The Italian Job

13 Devonshire Road
W4 2EU

020 8994 2852


"Aspettate un attimo, ragazzi; ho una grande idea."

'Hang on a minute, lads; I've got a great idea.' Michael Caine's last line in the iconic 1969 film may well have been Giuseppe Verdoni's first line when he shared his vision to open the UK's first Italian craft beer pub just 1,000 yards from Fuller's Griffin Brewery.

The Italian Job opened in February 2015 on the site of Pickwicks wine bar in Devonshire Road. According to chiswickw4.com, Pickwicks was a "favourite spot for locals" - its main claims to fame being (1) that it served as the backdrop for an episode of 'Miranda' and (2) Chris de Burgh once popped in for a drink and ended up "entertaining" customers. That may well be the reason we never went.

The new pub is the London flagship for Birrificio del Ducato, Italy's most awarded craft beer brewery, founded near Parma in 2007 by Giovanni Campari and Manuel Piccoli. [If you'd like to meet Giovanni, he'll be at the pub on Sunday 31 January at 5pm]



The Italian Job offers "a choice of 12 rotating beers" (I think it's the choice that rotates, rather than the beers themselves) on draught (10 taps and 2 hand-pumps) and a diverse bottled beer selection.

My brother was visiting from the US, and as he's a craft beer aficionado it seemed the obvious place to take him. I started with the Freeride West Coast IPA (Italian Pale Ale?), a delicious citrussy-hoppy brew (5%) from the Ducato micro-brewery; followed it up with a Tipo Pils (5.2%), an unfiltered Pilsner from Birificio Italiano; and finished with a Violent Femme (4.2%), a hoppy saison from Ducato brewed with green and pink peppercorns. My brother was more adventurous: tasting both the Gatta Nera Black IPA  and Santa Giulia American Brown Ale, both from Piccolo Birrificio Clandestino and both 6% ABV and therefore not served in anything bigger than 2/3 pint servings. We steered clear of La Luna Rossa, which at 8% must be strong enough to blow the bloody doors off.

While the beer is the main attraction, the food is worth the trip by itself, spanning Italian street-food to hamburgers. I had the Culurgiones, Sardinian ravioli filled with potatoes, pecorino, mint, tomato and basil (£13.50). My brother chose the Hop & Pork from the burger menu - served with bacon and an IPA reduction on the side (£10.50). To start we shared the daily special arancini - sausage, peas, cheddar and saffron (an unlikely but outstanding combination) and finished with their signature Birramisu (do you see what they did there?) made with Verdi Imperial Stout.

Food (for 1): £20.50
Drink: £14.35
Total: £38.60