Well Designed Cocktails For Design Week

Back in Milan it’s Milan Design Week and what better thing to do after a full day of amazing new design than going for an aperitivo and having a true classic Italian Cocktail. Specifically at Bene Bene Bar where you should actually try Morris Maramaldi’s Black Saffron Martini. I’ve listed 7 must have cocktails that is just too great to miss, one per day from start to finish of the Design Week:

Day 1. Milano – Torino
Day 2. Negroni
Day 3. Angelo Azzurro
Day 4. Americano
Day 5. Aperol Spritz
Day 6. Negroni Sbagliato
Day 7. Bellini

Remember to have your Negroni Sbagliato on Day 6 at Bar Basso where Mirko Stocchetto invented it in 1972.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 7

Being the last day of Milano Design Week why not end with a classic, the Bellini. Even though it wasn’t created in Milano it is as Italian as Leonardo da Vinci and it makes for a great celebration of a fantastic week of design.

The Bellini was created in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani at the world famous Harry’s Bar in Venice. The drink was named Bellini because its pink color reminded Cipriani of the toga of a saint in a painting by 15th-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini. Harry’s Bar first opened in Venice in 1931 and was a favorite hangout for Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, and Orson Welles. In 2001 Harry’s Bar was declared a national landmark by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Affairs.

The Jellies Family Flute was designed by Patricia Urquiola in 2014 for the Italian company Kartell.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 6

The Negroni Sbagliato (meaning mistaken or erroneous Negroni) was created in 1972 when Mirko Stocchetto at the historic Bar Basso in Milan added sparkling wine instead of the gin by mistake to a Negroni. A little lighter than a regular Negroni and close to the Spritz Veneziano the Negroni Sbagliato makes for a perfekt summer cocktail.

The glass is called X-Series and is a design by Finnish designer Tamara Aladin and was created in 1961.

So, if you happen to be in Milano, why not head straight to Bar Basso on Via Plinio 39 and have a Sbagliato where it was created, celebrating a 50 years old great mistake.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 5

The Spritz Veneziano, also known as Aperol Spritz, originated around the 19th century in Venice. The Hapsburg soldiers that occupied the area thought the Venetian wines were too strong in alcohol so they started adding a spritz of water to the wine. At the turn of the nineteenth century, soda water was added instead of water and during the 1920s and 1930s a bitter was included, making it a real cocktail. Not until the 1990s Prosecco was finally added to the Spritz Veneziano.

The glass, called Smoke, was designed by Joe Colombo in 1964 and was made to make it easier to hold your cigarette and your glass in the same hand.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 4

The Americano is a precursor of the Negroni. (The Negroni was created for Count Camillo Negroni who wanted something more potent than the classic Americano). Actually, the very first drink that James Bond ever ordered in one of Ian Fleming’s books about the British Secret Agent wasn't a Vesper, it was a Negroni. This was in Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale from 1953.

The glass called Cibi was designed by Italian architect and designer Cini Boeri in 1973 and was considered so futuristic it was featured in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner from 1982.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 3

The Angelo Azzurro was created in 1980 by bartender Giovanni “Mammina” Pepè for the opening of one Rome’s most popular LGBTQ + clubs, L’Angelo Azzurro in Trastevere with the cocktail mimicking the color of the walls in the club. The cocktail made with gin, triple sec and blue Curaçao is basically a modernized version of the Blue Logoon from the fifties and sixties. The Angelo Azzurro was made a big hit in bars all over the world when Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) ordered it in Miami Vice. It is hard to believe that Giovanni “Mammina” Pepè could ever imagine how big of a success the Angelo Azzurro would become.

The glass called Memphis was designed by Richard Holloway in 1982.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 2

Count Camillo Negroni was the adventurous type. In 1892 he arrived from Italy to Ellis Island to try his fortunes in the US. There he supposedly worked as a banker, a cowboy and as a riverboat gambler before returning back to Florence.

In 1919, he stepped into his favorite bar, the Caffè Casoni in Florence, ready to try something new. His friend and bartender Fosco Scarselli substituted gin for soda from the Americano and thus created the perfect aperitivo cocktail, the Negroni.

Even though Negroni returned to Italy he was so influenced by his time in the US that when an American newsman bumped in to him on a trip to Italy in 1928, he walked around dressed in his cowboy attire.

The tumbler was designed by Massimo Vignelli in 1957 and produced by Venini on the island of Murano, just outside Venice, Italy.

What To Drink During Milano Design Week Day 1

Today Milano Design Week starts and if you are new to the city and want to look like it isn’t your your first rodeo, here are some tips on what to drink during your aperitivo. One distinctly Italian aperitif every day from Monday to Sunday starting with Milano – Torino.

As with a lot of older cocktails the origin is unknown and there are several different origin stories. The same goes for Milano-Torino. One story is that it was first served at Gaspare Campari’s Caffè Camparino in Milan in the 1860’s. Another that it was created in 1932 to celebrate the inauguration of the A4 Highway that connects Milano and Torino. Whatever the origin it is made with equal parts Campari from Milano and Punt e Mes from Torino.

The glass is one in a series of three glasses called Calci Milanesi and was designed by Agostina Bottoni in 2018 as a tribute to Milanese architecture.