The Two Minute Review: Banco

Ronan Doyle
3 hours ago
2 min read

What’s the story with Banco?

The queues speak for themselves – not since 2008 have we seen such a run on a Banco around here. The new Italian bakery from Roberto Mungo is the third tricolour he’s planted on Stoneybatter’s main street, and one rallied to by locals and blow-ins alike with the same fervour as his still-packed Grano and neighbouring wine bar A Fianco.

What should we get?

Planning, for one – arrive at the wrong time and you’ll spend half your day in a hangry line, nose aloft to the taunting aromas escaping the forno before the focaccia drops at 11:00 sharp. Take our cue and show up fifteen minutes beforehand to pre-order the goods and enjoy a coffee and pastry while you wait for yours to be the first number called.

Did somebody say pastry?

Per favore, pasticerria. It’ll be no shock to any Grano fans that the counter here is stacked with stuff you’ll be dreaming back on all day. None go better with the coffee than the cupola tiramisu (€4.90), flaky layers of espresso-loaded dough and thickly tasty mascarpone. It’s an inspired adaptation of the original, also available in jars on the counter (€7.50) if you need a popularity boost back home, and it's just as good as any time we’ve indulged across the road.

The dough here is more bread than butter-forward, which is small wonder for a man who grows and mills his own senatore cappelli flour back at the Calabrian plot he was raised on. Its lower gluten content suits the caky cornetto alla crema (€3.90), Italy’s answer to the croissant and a more extravagant start to the day.

Nut notes in the flour work wonders with the pistachio cream-slicked girella, and the hazelnut-stuffed noccila roll (both €4.60); the former’s citric kick from candied orange peel just about stole the show. Only a crostatina alla marmellata (€4.30) left us a little let down, with too-thick pastry robbing the shell of the kind of crisp snap to do the tart raspberry jam justice.

How are the sandwiches?

That's where the wheat really shines, bringing the thin crispness and dense chew typical of Roman-style focaccia. Crust-to-filling ratio is paramount - they’re built out rather than up, all the better to contain piles of premium ingredients. The purest is prosciutto (€10.50), accompanied by rocket, tomato and mozzarella - summer in a slab. Better again is the veggie (€10.50), with slicks of sharp Sicilian pesto lifting the grilled aubergine and tomato to heights of homely glory. The ventrecina (€11.50) we were less sold on, the smoked scamorza not enough to keep the salame and n’duja’s sustained spice from feeling a bit one-note. A website-listed vitello tonnato, always an essential at A Fianco, cannot land on the counter soon enough.

What’s the verdict?

As we smugly sailed passed the mounting crowd with takeaway bag in hand, we passed by Grano and A Fianco, with teams prepping for the busy Sunday afternoon and evening ahead. Back in Banco, Roberto was on-hand but hands-off, chef’s whites swapped out for a red tee, sipping espresso and seemingly satisfied at the pace of things without him at the helm. He looked like a man ready to grant himself an afternoon off. He’s earned it.