Turin is a city with much to offer those who choose to wander its streets, including the city’s specialty cafés.
BY TANYA NANETTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT
Featured photo courtesy of Federico Cardamone
Turin, the first capital of united Italy from 1861 to 1865, is the hometown of the automobile brand Fiat, the famous Juventus soccer team, and the delicious chocolate mixed with local nougats called gianduja. A visit to the cinema museum inside the famous Mole Antonelliana is a must, as is spending a full day at the Egyptian Museum, the second most important Egyptological collection in the world after the one in Cairo.
A day in Italy is not a day well spent if you don’t indulge in delicious food and drink as well. Turin has something for everyone: mushroom risotto and vitello tonnato are perfect to be washed down with a hearty glass of Barolo, while sweet zabaglione and bunet (chocolate and amaretti cookie, slice of caramel with coffee cream) are the best way to end a meal.
After lunch, it’s time to start exploring the small but vibrant local coffee scene, with four specialty cafés, each completely unique, to visit during a long walk around town.
Orso Laboratorio del Caffé: Where Vintage Meets Modernity
One of the city’s oldest specialty-coffee roasters, with a decades-long history of making delicious coffee for locals and tourists alike, Orso is a delightful place to visit, and very different from most other specialty cafés.
Old-fashioned wallpaper, reminiscent of that of a classic country house, covers half the walls. The espresso counter and wooden furniture are cozy, and the collection of vintage mismatched cups on the shelves makes customers feel as if they are entering grandma’s pantry.
To make it even more special, each cup has a mysterious number inside: enjoy your delicious coffee, find out the number, and go check out the poster hanging on the wall, “Fondi di Verità“ (literally “coffee grounds truths“). Here you can read your fortune and find out all about your future … maybe.
But you will certainly have had a very good cup of coffee.
Santaromero Coffee: The Italian-Colombian Roaster
The story of Santaromero begins with the fortuitous meeting between Gabriela and Francesco a decade ago, at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. Here they fell in love with each other first, and with the wonderful world of specialty coffee later. They began their careers in coffee as many of us did, as customers interested in discovering more about raw materials, producers, roasting techniques and everything related to coffee.
Fast forward to 2020, and Francesco and Gabriela decided that the time had come to pursue their dream by founding Santaromero. Their specific aim was to shorten the distance between coffee producers and customers. They decided to move to Colombia (where Gabi is originally from) and start from scratch.
Once back in Turin, Santaromero opened its doors, with a roasting space and retail store. This micro-roastery specializes in Colombian coffee, sourced directly at origin, with a focus on agriculture, supply chain traceability, green coffee quality, and the roasting process. Here you can grab freshly roasted beans and a cup of batch brew to go (or a cold brew during the summer season), perfect for continuing to explore the city.
Pressato Coffee & Books: Where Coffee Meets Art
A newer entry in Turin’s specialty-coffee community, Pressato Coffee & Books is, as its name suggests, a coffee shop and bookstore space opened in 2023.
Housed in the old Palazzo San Liborio in Turin’s Roman Quadrilateral, Pressato is a place where conviviality and the ritual of coffee meet independent publishing.
Come here not only for the tasty espresso extracted with the historic original FAEMA E61 machine, or for the perfectly extracted pourover, but also to visit the beautiful art exhibitions and selected publishing projects focused on the themes of graphic design, visual design, and art, all produced by independent publishers or print labs.
Piattini Caffè e Vini – Come for Coffee and Stay for Wine
We visited Piattini Caffè e Vini (literally “Small Plates, Coffee and Wine“) late in the day, already caffeinated and ready to take advantage of a truly Italian thing: a delicious aperitivo.
We chose a delightful glass of natural orange wine and a couple of small plates. The menu, instead of the ubiquitous avocado toast and eggs Benedict, includes interesting dishes such as bread crostini with whipped butter, smoked trout and lemon, and pork cheek with cream of fava beans and pecorino cheese.
Enamored with the menu and the restaurant, we took the time for a brief chat with Chiara (co-founder of Piattini with Costanzo) to understand where the idea for Piattini came from.
“Piattini was born to bring together my great passion for natural wine with Costanzo’s love for specialty coffee,“ Chiara explained. “We wanted to associate these two ingredients with two specific moments of the day, breakfast and aperitivo, tying it all to a specific idea of food, our ’Piattini,’ made with fresh, locally produced ingredients that are perfect to pair with both coffee and wine.“
Chiara said their goal was “to create a convivial, informal place designed for sharing,“ not only the small plates, but also wine, coffee, time and emotions.
And they certainly succeeded.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tanya Nanetti (she/her) is a specialty-coffee barista, a traveler, and a dreamer. When she’s not behind the coffee machine (or visiting some hidden corner of the world), she’s busy writing for Coffee Insurrection, a website about specialty coffee that she’s creating along with her boyfriend.
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