Milan, before the fair

For one week in April the whole world discovers Milan, and for the other fifty-one the city goes back to lunch. The fair fills every room with opinions; the trattorie decline to notice. This is the Milan the office keeps — the one that was here before the chairs were famous, and will be here after.

Six rooms, held to the usual bar: verified this season, seatable by us, removed the day a kitchen changes hands. The member who arrives the week before the fair gets the same rooms with none of the procession — which is why the corridor card says April, and means the start of it.

1. I Antica Trattoria della Pesa A nineteenth-century room on the Viale Pasubio that has never needed a second idea. Risotto alla milanese, osso buco, and a city dining exactly as its grandparents did.
2. II Trattoria Trippa Porta Romana’s hardest chair to claim, wood-panelled and sure of itself. The tripe stays on the menu whatever the season; go with the kitchen’s conviction.
3. III Torre di Pisa Brera’s old guard on the Via Fiori Chiari — one of the oldest trattorie in the city, and the neighbourhood’s way of staying a neighbourhood.
4. IV Dongiò Since 1978, cooking that tastes of somebody’s home because it is one. The room hums, nobody hurries, and the evening goes where it wants.
5. V Bar Basso The neighbourhood bar of record since 1947, out in Città Studi where the fair crowd rarely follows. Five hundred drinks on the list; one of them is yours.
6. VI Marchesi 1824 The morning, defended: coffee and pastry at one of the city’s oldest pasticcerie, on the Via Santa Maria alla Porta, before the day has opinions.