BIÖCH Milano

This new, bright café/bakery just opened with the right idea: open when everyone else is closed & tired. It’s a tiny place that has made good use of the space with an even tinier upstairs balcony enough for about 8 2-tops...although I’m not crazy about the idea that upstairs customers can talk down onto the exposed food over the open railing next to the tables & can easily kick dirt over too. They expanded onto the sidewalk with tables & umbrellas too, in case claustrophobia is totally your thing. The minimal, modern-but-still-warm design stands out in an area dominated by old, ghostly businesses & old customs of closing for siesta & Sundays.

On this morning the cafe was buzzing with patrons looking to satisfy their sweet tooth along with their coffee & wine. They also have savory treats for those of us who prefer less diabetes this early in the day. It seems they host a low key lunch menu & happy hour & offer cakes for events. The service, coffee drinks & food were decent & the pistachio shake was fantastic (hard to find a good one in Milan).

They almost got my 5 stars except for a big food service no-no committed by who seemed to be a member of management or the owner. He escorted us upstairs to seat us & bring us our order. He placed our food & drinks on the table that still had not been bussed from previous customers who obviously had had food & wine. Then afterwards did he remove the dirty dishes. Now, while most restaurants are going out of their way to prove they’re clean & covid-free, this guy was like “nope, no big deal”. This is a basic task in any food service business: you clean the table BEFORE another customer is seated. Like pre-covid this was a thing! Besides, who wants foreign crumbs on their elbows, wine stains on their shirt, or whatever that sticky stuff was on their wrists?? Not this gal!

Although, this is one of my dining pet peeves, I will give them another chance, but I’ll definitely be sitting outside where there’s more attention paid to the tables & a chance of rain washing away the last customer’s spittle.