Entertainment in Milan
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Diana Garden
Seasonally updated to keep you guessing, the bar is secreted by a vast leather curtain at the back of the Sheraton Diana’s lobby. Grab a freshly crushed peach Bellini and lounge beside the magnificent windows - the perfect possie to see who’s making a tit of themselves in the lush, low-lit garden. The aperitivo buffet is one of the city’s most rich and varied, though with drinks nudging €15 you’d be hoping for more than bruschetta.
reviewed
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Cantina di Manuela
Locals come after work to pick up a bottle of regional wine or share a generous platter of goat’s cheese, honey and mostarda over a glass while their kids munch on bread and draw. The kitchen kicks in around 7pm - what better excuse to try another varietal? Staff aren’t as welcoming as the decor is inviting, but once you hear that bottle of Gavi di Gavi go glug-glug-glug, you’ll feel right at home regardless.
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N’Ombra De Vin
This enoteca is set in a former Augustine refectory, and it retains a Catholic approach to wine. Tastings can be had all day and bottles start at reasonable prices. There’s also a small bistro if all that swilling sees you work up an appetite. Risotto Milanese is topped with artichoke and breadcrumbs, white asparagus is served with quail eggs, and a tartar of Piedmontese beef is enriched with aged balsamic.
reviewed
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Stalingrado
The pub might be a popular notion in Milan but Stalingrado is one of the few that gets what a messy, beery proposition a pub actually is. Scottish ale is on tap, football is on the big screen and a tented footpath area is erected for warmer nights. Milanese sports fans demand comfort as well as beer; you’ll have to book for a set sit-down dinner to secure a viewing position for high-profile matches.
reviewed
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Noy
With its uptight-housewife-gets-her-groove-back-at-the-ashram decor, only the corrugated roof gives this former garage’s past life away. A poke at the fresh and generous aperitivo spread starts the night right. Cocktails, perfect for retoxing after a wellness treatment at Habits Culti (Corso Magenta, Sant’ambrogio & the West/Play/Habitus Culti Spa) next door, come next.
reviewed
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Da Claudio
Fishmonger by day, Claudio is Nobu's archrival by night. Once the floors are hosed down, corks pop and crowds arrive for spumante and a sampler plate of the sliced carpaccio (raw) catch of the day (around €10). This Milan-style sushi is drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, pepper and lemon atop raddichio, and served with crusty bread instead of rice.
reviewed
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Piccolo Teatro (Teatro Grassi)
This risk-taking little repertory theatre was opened in 1947 by Paolo Grassi and none other than the late, great theatre director Giorgio Strehler, and then embarked on a nationwide movement of avant-garde productions and Commedia dell’Arte revivals. Additional programming, including ballet, goes on at the larger, second sibling space over at the Teatro Strehler.
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Light
All extraneous detail has been stripped away from this former woodworking factory, drawing your attention to the exposed brick archways, fuschia walls and the person positively glowing on the spotlit sofa next to you. The illuminated alabaster bar inspires a reverence usually reserved for altars, though you'll hardly see it for the aperitivi crowds around 19:00.
reviewed
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Milano
This popular bar shares owners with Roialto. It’s smaller and starker than Roialto (though still huge by any other standards), but bears many Roialto trademarks. There’s vintage ‘60s and ‘70s furniture in black, white and orange, stacks - literally - of interiors magazines and the ‘too much is never enough’ aperitivo, with many items cooked to order.
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Rolling Stone
Belle and Sebastian, Artic Monkeys, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and local bands you never heard of (but should) play Milan's leading rock venue. Patrons have been known to shower bands with adoration and contempt by spraying them with beer from the bar above the stage, but nowadays management keeps a look out for amp-destroying rabble-rousers (you know who you are).
reviewed
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Old Fashion Café
Wade through the furiously texting figli di papa (rich brats) and make it past the bouncers, and you’ll be rewarded with an expansive outdoor bar that sits in the shadow of the Triennale and Parco Sempione trees. But with the aperitivo queues and an ultracommercial soundtrack, you’ll need youth or supernatural stamina to make it to sunrise.
reviewed
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Caruso
The living is good and the people-watching even better at this sidewalk café in Milan's most fashionable piazza, with the best-dressed parade hauling designer booty and little dogs along Via Manzoni, gingerly descending Montenapo Metro steps in staggering heels, and pretending not to be flustered by the pulchritude of Emporio Armani Caffé waiters.
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Le Trottoir
Party at your house - at least that's how it looks inside this former toll house, with art on the stairway, funky frescos and the inevitable cluster of artists attempting to discuss video art over the joyous din of a swinging ska band. That's right: that dinky raised platform is a stage, showcasing local alternative bands that get the whole place gyrating.
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Boccascena Café
An 18th century palazzo, with a charming courtyard and clocktower. Actors and artists mill around tables, anticipating or reviewing the evening's entertainment at Teatro Litta. In the Teatro's grand foyer, drinks are presented with a flourish and dramatically lit by mod chrome chandeliers. Unscripted dialogue and much levity ensues; the end is up to you.
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Roialto
This high-ceilinged former market is strewn with ‘70s sofas, interiors magazines and bright young things. The aperitivo here is famously unstinting, though the international hotel buffet breakfast vibe conjured by uniformed staff at twee stations (doling out oysters, artisan cheeses and whatever you damn well want) can hardly be cool, can it?
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Noon
The finance crowd spilling out onto the footpath terrace of NooN’s big-windowed, corner bar don’t hint at the sprawling proportions within. (Though the surreal number of scooters strewn about via Leopardi come nightfall might.) Upstairs, downstairs, and halfway in between, there’s a cigar bar, basement club space and a large à la carte restaurant.
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Yar Bistrot
Once the pitchers (yes, pitchers) of vodka start pouring around 18:00, you'd better order some borsch and blinis; it's going to be another long, outrageous night at rococo Russian Yar. Tonight you're going to party like it's 1899, the Iron Curtain never went up or came down and men in fur coats weren't necessarily Italian fashion designers.
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Kineo
Cross a fashion week runway with a 1930s Cimitero Monumentale mausoleum, and you've got the perfect setting for high-drama drinks and devil-may-care disco. Lights dance around the room clad in floor-to-ceiling shiny black marble, though ultrasoft black leather banquettes make mobilising to the downstairs disco on weekends most challenging.
reviewed
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Art Café
Along with Bar Jamaica across the way, Art Café’s tables take over this pedestrianised part of Via Brera making for a lively street scene. There’s a certain relief in Art Café’s recalcitrant lack of style, though it can’t quite do authentic grunge either. But there’s free wi-fi, cheap aperitivo and a blessed lack of attitude.
reviewed
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Leoncavallo
Begun in the red-or-dead ‘70s, and proving to be one of the most resilient of the centri sociali (anarcho-socialist cultural organisations), Leoncavallo hosts electronic evenings and live gigs that attract large, alternative crowds. Check the website for details (just in case the bulldozers got there first).
reviewed
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Bar Basso
This elegant corner bar is home of the sbagliato, the Negroni made with Prosecco instead of gin, as well as the brilliant concept of mangia e bevi (eat and drink), involving a supersized goblet of strawberries, cream and nocciola (hazelnut) ice cream and a large slug of some kind of booze.
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Shu
The mothership has landed. Two monumental gold arms support a green ceiling with a matrix of circuitry that keeps you hoping George Clinton might just come and save you (from the commercial house, from yourself). Come early for aperitivo with a happy, unpretentious crowd or get ready to queue later on.
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Atomic Bar
Like hanging out inside a lava lamp, with vintage vinyl sofas and faux-fur chairs in molten shapes, and walls splashed with psychedelic patterns and mesmerising glitter. Settle into rare grooves from the '60s and '70s on Sunday, then let it all bubble up and over the top on gay-friendly 'Drama Queen' Fridays.
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Frida
The jumble of tables in the heated courtyard and comfy couches inside make it easy to bond over beer or regional wine with an arty crowd. The aperitivo spread is continuously replenished and sports plenty of veg dishes. No pretensions, no entourages, just good music, good value and good times.
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Julien Lounge Bar
Get your nails done at the Julien Room across the street, and have a top-shelf cocktail in this upbeat chill-out lounge while they dry: it's every beauty buff's idea of the perfect lunch break. Girls' nights out begin with a Julien Room blow-out, happy hour here, then Just Cavalli or Old Fashion.
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