Welcome, Mercato Metropolitano

For us Milanese it is hard to believe. Besides Expo (or perhaps because of it), in just a few days we have cheered the debut of the fifth underground line, the opening of Mercato del Duomo and even that of the reborn Darsena: after decades of drug addicts and rats, it is once again populated with families strolling on each bank of the Naviglio.

As of yesterday, there’s a good excuse to walk some extra ten minutes. This has to do with the opening of Mercato Metropolitano in Via Valenza 2, another great project occupying a significant area of the town, the old warehouse of Porta Genova’s train station, a space that was disused for a long time, except on Saturdays, during the Fiera di Sinigallia, which was held here from 2005 to 2014.

The MM market is almost 16,000 sq. m. wide, almost all of which outdoors. It was born thanks to a joint idea of Andrea Rasca, an entrepreneur long at work in the food industry, and Ambrogio De Ponti, president of Unaproa, an acronym for the National union of organisations of fruit and vegetables producers, uniting small producers who contributed personally to be part of it. The basic idea, as explained by the two founders, is the same expressed by economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher in 1973: «’Small is good’. In other words, you need to support small businesses because safeguarding onions from Tropea may be very graceful, yet you need business to grow. Sustainability must be, first of all, an economic one».

125 organisations of producers are involved, committed in setting the large outdoor space, seven days a week, with fruit and vegetable stands, following the format of Anglo-Saxon farmers' market. The indoor area, instead, will host small, independent food shops in which to taste up to 2,000 products: bread, pizza, piadina from Romagna, meat and chicken, fresh pasta, craft beer, coffee... Yet the owners are keen on underlining that MM is not just a «Simple neighbourhood market but most of all an amusement park for the palate, suitable for all the family». This explains the choice of creating, on one end of the area, children spaces and an open-air cinema, seating 500 people, and curated by Anteo, which will be available from June onwards. With live music spaces and gazebos with cocktails (signed by the cult shakers of the guys from Rita, by the way).

«Mercato Metropolitano will also be a space dedicated to a simple restaurant offer», said Rasca, «A place where to eat every day products created by passionate people. Raw materials with five adjectives: good, artisanal, natural and, where possible, local and organic too. A place where, on top of buying, you will be able to learn how to handle these products at home: only a few foreigners, for instance, know how to prepare a good dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce».

The ambition is boundless: «We want to open 200 points of sale in the world in 5 years». Projects for Tokyo and Dubai have already reached a good stage: «In each country in which we decide to settle, we will try to have local producers involved in our code. We are not intransigent when it comes to Italy: we will include all those willing to share our ideas».