Carico and his Negroni Room in Milan, review

If you happened to pass by the window of Carico (Milan) just before opening, you'd see bustling laboratory activity: Rotavapors distilling, CO2 tanks breathing life into pre-mixed drinks, and silplat molds emerging from the kitchen for cocktail garnishes. It's a preparation more worthy of a fine-dining restaurant than a cocktail bar, and, upon closer inspection, it's certainly not ostentatious in the final service, where the mixed drinks instead enjoy an elegantly minimalist aesthetic, featuring clean-lined tumblers and clear blocks of ice decorated with, at most, a single piece.

CAsual, RIsto, COcktail

All this is the recognizable signature of owner Domenico "Dom" Carella, and an expression of his personal vision of dining. Starting with a background as a chef and culminating behind the bar, by merging cuisine and mixology, he breaks down boundaries and superstructures, marrying the gourmet experience with the informality of a cocktail bar. This is something very rare in Italy: Azotea in Turin also comes to mind, with Nikkei cuisine and avant-garde mixology, but here, as you'll see, with the focus on the Negroni, he really raises the bar.

Casual, Risto, Cocktail: Carico, indeed. A goal pursued not only by designing a format but also on a flavor level, using pairing as a common ground to unite the two worlds, obsessively working on aromatic extractions and thus creating endless opportunities for encounters. This research led Carico to the 50 Best Discovery, and the Lucanian bartender to develop eclectic pairing itineraries for a galaxy of stars around the world. For those who aren't regulars at Mauro Colagreco or Ana Ros, however, there was the "Back to Back": a mini tasting itinerary of daring and unabashedly perfect pairings, where you might encounter a paste with oxidized banana powder, reminiscent of the isoamyl acetate (the banana flavor also found in wheat beers, for example) in the accompanying sake, to give you an idea of the detail involved.

What is the Negroni Room and how does it work?

The Negroni Room was unveiled during Negroni Week, a week of celebrations Campari dedicated to Count Camillo Luigi Manfredo Maria Negroni, the most popular cocktail in the world to date. It is the evolution of the Martini Room, a space within the venue specifically designed to serve the Martini Cocktail alone, which could be booked by the hour. For a few weeks now, with the addition of Bitter and enhancing the gastronomic experience of Carico, the Negroni Room has offered a seven-course tasting menu featuring seven cocktails in three movements, exploring the past, present, and future of the iconic (an adjective not overused in this case) Italian aperitif, from the origins of the Milan-Turin cocktail to futuristic interpretations of distillations and fermentations. By reservation only, from Friday to Sunday and at a cost of €98, a maximum of eight diners are gathered around the bartender who officiates the ceremony also in the role of DJ and director, directing the soundtrack and projections on three walls - and here the collaboration with Campari forcefully expresses its graphic style - and also the lights which, although soft in the environment, are coordinated with the mise en place.

What do you eat?

The kitchen is in the hands of Leonardo D'Ingeo, a chef with a seemingly endless repertoire, capable of moving from cocktail bites to a Michelin-starred tasting menu, from rustic Mediterranean delicacies to sharp compositions with a Nordic vibe, all while maintaining a rock-solid touch, impactful flavors, and proven automatic connections with Dom's pairings. Great technique isn't enough; you also need great clarity of ideas and intent. Now, this is the point where I should show you the dishes, but given the kind of experience that awaits you, I don't want to overdo it with spoilers (you'll thank me later), so I'll do this: I'll use a sample passage to give you as in-depth an idea as possible without spoiling the surprises. And there are some, like what's in that wooden box served with the scampi... I won't go any further.

Let's take the "pasta coi funghi", quotes are a must, with porcini mushrooms, truffle, and a sort of sausage that turns out to be a much more gourmet game salami. The accompanying cocktail is the Cardinale, a drink made with bitters, gin, and Riesling, here paired with a different white wine. There's a delicious and instantly recognizable first layer, the savory flavor of the porcini mushrooms and salami, and a second layer, equally pop but more evocative, in which the acidity of the white wine interacts with the game to evoke the memory of the pan-fried sausage that will make up the boscaiola, immediately activating the salivary glands. It goes without saying that in such a journey, the management of bitterness is a theme addressed in every course, and this is the hook for a third level of interpretation in which the dish's umami is rounded out by the bitterness, and the earthy notes of mushroom and truffle find endless echoes among the roots, bark, and spices of the bitters and vermouth, in a long and ever-changing drink. I'm exaggerating, certainly over-interpreting, but perhaps not: the Riesling is gone, since the drink is no longer served to a German cardinal as legend has it, and therefore the typical hydrocarbon note will be missing... thank goodness it's found on the plate, given the generous dose of truffle. I'll stop here, leaving you to discover the rest of the journey.

Historical anecdotes, a stylish atmosphere, world-class cocktails, and cuisine that embodies one of the hallmarks I believe is essential to being great: a profoundly interpretive approach while still being accessible to a diverse audience. The Negroni Room is an ambitious and cosmopolitan project, and it has achieved all its goals.

Price: a single menu for 98 euros (DRINKS INCLUDED)

Opinion

If Carico was already the most structured and successful cocktail and fine dining experience you could find, the Negroni Room experience takes everything to the next level: Michelin-starred cuisine and service, with a beverage selection that far more renowned establishments can barely imagine.