Milano Roastery

Carlo Russo got his start in coffee in 2005 running a Lino's Coffee outpost inside Milan's Bicocca Village mall, then built on it methodically, SCA barista and latte art training under Luigi Lupi, roasting instruction first with Marco Cremonese and then with American roaster Patrick O'Malley, and his own microroastery in 2013. Milano Roastery opened in February 2018 at Piazzale Medaglie d'Oro, a busy Porta Romana transit hub just three metro stops from the Duomo, built around materials Russo sourced after touring coffee shops abroad, reclaimed wood from Sondrio, English seating, American ceiling fans, and a cobalt blue palette that runs from the walls to the cups.

The house blend, called Brera, mixes Brazilian, Dominican, and Indian arabica, with the Indian lots graded specialty, and a rotating pair of lighter roasted single origins sits alongside it. Every espresso is pulled as a double shot on principle, even when a customer orders a single, and 250 gram retail bags sell at the register mostly to people brewing filter coffee at home. Lunch runs on open faced toast, avocado and salmon is the top seller, alongside shrimp, and hummus with feta, plus salads and club sandwiches, and the room stays open long hours six days a week, closed only on Sunday.