The crotti of Lake Como: the back story

Around Lake Como, a crotto is a cellar dug into the mountainside, cooled all year by a breath of air from deep in the rock. Wine and cheese were kept there; then people came to drink and eat, and some crotti became restaurants that still keep the name.

Walk the western shore north of Cernobbio, or the lanes above Como, and you will see the word on old signs: crotto. It means a cellar cut into the rock of the mountain, and around Lake Como it has come to mean a place to eat as well.

What a crotto is

The secret is the sorèl, a current of cold air that rises from deep inside the mountain. At the Crotto dei Platani it keeps the cellar at about 8°C in winter and summer alike, ideal for ageing wine and curing salumi and cheeses. Where the wine was kept, people came to drink it; where they drank, someone began to cook.

Crotto dei Platani

At Brienno, halfway to Argegno beneath Monte Gringo, the Crotto dei Platani was founded in 1855. In the 1930s, by its own account, it was the quiet headquarters of the area’s smugglers, mixing with woodcutters and villagers. Fernando and Renata Cavadini took it on in 1977, their son Francesco carries it on, and in May 2019 it reopened after a renovation by the Venelli Kramer studio.

Today you eat on verandas and on tables by the dock, the jetty and the garden, all at the water’s edge, with chef Andrea Cremonesi reworking old recipes of the lake and a cellar of over 400 wines.

Crotto del Sergente

In Lora, on the edge of Como, the Crotto del Sergente has served as a crotto since the 1700s: the cellar was first a store, then a village osteria. The door frames, the brick and the old floors are original, and upstairs are the Sala dell’Amicizia and the Sala del Camino.

The kitchen belongs to the Slow Food chefs’ alliance, cooking Lombard recipes with at least three Slow Food presidia and naming the producers on the menu; freshwater fish from the lake is a speciality. It closes on Wednesdays.

A crotto keeps about 8°C in winter and summer alike: the cellar did the cooking’s first job.

Family tables

The same spirit runs through the lake’s family trattorias. At Tremezzo, La Fagurida has been run by Adriana and her family since 1974, in a stone rustico with a veranda and a terrace over the water, cooking polenta, dishes of the lake and meat from the grill. At Tremezzo, Al Veluu has been in one family since 1974 too. In Bellagio, Ristorante Barchetta has cooked the dishes of the village since 1887.

What to order

Look for lake fish, polenta in its many forms, the salumi and cheeses that the cool cellars were made for, and the wines of Lombardy. In summer, book a table outside; in winter, the old cellar rooms come into their own.

Our advice: many crotti and trattorias close one day a week and some close for part of the winter, so check the official site before you set out.