The center of Milan is undergoing continuous restyling with the birth of new luxury hotels, which also redesign the gastronomic offer. Among the latest and most qualifying openings is that of Casa Brera, managed by Marriott International, in the very quiet and almost enchanting Piazzetta Bossi, between Brera and Cordusio. A place dominated by a cosmopolitan and very refined atmosphere, which offers four different gastronomic outlets to satisfy the needs of any customer. And if Casa Brera Living is a all-day lounge bar which is the real heart of the hotel, with a proposal that changes from breakfast to after dinner (the drinks are excellent and I hear great things about the bao-style steamed buns filled with braised meat), Odachi is a Japanese restaurant that boasts the advice of the chef Haruo Ichikawa – who contributed to the conquest of the star of Iyo, the best Japanese restaurant in Milan and Italy – and who also offers an omakase formula upon reservation. Then there is Etereo, on the eighth and top floor of the hotel, with an outdoor swimming pool and a magnificent view over the rooftops of Milan (including the Duomo) and a gastronomic proposal for sharing, of raw meats of all kinds and pizza, as well as to the drinks of bravo Luca Ardito. And finally there is Scena, the most classically Italian restaurant, which I am now telling you about after my visit a few days ago.
Scena was born with the intention of offering traditional Milanese cuisine electrified by a touch of contemporaneity. Easy to say, but not so easy to convincingly implement. The restaurant benefits from the consultancy of Andrea Berton, a Michelin star in his eponymous restaurant in Porta Nuova, while the daily work falls to the executive chef Francesco Bonato, Friulian like Berton but not his student (the two have only recently met) who also supervises the kitchen of all the hotel’s establishments. The menu is simple but well designed, with clear dishes and no flourishes, as is customary now. I started with a courageous Vitello tonnato, and I say courageous because it is a rather inflated dish in Milan (but not only) and it is difficult for anyone to be able to say something new about it. Bonato succeeds quite well with a version cooked at low temperature and therefore extremely soft and rosé, with a sprinkling of caper, caper leaves and crunchy celery which gives that tactile “twist” that the palate requires. Really good.
Then the Minestrone, which represents a variation of a classic Berton dish. Forget your aunt’s healthy but sad soup, which smells of frozen food: here we are in the haute cuisine area and there are seasonal vegetables (lentils, potatoes, carrots, candied cherry tomatoes, mushrooms) with grana padano wafers, carasau bread, pesto of basil and vegetable broth infused with grana padano. Then a Milanese cutlet served with spinach salad and black sesame and lemon dressing. The meat is of good quality, very high because it is lightly beaten, on the bone, perfectly cooked and with a good, compact breading that envelops the meat well. The only note: the salting is a bit irregular and there end up being perfect morsels that alternate with others that are a bit bland. Small, easily remediable defect. For dessert, a Tiramisu which is very different in its rather artistic preparation but which perfectly reproduces the flavor of the most famous dessert in contemporary Italian cuisine: there is a cremino, a coffee foam, coffee sponge cake with olive oil and a wafer with cocoa. But I also taste a bite of a classic trifle. At the end a parade of small delights: Chocolate and raspberry, pistachio, caramel and cappuccino and lady’s kiss.
Of the rest of the menu, I was intrigued by the Galletto like a Caesar salad, the lettuce hearts with avocado cream, candied lemon and crunchy amaranth, the Spaghetti di Gragnano PGI with clams and mullet bottarga, the Catalan lobster, the Guancia of veal with carrots and passion fruit, the rum baba with berries and zabaglione cream. It will be for the next visit.
Bonato is good and measured, you can see that his long international experiences (especially in Dubai) have trained him in a panoramic cuisine, which looks to the world but keeps his feet on the ground, he will have to grow in some details but the restaurant has really opened for a few weeks, the road is long. The wine list is complete although not huge. There are seventy seats including the external déhor, the décor is classic and twentieth-century, truly comfortable.
The general manager of the hotel is Giuseppe Losciale, happy to be back in Italy, he from Puglia, after decades of experiences in every corner of the world. The food&beverage offer is coordinated by Piercorrado Papotto. The service was composed and affable, entrusted to Alberto.
Scena is open every day for lunch and dinner.