MILANO BAR CAFFÈ, LARGO GIUSEPPE TONIOLO 14, 00186 ROMA

Rating: Standard, solidly mid-range Roman coffee.

Just about a block away from the ‘famous’ Sant’Eustachio coffee house (search my review of it for my opinion!) there’s the more authentic, more calm, and more charismatic Milano Bar Caffè. Its just as small, but 100 times less assuming, and the environment here is relaxed, chill, and frequented by either local politicians, or staff of the French diplomatic house that is near by. The exterior is unassuming, and actually looks kind of dumpy- as it’s run by a pair of almost retired folk that have let go of their looks decades ago. Yet, the interior, while still adheres to the traditional mix of wood, marble, tile and mirrors galore of any normal standard Roman bar (Hell, what would a Roman café be without some mirrors to try to make the place look bigger?). Well, whatever, what I meant to say is that the place is clean, up kept and very welcoming. The barista was a youngish guy, late 20s? busy at the cashier counting his earnings. He seemed like a no frills type of dude.​

This is what he served me:​

Presentation: Yup, water served immediately and even when I didn’t ask. This is definitely not a touristy place. The cup was small, fluted outwards, clean and compact. I liked the logo. It was written in a letter that reminds me of medieval Irish calligraphy. Not quite with what I associate with ‘Milan’ but I’m sure there’s a reason for this. The bar had nothing of a Milanese cafe flair. Either way, the logo is different, particular, and that’s kosher already. Either way, the white cup against the black & red solid marble counter-top was cool.

Temperature of Cup: The cup was piping hot. Yup, a traditional Roman establishment.

Quantity: It was all up front coffee. It was a very short shot. I liked it!

Temperature: It was still damned hot after waiting a bit. But this time, in the spirit of locals, I tried my hand at it in a warmer temperature. Albeit, still not piping hot, and not at the point where I’d burn my tongue.

Volume/Consistency: It was thickish, chalky, powdery, but still surprisingly thin in consistency. It’s as if you’d mixed baby powder in a cup of tea. It was still all united by an oily consistency that smoothed out any roughness in the chalkiness of it.

Crema: It was thin looking, but turned out to be very persistent, and adding considerably to the drinking experience. It turned out to be an oily crema- this was good.​

Odor: No real odor here. There was that biting sharp smell of darkly roasted coffee, but it was ever so faint, and ever so dark.

Taste: It was sharply bitter up front, a punch in the mouth. Then a flat taste of French-roasted like coffee that has no wiggle room for other taste, and the a tangy, astringent finish to the cup. A powerful experience, absolutely nothing like the Sant’Eustachio watery run-down crappy coffee that is a shadow of its former self.​

​Overall: It was a solidly normal Roman coffee. It was punchy as heck, strong, full of complaints like a Roman person, but also, behind the veneer of attitude, a simplistic view of what a coffee is, just like most Romans I find. Fairly straightforward and reasonable.

The setup: They had a classic E-61 based Vibiemme (VBM) espresso machine that I liked. The grinder was a Mazzer/Astoria, also excellent, and the decaf coffee was a very nice Eureka monodoser that rocks! The coffee being served was the Roman based, powerful and dark coffee, Marziali Caffè. This was a decent iteration of their qualities.​

Milano Bar Caffè

Di Lanzi Stefano

Largo Giuseppe Toniolo 14

00186 Roma

Tel. 06 6830 9486

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