Milan is a city that draws its fair share of business travelers. The Italian city, a world leader in the design, is a place where you can find boutiques and world-famous fashion brands side-by-side.
But there are other things that come immediately to mind whenever you mention Milan: the Duomo, the city’s beating heart and the planet’s biggest Gothic cathedral; La Scala, perhaps the world’s most hallowed opera and theater building; the city’s historical passages, as well as the never-ending action on the streets. And whatever the season, Milan’s culture of wining and dining is second to none. From charcuteries to restaurants and patisseries to cafes, the food scene is wonderful. Italy is a place I travel to frequently for work. And because Milan is Italy’s commercial capital, I can say it’s the city I visit the most in the country — if not all of Europe. I had to go to Milan for a number of business meetings at the end of February 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to show what a terrible menace it was. By the end of the week that I was there, museums and concert halls had shut their doors, people had disappeared from the streets and the obituary notices had started to come thick and fast. As for me, I had to curtail my trip a day or two early and I was sure to observe fifteen days of quarantine upon my return, just in case. Ultimately, my latest trip to Milan didn’t have a particularly happy ending, but during pre-pandemic times, I did manage to revisit some restaurants I love.
IL SALUMAIO DI MONTENAPOLEONE
Whenever I come to Milan, the first stop on my list is invariably Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone — particularly if the weather is nice and there’s a chance to eat outside in the afternoon. Il Salumaio is a place I’ve known for forty years. Back in the day, it was a charcuterie on the ground floor of an apartment building on Via Montenapoleone that I used to frequent for its cheese and cold cuts. At the time, the middle-aged owner sold wonderful Italian delicacies. In time, the owner set out a few tables in front of the store; those that came chose food from the charcuterie, had a bite to eat, washed it all down with a coffee and returned to their work content as can be. Later, this entrepreneurial Italian installed a kitchen inside and began to serve three or four types of pasta and risotto, offering the lunch crowd a broader menu. The new service proved such a roaring success that customers could no longer fit into the little shop.
The owner, along with his grown son, found a solution. Across from the Four Seasons Hotel on Via Gesù there was a museum with a closed wing; the pair rented the wing, as well as the museum’s garden, and grew the business. I say garden, but what I actually mean is a throughway that opens onto two streets. In the meantime, the father had taken a step back, allowing his son to run the show. When I was last there, though, the third generation had gotten down to work too. The present incarnation of Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone can now serve at least one hundred people at a time. As it is, the little charcuterie corner is still serving, but it forms only a small part of the overall business today, with most of the focus on the restaurant. With Il Salumaio now a Milan institution, it’s a place you absolutely need to visit for lunch; in fact, even if you’re only in Milan for a day, it’s a place you need to go to to have, as Italians do, a good, long lunch and some wine. But what, then, should you eat at Il Salumaio? Wonderful, original, and simple — but sophisticated — Italian fare. They have some fairly basic dishes, as well as much more refined ones. There are little pizzas, well-made pastas, freshly caught fish from Genoa, meat dishes and extraordinary desserts. In short, whatever you want, it’s here. And, of course, you can add to this list whatever’s at the charcuterie. Naturally, you can dine comfortably in Il Salumaio’s indoor section, but I certainly prefer to eat there al fresco because you get to take in a busy street with Milan’s chicest boutiques on one side and the Four Seasons on the other. Hundreds of people, after all, use this throughway at any given time, so it’s a great place to come, eat, and people-watch. And if you look above, there’s the separate joy of just watching the clouds go by.
PECK
You could call Peck the world’s biggest charcuterie under one roof. Unsurprisingly, Peck is now a Milan landmark. The place, which is more than one hundred and thirty years old, earns an astonishing turnover of around seventy million euros per year. It’s impossible to see this many types of food with small variations anywhere else. It doesn’t matter if it’s meat or cheese; your eyes won’t believe the choices in front of you. For instance, if you go in and say you want parmesan, they’ll ask you how old — the older the cheese is, the more expensive it is, ranging up to 5 years old. That’s the case even with one of Parmigiano-Reggiano’s more pedestrian variations, Grana Padano, which you can purchase according to six-month intervals all the way up to three years old. There’s surely also mozzarella that is made daily from cow’s milk or buffalo milk. Apart from these, Peck has every Italian, French or Spanish cheese that you can think of. There are also around fifty types of ready-to-eat food, as well as perhaps Milan’s biggest wine cellar on the bottom floor. The prices might be a bit expensive, but the wine cellar is fantastic with its top-quality, aged wines from France and Italy.Above Peck, there’s a fine-dining restaurant that offers a broad menu with ingredients from the charcuterie. For lunch and dinner alike, the restaurant is a good choice. Meanwhile, on the middle floor, there’s a small cafe amid the smorgasbord of choice: the charcuterie section. With seating for about thirty people, the cafe might just be the perfect place to grab a coffee and a sandwich, a plate of cheese, a spot of grilled mushroom or other quick bite and take in the sights and smells around you. But you don’t have to just come here for a quick bite or breakfast, as the place is also good for a meal. Like Trussardi Alla Scala and Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone, Peck isn’t far from the Duomo, so you can eat your food and then take a stroll through history.
CANTINA PIEMONTESE
Another historical restaurant is Cantina Piemontese — a place favored by Italians to the extent that foreigners only manage to fill a table or two. When I go there, for instance, I’m typically the only foreigner. It’s a chic and spick-and- span place. At Cantina Piemontese, whose experienced older waiters offer good service, you’re able to dig into classic fare from Milan and the region beyond. What’s more, the cantina has a great wine menu. When I go, though, I just have some of their fantastic pasta, sometimes ordering different varieties depending on how many people I’m sharing the meal with. It might be a bit hard to find the place, given that the restaurant’s name is hardly even written on the door, but ask any taxi driver and they’ll take you right there.
COVA
When you’re on Via Montenapoleone, you just have to head to Cova, which isn’t just Milan’s oldest patisserie but Italy’s too. Cova, which was established more than two hundred years ago in 1817, exudes history. The patisserie serves up every type of tea and coffee, alongside small cakes and quality wines, but its signature offering is the bitter hot chocolate, a not-too-sweet concoction that you can enjoy standing up. It’s impossible not to notice the chocolaty smell of the drink as it wafts in and out of the patisserie. Particularly on a cold winter’s day, you must drop by to have this phenomenal drink. STARBUCKS MILANO You’ve come to Milan and you’re going to Starbucks? Yes, you are — and it’s good you are too. We all know the famous coffee chain Starbucks, but the American giant did something different in Milan, opening its biggest, flashiest, most splendid and most impressive branch in the world in this Italian city, to make a statement. Located in a historical building, the Milan Starbucks offers the smell of Italy with an American sense of order. Until now, I had only been impressed by Starbucks’ signature Seattle store, but the Milan location has surpassed its Pacific counterpart, delivering a tremendous concept. The brand might be American, but as soon as you enter, you feel like you’re in Italy. Italians must love the place too because they come in droves to drink great coffee and eat their food too. What’s more, it’s but a five-minute walk from the Duomo in the center of Milan. It’s as if Starbucks has put on a show for Italians, saying, “Look, I can make Italian espresso too and do it well.” Surely, it’s a place you need to have a look, at least.
MILAN’S BARS
Because Milan is a commercial center, it’s always welcoming business travelers from around the world. Because of that, Milan is a city with extremely luxurious, expensive, and top-notch hotels that charge a pretty penny on weekdays. You might choose to stay in places like these, but you’d still do well to drop by these hotels’ bars or lobbies. At whichever one you visit, you’ll see something that pleases you. Before dinner, head to one or any of these bars from 18.00 to 20.00 and enjoy yourself. Milan’s best hotels are the Mandarin Oriental, Bulgari, Park Hyatt, Armani and the Four Seasons — all of which also have great bars and lobbies. As an added bonus, they’re all located close to one another, so it’s possible to visit them all the same evening and enjoy yourself bar hopping. Reservations aren’t necessary, so enter one that takes your fancy, sit down at a table and grab a cocktail or a glass of Italian wine. Still, don’t indulge too much in the offered bites and appetizers because you don’t want to head to dinner with a full stomach. If you happen to be there during the summer, I suspect you’ll enjoy yourself the most at Bulgari, where the tables spill out into the outdoors. At the same time, Armani’s bar sets itself apart from the others as it’s on the top floor. It doesn’t actually offer a great view, but it’s a pleasure to look down on the historical buildings from above. Armani does have a good restaurant, but it’s not one you need to go out of your way to dine at — the bar has perfect appetizers if you’re not hankering for a serious meal.