Historic family pasticceria, café and tea room in Porta Genova (Corso Genova), Milan

Pasticceria Cucchi

Ninety Years on Corso Genova

3.5 of 5

Cucchi turned ninety this year. The family opened on Corso Genova in 1936, and three generations later it is still a family business. The address was a café chantant in the 1930s, and the place has kept some of that showmanship. A watercolour portrait of Vittorina Cucchi greets you at the entrance to the tea room.

Order the budino di riso. It is a little rice pudding in pastry, creamy, with a touch of rum, and it is a reminder that Milan was once surrounded by rice fields. Add a slice of sbrisolona, the crumbly Lombard almond cake that shatters if you look at it. The brioche come plain or filled, and the regulars swear by them with a cappuccino. In winter the panettone goes with the coffee, not after dinner. Around midday the counter turns savoury: tramezzini, small filled rolls, brioche salate, all made in their own laboratory.

The back room is the treat. Watercolours of old European cities by Giulio Falzoni, a customer from the early years, hang on the walls, and tea here is treated as a ritual rather than a tea bag. Come back at aperitivo, when the bar pours a house drink called the Cucchi and sends out small quiches and salted almonds. Places like this used to be on every corner of the city. Now there are only a few left. Go while you can.

Order this

Budino di riso, Torta sbrisolona, A brioche and cappuccino at the bar, Panettone in season

The damage

$$

Go

Breakfast at the bar, or late afternoon for tea in the back room

Find it

Corso Genova 1, 20123 Milano

Website

pasticceriacucchi.it