Nowhere began as a small coffee shop in Milan in the summer of 2020, during the pandemic, and built a community around it. By the end of 2021 it had opened its own micro-roastery. It roasts single-origin coffees only and never blends them, buying fresh seasonal crops directly from producers and from importers who can give full information on each farm. The coffees are roasted light, each with its own profile, twice a week to fill orders on demand.

The coffee shop in Ticinese is an informal room with books to read, a selection of vinyl and magazines, and a comfort-food menu with a focus on vegetarian and vegan dishes drawn from different cultures. Filter coffee is brewed on V60 or AeroPress, alongside a filter of the day. The coffee line-up is split into four tiers, Base, Rare, Exceptional and Competition, and at weekends only the higher tiers are poured. Sugar is not served. Tables can be booked for savoury breakfast or lunch, a few are always kept for walk-ins, and coffee with something sweet is walk-in only.

Nowhere Bakery, a few minutes’ walk away, is the newest part of the business, with sourdough loaves, focaccia, pastries and Nowhere’s filter coffee.

The current coffees come from Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ethiopia, including an Ombligón from Finca Anaya washed with a 69-hour yeast fermentation and a carbonic-maceration Wush Wush from Edwin Noreña at Campo Hermoso.

Partner cafés

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Nowhere Coffee Roasters