While giants like Faema and Gaggia were churning out tens of thousands of machines from massive assembly lines in Milan, Giulio Dorio’s workshop was quietly operating a world away in the northeastern city of Udine. La Dorio was a boutique outfit building commercial lever machines in small, artisanal batches. When the 1950s and 60s ushered in the “Atomic” and “Space Age” design movements, Dorio leaned in, interpreting the trend with a uniquely overbuilt, sculptural approach. The Atlas embodies this era perfectly—a heavy-duty collision of sweeping chrome, bold angles, and thick brass. Because they were produced in such limited numbers compared to the ubiquitous Faemas of the day, an intact La Dorio is a true unicorn. Rescuing and restoring one isn’t just another project; it’s unearthing a unique piece of Italian coffee heritage.
First impressions
This 1965 La Dorio Atlas was found in a town in northeast Italy on the border with Slovenia. It looked to be in decent condition and rather complete, with the only obvious missing components being the plexi at the top and the knob for the power switch; all-in-all, pretty manageable if something had to be missing. The silhouette of this machine is very pleasing to the eye, in fact, if you look at the Collezione Enrico Maltoni logo, it may seem familiar. A closeup of the machine highlights some details that made me a fan at first sight:
But what is the deal with that group!?
Certainly one of the more unique things about this Dorio group are the valves protruding from either side. It turns out the water supply feeds into the right side valve via the port on the front, and that is used to fill the boiler. The valve on the left side of the group is for dispensing hot water, and the valve on the upper right is for steam. This is a unique configuration for sure, and makes the entire group head quite complex. It will be interesting to see how it all works when it comes apart.
The Bad and the Ugly
This boiler is going to need some special handling inside and out. La Dorio are notorious for their use of asbestos insulation on the boiler, and the inside viewed with an endoscope tells me the water that ran through this machine was a smidge on the hard side…
The eagle-eyed reader may also have noticed another challenge to this restore: three of the four nuts holding the group to the boiler have sheared off. Hopefully it will be possible to separate the group, but there isn’t a lot of room to work with tools from either side of the backsplash.
So whats next?
It may be a while before I start working on this machine as I have a few other projects in the hopper, so this will have to do for now. In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for any information available to help restore it:
- are the group flange holes threaded or loose?
- sources and details on seals and gaskets for the group, piston, valves, heating element, etc
- measurements and/or compatible portafilters and baskets – I believe it is 55mm like the other major manufacturer from Udine: La San Marco
- any other tips/tricks or observations I may have missed?
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