It was pretty clear that eating in a market was the new “eating hamburger” . Let me explain it better. A well established and successfully trend in many cities around the world, usually starting with the equation abandoned place + requalification = small producers for big prices, from some time has been taking place also in Milan. On one side because of the exploitation of the Expo towing effect (see Mercato di Porta Genova, oppure il Mercato della Darsena), on the other side because of the fortune of the production chain concept. Luckily, the sublimation/reconversion miracle has come also to the communal covered market in Piazza Santa Maria del Suffragio, located in corso XXII Marzo.
A space made and realized as a contemporary market, it is also equipped with a kitchen, where guests can buy goods for sale and above all stop to consume them in the happy central tables or in the contiguous dehors. The gourmet proposed is based on freshness, seasonality and the availability of raw materials, going from bread to pizzas also including fruits and vegetables desk, wines, fish market, sweets and ice creams. The project derives from an idea of Davide Longoni, who has a knack for planning and is known in Milan right for his purism in the art of bread making: yeast, biologic flours crushed with rocks, integral salt, and acidified water for leavening. Four corners are waiting for you: one is devoted to fruits and vegetables – “Fresco a Buono” (meaning fresh and good) – where you can find fresh-squeezed juices (3,5 Euros it’s a very good price), steamed vegetables, rustic cakes, soups, fruit salads, in addition to the normal counter clearly.
Longoni’s bread corner, with the new pizzas taken out from the oven by a young Tuscan pizza chef – they say that during the marathon he kips the time of 2 h 50 min and with pizzas is even better – together with croissants cakes, biscuits for breakfast already at 7 o’clock.
Shooner – who is famous for open sea fishes and for producing sea products – takes care of the fish counter, which is managed by an old family connected to the sea world of Viareggio. In Suffrage’s fish shop you can eat – already cleansed, filleted and cooked – the better tunas, herrings, anchovies and oysters. A very pleasure for salted codfish lovers: fried or stewed it gives its best.
Cold cuts and cheese counter is called “Latteria” (meaning dairy) and here you can stop to have a sandwich with Colonnata’s lard, boiled meat or with a brain omelette. I assure you that even a normal raw ham, an egg drop soup together with tomatoes confit has a reason for being; and Longoni’s bread ça va sans dire. Lasagna, quiche Lorraine and other first course meals in rotation complete the menu.
A very appreciated wine selection is gathered through a view that gives the utmost care to the natural proposals of little and medium vine grower firms, also thanks to a very friendly innkeeper keen to let you taste before ordering.
Let’s see the prices: really not cheap, but there are many deals. You can have a sandwich from 5 Euros, for the base menu, to 9 Euros for the gourmet ones, the pizza Margherita it’s around 20 Euros for a Kg; but don’t forget that Longoni’s dough and the pizza chef’s sprint are included in the deal. In the fish shop you can have standard or maxim portions ranging from 8 to 18 Euros. You decide which is best.
The more visible thing, beyond a well structured and varied proposal with an alert eye to the niche of culinary productions, is the successful attempt to bring back to life an historic place, which is deeply bounded to the life of the area. A populated and busy neighbourhood coming back to be the beating heart for its inhabitants but not only, thanks to the joining spirit of this market.
