Our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series turns back to Torino for an espresso at Eataly — which has taken over the former Carpano vermouth factory across the street of Torino’s massive Lingotto complex. Torino is also the birthplace of vermouth and consequently the apéritif. (I am also quite a longtime fan of Carpano Antica.)

Formed by Piero Alciati (of Guido Ristorante Pollenzo, reviewed earlier this week) and various other food illuminaries in the region, Eataly is akin to SF’s Ferry Building Marketplace on crack and steroids. Inside Eataly is also the Guido per Eataly restaurant.

To start, Eataly is massive — at about 120,000 square feet of food, restaurant, and food education space. There are sections dedicated to food from the oven (il forno: pizza & foccacia, etc.), fish, vegetables, meats, pasta, cheese & salumi, gelato, wine, beer, etc. In addition to selling these artisanal food items, each section also has its own in-store “restaurant” featuring these foods. A second Eataly complex has just opened in Milan, with a smaller cousin soon to open in New York City.

Below is a YouTube video I found that hints at just some of the size and breadth of what you can find at Eataly. London’s Harrods no longer seemed so big anymore. (Yes, that space in the beginning of the video is just the vegetable market.):

As with much of Piemonte, Slow Food is king here. And, as is the Italian way, any respectable public gathering space must have a good café nearby to gather at and partake in your recommended daily allowance of espresso. At Eataly, that café is called Caffè Carpano — named for the original vermouth factory on the premises.

Caffè Carpano is located at the lower level, further towards the back. You enter past the roasting equipment and shelves of roasted coffee.

The café features three dual-group Gaggia machines and a lot of Italians needing their espresso fix. They sell beans under the Hue Hue Café name, from Pausa Café, and their primary blend consists of 40% Guatemalan San Pedro Necta cru, 30% arabica, and 30% robusta. (Hue Hue, pronounced “way-way”, is short for Huehuetenango — a region, or department, of northwest Guatemala.) Other options, however, are possible (as shown in the coffee menu photo below).

With their standard Hue Hue Café blend, they produce shots with a medium brown crema with textured speckling and a great, potent aroma. It has a pungent, herbal flavor. Naturally best served as a ristretto, and a mere €0.85.

Read the review of Caffè Carpano.

Back to our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series, today we return to Torino’s “living room” for classic grand café style at Caffè Torino. We touched on this café last year when writing about the coffee at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.

Like other grand cafés on the square, there’s seating in the piazza outside. Inside there are elegant details, mirrors, and chandeliers. The bull, Torino’s official town symbol and mascot, is emblazoned everywhere here: on the floor of the entrance, on tiles, on walls, in lights, etc. And the Torinese seem to stop by here throughout the day — whether for a morning caffè, for lunch under the porticos, for an apertivo at the bar for ‘appy ‘our (gotta love how the Italians pronounce ‘h’s), or for the more elegant restaurant in back.

They use a shiny, chrome, four-group La Cimbali at the ornate bar, pulling shots with a medium brown crema with darker flecks. It has a bold aroma and a more potent pungent Lavazza flavor of cloves and mild spices. While it’s not quite like having a pint of Guinness in Dublin, Lavazza does seem to taste a little more robust here, being so close to its source. Served in Lavazza-logo IPA cups. A solid effort at just €0.90 at the bar.

Read the review of Caffè Torino.

As for the next installment in our Espresso in Torino and Piemonte series, this time we’re breaking out the big guns.

This grand café on the grand Piazza San Carlo is as grand as anything on Venice’s Piazza San Marco. And this square marks the home of a few notable grand cafés in Torino — it’s practically ground zero for the world’s grand café culture. (I.e., no downward-aspiring slackers preening over their bike messenger bags.)

Piazza San Carlo is informally known as “Torino’s living room”; if the Torinese gather and celebrate anywhere, it’s here. While visiting last month, Torino unveiled, with much fanfare, the newly restored Caval’d Brôns, a bronze sculpture of Emanuele Filiberto on horseback that’s such a symbol to the city. (And don’t worry about pronouncing it right — even the Italians joke that they can’t.) And when soccer championships are won by the local teams, Juventus or Torino, this namesake sculptured horseman is dressed in the winner’s soccer kit and decorated with team flags. (And when celebrating Italians are involved, there will always be plenty of flags.)

To think that, in the 1960s, this grand piazza was once an eyesore when used as a public parking lot. (Though this area was disturbed for the 2006 Olympic Games to build an underground parking garage.)

Here’s a short documentary video of the square (spliced with scenes of nearby squares in the beginning) and the statue’s unveiling ceremony that we attended last month, celebrating the conclusion of its 11-month restoration:

The Neuv Caval’d Brôns is one of Gambero Rosso‘s top 18 coffee houses in the country (i.e., awarded 3 tazzine and 3 chicchi). The staff here meet all grand café expectations — decked out in tuxedos. The grand entrance to the interior space of the café resides between a couple of bars. It has an (expectedly) ornate interior with a larger tea room in the back.

Using two side-by-side two-group La Cimbali M32 Dosatrons and Caffè Malabar coffee (‘il buon caffè’ — it’s some of the best stuff around Piemonte), they produce espresso shots with a mottled, lighter brown crema of average thickness with medium brown flecks — making its surface look a little like a pudding. It has a thinner body and a somewhat woody, spice flavor. Served in Neuv Caval’d Brôns logo Schönwald cups. They also produce latte art here. But as at most cafés in town, the layer of foam is thin.

Given its pedigree, the espresso here should be better. This is one café where the Gambero Rosso overhyped the espresso quality. But given the location, it’s still crazy cheap at €0.90 at the bar. (Though have it at a table in the back, and your opinion will change dramatically.)

Read the review of Neuv Caval’d Brôns.

It’s old news. We’ve repeated this story many times, and every news agency seems to run it when the editorial board gets desperate, but it bears repeating. Today Reuters published an article from Torino (the world’s espresso café motherland, in my book) on the rules for making a proper espresso: Art of making espresso lies in following the rules | Lifestyle | Reuters.

This time, these familiar rules were provided by Luca Mastantuoni, who trains foreign clients at Torino-based Lavazza. Most of those rules are violated with each American espresso on a regular basis.

Today’s Houston Chronicle featured an article on the 343-year-old Torino café institution, Al Bicerin, and their namesake drink for all the newfound Olympic tourists: Al Bicerin’s coffee concoction can’t be topped.

Even if a Bicerin is more of a coffee cocktail, you have to appreciate perhaps the most poignent part of the article:

You cannot get a Bicerin “to go.” Styrofoam and paper cups would be an insult and take away from the full experience.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press has searched far and wide to find a person who doesn’t like Bicerin, and their hard research paid off in Dennis van Putten of the Netherlands: No Medal For Torino Coffee. Pulitzers to be awarded shortly for this exposé…

UPDATE: 15-Feb-2006:
From the Toronto Star, a recipe for how to fake the home version of Bicerin: Hot chocolate coffee a winner in Turin.

This is one of the things I love about Torino and the Italians in general. A reporter for Newsweek, who is in Torino covering the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, reports on how he ordered his double espresso “to go” and was encountered with bewildered stares from the locals … from the barista serving it to fellow commuters wondering why someone would inflict this upon themselves to begin with: Torino Travel Travails and Other Olympic Tales – Newsweek Torino 2006 (“Slow down”).

There’s nothing quite like fast food culture for bringing out fast food flavor … and an equally satisfying experience.

Some of the e-mail I receive comes from café and coffee house owners who ask me to revisit and re-review their espresso. The ones who do bother to e-mail obviously care about their espresso, so I am only happy to oblige. Last week, at the e-mail requests of both Mario and Gary Rulli (though Gary is at their main Larkspur location), I revisited the Emporio Rulli Gran Caffé on Chestnut St. in the Marina District.

Opened nearly three years ago, this is truly a classic, ornate Italian café – in the style of the grand cafés of Torino. When you first walk in, you’re dazzled by an expansive space filled with polished marble counters, dark wood finishing, a long bar, a grand chandelier, and decoratively painted walls and a painted, recessed ceiling. Spend a little more time looking around, and you’ll think to yourself, “They spared no expense.” (This is the Jurassic Park of espresso bars in San Francisco.)

The sheer investment this place must have required is staggering, but it’s the perfect anecdote for San Franciscans who have long suffered the dirty, dingy corner coffee house that feels like you’re just this shy of waiting in line at the Department of Public Welfare. Opera music, an extensive pastry counter, and a bright interior also add to the experience: this is arguably espresso’s answer to high tea at the Palace Hotel.

To help cover these “unspared” expenses, they have recently started serving dinner. There are numerous indoor tables and booths, plus a few high wooden tables with stool seating. There’s also an extensive patio for dining beneath (often necessary) heat lamps along Scott St.

Using a three-group Faema E-91 Ambassador, they serve espresso with a dark brown crema that runs a bit thin. However, they pull a properly short shot, resulting in a rich, deeply smoky, sweet molasses flavor. A very elegant espresso-drinking experience – more consistent than their Union Square location. Their milk-based drinks are quite good as well: they produce very good microfoam and respectable latte art.

While Mario and Gary Rulli were probably hoping for an improved rating, the true good news was perhaps that I found the quality to be quite consistent with my last visit there in 2004.

Read the updated review.

As Torino readies to host the world at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, many unwary tourists will discover Torino for the first time. One of the things tourists will discover is their excellent cafés and coffee: USATODAY.com – Take a coffee break in Torino.

For the record, I love Torino. It is one of my favorite cities in all of Italy. Why? Sure, I love the Juventus Football Club. But it’s easily one of Italy’s grandest and most overlooked cities. It’s lined with fantastic Baroque architecture, pedestrian-only zones, and elegant shops. It’s Italy’s café, coffee (it’s home to Lavazza), and chocolate capital — as well as the heart of the Slow Food movement, home to many fantastic wines, and an Italian center for a lot of great high-end cuisine. Once you’ve actually been there, which few tourists have, it’s a very easy city to love (unlike Milan, for example, which takes a little more effort to like).

So why isn’t it more popular? For one, the industrial reputation brought on by being FIAT‘s headquarters. And while FIAT’s imprint is far more in its past than in its present, it’s also true that air pollution levels are sometimes a problem — given Torino’s location nestled in a valley outside of the Alps. Another reason? Other than it’s religious relic namesake, the Shroud of Turin, Torino lacks the big name tourist attactions.

Torino is perhaps a better place to live (or just be) than a place to see world-renowned sights to write home about. If you enjoy melding into a culture for a while — rather than hanging with the throngs of tourists who came over with you to oogle over the same attractions — you can have this city to yourself. This city of almost one million residents is so backroads that even “back door” European travel wonks like Rick Steves won’t be caught dead here. (I wasn’t so fortunate the last time I was in Vernazza in the Cinque Terre, for example.)

And sometimes, that’s just the way I like my travels. Standing at the Caffè Torino bar, sipping an espresso, and chatting up the controversial calls at the last Juventus match with the locals. I only hope that when the Olympics leave, I’ll have Torino back for myself again.

Every once in a while I have the privilege of visiting some place else. Eventhough American cities are becoming more and more homogenized, not everything is a Starbucks. When it comes to espresso, Chicago has a few notable exceptions that I experienced this year.

Intelligentsia

One of the finest roasters east of Seattle, Intelligentsia even supplies the coffee for Canada’s world-class Caffè Artigiano. Few in the Bay Area realize their preeminent status as a roaster when they saddle up to any one of the Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery chains. Probably because Intelligentsia coffee in the hands of Specialty’s staff and equipment is like putting a cello in the hands of Tim McGraw.

Thankfully, Intelligentsia exhibits the clasically trained approach with their coffee at their very own cafés, with one located downtown on Jackston Street and the original café on Broadway Street in the Lakeside District.

The downtown location is inside the historic Monadnock Building, which is complete with a classic dark wood interior adorned with cool retro espresso machine posters.

As for the espresso, it’s some of the best in the U.S.: highly-skilled baristas use beautiful La Marzocco machines to pull a short, potent, but sweet espresso like you may have never had east of Seattle. Certainly one of the best aromas I’ve had off a cup anywhere.

Read the review.

Equally worth a visit is their original Lakeview/Broadway St. location, where their methodical approach to great espresso is even more pronounced … and espresso lovers seem to pack it in all day long. (Read the review.)

Metropolis Coffee Company

Perhaps the only other Chicago area roaster/café worth writing home about is the Metropolis Coffee Company, far up north in the Lakeview District. Sure, the decor is a little worn and the coffee aesthetics could be better, but the espresso is great and it’s a lively literary scene. (And given what everyone will likely be reading, bring your Che Guevara T-shirt for bonus points with the locals.)

Read the review.

Lavazza

Illy no longer seems to be the “in” thing for pre-packaged coffee that Europhiles and restaurants like to brag about these days. That trendy crown — both here and in Rome, mind you — has gone to Torino, Italy’s Lavazza.

Just in time for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino (a grossly underrated city, btw, and one of my favorite escapes from tourists when in Italy), Lavazza has brought their high-end chain café concept to the U.S. this year. Modeled after the original Lavazza Caffè, the excellent San Tommaso café in Torino, the decor of these chains brings a modern industrial chic to the States.

As always, here: so what about the coffee? Well, some coffee lovers in the know will tell you that Lavazza strikes people as an “either-or” taste — you either like it or you don’t. I’m one of the few coffee snobs that falls in the “like it” camp — at least for pre-packaged coffee.

That said, I’m not impressed with the standards at this Chicago café — as I’ve had arguably better espresso from their beans in San Francisco at the humblest of places. More concerning is that I expected their standards to improve after reviewing them soon after they first opened. Yet upon my revisit earlier this week, I found their espresso to be more watery and less flavorful than before.

Read the review.

Well, I suppose that won’t necessarily stop the trend mavens from accessorizing with the Lavazza logo.

Happy New Year, all!