Besuschio

Chocolate, classic cakes and a counter to work through

The counter is the event at Besuschio. This is a pasticceria ritual rather than restaurant service: pralines, chocolate work, classic cakes and miniature pastry arranged for a stop that can last five minutes or half an hour. The shop’s story is traced to 1845 and the family is now in its sixth generation, with Andrea Besuschio, a maître chocolatier, as the central craft figure, keeping the historic recipes in motion while adding seasonal and chocolate-led creations. The repertoire ties local Lombard sweets to the wider Italian canon: Saint Honoré, tiramisù, Pan Meino, Pagnotta di Fraà, panettone and pralines.

Panettone and miniature pastry extend that range through the year, so the counter changes with the seasons rather than holding one fixed display.

Soft colour, low conversation, a proper pausa

The room works like a polished Italian pasticceria rather than a dining room, built for breakfast, an afternoon snack or a pause at any point in the day, with teaspoons, sweet aromas and low conversation setting the mood. The design is deliberately quiet, in soft colours and materials such as natural iron, oak and concrete, and the display cases are part of the point: a curved-glass pastry and praline showcase puts the work at eye level, so choosing becomes part of the visit. Pastries, pralines, frozen desserts and chocolates are presented as objects of craft, while the atmosphere stays calm enough for either a short stop or a slower pausa.

Start with the Besuschino, then choose the cake

Start with the Besuschino if you want the house name in the cup: a coffee cream with milk foam, served with a spoon of 66% dark chocolate. From there, choose between the classics and the more particular signatures. The tiramisù is built on coffee, hazelnut biscuit, dark crunchy pearls, mascarpone mousse and milk chocolate, and it took a Top Tiramisù placement from 50 Top Italy in 2022. For chocolate, look at Porfido, a dark chocolate plum cake with roasted cocoa beans, or the pralines, which earned a Top Praline placement the same year. For something local and seasonal, Pan Meino is traditionally eaten with cream, Pagnotta di Fraà brings cornmeal, honey and figs, and the crakelé combines Val di Susa chestnuts, candied lemon, Tahiti vanilla and tonka bean. The shop also holds Gambero Rosso’s Tre Torte for 2026.