Múnich se encuentra con Nápoles: «Casele» aporta un toque italiano a Glockenbach
El sumiller Raffaele Colonna equilibra en el Isar la tradición napolitana con una antigua carnicería y un agudo sentido del diseño.
The idea that Munich is considered Germany's northernmost Italian city is one of those clichés that few question. It's often described as a refined version of la dolce vita, somewhere between Aperol Spritz and Maximilianstrasse. In the Glockenbach district, inside the former Schlagbauer butcher shop, that idea is reinterpreted in a more raw and honest way.
What Raffaele Colonna has created with "Casele" is less like a conventional restaurant than a cultural enclave, where the Neapolitan spirit engages in dialogue with modern Munich design.
Its greatest strength is authenticity. Instead of dressing the staff in Italian aprons, Colonna assembled his team on the Tyrrhenian coast: former colleagues and lifelong friends traded Campania for the banks of the Isar. Dishes like pasta alla Nerano or rabbit Ischian style are served with their flavors undiluted, even for a German palate.
The logistics follow the same philosophy. The fish arrives from Marina di Camerota via a direct connection through Pescheria Mattiucci, based in Naples, and reaches Munich in less than 24 hours.
The Munich-based studio Holzrausch preserved the industrial essence of the former butcher shop without turning the space into a sterile design exercise. Where meat was once cut, warm glazed tiles, copper details, and dark mahogany now predominate.
The restaurant plays with contrasts: a discarded meat refrigerator houses Burgundy wines and carefully selected bottles from Italian wineries, while diners sit under clotheslines on the outdoor patio. This tension between refined design and informal intimacy gives the place an energy rarely found in Munich's often overly contrived food scene.
As the night progresses, the former butcher's counter becomes the social hub of the wine bar, and the venue gradually transforms into something resembling an Italian nightclub. When Pino D'Angiò's signature dishes fill the room, the ambition of haute cuisine blends seamlessly with the informality of a late-night bar.
It is precisely this willingness to embrace friction, between Neapolitan tradition, Munich's industrial past, and a carefully cultivated nonchalance, that makes "Casele" one of the most exciting premieres of the season. The audience isn't looking for a backdrop, but rather an atmosphere that lingers long after the evening has ended.