Paname’ opened on 27 July 2023 on Via Roma, on the harbour at Marina Grande, and it was opened by two chefs — Monia Di Lello and Leonardo Iori. It is an artisan boulangerie: everything by hand, no ready-made mixes and no additives. On an island where good bread has always been a practical problem, that is news. And there is a second piece, perhaps more useful: it is open all year, which is extremely rare on Procida and valuable off season.
What to take
The signature bread is called Pane del Porto and it is the reason to go in at least once even if you are not having breakfast: if you have rented a house, this is the address that sorts your week out. There is rye bread too, which on the island is not a given.
On the sweet leavened side the register is French: croissants, pain au chocolat, pain aux raisins. The most interesting thing, though, is the crossing of that trade with the island, which is to say the tarte au citron made with the limone pane. It is exactly the kind of thing I would like to see more often on Procida: French-school technique, local raw material, no nostalgia.
It is worth spending a line on how they work, because it is the reason for the difference. No ready-made mixes means no bases bought in and no blends: the doughs are made, waited for and baked. In a tourist town that is an awkward choice, because it costs time and limits the quantities on busy days. If you turn up mid-morning in August and find the counter half empty, that is the reason, and it is not bad news.
They also do the classic lingua procidana and the chocolate version they call "malalingua" here. On the savoury side there is pizza in teglia, focaccia and rustici: the best quick lunch on the harbour if you have the ferry in an hour and do not want to sit down.
The address that saves you off season
Procida closes a great deal in winter: between November and March a substantial share of restaurants and bars cut their days or stop altogether, and anyone arriving in January finds a beautiful, empty island with few places to eat anything. A bakery open all year, in that context, is not a convenience: it is a fixed point.
It counts too if you are on the island in low season for work or for a day trip from Naples on a winter weekday. With pizza in teglia, focaccia and something sweet you can put together a decent lunch without depending on the restaurant kitchens, which in those months open intermittently. The only other documented winter certainty is Caracalé, which from January to March, though, works only at weekends.
Practical information
Via Roma 81, phone +39 081 922 2409, website panameforno.com. I am not publishing the daily opening hours because I have not verified them; what is verified is the year-round opening. The same goes for prices: no reliable data, no invented numbers. We are in a bakery, not a panoramic bar.
If you want to compare the island’s lingue, the other two counters are Bar Dal Cavaliere and Bar Roma, both on the same seafront a few minutes on foot away. The difference between the lingua of a historic pastry shop and that of a bakery working with its own doughs is the most concrete way of understanding this pastry.
