chow bella: gianluca longo, style director of es magazine, on where to eat in the italian fashion capital
September 25, 2008 8:41 am
Milan is a great city mainly for two reasons: genius shopping and fabulous food. Whenever I travel here—for fashion week, meetings, or just some straight, simple, mad shopping—I always try to plan everything around places where I can stop and enjoy a nice, proper meal or snack. You can find any kind of restaurant in this city: the sleek, the eccentric, the comfortable, the chic, and the cheap. These are my favorites:
Bebel (Via San Marco 38) is small and cozy, with the best beef tagliata in town.
Alle Langhe (Corso Como 6) is fashionable. To see and to be seen during fashion week, definitely pick a table downstairs.
Dongio’ (Via B. Corio 3) is a little secret and below-the-radar. The menu is quite intense, so I would suggest it for cozy winter dinners. The gnocchi are the biggest around—”al ragu” is the best.
Giordano il Bolognese (Corso Genova 3) is one of my very favorites. The egg pasta is handmade every day. I suggest the tortellini alla panna and to drink, a proper Sangiovese red wine.
I love Ristorante Bagutta (Via Bagutta 14/16) for lunch, particularly if you want a break from shopping in the quadrilatero (the square mile bordered by Via Montenapoleone, Via S. Andrea, Via Spiga, and Corso Venezia). The menu features proper recipes from Tuscany.
The trendy Trattoria Toscana (Corso di Porta Ticinese 58) has the best cotoletta Milanese, which you have to have with cherry tomatoes and rocket salad on top. The courtyard is very atmospheric and is full of young, preppy Milanese in their Abercrombie and Tod’s.
The tiny bar Leonardo (Via A. Saffi 7) has the best selection of sandwiches and homemade ice creams. Ideal for grabbing something to go between shows (it’s on the way to the Fiera) or when you feel peckish. The hot chocolate is unbeatable on a winter’s day.
Bar Gattullo (Piazzale di Porta Lodovica) is an institution for coffees and teas. Most mornings, I leave my hotel early enough to have my “cappuccino e brioche”—Milan’s version of the croissant—here. It’s a much happier way to start a busy day.
tags: Milan Fashion Week, restaurants
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