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Behind San Domenico, Palermo

BRAMA

bramare, to crave

A cocktail bar on the ground floor. A Sicilian kitchen upstairs, under a stone vault. The doors open at 18:30 and not before, every day but Monday.

Book a tableDirections to Via Giovanni Meli 16/18

Nothing here happens in daylight

Half past six, and the lights come up

The upstairs dining room under its semicircular stone vault, navy velvet banquette, three wall uplighters throwing fans of warm light up the curve.

18:30

Tuesday to Thursday until 00:30. Friday to Sunday until 01:30. Monday the door stays shut. No day of the week starts earlier and there is no lunch service.

The ground floor lounge: a long burnt-orange velvet banquette against a blue-black wall, a round brass table on thin black legs.

Ground floor, the bar

Two rooms, two velvets.

Downstairs the banquette is burnt orange under a mirror, with a round brass table on thin black legs. Upstairs the velvet turns navy and the room sits inside a semicircular stone vault, three wall lights throwing their fans up the curve. Both rooms are dark, and both are lit in pools.

“a chic, modern, local upstairs retreat”

TripAdvisor

Their own words for it: “An escape to the heart of Palermo”

A bar spoon stirring amber spirit over clear ice in a heavy cut-crystal glass, reflected in the pale stone bar top.

Ground floor

Study, research, experimentation

“Studio, ricerca e sperimentazione”

The barman’s premise, in his own words, is that anything can be transformed and reinterpreted: an old recipe revisited can become a new trend, and a memory can be the seed of a new idea. What arrives is heavy cut crystal, clear ice and an amber spirit stirred on a bar top pale enough to mirror the glass.

No cocktail list is published, and this site invents none. One reviewer’s advice is to tell the bar what you like and let them build it. Their own line for the room is simply “the sound of ice inside a glass”.

“fantastic cocktails, truly new flavours”

TripAdvisor
Rosé sparkling wine falling from the bottle into a stemmed glass against a near-black ground.

Some evenings there is jazz.
One winter there was a painter.

Live

Two guests who left their names both wrote about the same thing. Giovanni, on 27 February 2025, and Ludovica, on 13 February 2025, each mention live jazz playing while they ate. Brama runs music, DJ sets and shows of its own, and will give over an area or the whole place to a private evening.

“absolutely loved the music”

TripAdvisor

Dama

From 3 December 2023 to 7 January 2024 the walls here carried a month of work by the Sicilian painter Dama, who paints using only her fingers. Entry was free, the show ran on the same evening hours as the bar, and visits were made by booking. It has long since come down. It is on this page because it is the kind of thing this room does.

Reported by balarm.it, 29 November 2023

Hours and location

Via Giovanni Meli 16/18

90133 Palermo. Behind the church of San Domenico, in the Vucciria.

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
18:30 to 00:30
Wednesday
18:30 to 00:30
Thursday
18:30 to 00:30
Friday
18:30 to 01:30
Saturday
18:30 to 01:30
Sunday
18:30 to 01:30
Directions+39 327 3348569

A few steps off Piazza San Domenico, in the Vucciria. Map data by OpenStreetMap contributors.

Bookings

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The first tables go at 18:30 and the kitchen runs late: until 00:30 from Tuesday to Thursday, until 01:30 from Friday to Sunday. Monday the door stays shut. If it is for tonight, or for a large party, calling is faster: +39 327 3348569

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Where
Via Giovanni Meli 16/18
90133 Palermo