Home sweet Home

While I generally prefer to write about restaurants that I have a personal relationship with, i.e.  that I have eaten at,  I couldn’t help but share my latest gustatory/design find.  Located in Via Tortona, the Milan neighborhood known for its discerning aesthetic, Home is the brainchild of owner Monica Bagnari, designer Luca Rossire and architect Riccardo Salvi.  But Home is more than an evocative restaurant name; this epicurial sanctuary is also the personal residence of Bagnari, who converts it back into her home every night once the doors are closed to the public.

Each April, the Via Tortona neighborhood hosts the Salone del Mobile Internazional – one of the world's largest design trade fairs. In consideration of the project's unique location, Rossire and Salvi offered a number of top furnishing companies a partnership in the restaurant in exchange for donated goods, an opportunity they were wise to jump on.  As you can see, the result is a striking space where designers and gourmands alike would feel right at Home.

LA Food Court

After a long morning of shopping, a couple of hungry-eyed girlies were hungry for something else-- namely, lunch.  We stopped in at the swanky and mod Food Court LA. Despite being knee-deep in setup for a private event taking place that evening, as well as being closed for lunch service, we were seated by its most gracious and amiable, if not charmingly disorganized, proprietor, Richard Jhin.  We shared a delicious lunch of contemporary, Asian-inspired California cuisine, punctuated by the best worst service either of us had ever experienced.  Between overseeing setup for a tasting party thrown by the sultanas of saline supremacy, collectively known as Saltistry, and messing up and then over-correcting our order countless times, Jhin still managed to hold down the fort, whip up some kind of Bacardi milkshake to sip on, and keep us in stitches until the bill came (on which we were, for the record, overcharged by about 30 dollars, but that was just another excuse for more hilarious interaction with Jhin).

 

p.s. Check out the amazing gourmet salts from the ladies of Saltistry-- from Smoked Chili to Genmaicha-- mmm....

--gillian