Russell Norman at Polpo, his new restaurant in Soho

Away from the expensive tourist haunts, Venice offers cheaper and more authentic treats in its bacari, casual wine bars tucked away in the backwaters, serving small portions of good food, called cicheti.

This wonderful tradition has now been imported to London, which has its own bacaro. Polpo opened on Wednesday on the ground floor of an 18th-century building on Beak Street, between Soho and Regent Street. (Canaletto, the most illustrious painter of Venetian scenes, once stayed here while in London.)

LONDON RESTAURANT FESTIVAL

Wine, dine and learn

Some 400 restaurants have signed up to participate in the first London Restaurant Festival, taking place across the capital from October 813. Many will be offering cut-price menus, and there will be free food tastings (www.londonrestaurant
festival.com).

Non-edible highlights include an opening lecture by Simon Schama, the historian and FT contributing editor, about the history of our relationships with food and restaurants. It takes place at Kings Place on October 11 at 11.30am; tickets cost £22.50, to include a mini-brunch before the talk (book at www.kingsplace.co.uk).

A panel of food critics will take on top chefs, including FT columnist Rowley Leigh, in a food quiz called “Starter for Ten”, at Vinopolis on October 10 at 7.15pm. Tickets are £25, to include wine and snacks (book at www.vinopolis.co.uk).

The man behind Polpo is Russell Norman, formerly general manager at Zuma and then the Ivy Club. In his previous roles he was well-known to London restaurant-goers as a sharp dresser, with immaculately knotted ties. When he comes to meet me at Polpo, he’s wearing an open-necked shirt and jeans, and has much longer hair (with a beard). His smile, a professional requirement for anyone whose job it is to greet customers, was always welcoming but is now even wider. And no wonder – he has much to be proud of here.

It has been Norman’s long-standing dream to open a bacaro in London and he has done careful research over many years. As he showed me around Polpo, I noticed clever details: distressed doors and behind the bar a slightly chipped sink, which he found in a warehouse. The white curtains hanging on the bottom half of the front windows are just like those of most Venetian restaurants. All disguise the fact that this is a new restaurant.

Norman almost rejected the site when he first visited it. “I just could not see what we could do with the left-hand wall to open the room up at the back ... as it was it was too narrow for customers to sit on either side and the waiters to pass through the middle. So I initially said no.”

On a second visit, Norman realised the left-hand wall wasn’t structural after all, and then the whole space became viable. He signed terms that night.

The finished space is long and narrow with a curved bar at the front and rows of wooden tables leading to the servery at the rear, which provides all the cold dishes. The atmosphere here is just right – simple and unpretentious.

The menu has seven headings: cicheti and crostini; breads; meat; fish; vegetables and salads; desserts; and coffee.

Cicheti are the quintessential Venetian snack. The city’s bacari serve them in much the same way as tapas are offered in a Spanish bar. At Polpo they include chopped chicken livers; sprats in a sour sauce; salt cod; mortadella sausage, gorgonzola and walnut; and figs, prosciutto and mint. At less than £2 each, the portions are surprisingly generous and we shared a selection of them as starters.

We moved on to share the classic fegato all Veneziana – thin slices of calves’ liver with lots of onion and sage (£5.90); bigoli – thick, short pasta with anchovies (£4.20); and squid fried in fresh batter (£6.60), along with a plate of grilled courgettes (£3.50). These main courses were even more satisfying than the cicheti.

With two desserts, including an excellent honey and walnut semifreddo (£2.80), a coffee and a Campari and soda, the bill for two came to just over £40.

The food and drink here are very well priced, and there is an air of authenticity about the place. Soon, I hope, there will be a genuine buzz, too.

Polpo, 41 Beak Street, London W1, closed Sundays, tel: +44 (0)20-7734 4479; www.polpo.co.uk