Last Wednesday I went to the Gin Rosa wine shop in Piazza San Babila in Milan for a delicious working aperitif. Actually, our stay at the Pink GinThanks to the service and company, it was so pleasant that the aperitif turned into lunch... and we almost didn't leave! The discovery of Gin Rosa was actually not mine: the idea came from Carla, a wine entrepreneur from Abruzzo who had contacted me in those very days about a job offer. I admit it: partly because I've been living in Lombardy for just two years and partly because I'm in Milan often, but not that often, I had never heard of Gin Rosa... and yet it's one of the oldest places in the city, which has its roots in the first half of the 1800s.
San Babila, then, is a 'Milan within Milan', a small city where designer shops and offices intertwine in a fine urban fabric a stone's throw from the Duomo. In this context, the Gin Rosa in Galleria San Babila is the mirror of that 'Milano bene', classy and productive, still capable of enjoying a break or a working lunch without hurrying and savouring every moment.
I arrived slightly early and sat at a small table outside, imagining what it must have been like to be there, two centuries earlier, watching the carriages pass by while sipping aperitifs that have evolved with the changing of time, fashions and customs. The Pink Gin, on the other hand, while boasting a centuries-old history, seems not to fear the passing of the years. And I am not just talking about the drink: the bar has also been able to renew itself while keeping its historic charm intact! Everything is very well looked after, the staff is very friendly and the tables and chairs are comfortable. And its privileged position inside the Galleria San Babila also means that the tables outside are liveable without annoying pigeons! (I know, animal rights activists will hate me... but I consider pigeons like mosquitoes... and I've said it all!) I take out my iPad and its handy Logitech Ultrathin bluetooth keyboard (I'll never stop saying that this was the best purchase of my life... and Amazon as always has been superlative!) and I write down some thoughts for the working aperitif while I wait for Carla, who arrives a few minutes later. I had already seen her on Skype, but she is even more beautiful and pleasant in person. Between one word and another, the first aperitif takes place, and here I am trying this famous Pink Gin. The premises were all there: being a distillate of juniper berries, rhubarb, gentian and 30 other herbs, I can't help but like it (I especially adore rhubarb!). The colour is beautiful... but is it possible that every time a pharmacist creates a drink he makes a real success of it? I only remind you of the Mariani wine that we all now know as Coca Cola... (If you like, I wrote an article on the importance of using testimonials in wine communication inspired by the famous drink and you can read it HERE).
The accompanying aperitifs are all very good: from pizza to appetisers, everything is tasty and with excellent quality raw materials. And we like it so much that Carla and I decide to stop for lunch... but not before visiting the Gin Rosa wine shop in the company of Nicoletta Tarquinio, the owner of the restaurant with her husband Francesco de Luca. Nicoletta is a perfect hostess: the first thing I read in her eyes is the love for her work and the passion and total dedication she puts into everything she does. In this, she is certainly a lot like me. After all, you only have to look at the premises of Gin Rosa to read his eyes: nothing is left to chance and the attention to detail is maniacal. The ambience is beautiful, I couldn't find a wrong note even if I wanted to... and I'm someone who can easily find wrong notes!
We stroll around the premises, seduced by its vintage and contemporary charm at the same time. We find the gilded columns and Art Nouveau chic beautiful, and we are delighted that the beginning of a fruitful working partnership is born within these very walls. Carla said a sentence to me that made me realise how 'right' we are for each other: Beauty is needed to produce Beauty. And I cannot agree more! That's why I have always taken maniacal care of the environment where I work, surrounding myself with orchids, my greatest passion after wine and design (if you want to give me a gift, a Riva1920, I always gladly appreciate it... 😀 ), overlooking the splendid Lake Iseo and collecting books on Art, Music and Architecture. After all, there are 10 minutes better spent when taking a break from work than contemplating nature while listening to Bach and sipping an excellent Italian sparkling wine?
Inside the Gin Rosa there is also a vault for Champagne! How wonderful... I could die in there! Nicoletta tells us that she doesn't actually like Champagne, and has tasted everything with the complicity of well-known sommeliers who have visited the Gin Rosa! Ah, how I'd love to take up the challenge... I just have a couple of names in mind... 🙂 (But I'll tell you about those next time!) What a great idea to keep the bottles in the pupitra... in fact, do you know that I'm almost copying it? If it weren't for the fact that I'll soon be opening applications to winery/winery/restaurant furniture companies to partner with Perlage Suite and furnish its underground cellar... (but I'll tell you about that next time, too!) 🙂 🙂 I'll tell you about that next time!
And here are Nicoletta and Carla, in another room of the Gin Rosa reserved for the sale of delicious packages and bottles! Moreover, both of them have Abruzzese origins... a land that I admit I only know reflexively, due to having had a historical university friend and then landlady in L'Aquila, but that I hope to now have the opportunity to visit soon, even if only to visit this wine cellar with which I am sure I will spend a year of great understanding and working synergy (and I hope many years to come <3 ). In short, in a place that boasts a feminine history (one of the stories attributes the Pink Gin to Annunciata Bourné of Oleggio, who in the second half of the 19th century bought the then chic bottle shop to counter Campari by coining its aperitif) is once again the scene of a female collaboration.
I have always been convinced that women who are able to work with women really do have great potential because they are able to unleash a truly unique energy and vision. Obviously I am talking about great minds, with open ideas and vision, but above all I am talking about women with a solid self-esteem who do not need to humiliate and judge other women in order to feel better. Here, for these kinds of women there is no hope. My boyfriend was arguing with my dad just the other evening about why I am a 'man' in many respects... I actually believe I am a woman, but she is very different from the quaquaraquà woman he says... who is not a woman at all, but simply mentally handicapped... 😀
For lunch, I was tempted by several good-looking proposals, but then decided on the spelt with tuna and green beans, which I found truly delicious. It was paired with a glass of Prima Cuvée di Monte Rossa, the DOCG brut sparkling wine from the famous Franciacorta winery that has now become its calling card in terms of circulation and taste. The only advice I would give is to lower the serving temperature by a couple of degrees in summer... you'll make it up in the time it reaches the table! Apart from that everything was perfect!
I was very full, thanks to the abundant aperitif and the good spelt dish, but a very good waitress was able to tempt me by saying the magic word: pistachio and also associating it with the concept of small... and that's how I couldn't resist this delicious pistachio mousse! Ah forgive me for the photo: it was so tempting to the eyes that I didn't get around to taking an integral one... but I serenely admit to having a problem with pistachios, I would eat them H24 and never get tired of them... ever since I was a child! I mean, can you imagine the little brat in the ice-cream parlour eating chocolate and strawberry ice-cream with more or less cream asking for the 'pistachio and caramel' cone? That was me.
Over the last 200 years, the Gin Rosa has seen a succession of managers, and a succession of lights and shadows, until the arrival of the splendid De Luca family in 2000, who brought it back to its former glory, thanks also to their 40 years of experience in the Milanese restaurant industry.
[Tweet ""Men pass away, ideas remain and will walk on other men's legs" #GinRosa #Milano"]
See you soon and thank you for sealing a wonderful start to a stimulating working partnership. By the way, what are Carla and I up to? And which wine cellar is it? To get an answer you will have to be patient a little longer, I will only anticipate that it is a beautiful story of family, traditions and passions that will unfold in a unique and evocative location, thanks also to a woman with uncommon entrepreneurial and managerial skills.
Chiara
P.S. As always for the photos I thank Photo Universe for the wonderful Sony RX100 M4 which I love... and which I am slowly learning to use with great personal satisfaction <3
EN 
IT