Sicilian café and restaurant at Villa Reale in Palestro, Milan

LùBar

Sicily Moves Into the Villa

3.5 of 5

LùBar started as a beach shack. In 2013 it was a chiringuito in the Vendicari nature reserve in Sicily, then a lido, then a stand at Milano Centrale and a street food Ape van. In 2017 it moved into the Villa Reale on Via Palestro, the neoclassical palace that holds the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, and set up on the ground floor beside the gardens, adding a glasshouse in 2019. Sicily, by way of a royal palace.

Breakfast is the reason to come. The pastry counter does brioche and croissants filled with cream, ricotta, pistachio or jam, cannoli made in house, and bread, butter and jam with fig, peach or wild strawberry. Eggs come from organic farms. The LùToast puts ham and Vastedda del Belice, a Slow Food sheep's cheese, between toasted bread. Later the kitchen goes properly Sicilian: panelle, arancini, caponata, busiata with Trapanese almond pesto. Coffee is served the Italian way, and they make their own almond milk.

It is pretty and it knows it, and on a sunny weekend the room fills with people dressed for the garden. Fine. The food is honest southern cooking with a sense of humour, and the setting is a palace. Book, go late morning, and walk through the gallery afterwards.

Order this

A ricotta or pistachio brioche, A ricotta cannolo, LùToast with Vastedda del Belice, Panelle with avocado

The damage

$$

Go

A late weekend breakfast, when the gallery gardens are quiet

Find it

Via Palestro 16, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

Website

lubar.it