It is true that Milan is a fast-paced northern metropolis compared with the rest of Italian cities, a reputation summed up by journalist Enzo Biagi when he said, “In Milan they say ‘cappucio’ in bars instead of ‘cappuccino’ to save a syllable.”
    As the capital of Lombardy, Milan is the center of banking, automaking, textiles, fashion and publishing, which complement each other to produce beautiful cars, books and clothes so as to make Milan far more elegant than it is merely industrial. This is readily seen in the city’s hotels, which, however old their buildings, are among the most modern in Europe, and many of Italy’s most innovative—and esthetically designed—ristoranti are here, not least two that are, in fact, in elegant hotels.

LA VERANDA
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL MILANO
Via Gesù, 6/8
 39 02 77088 

 When the Four Seasons Milano opened in 1993 in what was once a 15th century convent named Santa Maria del Gesù, no hotel in the city had anything close to its luxury, service or amenities, so it set a bar all other hotels, especially old bastions like the Principe e Savoia, had to strive quickly to meet.
    Today, in its location off the fashionable Via Gesù, lined with Brioni, Kiton, Zilli, Versace and other boutiques, the Four Seasons is still in the top ranks of Milan hotels, and its restaurant La Veranda has remained among the most innovative in Italy, now under chef Barizio Borraccino.
    The hotel’s rooms (118 with 50 suites) are large and decorated with a soft Milanese décor of warm colors in its use of woods, with poster beds, walk-in closets, fine furniture with Fortuny fabrics, Frette linens, frescoed stucco ceilings and Carrara marble bathrooms, surrounding the original cloister and landscaped gardens of the nunnery (right). The 8,600-square-foot spa, which takes advantage of the old arcades, was designed by Patricia Urquiola (below).
      While expensive, staying there for three nights allows you a fourth night free; they also have a family package and cooking classes are available. Underground parking is offered, which in the restricted historic center of Milan can be crucial. And if you want to get out of town, the concierge can arrange a trip in a vintage 1960 Giulietta Spider to drive from Four Seasons property to property all the way to the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat.
       (By the way, on a day when I had to leave Milan a declared transit strike that included trains, metro and buses, The Four Seasons’s concierge made extraordinary efforts to make it possible for me to get out of town by private car when taxis and Uber cars were impossible to find.)
    La Veranda’s sophisticated style, with sunlight from the garden pouring in during the day through a glass wall and 30 seats outside in good weather, is a canny balance of elegance and metropolitan chic that befits its central position in Milan, and at night, with the garden lighted, it becomes wonderfully romantic.
     Chef Borraccino, from Abruzzo, creates a menu drawn from various regions of Italy, and his “La Veranda Journey” menu (€145, with wine options at €95) is the best way to appreciate his range.
My wife and I began with excellent breads and both Sicilian and Tuscan olive oils, and a dazzling amuse of fracciata cream, robiola fondue and black truffles that signaled the level of cuisine to follow.
     Next was a marvelous dish of roast scallops and rich sea urchin bisque with puntarelle greens, and sweetbreads seared in butter set in a green tomato cream with poppy leaves, crispy bread and caviar farmed in the Po Valley near Brescia.
    Three small pasta dishes came next, all house made, that included two made with tagliolini, one with white turnip and white truffles, the other a wonderfully simple and simply delicious version with very sweet tomatoes, Parmigiano and basil. Tortelli cuddled a forcemeat of duck in a rich butter sauce and leaves of thyme (right).
    The seafood course was turbot done à la meunière with seaweed, potatoes and juicy razor clams in a surprisingly good candied lemon sauce. A glistening breast of squab  (left) braised in a carefully reduced Piemontese red wine came with cannelloni filled with the stewed leg meat and sauced with a nettle pesto and coriander sauce, with black cabbage chips—quite a tour de force.
    Pastry chef Daniele Bonzi, who runs a Chocolate Room at the hotel, puts as much intensity into his sorbets and gelati as into his beautiful dessert preparations, like the very pretty and quite intriguing  “fake persimmon,” a candy ball that once broken oozes pinenuts, pomegranate and chocolate, and his “chocolate delight” (right) that lived up to its name: an almond biscuit with hazelnut crumbles, chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce and an intensely flavored raspberry sorbet.
    Sommelier Antonio Fontana paired the meal with unusual wines like an Abruzzese Feudo Antico Passerina Tullum 2018 and a Ligurian Lunae Colli di Luni “AUXO” 2017.
    Such a meal exemplifies a sumptuous refinement in every detail, color, texture and complementary flavors, with the kitchen and service staff working in a perfect unison that distinguishes Milan dining right now.

 

 

VUN APREA
PARK HYATT MILAN
Via Tommaso Grossi
02 8821 1234

 

    Park Hyatt Milan opened at the right time—2003—and right place to be a  hospitable anchor for the Financial District, setting its own standard of elegance and business efficiency without appearing corporate. It’s steps away from the Duomo, La Scala and Galleria and not far from the Brera. There are 106 guestrooms, including 23 large suites and terraces offering a grand view of Milan from on high, with décor done with Jim Thompson silk fabrics, marble baths, Tai Ping rugs and Murano blown glass. Four penthouse suites offer a magnificent view of the Duomo and city skyline. The work desks are spacious and very well wired. The spa is by Sisley.  
  Just off the lobby is a daunting La Cupola (above, left) , whose glass dome echoes the Galleria’s, and is an ideal place for breakfast or light meal and meetings. Before dinner you might well wish to have a cocktail at the Mio Lab, whose name gives no indication of its shadowy beauty, with signature cocktails paired with a selection of bite-sized pintxos. Here and in the dining room the 50-page wine list is overseen by Michele d’Emilio.
    The beautiful, shadowy restaurant VUN Andrea Aprea (“vun” is Milanese dialect for “one”) has since 2011 been the namesake of Neapolitan-born chef Andrea Aprea (below), whose motto, “My contemporary cuisine looks to the future, but never forgets its origins,” is exemplified in both his Lombardian and Neapolitan dishes, some admirably simple, others with a dash of modernist technique.
    My wife and I were treated to three canapés at the start, along with a glass of Mailly Rosé: One was an apple-like ball with bittersweet Aperol; another a pink pillow of goat’s cheese; the third, olives in a delicate pastry shell (above). A signature dish that shows how Aprea brings a 2020 sensibility into traditional cooking is his “Caprese Sweet and Salty,” a complex preparation that begins with a candy sphere into which is pumped mozzarella foam—he says it is “a similar technique to blowing Murano glass”—served with a tomato coulis and basil emulsion, mozzarella croutons and anchovies. Gaja’s light red 2018 Rossj Bass accompanied this dish.
    A sharp horseradish puree enlivens a cuttlefish “diavola” (devil’s style), whereby Aprea takes the classic Roman dish of pasta all’amatriciana, made with onion and chili peppers, instead using potatoes baked in foil with an onion puree, with the steam causing all the flavors to coalesce within the enclosure.  Tortello pasta is a small cake with whipped buffalo ricotta cheese and a “double concentration” of Neapolitan ragù. His “Sub Marine” risotto is mixed with seafood brightened by a montage of three colors via red and green seaweed and black squid ink.
    Next came “Salt Cod in Autumn” with a rich mayonnaise and porcini broth, and “Pork 100 Hours” that is actually barbecued then served with provola cheese, honey and chili, with which we sipped a big 2014 Castiglion del Bosco Brunello di Montalcino.
    Aprea’s desserts have always been spectacular, especially his lemon sensation that billows dramatically with dry ice from its shell (left). There was also a Neapolitan spiced cake/candy called panforte at the end with a glass of Muratori Tenuta Giardini passito dessert wine.
    Incidentally, valet parking is complementary at the restaurants and bars; self-parking is €50 for 24 hours.

NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

    As many steakhouses as there are in America, no other city has the sheer variety New York does—Italian steakhouses, French steakhouses, Korean steakhouses, Japanese steakhouses, Rumanian steakhouses and kosher steakhouses. Now, at the Brooklyn Chop House (which is near the Brooklyn Bridge but actually in downtown Manhattan), owners Stratis Morfogen, tech entrepreneur Dave Thomas and music industry impresario Robert "Don Pooh" Cummins have given New York a steakhouse in which the first part of the menu would fit handily into any in Chinatown, while the main courses exemplify the best of what has long served as a venerable template for steakhouses around the country.
    The idea for Brooklyn Chop House began as a summer pop-up restaurant in Southampton and debuted in the Financial District a year ago, its name a play on both a meat chop and chopsticks, of which, Morfogen says, “There might not be a restaurant on Earth that can serve a four-pound salt and pepper lobster, alongside a 55-day prime dry-aged Porterhouse steak and a seven-pound slow-roasted Peking Duck, but that's what sets our restaurant apart.”  He calls that trio by their first initials: “LSD.”
    Morfogen has a long résumé in the restaurant business (his father ran five Chelsea Chop Houses) as an investor in Gotham City Diner, Seagrill of the Aegean, Philippe Chow and Jue Lan Club. He also opened a sushi-steakhouse fusion restaurant called Jade 60 on the upper east side that closed after six months. Next year his first book, Damn Good Dumplings, will be published.
    Brooklyn Chop House is a very handsome space on the corner of Nassau and Spruce Streets in an 1896 Beaux-Arts building. With150 seats in the dining room and 35 more in the bar, the décor is fairly traditional, with exposed ceiling duct work, brick walls, hanging lamps, bentwood chairs, leather banquettes and snowy white tablecloths, all softened by gauzy curtains.  The sound level is very amiable, even when full.
    Given Cummins’s connection to the music industry, the dinner crowd has included a slew of celebrities including Meek Mill, J. Cole, Fat Joe, Mary J. Blige, Spike Lee, Omari Hardwick, Trey Songz, Chaka Khan, Wendy Williams and Jamie Foxx.
    When Morfogen is on the premises you can be sure his eye is roaming every square inch, and to chat with him is to discover just how passionately committed he is to Chinese dishes treated with some New York chutzpah, along with first-rate beef, aged 35-55 days.
    Since dumplings take so many forms in Chinese cuisine—at least seven basic shapes and styles, from siu mai to har go, bao zi to jaozi—Morfogen commits no transgressions when he stuffs his with ingredients you won’t find in Canton. One bite of his pastrami-stuffed dumpling (they all range from $14 to $16 for five pieces) and you’ll wonder why no one had ever thought of this before.  You’ll ask the same question when you bite into his Philly cheese steak dumplings and the fantastic French onion soup dumpling that splashes into your mouth with myriad flavors.
    Within that LSD trio, it’s difficult for me to tell you which one is the best choice. That big lobster (market price for two) is available with salt and pepper and suffused with seasonings while remaining very juicy and easy to pick from the shell.  The Peking duck ($65), shiny as mahogany, is brought to your table and deftly carved and served in large pancakes; I am a bit surprised that the dish is not served in the traditional three courses—the skin with hoisin sauce in pancakes or buns; the meat with vegetables; then duck soup—but this is still a wonderful, festive dish.
    And so you get to the steaks and chops. Our table enjoyed the 48-ounce dry- aged porterhouse ($125), listed for two, but believe me, if you’ve enjoyed dumplings or small plates or satays prior to the main course, this massive piece of beef is going to serve three or even more, and we took some home. Of the beef itself, which is aged 55 days, let me say that past 28 days aging beef may or may not have much effect on flavor, but careful aging, as here, does. This porterhouse had tremendous flavor, slightly funky, which is the way New York steakhouses used to serve Prime beef and so rarely do these days. If you love that flavor, as I do, this is one of the best steaks you can find in the city. If not, other steak options on the menu are not aged that long.
    (By the way, Morfogen recently ditched the menu’s New Zealand lamb chops for the much finer American product.)
    Okay, so you’re in a Chinese steakhouse. Do you really need dessert? Probably not, and I found the sorbets somewhat icy in texture.
    If Brooklyn Chop House’s modus operandi is not unique, I know of no other restaurant in New York that does it with such obvious commitment to quality across the menu and with such panache. My only regret is that I live an hour away by car, but I’ll happily make the drive and may one day come in for their Saturday and Sunday brunch, at $39.95 for unlimited dim sum. I’d like to find out just what my limit is. 

 

Open daily for lunch and dinner.

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

    While many whites, like Pinot Grigio and Chablis, are often overwhelmed by the heady flavors of winter-time fare, it’s no wonder that many wine consumers favor reds to accompany seasonal favorites like chicken cacciatore, pasta with meat sauce and beef or lamb stews.  However, based on a number of recent pairings, I’ve found that there are more than one or two reasonably priced, widely available whites that can weather the storm of cold weather fare.

 

2017 Zind-Humbrecht Gewürztraminer ($25)—Hailing from one of the premier producers in Alsace, this wine was made from grapes grown in gravelly soil on vines almost 50 years old. It has a distinctive bouquet and taste of lychee nuts and ginger with hints of exotic spice and a crisp finish. However, this is not a lush wine that shows its fruit as soon as it hits your palate but one whose flavor lingers long after it’s swallowed and makes great accompaniment for braised beef with sweet onions or pork with prunes. 

 

2017 Jordan Chardonnay ($34)—Following harvest of the grapes (100% Russian River Valley Chardonnay), fermentation was conducted over two weeks in a combination of new French oak barrels (61%) and stainless steel (39%). This was followed by five weeks of aging on its lees and six months in new French oak barrels, all of which gives this wine a toasty bouquet and taste with notes of pears and peaches and a lemony finish and an elegant taste. Yet it is bold enough to provide worthy accompaniment for roast chicken or salmon dishes.

 

2018 Nik Weiss St. Urbans-Hof Bockstein Kabinett Riesling ($21)—This slightly sweet, low alcohol (9%) wine from Germany’s Saar Valley has a fragrant bouquet and taste of apples and honey with a bit of gooseberry in its finish. It makes perfect accompaniment to spicy Asian fare, like Indian vindaloos, fiery Szechuan fare and tangy Thai specialties.

 

2017 Domaine Pichot “Domaine Le Peu de la Moriette” Vouvray ($17)—For this bottle from France’s Loire Valley, proprietor Jean-Claude Pichot uses  hand-picked grapes, with fermentation and aging in oak. And while not usually thought of as a winter-time wine, this easy-drinking semi-sweet white has a floral bouquet and flavor of white peaches and apricots with a touch of honey in its lively finish that makes ideal accompaniment to a range of hors d’oeuvres and appetizers from smoked salmon to roasted beets and fish tacos. It also pairs particularly well with sushi and sashimi.

 

2019 Oxford Landing Sauvignon Blanc ($10)—The grapes in this bargain bottle from South Australia’s Murray River area were fermented at cool temperatures, with a percentage left on its skins for added complexity. It has a fragrant bouquet and assertive taste of pineapple, passion fruit and grapefruit, with a crisp citrusy finish and mates well with hearty dishes like mushroom and barley risotto or cassoulet.

2017 Ciro Picariello Fiano di Avellino DOCG ($25)—This wine was fashioned from hand-picked grapes grown in the hills of Campania, in southwest Italy. Following fermentation using indigenous grapes, it is aged on its lees for 12 months before bottling. It shows a bouquet and taste of peaches and lemons with lively acidity in its finish, perfect to match with appetizers of piquillo peppers and charred Brussels sprouts, as well as main courses of veal or chicken Parmesan and pasta with red sauce.