The Flavour of Adventure

Photography by Rene Rossignaud

Situated within the tastefully-converted dungeons of Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa, Lupanara wine bistro still possesses a sense of adventure and secrecy which you can savour while enjoying a selection of wines Walking inside Lupanara feels like stepping back into another age. Situated inside the dungeons at Fort St Angelo, the cosy wine bistro still boasts the strokes of the hand tools on the walls as the various rooms were hewn out of the rock.

“As children we used to run around and play in these rooms,” says owner Glenn Bedingfield, looking around at the large rooms. “We liked this place, with its sense of adventure and secret hiding places. Sometimes, we even swam across from the other side, coming up through one of the large portholes and walking on the ledges – like pirates,” he chuckles.

We are sitting in one of the restaurant’s inner rooms, providing a sense of cosiness and privacy. The sea is just outside the room, clearly visible through a porthole with an iron railing, its sound a constant gentle background. Situated at the very end of the range of restaurants on Vittoriosa Marina, past large stone archways and inside the historical fort St Angelo, Lupanara wine bistro boasts a different atmosphere; here there is a greater sense of privacy as well as a greater sense of the past, of Vittoriosa as it used to be, and as the locals know it.

Lupanara is only a small part of the fort’s large network of dungeons, the rest of which has been sealed off, explains Glenn. Originally from nearby Cospicua, he is familiar with the area and with the locals and the stories that surround the old fort.

It took Ivan Deidun around nine months to restore and convert the dungeons to the comfortable wine bar which he named after a Roman feast, the Lupanara. In the process, none of the original structures were altered, says Glenn, ensuring that the authentic atmosphere of adventure and the past were retained.
Previously a journalist, Glenn entered the world of wine and taverns a few years ago, when he opened a small informal wine bar in the heart of Vittoriosa. “My first winebar was not a business venture, it was more a place for friends to meet,” he says, “it was like I was welcoming friends into my home.”

Since then he has expanded his business and Lupanara now serves a range of 130 carefully handpicked wines from all over the world, as well as a variety of Maltese and Mediterranean food and platters, prepared by a Maltese chef also from Vittoriosa. “In winter the thick stone walls provide a sense of cosiness while in summer it is possible to chill out near the lagoon and stone archways outside,” says Glenn, smiling, and looking around him, “This place offers so many possibilities.”

Lupanara is open every day, from 20.00 onwards.

Fort St. Angelo , Grand Harbour Marina , Birgu
9952 6500
www.lupanarabistro.com