Serial Italian Restaurateur Brings Parma Ham Eggs Benedict to North London

Veteran restaurateur Giuliano Lotto will open his first London restaurant in seven years. Latteria, an Italian restaurant which purports to be inspired by the culture of Milan, will open at 56 — 58 Essex Road in Islington this March, with initial impressions promising eggs Benedict with Parma ham, instead of ham, and an English-Italian breakfast with white beans. The restaurant will be “open for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and aperitivo - everything from the morning pastries to pizza dough and hand-rolled fresh pasta is made in house, with ingredients sourced from Italy.”

The restaurant takes over from Tuscan deli Food Lab, and will join Lotto’s longstanding Marylebone restaurant Il Baretto, which opened in 2008. He also opened Banca in Mayfair in 2012, but the restaurant closed after just a year, and a damning review from then Metro restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin, which was also her last at the paper.

Lotto’s portfolio once included La Petite Maison, also in Mayfair, launched alongside Peter and Arjun Waney, Ken Lo’s Memories of China in Belgravia, and Zafferano, also in Belgravia. Lotto was also a managing director at A-Z Restaurants, which became embroiled in a lawsuit with Marcus Wareing and Gordon Ramsay after the former was sacked from L’Oranger. Ramsay walked out of then two-Michelin-starred Aubergine in retaliation; at the time, Lotto claimed that his company was responsible for giving Ramsay his platform as a chef.

Latteria, which means dairy, shares a name with La Latteria, the Acton dairy which produces burrata, mozzarella, and other Italian cheeses for several London restaurants.

More soon on Latteria’s menu and approach to Milanese dining.