Caffè Mulassano is a historic café in Turin, located in Piazza Castello at number 15. It is part of the Locali storici d’Italia association. Café Mulassano, opened in 1907, was a regular haunt of Turin’s nobility, as well as of artists from the Teatro Regio, not far away.It was in the mid-19th century that Mulassano’s business opened its doors as a bottiglieria on Turin’s Via Nizza, but it was not until 1907 that it moved to its current location at 15 Piazza Castello to gradually transform into a café.The café is tiny and seating is limited, but in the small space it occupies it nevertheless offers many curious details that jump to the eye: from the beautiful marble counter to the coffered ceiling with central parts made of Madera leather, from the elegant Art Nouveau decorations (and in Turin they know a thing or two about Art Nouveau "things") to the "crazy" clock with numbers placed in bulk controlled by a secret mechanism (it was used, and still is, to determine who among a group of friends should pay the bill).Among the beautiful mirrors, marble tables and many decorations you can also enjoy a tramezzino, the specialty of the place where this dish was born among other things.In fact, there is a plaque in the restaurant that reads, "In 1926, Mrs. Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, invented the tramezzino."The invention of the tramezzino is owed to Angela Demichelis and her husband Onorino Nebiolo, two expatriate Torinese in America who, upon returning to their hometown in 1925, bought the diner that the Mulassano family had put up for sale.The couple tried to give the place a shot in the arm by introducing new offerings for aperitifs: first toasts (from America they had brought a bread toasting machine), then the same slices of untoasted bread stuffed in various ways. And it was this winning and highly appreciated formula that soon became a lunchtime offering.The copyright of the name tramezzino, however, belongs to Gabriele D’Annunzio, who invented the term to replace the English sandwich.
