Four trades share one room on Via Turati: a gelateria, a caffetteria, a pasticceria and a restaurant. Biancolatte opened on 5 June 2008 as the first two of those, and by September of the same year the restaurant side had a name of its own, La Latteria. In 2010 the family doubled the space and added a shop in the new space.
That the place is family-run is not a marketing line. It is the design. Simona, the mother, drew the logo of three spoons. Her daughters Ludovica and Valentina are in it with her, and the architect Andrea Rossini worked on the room. What they wanted, in their own words, was a welcoming and genuine place expressing the values of home and good humour.
Use it as an all-day address rather than a breakfast one. The menu carries breakfast, lunch, brunch, snacks, happy hour, dinner, pastry and gelato, along with delivery and takeaway, and the doors open early on a weekday and stay open late. The shop sells gifts, décor, chocolates and accessories, so the queue at the till is not always a queue for a table.
Now the rule, because it catches out every visitor who has read a listing site. Biancolatte does not take reservations for lunch or for brunch. Only dinner can be booked. On a Saturday in Porta Nuova that means turning up early or waiting for a table at brunch.
Biancolatte: Via Turati 30, 20121 Milano, Tel. 02 62086177, info@biancolatte.it, biancolatte.it. Monday to Friday 07:30 to 23:00, Saturday and Sunday 08:30 to 23:00. Repubblica metro
Related: Best aperitivo spots in Milan
One piece of advice the listing sites will not give you. Only dinner needs a reservation, so book that meal and treat any other visit, breakfast included, as a walk-in. For the wider field there are the best coffee shops in Milan, and for the rest of the day, a guide to Milanese food and 10 things you need to know about Milan.