Caffè Mulassano, 100 years of the tramezzino: Turin celebrates an icon that first appeared in 1926

Located beneath the arcades of Piazza Castello since 1879, Caffè Mulassano is preparing to celebrate a historic milestone: 100 years of the tramezzino (1926–2026), the world’s most famous and imitated sandwich, which was created right here thanks to the ingenuity of Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, who has gone down in history as ‘La Signora del Mulassano’.

From April to September 2026, this Turin venue – a member of the Associazione Locali Storici d’Italia – will be hosting a packed programme of cultural and gastronomic events to celebrate a product that is simple only in appearance, yet which, over the course of a century, has won over generations and people across the globe.

Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, a pioneer in both Detroit and Turin

Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, a pioneer between Detroit and Turin: The history of the tramezzino is inextricably linked to the extraordinary figure of its creator. Angela left for Detroit at a very young age, where she married Onorino Nebiolo and ran restaurants and bars with him across the United States, experiencing the Prohibition era first-hand. She was a thoroughly modern woman: one of the first to obtain a driving licence and to drive a car, a determined entrepreneur at a time when the catering industry was almost exclusively male-dominated.

In 1926, he made a decision that went against the grain: he returned to Italy with his family, at a time when emigration was moving in the opposite direction. In Turin, he introduced tastes and influences from across the Atlantic, starting with the American toast, but reworked them with intelligence and Piedmontese sensibility.

He realises that warm toast limits both ingredients and creativity. So he used the same bread – with a distinctive gluten structure that remains a hallmark to this day – to create small, soft rolls, richly filled, perfect for accompanying vermouth, another hallmark of Mulassano. Thus the ‘tramezzino’ was born, and it was Gabriele D’Annunzio who christened it as such, coining a name destined to enter the Italian lexicon.

A signature product that blends tradition and innovation

Right from the start, the Mulassano sandwich has embodied the Turin flavour with fillings inspired by the local area: bagna cauda, truffles and ingredients from Piedmontese cuisine. A perfect balance between American charm and Savoyard refinement.

In 2026, which also marks the 240th anniversary of vermouth, Caffè Mulassano is celebrating this dual heritage with a varied programme:

• Three ‘Centenary’ sandwiches, dedicated to key figures in the story:
  • ‘Angelina’, a tribute to the creator;
  • ‘D’Annunzio’, dedicated to the poet who gave it its name;
  • ‘Nebiolo’s’, a tribute to Onorino and their American experience (with a nod to the Nebbiolo grape variety, a symbol of Piedmont).
• Three Michelin-starred chefs will create three special fillings, to be launched between April and June 2026, each inspired by one of the key figures in the story.

Art, memory and the younger generations

The celebrations are not limited to gastronomy. In June, an official portrait of Angela Demichelis Nebiolo, painted by one of Italy’s leading contemporary portrait artists, will be unveiled and will be given a permanent home within the Caffè.

In September, a writer and biographer of the ‘Lady of Mulassano’ will meet the public to recount her life ‘amidst whisky and sandwiches, from Detroit to Turin’, bringing to light anecdotes and stories about a woman who deserves a place in the history of 20th-century Italian entrepreneurship.

Also in September, the spotlight is on young people: Mulassano will be organising a competition in partnership with the Turin Hotel Management School, inviting students to reflect on the value of food as a symbol of identity and a realm for free creativity. A challenge bridging the past and the future, in the spirit of Piedmontese cuisine.

A timeless icon

“I could do with another of those delicious tramezzini,” D’Annunzio exclaimed one day to Mulassano. It is a phrase that seems to span the century, repeated today by regulars and tourists seated at the very same tables once frequented by intellectuals, doctors, artists and musicians.

On its centenary, the tramezzino is more than just a snack: it is the symbol of an entrepreneurial vision, of a cultural bridge between America and Piedmont, and of a woman who knew how to reinvent tradition with courage and intelligence.

And a hundred years after its creation, it continues to tell, in two soft slices of bread, a great Italian story.