Opened in 1763, Caffè Al Bicerin is the birthplace of Bicerin, a historic Turin coffee, chocolate and cream-based drink, still served in the restaurant according to the original recipe.
Once known as Caffè della Consolata, the restaurant has hosted many famous people: Camillo Benso di Cavour, Silvio Pellico, Alexandre Dumas Sr., Friedrich Nietzsche, Giacomo Puccini, Maria José del Belgio and Umberto II, Guido Gozzano, Italo Calvino, Mario Soldati, Gianni and Umberto Agnelli, Erminio Macario, Wanda Osiris, Mario Merz, Pina Bausch, Susan Sarandon.
The Cafe took on its current form in 1856: the walls were embellished with wooden panels decorated with mirrors and lamps and the typical round tables of white marble, the wooden and marble counter and the shelves for the jars of confetti made their appearance. At the end of the nineteenth century, the iron storefronts were placed externally, with the windows on the sides, the columns and the capitals in cast iron.From then on, the place carried out the confectionery and coffee-chocolate business, which continues today.
Two interior rooms, of modest size: the space for customers, with wooden floor and wall panelling, preserves the sober nineteenth-century furniture; the tiny back retains the contemporary cast iron stove, still in use for the preparation of beverages. The image and atmosphere of the Turin chocolatiers of the nineteenth century has been left unchanged.
