Le Polveri

Aurora Zancanaro left a career in chemistry to become a baker, training between Milan and London before deciding no existing panificio matched the place she had in mind, so she built her own. She opened Le Polveri alone in a tiny 40 square meter space on Via Ausonio in Sant'Ambrogio on November 30 2017, her grandmother's birthday, working sourdough daily with stone ground flours sourced from small Italian mills into loaves, pan brioche, and seasonal panettone.

Coffee runs on an honor system during the week, a La Marzocco Linea Mini sits on the counter for customers to pull their own espresso by following the posted instructions. For a run of Saturdays, Aurora's husband Gianni Tratzi, who runs the coffee training company Mezza Tazza, set up in the dehors to pour filter coffee from a different Italian microroaster each week, walking customers through origin and extraction rather than letting the roaster's brand speak for itself. A second, more coffee forward Le Polveri has since opened in Giambellino, but the Ausonio original remains the place with the story attached.