Pressato Coffee and Books: Nello Russo brings letterpress to a Turin coffee bar

Pressato combines a coffee counter, a bookshop for analog printing and a program of exhibitions tied to independent publishing

Pressato Coffee and Books, specialty coffee and letterpress in Turin’s Quadrilatero

Pressato Coffee and Books occupies the ground floor of Palazzo San Liborio, via Bellezia 16/B, in Turin’s Quadrilatero Romano. The space opened on November 3 and 4, 2023, during the week of Artissima, the city’s contemporary art fair. It joins two trades in one address: specialty coffee and independent publishing produced with analog printing techniques.

Nello Russo and Diego Moriondo founded the project. Mr. Russo worked as an art director and ran a letterpress workshop for a decade. Mr. Moriondo comes from marketing for apparel brands. One room holds the coffee counter. A second room works as a bookshop and exhibition space. The motto printed on the venue’s materials reads Fuel for your brain.

Via Bellezia and Palazzo San Liborio, a Roman domus below the café

Via Bellezia sits a few minutes on foot from Porta Palazzo, the open-air market north of the historic center. The street takes its name from Gian Francesco Bellezia, mayor of Turin during the plague of 1630. The same epidemic appears in Alessandro Manzoni’s I promessi sposi.

Palazzo San Liborio belonged to the eighteenth-century complex of the convent of San Domenico. Local historians place the tribunal of the Inquisition in the building during the Middle Ages. Between February and May 2008, archaeologists excavated the courtyard during a renovation of the palace.

The dig uncovered part of a Roman domus built between the first and second centuries AD. A reception room kept its mosaic floor, laid in black and white tesserae with geometric patterns. The house fell out of use in the fourth century. The area then served as a cemetery until the tenth century. The Dominicans occupied the site from the thirteenth century onward.

The discovery changed the renovation plan. The developer, Zumaglini & Gallina, had planned an underground parking garage for the apartments above. The courtyard became a covered archaeological area, open to visitors by appointment.

Nello Russo, from Taschen to the Archivio Tipografico

Mr. Russo was born and raised in Turin to a family of Neapolitan origin with a background in restaurants. He worked as an art director for design studios and advertising agencies, including Leo Burnett in Turin. He also worked for publishing houses in Italy, Germany and the United States. In Germany, he worked for Taschen in Cologne.

He spent two years in New York before returning to Turin in 2012. From 2012 to 2022, he led the Archivio Tipografico, a letterpress print shop and design studio on via Brindisi. The archive began in 2003 around the collection of Emanuele Mensa, a teacher and collector of printing equipment.

Its core came from Tipografia Marchisio, a family print shop in Turin. Its last owner handed the machines, benches and type to Mr. Mensa. The collection counts nine working presses and about two thousand cases of lead, wood and resin type. Many typefaces come from the Nebiolo foundry of Turin.

Press as a shared verb: the name, the type drawers and the font

The name Pressato, Italian for pressed, refers to both trades. A printing press pushes inked type against paper. An espresso machine pushes water through a compacted dose of ground coffee.

The furniture follows the same logic. Mr. Russo converted cabinets of typographic drawers, once used to store movable type, into tables and sideboards. Resistenza Type Foundry drew the venue’s typeface. Federico Cardamone, a framer and photographer, documents the space. Print Club Torino joined the opening as a cultural partner and hosted a workshop and a masterclass with Mr. Sviatchenko.

Books printed with movable type: the Pressato selection

The bookshop stocks artist’s books, numbered editions and printed matter from independent publishers. The selection excludes industrial publishing. Titles on the shelves use analog and hand techniques such as letterpress, risograph, linocut and screen printing.

At opening, the shelves carried books from Henri-Beyle, a Milan publisher of small editions. They also held the paper theaters of the illustrator Daniele Catalli. Visitors may come in for a book, for a coffee, or to read at a table while they drink. The room also serves as a workspace for people with laptops.

Turin has a long record in printing and publishing. Utet and Einaudi both started in the city. Pressato positions its catalog at the other end of that history, among print runs counted in the hundreds.

Exhibitions at Pressato: Sviatchenko, Catalli, Galluzzo

The founders planned a new exhibition every two to three months, each tied to a publication. The first featured Sergei Sviatchenko, a collage artist born in Ukraine and based in Denmark. Close up and private ran from November 3 to December 7, 2023. A Danish publisher had released the book, with graphic design by Mr. Russo.

In early 2024, Classici in Scena presented the work of Mr. Catalli, an illustrator from Rome who lives in Turin. His paper theaters fold whole plays into a cardboard box. The titles range from Dante’s Inferno to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Russo handled the typographic engineering. The show displayed sketches, production prototypes, die-cutting forms and printing plates.

From May 17 to June 22, 2024, the space presented Le Nerdate, the second volume of Gastrite Magazine. Works by its contributors hung on the walls. In December 2024, Michele Galluzzo showed Marching Ants, published by Press Press in Milan. The book traces the dashed, animated selection line that Apple engineer Bill Atkinson designed in 1983.

Printed in risograph and screen printing, the book sets a historical account on the left pages. The right pages carry the eight frames of the animation. During the show, the room played Artificial Intelligence, a 1985 album by Doris Norton. She composed electronic music on an Apple II.

Dropstery and Finca Rio Colorado, the coffee supply chain

Pressato buys its coffee from Dropstery, a micro-roastery that Maurizio Galiano opened in Turin in 2016. Mr. Galiano also runs Gocce di Cioccolato, a pastry shop on via Stradella that has served specialty coffee since 2009. He advised the founders on training while they defined the business.

Since 2017, Mr. Galiano has been a partner in Finca Rio Colorado. It was the first plantation bought by Umami Area Honduras, a private cooperation project. The project counted thirty-eight partners in 2023. The farm lies in Las Capucas, San Pedro de Copán, in western Honduras. It covers forty-five hectares between eleven hundred and thirteen hundred fifty meters above sea level.

Thirty hectares grow coffee. The remaining fifteen stay reserved for wild plants and animals. The local cooperative COCAFCAL manages the farm. Dropstery lists its Rio Colorado lot as Parainema, grown under plantain and banana trees. Workers pick the cherries by hand, and the farm processes them with the washed method.

A 1962 Faema E61, a V60 and an espresso at one euro fifty

At opening, the espresso used the Rio Colorado from Honduras. Filter coffee came from Colombia and Kenya. The founders chose to skip blends from the start. A 2025 listing reports that Pressato now works with roasters from Turin and abroad. Traceable supply chains guide the choice.

The espresso machine is a Faema E61 whose serial number dates it to 1962. A Cimbali Magnum on-demand grinder doses the beans. Mr. Russo brews V60 filter coffee with Hario equipment and a manual precision grinder.

The coffee area measures twenty square meters, with four tables. In early 2024, espresso sold for one euro fifty, against one euro thirty at nearby bars. Espresso led orders at the start of the week. From Thursday to Saturday, filter requests grew, peaking at fifteen to twenty cups on Saturdays.

Breakfast hours in the Quadrilatero Romano

The Quadrilatero fills with people in the evening, when its bars open late. Pressato covers the morning. It opens at breakfast and closes at half past two, from Monday to Saturday.

The staff collects fresh pastries each morning. At lunch, the counter prepares toast and sandwiches, such as avocado toast and rye bread with hummus. The ingredients come from vendors at Porta Palazzo. In winter, a Saturday menu added a cinnamon roll and a cappuccino with pumpkin and spices. The fridge holds beer from Biova, a Turin brewery that ferments unsold bread.

Short-term rentals fill the surrounding blocks. The founders reported a clientele of northern European visitors who ask for brunch and filter coffee. Most come from Germany, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Older residents of the neighborhood come in for breakfast.

Mr. Russo first met specialty coffee at Hommage, a café in Cologne, during his years at Taschen. He places Pressato among Turin venues on the same path, including Orso, Dropstery, Piattini and Santaromero.