On Via Vasari, Diego Rossi has rewritten the DNA of the Italian trattoria. But success is a strange beast: it grants you everything while simultaneously trying to strip away your freedom. Rossi, however, refuses to be leashed. Trippa isn’t just a restaurant; it’s an ecosystem churning out incredible numbers, yet Diego works every day to ensure he isn’t crushed by the monster he created.
CLOSED ON SATURDAYS: PUNK, NOT MARKETING.
Closing on the busiest night of the week? To most, it’s madness; for Diego, it’s the only way. This isn’t hype, and it’s not strategy. With 300 people turned away every night, exposure is the least of his worries.
It’s a move for the crew. The kitchen will swallow you whole if you let it. Keeping that shutter down is about giving his team room to breathe, time to travel, or simply time to sleep. Because if you don’t have a life outside those four walls, all you bring to the plate is cold technique, not soul.
RAW ETHICS, NO BULLSHIT.
Here, sustainability isn’t a hashtag or a green sticker. It’s a matter of flesh, blood, and respect. ‘There was a life in there,’ Diego reminds us. If an animal has been sacrificed, wasting any part of it is a crime.
Offal, the ‘quinto quarto’ is no trend; it’s a moral duty. The forbidden dream? A set menu, take it or leave it. Zero waste, total respect. “You can’t do that in a trattoria, the formula is different,’ he admits, ‘but it would be the truest form of honesty towards nature.” No waste, just substance.
SCREENS ON, BRAINS OFF.
Looking out from the pass, Diego sees a world that has lost its filters. Success robs you of your privacy; people corner him even in the restroom for a compliment, a sign that basic manners are collapsing under the weight of the delusional intimacy of social media.
Trippa is on social media because it’s a tool, but Diego sees the dark side. Demonizing a glass of wine and genuine conviviality is creating zombies: strip away real pleasure, and people retreat into their smartphones. There, you’re safe, but you’re also controllable and homogenized. The less you experience the street, the more you become a slave to the screen. The challenge isn’t removing pleasure; it’s teaching people how to handle it.
DODGING THE CAGE.
Today, Trippa is a temple, and everyone is copying the blueprint. But Diego has no interest in being a monument. When ‘having no rules‘ becomes the very dogma people demand from you, the air starts to feel heavy.
The real challenge today isn’t cooking like a god, that much is a given, it’s the ability to sidestep, to defy expectations if necessary, just to avoid becoming a caricature of himself. Diego is constantly looking for his escape route: not to run away from Trippa, but to keep choosing it every day. On his own terms.
