In Nola, a secret bar and fine dining in speakeasy style opened by bartender Dante La Gala and chef Nicola Restaino that preserves a fascinating retro atmosphere and a bookcase wall with a secret passageway that leads to surprising gourmand experiences.

Nola is a city that is becoming known nationwide for its many fine dining options and a creative genius loci that, not surprisingly, is the birthplace of the famous philosopher Giordano Bruno.

Mixologist Dante La Gala and chef Nicola Restaino were also born here, lifelong friends. After meeting at school and gaining experience behind the counters and in Italy’s most renowned kitchens, they combined their complementary professional skills to create a dream venue.

All love proceeds from seeing: intelligible love from seeing intelligibly; sensitive love from seeing sensitively.

(Giordano Bruno)

Thus, in 2023 Imprinting Experience was born, with a name that reveals their vision: to represent a real “experience” dedicated to cocktails and high cuisine, with food pairings of specially designed tapas, and to create a bond of trust and growth with their clientele that can last forever.

The style they wanted for their venue recalls that of the speakeasies of the Anglo-Saxon world where you don’t arrive by chance (in this case you ring the bell of an anonymous building on a street that could be anywhere in the world) and the interiors are the warm and welcoming ones of a gentlemen’s club with dim lighting, Chesterfield sofas and the inevitable lit fireplace.

Imprinting Experience also hides a real gem: the “secret passage” in a bookcase that leads to the new SET Restaurant, opened at the end of 2024, by the two partners together with the maître and sommelier Giuseppe Bonomo, obviously with the cuisine of Nicola Restaino, former resident chef of Don Alfonso Portogallo.

Here the art of the cocktail merges with the research and obsessive combination of flavors: what unites Dante and Nicola is, in fact, the attention to detail down to the smallest details. Everything at Imprinting Experience is mostly created ad hoc, including the spirits and bases, unless specific brands have been chosen to bring a particular flavor or world of reference to the drinks.

In the first case, an example of the excellence of the drinks menu is the Burroso Negroni (if you love the genre, here you can make a truly remarkable vertical of Americani or Negroni) with a house distillate based on butter, lemon and red fruits, Fusetti, Cacao and Vermouth Imprinting.

Among the most creative cocktails, instead, we mention the Figlio dei Drughi, created by bar manager Michele Bisconti, with Mezcal Vida Espadin, Tequila Reposado, Absinthe, Fermented Agave, Hemp Milk, Pineapple Cream, Vanilla and Orange Blossom. Truly one more intriguing than the other.

In addition to the mixed drinks menu, the selection of spirits is also excellent, from Scottish whisky to Mexican tequila, from English gin to Caribbean rum, and wines in synergy with the SET Restaurant cellar.

The ideal experience? Book the room with the fireplace and then move to the restaurant for dinner, passing through the secret passage bookcase. And, anticipating your question… yes, Imprinting Experience is worth a trip, for the quality, the energy of its staff and the fairytale it embodies. Paradise can truly be born anywhere, you just have to want to fight for your dreams.

The Secret

In the center of the place, there is, with exposed glass, a curious laboratory with a rotating evaporator. This is the Rotavapor that is used to extract volatile aromas from the mixtures, without compromising the “fresh” flavors of the raw materials and thus giving life to cocktails of the highest quality and taste.

Useful Info

Imprinting Experience
Via San Massimo 32
80035 Nola, Napoli
Tel. +39 379 2663082

Cocktails: from 10 euro
Tapas: from 4 euro