No, we don't want to stand in line every Sunday morning to have breakfast This situation needs to end, and quickly

For me, eating breakfast out is absolutely essential. At a time in my life when work wasn’t going well but I had plenty of free time, it became one of the few, actually very few, “treats” I could afford. Leaving the house basically in pajamas, alone or with someone, sitting at the corner café’s outdoor table (weather permitting), and ordering a cappuccino and a custard-filled croissant for the modest price of 3, 4 or 5 euros was my moment of lightness in a complicated period. I had even carefully mapped out my favorite pastries in the neighborhood, ranked by quality, personal taste and value for money. I’m exaggerating for storytelling purposes, but not really.

Breakfast in Milan today

It was 2021. At the same time, in the city I live in (Milan) the breakfast phenomenon was booming, evolving in ways I’m not entirely on board with. If you live in Milan, you probably already know where this is going. In recent years, the city has filled up with what are, to all intents and purposes, luxury coffee shops, new status symbols and places to be. Initially inspired by Northern European pastries (cinnamon rolls, cardamom rolls), they quickly became a beast of their own, mobbed by crowds. The prices are high, the tables are designer, the signage made to be photographed so you can feel part of something, part of the cool crowd. Behind a seemingly minimalist, Scandinavian look, you'll find baked goods that cost as much as four traditional croissants, and cold brews worth about three cappuccinos. These hipster-minimalist-coffee-bars-on-steroids have somehow become the only acceptable way to do breakfast. And of course, they’re expensive. They were for 2021 me, but also for anyone trying to grab breakfast once a week, who has a regular job, pays rent, and supports themselves. And no, TikTok, I’m not buying into the idea that “a breakfast under 10 euros” is a good deal. I won’t fall for that propaganda.

Is queueing for breakfast a Milan thing? Hype as a way of life

Milan is the city of hype, always the first in Italy to adopt (now followed by Turin, Rome and Florence) cool, trendy breakfast trends from Northern Europe and the Anglosphere. But here’s the question: is it really okay to queue or book ahead just to have breakfast, something so Italian and sleepy by nature? How long are we willing to wait for a picture of a chocolate pain suisse that costs as much as an avocado toast in any other Italian city? What’s wrong with the little bar downstairs, the one where old men smoke cigarettes in dress shirts? Maybe the real problem is that we’ve lost the ability to explore without being led by Instagram. We panic with FOMO even about where to get coffee. Why do we care so much about being part of something, especially when that something is arbitrary, fake, and only accessed by buying into it? Why have we normalized queueing for food? If even something as simple and spontaneous as weekend breakfast becomes a neurotic, hyper-photographed event, maybe it’s time to go touch some grass. For free. Without a phone. Without taking a number.