New culinary destinations in Milan

Despite 2015 immediately proved to be a very intense year for Milanese gastronomy, with lots of openings of more or less temporary restaurants in view of Expo 2015, both during the summer months and in September there have been many interesting news which we can now illustrate and anticipate.

Let’s start from the Maestro, Gualtiero Marchesi, who is back in Milan with a new menu served at the now historic Marchesino in Piazza della Scala (entrance from Via Filodrammatici, 2, +39.02.72094338). It will be called Marchesi al Marchesino and will only have seven tables where people will be able to order dishes from the chef’s great history: from the Spaghetti salad with caviar and chives to the Open Raviolo, and the immortal Rice, gold and saffron and the Anitra al torchio in due servizi [literally, Pressed duck in two services]

A short walk from there, in Via Andegari 9, on 30th July opened the most recent luxury hotel in Milan, Mandarin Oriental. They assigned restaurant Seta (+39.02.87318897) to Antonio Guida, who arrived in town with the two stars he conquered at Pellicano in Porto Ercole, Argentario, in the province of Grosseto. Paolo Marchi illustrates this in detail in this article.

Some more Michelin stars, three to be precise, will very soon take possession of the kitchen of a great Milanese hotel. The historic palace of the Excelsior Hotel Gallia, overlooking Stazione Centrale, was renovated with style and on 29th September the new Terrazza Gallia will also be opened (Piazza Duca D'Aosta, 9, +39.02.67851), on the seventh floor, where the Rooftop Bar and the Restaurant will be handed to the Cerea brothers of Da Vittorio in Brusaporto (Bergamo).

Matias Perdomo had also conquered a Michelin star at Maida Mercuri’s Pont de Ferr. A few months ago news arrived of their consensual separation and that the Uruguayan chef had begun to work with his historic second Simon Press and maître Thomas Piras to open Contraste, in Via Meda, 2 (+39.02.49536597). For more details, read here and here.

Trippa, instead, was born with different ambitions (Claudia Orlandi first gave a preview here), a modern trattoria opened in Via Vasari 3 (+39.02.36741134) by chef Diego Rossi: since the beginning of the summer many people go there to enjoy a substantial cuisine, made with Italian products personally selected by the patrons and to ask what’s “off the menu”, special daily dishes which, in coherence with the name of the place, pay extra attention to entrails.

Only a few days are left until the opening of Misha Sukyas’s restaurant in Milan, who’s already been appreciated in town thanks to L'Alchimista. In these very hours he’s fine-tuning the last details of Spice, in Via De Amicis 4 (+39.02.58102106), which should seat 48 people, serving a creative bistronomy cuisine and cocktails handed to young Paolo Badolato.

Gastronomy and mixology are also the pillars of Alessandro Longhin and Davide Martelli’s The Botanical Club (in Via Pastrengo, 11, +39.02.36523846). They opened the first gin micro-distillery in Milan, with cocktail bar and restaurant. In a warm and refined setting, in which the alembic for the gin stands out, the restaurant menu presents fifteen creative dishes that change twice monthly.

Visitors come from lunch till supper, aperitif included, at Chiostro di Andrea: this fascinating place in the Chiostri della Società Umanitaria (entrance from Via San Barnaba, 48, +39.02.5466494) is named after chef Andrea Alfieri, who after Ristorante Motta, the temple of meat in Milan and beyond, returns to the town centre with a versatile and complete format.