in Piazza del Plebiscito, and they are not serving Aperol spritz to tourists with a view of Vesuvius. The real drinking culture of this city lives in the side streets of the Quartieri Spagnoli, in the back rooms of Forcella, and in the dimly lit corners of the Sanità district where the espresso is strong, the beer is cold, and nobody cares where you are from. If you want to know where to drink in Naples the way Neapolitans actually do, you need to forget everything you think you know about Italian nightlife and follow me into the places that have been pouring drinks since before your parents were born.
Naples does not do things the way Rome or Milan do them. There is no aperitivo hour with complimentary buffets. There is no dress code, no velvet rope, no pretension. What there is, instead, is an almost sacred relationship with the act of standing at a bar, ordering a beer or a glass of wine, and talking to whoever happens to be next to you. The local pubs Naples residents frequent are not designed for Instagram. They are designed for conversation, for argument, for the kind of loud, passionate, hand-waving discourse that this city has been famous for since the Greeks first settled here in the eighth century BC. When you walk into one of these places, you are stepping into a tradition that predates the Roman Empire, and the people behind the bar will treat you accordingly, either with warmth or with suspicion, depending on how you carry yourself.
What follows is not a list of trendy cocktail bars or craft beer destinations, though Naples has those too. This is a guide to the places where the city actually drinks, the spots that have survived earthquakes, economic crises, and waves of gentrification without changing a single thing about how they operate. These are the top bars Naples locals would fight over if you tried to take them away, and every single one of them has a story that connects directly to the soul of this impossible, beautiful, infuriating city.
1. Il Birraio di Sanità: The Father of Neapolitan Craft Beer
Location: Via Arena della Sanità, 13, Sanità district
I walked into Il Birraio di Sanità on a Tuesday evening in late October, and the place was already half full by eight o'clock, which is early by Neapolitan standards. The owner, Peppe, was behind the bar pulling a draft of something amber and cloudy, and he barely looked up when I came in, which is the highest compliment a regular can receive in Naples. This place opened in 2009, which makes it one of the oldest craft beer pubs in the city, and it sits right in the heart of the Sanità neighborhood, one of the most historically complex and misunderstood areas of Naples. The Sanità was once a burial ground for the poor, then a quarter for the Spanish soldiers who gave the neighboring district its name, and now it is a place where street art covers the same walls that once held funeral processions. Il Birraio fits perfectly into this layered history because it is itself a place of transformation, turning a neighborhood that outsiders fear into a destination for people who care about what is in their glass.
The beer selection rotates constantly, but you will always find Italian craft breweries represented alongside a few Belgian and German options. I ordered a IPA from Birrificio Italiano, a brewery based in Lurago Marinone near Como, and it arrived in a proper glass, not a plastic cup, which still matters in Naples. The food is simple, think bruschetta with local tomatoes, plates of cured meat from small Campanian producers, and occasionally a pasta dish that Peppe throws together when he is in the mood. The crowd is a mix of Sanità residents, university students from the nearby Federico II campus, and a growing number of visitors who have heard that this neighborhood is the next big thing, though the locals here would push back hard against that characterization.
Local Insider Tip: "Come on a Thursday night when Peppe does his blind tasting flights. He pours four beers without telling you what they are, and you have to guess the style. If you get three out of four right, your fourth beer is free. Nobody ever gets all four. I have been trying for two years."
The one thing I will warn you about is that the bathroom situation is, to put it charitably, rustic. There is one toilet, it is down a narrow hallway, and the lock has been broken for as long as I have been coming here. But that is part of the charm, or at least that is what I tell myself every time I am standing in line behind three other people who had the same idea about that fourth beer. Il Birraio di Sanità is not trying to be polished. It is trying to be real, and in a city that has perfected the art of authenticity, that counts for everything.
2. Kestè: The Living Room of Forcella
Location: Vico Lungo Gelso, 46, Forcella
Kestè is the kind of place that makes you understand why Neapolitans are so suspicious of change. It has been open since 1985, which in Forcella, one of the oldest and most densely populated neighborhoods in the historic center, is practically an eternity. The bar sits on a tiny vicolo off Via Forcella, the street that gives the quarter its name and that has been a commercial artery since the Spanish built their barracks here in the sixteenth century. When I visited last Wednesday, the owner, Signora Maria, was sitting at a table near the door doing her crossword puzzle, and she waved me in without a word, the way she has probably waved in thousands of people over nearly four decades.
This is not a craft beer bar. This is not a cocktail bar. This is a neighborhood bar in the purest sense of the term, the kind of place where the wine comes from a jug, the beer is a Peroni or a Moretti, and the conversation is about football, politics, and whose mother makes the best ragù. The interior is small, maybe eight tables, with walls covered in old photographs of the neighborhood and a television that is always tuned to either a football match or a Neapolitan variety show. I ordered a glass of red wine from a bottle that Signora Maria poured from behind the bar, and it cost me one euro fifty. One euro fifty. In the historic center of a major European city. That fact alone tells you everything you need to know about the economics of drinking in Naples.
Local Insider Tip: "If you want to eat, ask Signora Maria what she has in the kitchen before you sit down. She cooks for the bar most days, and the menu is whatever her sister sent her from the market that morning. Last week it was pasta e fagioli. The week before that it was involtini di manzo. You will not find this on any menu board, and you will not pay more than four euros for a full plate."
The only complaint I have, and it is a small one, is that the smoke from the neighboring tables can get heavy in the evenings when the place fills up. Smoking indoors has been illegal in Italy since 2005, but enforcement in neighborhood bars like this is, let us say, inconsistent. If you have sensitive lungs, sit near the door. But honestly, the smoke is part of the atmosphere, part of the texture of a place that has been operating the same way for forty years and has no intention of stopping. Kestè is where to drink in Naples if you want to understand what the word "local" actually means.
3. Spazio Nea: Where the Centro Storico Goes to Think
Location: Via dei Tribunali, 253, Centro Storico
Via dei Tribunali is the spine of the ancient Roman city of Neapolis, and walking down it is like walking through a cross-section of two thousand years of history. On one side you have the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore, built on top of the old Roman macellum, and on the other side you have a string of pizzerias, bookshops, and bars that cater to the students, artists, and intellectuals who have made the centro storico their home. Spazio Nea sits right in the middle of all of this, and it has become one of the top bars Naples residents come to when they want to drink something more interesting than a Peroni but are not in the mood for the full cocktail bar experience.
I went on a Saturday afternoon, which is when Spazio Nea is at its best. The tables outside on Via dei Tribunali were full of people reading newspapers, sketching in notebooks, or arguing about Antonio Gramsci, which is a surprisingly common topic of conversation on this particular street. Inside, the space is long and narrow, with exposed brick walls and a bar that stretches almost the entire length of the room. The cocktail menu is solid, I had a negroni made with a Campanian amaro that I had never tried before, and the beer selection includes a few local options from breweries in the provinces of Avellino and Salerno. The prices are reasonable by European standards, around eight euros for a cocktail, which is less than you would pay in Rome or Florence for something half as good.
Local Insider Tip: "Sit at the far end of the bar, past the register, where there are two stools that most people do not notice. That is where the bartender stands when he is not serving, and if you sit there, he will start talking to you about whatever he is reading. Last time it was a book about the history of the Camorra. The time before that it was a graphic novel about Spartacus. Either way, you will learn something."
One thing to be aware of is that the Wi-Fi at Spazio Nea is unreliable, especially on weekend evenings when the place is full and everyone is trying to use their phones at the same time. This is actually a feature, not a bug, because it forces people to talk to each other, which is the entire point of the place. Spazio Nea is a bar that believes in the radical idea that a pub should be a space for human connection, and in a city as socially intense as Naples, that idea feels less like a marketing slogan and more like a survival strategy.
4. Bar dell'Ovo: The Secret of the Quartieri Spagnoli
Location: Vico della Pace, 3, Quartieri Spagnoli
The Quartieri Spagnoli, the Spanish Quarters, are a grid of narrow streets and tall buildings just west of Via Toledo that were built in the sixteenth century to house the Spanish soldiers who controlled the city. Today they are one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Europe, and they are also one of the most misunderstood. Tourists are warned away from them by guidebooks and hotel concierges, which is exactly why you should go. Bar dell'Ovo is a tiny place on Vico della Pace, a street so narrow that you can touch both walls if you stretch out your arms, and it is one of the best pubs in Naples if you are looking for an experience that feels completely untouched by tourism.
I stumbled into Bar dell'Ovo on a Friday night after getting lost trying to find a pizzeria that a friend had recommended. The bar was maybe four meters wide, with a counter, a few shelves of bottles, and a television showing a Napoli match. The owner, a man named Salvatore who looked like he had been running this place since the Bourbon dynasty was still in power, poured me a glass of white wine without asking what I wanted, and it was perfect, cold, crisp, and probably from a producer in the Irpinia region about an hour east of the city. The other customers were all men over fifty, playing cards and shouting at the television, and nobody paid any attention to me, which is the most welcoming thing that can happen to a stranger in Naples.
Local Insider Tip: "Do not ask for a menu. There is not one. Tell Salvatore you are hungry and he will go downstairs to his wife, who cooks in their apartment below the bar, and she will bring up whatever she has made that day. I have had ragù, I have had parmigiana, I have had a plate of spaghetti with clams that was better than what I have paid thirty euros for in Positano. You will pay three euros, maybe four, and you will eat like a king."
The obvious caveat here is that Bar dell'Ovo is not for everyone. There is no English spoken, no English menu, no accommodation for dietary restrictions or preferences. If you need a place that will adjust to your needs, go somewhere else. But if you want to experience the Naples that exists behind the postcard, the Naples of card games and home cooking and wine that costs less than a bus ticket, then Bar dell'Ovo is where you need to be. It is one of the local pubs Naples would lose its soul without.
5. Caffè Mexico: The Espresso Bar That Became a Pub
Location: Piazza Dante, 82, near the Port'Alba gate
Caffè Mexico is not technically a pub, but I am including it because it is where Neapolitans go to drink before they go to the pub, and in Naples, the pre-game is often better than the main event. Located on Piazza Dante, right next to the Port'Alba gate that leads into the centro storico, Caffè Mexico has been serving espresso since 1938, and it is widely considered one of the best coffee bars in the city. The espresso here is pulled from a vintage Faema machine, the beans are roasted locally, and the price, as of my last visit, was one euro for a standing espresso at the bar, which is a price that has not changed in years despite inflation, tourism, and the general chaos of the Neapolitan economy.
I stopped in on a Monday morning at seven thirty, which is when the regulars start arriving. The bar was already busy with construction workers, shop owners, and a few university professors who had offices in the palazzi around the piazza. I ordered an espresso and a cornetto vuoto, an empty croissant that is the traditional Neapolitan breakfast, and I stood at the bar drinking and watching the city wake up. The cornetto was flaky and buttery, the espresso was dark and intense, and the whole experience cost me two euros. Two euros for one of the best breakfasts in Europe. This is the kind of math that makes Naples the most affordable major city in Italy, and it is one of the reasons people who come here once tend to come back forever.
Local Insider Tip: "After your espresso, walk fifty meters down Via Port'Alba into the centro storico and look for the bookstalls that line the street. They have been there since the 1960s, and they sell everything from rare prints to secondhand novels. Buy a book, then go back to Caffè Mexico and read it over a second espresso. This is what Neapolitans do on Sunday mornings, and it is better than any brunch you have ever had."
The one downside to Caffè Mexico is that it gets extremely crowded between eight and nine in the morning, and the line can stretch out the door. If you want the full experience without the wait, come at seven or after nine thirty. But honestly, the line is part of the ritual. You stand there, you complain about the wait, you complain about the government, you complain about the Napoli football team, and by the time you get to the bar, you have already had three conversations with strangers. That is Naples. That is the point.
6. Enoteca Belledonne: The Wine Bar That Time Forgot
Location: Vico Belledonne a Chiaia, 18, Chiaia district
The Chiaia district is the most elegant neighborhood in Naples, a grid of wide streets and nineteenth-century palazzi that runs along the waterfront from Piazza della Repubblica to Mergellina. It is where the Neapolitan bourgeoisie lives, shops, and drinks, and Enoteca Belledonne is the wine bar that has been serving them since 1978. I visited on a Thursday evening, and the place was packed with well-dressed couples and groups of friends who looked like they had just come from work at a law firm or an architecture studio. The wine list is enormous, focusing on Campanian producers from the provinces of Benevento, Avellino, and Caserta, and the staff knows every bottle intimately.
I ordered a glass of Fiano di Avellino, a white wine from the Irpinia region that is one of the most underrated wines in all of Italy, and it was served at the perfect temperature in a proper wine glass. The food is a selection of cheeses, cured meats, and bruschette that are designed to accompany the wine, and the quality is consistently high. The prices are higher than what you would pay in Forcella or the Quartieri Spagnoli, expect to pay around six to eight euros for a glass of wine, but the quality justifies the cost. This is not a place to get drunk. This is a place to taste, to learn, to understand why Campanian wine is having a moment on the international stage.
Local Insider Tip: "Ask for Domenico, who has been working here for over twenty years. Tell him you want to try something from the province of Benevento, and he will pour you a glass of something you have never heard of, probably an Aglianico or a Falanghina from a producer who makes only two thousand bottles a year. He will tell you the story of the producer, the story of the vineyard, and the story of the wine, and by the end of it, you will feel like you have visited a place you have never been."
The only issue I have ever had with Enoteca Belledonne is that it can feel a bit formal, especially if you are coming from the more chaotic bars of the centro storico. The dress code is smart casual at minimum, and showing up in flip-flops and a football jersey will earn you a look from the staff that could curdle milk. But if you are willing to dress up a little and slow down a lot, Enoteca Belledonne is one of the top bars Naples has to offer, and it represents a side of the city that most tourists never see, the cultured, wine-loving, intellectually curious Naples that coexists alongside the chaos and the noise.
7. Piazza delle Palme: The Open-Air Pub of the Vomero
Location: Piazza delle Palme, Vomero hill
The Vomero hill sits above the historic center of Naples, and it is a different world entirely. The streets are wider, the buildings are newer, the air is cleaner, and the views of the bay and Vesuvius are the kind of thing that make you understand why the Romans built villas here. Piazza delle Palme is a small square near the upper station of the Montesanto funicular, and it functions as an open-air pub in the evenings, when the bars and restaurants that line the piazza put out tables and the whole neighborhood comes out to sit, drink, and watch the sunset over the city.
I went on a Saturday in September, when the weather was still warm enough to sit outside but the summer crowds had thinned out. I sat at a table outside a bar called Caffè del Doge, ordered a Moretti beer and a plate of fried zucchini flowers, and watched the light change over the bay. The crowd was families with children, groups of teenagers, older couples walking their dogs, and a few tourists who had made the mistake of coming to Vomero during the day and the good sense of staying for the evening. The atmosphere was relaxed in a way that is rare in Naples, where even a casual drink can feel like a performance.
Local Insider Tip: "Take the funicular up from Montesanto instead of walking. The walk is steep, and you will arrive sweaty and out of breath, which is not the impression you want to make. The funicular takes three minutes, costs about the same as a bus ticket, and drops you right in the piazza. Then walk downhill to the Certosa di San Martino, which is open until late on certain evenings and has a view of the city that will make you forget every bad thing you have ever said about Naples."
The one thing to know about Piazza delle Palme is that it is not a destination in the way that the bars of the centro storico are. It is a neighborhood square, and it functions best as a place to end an evening rather than start one. Come here after dinner, after the centro storico, after the chaos. Sit down, order a drink, and let the city show you its quieter side. It is one of the best pubs in Naples only if you define "pub" broadly enough to include a hilltop square with a view and a cold beer.
8. Antica Cantina Sepe: The Wine Cellar of Spaccanapoli
**Location: Via dei Tribunali, near the Spaccanapoli crossroads
Spaccanapoli, the street that "splits Naples in two," is the old Decumanus Inferior of the Roman city, and it runs in a perfectly straight line from one end of the historic center to the other. Walking along it is like walking through a living museum, with churches, palazzi, and artisan workshops on both sides, and Antica Cantina Sepe is one of the most atmospheric drinking spots along its entire length. The cantina is literally a cellar, a low-ceilinged room beneath street level that has been selling wine for generations, and stepping down into it feels like stepping into a different century.
I visited on a Wednesday afternoon, which is when the cantina is at its quietest. The owner, a man whose family name has been associated with this space for decades, showed me the barrels where the wine is stored and explained that most of what he sells comes from small producers in the Campi Frei, the volcanic plains north of the city where the soil gives the wine a mineral quality that you cannot find anywhere else. I ordered a glass of Falanghina, a white grape that thrives in the volcanic soil around Vesuvius, and it was served in a simple glass with a small plate of bruschetta topped with local tomatoes and basil. The total cost was four euros, and the experience was worth forty.
Local Insider Tip: "Ask to taste the Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio, the 'Tears of Christ' wine that has been produced on the slopes of Vesuvius since Roman times. It comes in red and white versions, and the white is one of the most distinctive wines you will ever try, smoky and mineral with a finish that lasts for minutes. The owner will pour you a taste for free if you show genuine interest, and he will tell you the legend that the wine is made from the tears of Christ, who wept over the beauty of the bay after being tempted by Lucifer on the mountain."
The only real drawback to Antica Cantina Sepe is the space itself. The cellar is small, the ceiling is low, and if you are claustrophobic or tall, you will be uncomfortable. There is no outdoor seating, no standing room, and when the place fills up in the evenings, which it does, the noise level can make conversation difficult. But these are minor complaints about a place that offers something no other bar in Naples can offer, a direct, physical connection to the volcanic earth that makes this city and its wine what they are.
When to Go and What to Know
Naples does not follow the drinking schedules of northern Italy or northern Europe. Aper
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