Brickoven Milano (Bar, Restaurant)

Best for: simple, pleasant starters.

Great: tiramisu extravaganza.

Imagine your trendy, cool, fashionista friend gives you a call and invites you over for dinner.

Imagine this friend is an Italian man, the sort of Italian man you see on the cover of the best magazines, who smells of Acqua di Parma, and who wears Armani jeans with pale sky blue shirts unbuttoned to the collar-bone.

Now imagine he promises you a very typical Italian dinner, but with a twist. He’s a modern Italian, probably from the North of Italy, who travels the world and yet always considers Italy the best place to be. He loves everything about his country but can appreciate something from abroad, and is able to incorporate that into his everyday style.

Finally, can you envisage yourself walking into the apartment of this fashionable North Italian friend, where everything is just like you’d imagined? Modern, contemporary, so typically Italian; trendy, oh so trendy!

This is the same sensation you have when walking into Brickoven Milano: you feel like your trendy, contemporary, Italian friend has invited you over for dinner, for drinks, for some sophisticated laughs and a good time.

The floor is black and white tiles, the walls are a comforting brown, the furniture is minimalist and of the warmest of all birch woods. The ambience lighting is sizzling and there are interesting posters on the walls: not a lot to do with Italy, but a lot to do with the French coast.

The kitchen is in full view, as in the best of Italian homes; trendy chefs and cooks are working their magic without shedding a bead of sweat.

Your friend offers you an aperitif and, indubitably, you notice the impressive bar.

Everything is measured and minimalist, not like you’d imagine a Dolce & Gabbana shop, but more inspired by the geometrical perfection of an Armani suit.

This is the Italy of Milano city. It is: via Montenapoleone; the elegance of Prada shoes; the unpretentious but marvellous fragrance of a panettone; the feeling of traditions mixing with the buzz of international central Europe.

You sit at the table and can’t help but notice the understated elegance and perfection of its layout.

Your friend offers you a starter: stylish pockets of bresaola containing robiola cheese, layers of mozzarella and aubergines displayed as if they were little soldierly towers.

The meal cannot continue without the inclusion of pizza, but no ordinary pizza, a pizza with a difference, as you might expect from this stylishly modern friend of yours: a pizza without yeast. In the trendy, fashion conscious North of Italy, one wants to enjoy the pleasures of the table but also keep fit and good-looking (hence the yeasty exclusion).

This friend of yours is really trying to impress you and he presents you with many pizza toppings to choose from: tomato, mozzarella, Tabasco, carpaccio, pancetta, scamorza cheese. It’s all very lovely, very chic, very hip and very modern, maybe even a bit too much.

Don’t be too surprised if, in addition to the two or three types of Italian wines that are stocked, you find a lot of French, Spanish and South African wines too; as previously mentioned, this is the most contemporary experience and maybe your jet-setting friend just got back from one of his exciting journeys, bringing with him much vino to drink.

The atmosphere is fantastic. There’s music in the background (definitely not Italian but English, American and ‘other’, possibly Indie), overlaid with chit-chat and flirting.

Dessert is served: you might be disappointed by the modern version of torta della nonna (a honey and ricotta tart with hazelnut), but the tiramisu is what brings everything back together. It is one of the best and as we all know, no matter where we live and come from, the best tiramisu is the one served in traditional Italian fashion.

The evening is coming to an end: the music continues; an espresso lies in its cup; and your friend still shows you around the house. He wants you to really appreciate the experience; to feel pampered and to leave in a chirpy mood.

You say goodbye, two kisses on the cheeks (please, three only in Paris). Next time, though, you’ll ask for a pizza that is circular and laden with yeast: this is one of the things Italians are world famous for, after all!
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