Bistrot

Bistrot is the contemporary one-Michelin-starred dining room of chef Andrea Mattei, a Versilia-coast native who took the kitchen in 2014 after a decade at Bulgari Hotel Milan and Ristorante Cracco, and is the village's most reliable mid-tier serious dinner. The room sits on Viale Franceschi, two streets back from the Forte dei Marmi Pier, in a converted 1920s liberty-style townhouse with a south-facing private garden and forty-eight covers across two rooms.

The cuisine is contemporary Italian seafood with deep Versilia-coast sourcing. The seven-course tasting rotates seasonally; signatures include a hand-rolled tagliolino with Versilia spider crab and 36-month Parmigiano; a slow-cooked Mediterranean turbot with samphire and lemon confit; a Mazzara del Vallo red-prawn crudo with green olive and sea-fennel; a wood-fired Tyrrhenian sea-bass with rosemary and Apuan-quarry-water salt crust; the famous 'spaghetto alle telline', Versilia clams with extra-virgin olive oil and parsley that Mattei refined for a decade.

The wine list runs to 800 references with a serious Tuscan-coast Vermentino spine, deep coverage of Versilia and Bolgheri smallholders, and a respectable Champagne section. Sommelier Veronica Vannucci runs the floor and the pairing flight at €110 is the best Tuscan-coast wine match in the village.

The dining room and garden together hold sixty covers, twenty-four in the indoor liberty-style dining room, thirty-six on the south-facing summer garden. Service is family-run and Versilia-warm, captains rotate from a year-round seasonal pool and the kitchen pacing is leisurely. Bistrot is the most reliable client-entertaining address in the under-€200-per-person tier in Forte dei Marmi.

Bistrot is the close-a-deal room in Forte dei Marmi, the one-Michelin-star credibility settles the question, the south-facing summer garden is the room's anchor, and the Tuscan seafood register is the right answer for a senior visitor in summer. Book the garden corner four-top for a quieter dinner; ask Veronica for the Versilia-Bolgheri pairing, eight glasses across the Tuscan coast's two main appellations.