Ristorante specialità bolognesi a Bologna

Our story

Trattoria Leonida is a restaurant that has been offering true Bolognese cuisine in Bologna since 1938, although it has already been present in the city since 1920 as an osteria.

Our restaurant has a lot of history behind it, as does the place where we carry out our business, since in 1600 it offered refreshment to German students who came to the city to attend the famous University of Bologna, the first in the West, already existing in 1088, where Dante and Giovanni Boccaccio also studied.

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The origins of the Bolognese taverns

Restaurants serving typical Bolognese cuisine have always existed in Bologna, although they were previously called "osterie".

Their popular success consolidated from the thirteenth century onwards.

In the city in the fourteenth century there were about 150 of them.

Initially called "Hospitali" and managed by religious congregations, they aimed to offer free refreshment to pilgrims visiting the city and to host, for a fee, passing merchants.

The inns, once "Hostarie", acquired their current connotation only during the Renaissance period and offered food, wine and even lodging to students, merchants and travellers.

The menu of these places, precursors of today's restaurants, is based on the typical Bolognese cuisine of a Bologna already famous for the goodness of its dishes and includes simple and substantial dishes such as pasta and beans, meatballs and friggione - a creamy sauce of white onions stewed for a long time with tomato - invariably accompanied by rivers of wine.

At Trattoria Leonida we remain faithful to the culinary tradition of our city and, in addition to game and venison specialties, we offer second courses of farmed meat, boiled meats and cold dishes, beef (T-bone steaks, fillets, entrecôte), lamb (baked or grilled), veal, chicken and pork.

Depending on the season, we bring fresh mushrooms (porcini, morels, honey mushrooms, chanterelles, chanterelles, blackthorns, agaric mushrooms) and white and black truffles to our tables.

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Conviviality and culture in places of refreshment

In the eighteenth century, taverns changed their connotation and, losing that purely convivial aspect, became places that hosted not only ordinary citizens but also intellectuals who, sitting at the tables, loved to discuss culture and current affairs, among whom was also Giosuè Carducci, a regular at the Bottiglieria Cillario in the Mercato di Mezzo which no longer exists today.

At Trattoria Leonida, for more than fifty years, we have continued to offer traditional recipes of those characteristic dishes that have made our city famous throughout the world.