No one ever needs an excuse to visit Italy — or for residents to while away an afternoon or evening over a delicious meal and fine wine. Foreign culinary traditions are always welcome in the country and here WWD Weekend rounds up a slate of restaurants and hotels — plus an exhibition that shouldn’t be missed.
La Ménagère
La Ménagère has opened its second restaurant in Italy, located in Rome in Via de’ Fiori, 98.
The first location was established in 1896 in Florence, in Via de’ Ginori and has become the place to be as it reflects the city’s merging of design, culture and food.
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In the Italian capital, La Ménagère stands near the iconic Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps, in an 18th-century building, which previously hosted a storied dance club called Gilda. Covering 10,800 square feet and seating 200 guests, the venue was designed by architect Claudio Nardi, who also curated the restaurant in Florence.
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“This conservative restoration allows us to respect and enhance an important part of the Roman heritage and make it accessible again to a diverse group of patrons,” said Ernesto Manfredi, owner of La Ménagère.
La Ménagère is open from breakfast to dinner, including aperitif and brunch. The food offer includes some of the brand’s signature dishes, such as the Fillet Wellington, the Spaghetto with garlic, oil and chili, parsley and cured fish roe, paired with a wide selection of Italian and French wines.
La Ménagère
Via Mario de’ Fiori, 99 – 00187
lamenagere.it
Palazzo Utini
Just 15 minutes away from Parma, in the Emilia-Romagna region, Palazzo Utini has opened its doors. The five-star hotel has a gourmet restaurant, a bistrot, a lounge bar and 15 suites.
The Utini family has entrusted the renovation project of the historic 19th-century building to interior designer Stefano Guidotti and his studio to create a space where design and cuisine come together. “I have been working on this project for three years. I tried to redistribute the various rooms thinking more of a house than a hotel,” stated Guidotti.
The chosen color palette ranges from sugar paper shades to yellow for the 15 suites, restaurant and furniture. The restaurant was opened by the 14 Michelin-starred chef Enrico Bartolini, who has amassed 14 Michelin stars in his career. To lead the kitchen, he has chosen chef Roberto Monopoli, who honed his skills abroad alongside chefs such as Claudio Sadler, Alain Ducasse and Christophe Martin and had recently headed the kitchen at the Villa Gray restaurant in Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany. The management of the restaurant was handed over to Alessandra Veronesi who worked with Bartolini at the Mudec restaurant in Milan.
The culinary offer includes two tasting menus: one with nine courses and one with seven courses with recipes that will often change based on the availability of the raw materials. Local products include oysters from the Po Delta, trout and smoked eel or modern interpretations of traditional dishes such as parmesan gnocchi, made without eggs and potatoes, served in a hot soup of peas, horseradish and marjoram, or the piadina filled with horse meat tartare, a local specialty.
The wine list features 450 labels including Italian, French and German wines and also Italian sparkling wines and Champagne from areas such as Côte de Blancs, Montagne de Reims, Marne and Aube.
Palazzo Utini
Via Gramsci, 6 – 43015
Tel. 05-21-15-21001
palazzoutini.com
Barbacoa
Barbacoa, a Brazilian churrascaria has opened in Milan, in via Scipio Slataper, 19. This is the first such restaurant in Europe for the Barbacoa group, with a 30-year experience in the industry, after the opening of six units in Brazil and nine in Japan. Opened in April, it has already been mentioned in the Michelin Guide and the Espresso Guide.
The restaurant seats more than 150 guests in a number of salons and for this reason is also suitable for the organization of events. The culinary offer follows the tradition of the classic churrasco Rodizio, which consists in the tasting of various types of meat, 13 in this case, cooked on the grill, served with a rotation system by the Passadores (meat carvers), who serve the meat in the Espetos, the typical skewers.
Bananas, cassava (manioca), polenta, chips, rice and farofa (a meal made from toasted cassava) with eggs and bacon are served as sides. Among the meats, the Scamone is considered the most popular, from which comes the “maminha” and the Codone, the very famous picanha which can be cut in different ways. Pork is also present in many of the recipes of Brazilian cuisine like crispy bacon and grilled ribs, particularly in demand. In addition to these cuts, the offer incudes French racks of lamb or chicken cooked with onions, garlic, parsley, oil, vinegar, beer, salt, pepper and oregano.
Each guest is provided with a token green on one side and red on the other, which allows them to interrupt or continue the experience. The central room welcomes the buffet set up with a vast assortment of tasty appetizers: 30 options ranging from cured meats and cheeses to cold salads, vegetarian and nonvegetarian. The cocktail bar offers classic Brazilian drinks such as Caipirinha and Caipiroska but also spritz, daiquiri, margarita and many others. The cellar offers 140 labels selected from the best wines from all Italian regions.
Barbacoa
Via Scipio Slataper, 19 – 20125
Tel. 02-68-83-883
barbacoaitalia.it
“Niki de Saint Phalle” Exhibition
Until Feb. 16, Mudec is hosting a retrospective of the French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, best known for her Nanas, large-scale, brightly colored archetypal female sculptures.
The exhibition showcases 110 works by the artist, among which there is a selection of works on paper, videos, clothes from the Christian Dior house, which also recall her past as a model. Curated by art critic Lucia Pesapane, the artist’s career is analyzed through eight sections, from her debut to her latest works.
De Saint Phalle, who died in 2002, was one of the artists who most challenged gender stereotypes through art since she experienced an era of great social and artistic changes, from the feminist movement of the ’60s and ’70s to the Nouveau Réalisme of which she was a protagonist.
“Niki de Saint Phalle is today considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century,” explains the curator of the exhibition Lucia Pesapane. “She was able, like few artists before, to use the screen and the media to promote her art and her social commitment towards minorities and the most fragile, the sick, children and animals. Her art offers us a possible remedy against injustice, a comfort, an access to beauty,” she explained.
On the occasion of the exhibition, 24 ORE Cultura published the artist’s catalogue, together with her book “My secret.” The two volumes are available in the exhibition bookshop, in bookstores and online.
Mudec – Museo delle Culture
Via Tortona, 56 – 20144
mudec.it
“BAJ. Baj chez Baj” Exhibition
The Italian office furnishings company UniFor partnered with Electa and Palazzo Reale for the “BAJ. Baj chez Baj” exhibition running until Feb. 9 at Palazzo Reale, to realize the set-up designed by architect Umberto Zanetti — ZDA Zanetti Design Architettura.
To mark the centenary of Enrico Baj’s birth, Milan celebrates one of the masters of the Italian and international neo-avant-garde with a retrospective curated by art historian Chiara Gatti and the artist’s wife Roberta Cerini Baj. The exhibition retraces his career through around 50 artworks. The installation consists of three sections spread across different spaces: the entrance Apse, the central Plaza, and the Lake of Sculptures.
The self-supporting exhibition structure, created by UniFor, features a metal frame supporting a series of panels of varying heights, both vertical and inclined, made of poplar plywood. This neutral backdrop contrasts with the richness of materials and colors typical of the works of the artist, who died in 2003.
The staggered arrangement of the structures helps to define the various thematic areas of the exhibition, which begins with Baj’s early gestural abstraction, then his larval anthropomorphic figures and his iconic characters such as the Generals and the Ladies.
The three-dimensional narrative, developed through the artworks, curatorship, and set design, is enhanced by the graphic elements created by Studio Sonnoli.
“Creating an exhibition installation is always like writing a story. For an Enrico Baj exhibition, especially a comprehensive and diverse retrospective like this one at Palazzo Reale, marking 100 years since his birth, it feels like writing and illustrating a marvellous, fantastical, imaginative, playful, ironic and surreal book,” explains Zanetti.
Palazzo Reale
Piazza del Duomo, 12 – 20122
Tel. 02-88-46-5230
palazzorealemilano.it