Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s first restaurant venture, Gold, has all the requisite accoutrements one would expect from a designer boîte.
Mirrored tabletops for the naturally narcissistic scenester? Check. Close to 400 kinds of Champagne to keep those models toasting well into the night? Check. Logoed floors, utensils and napkins? Check, check and check.
Yet, for all the glinting surfaces — or maybe despite them — the restaurant, open since October, delivers more than just gloss. Its Italian menu, at both the casual ground-floor bistro and the tony second-floor restaurant, is at once familiar and distinctive.
“Domenico and Stefano feel very Italian and wanted the food to be very Italian,” said head chef Giacomo Gallina, who, before taking over the kitchen at Gold, whipped up classic northern Italian fare at Milan’s venerable Bice. “You really taste each ingredient….When you bite into a tomato, you know that tomato has had a lot of sun.”
Italy has long been hailed for its top-quality seasonal ingredients and Gold takes full advantage of them. The menu changes weekly and often daily, depending on what’s in that morning’s catch or which vegetable is ripe.
Gold’s dishes, like its owners’ collections, are well styled and inherently Italian. Yet, the chic quotient never upstages the authenticity of the food.
Pumpkin-stuffed tortellini was popped with the right mix of sweetness and tang, and a delicate, black rice topped with fresh tuna, orange slices and soy sauce was light and pleasant. Dishes like pasta alla norma, a classic Sicilian primo piatto, tossed with salted ricotta, eggplant and tomatoes, is far from revolutionary, but nonetheless savory. For those on a carb-restricted diet, Gold offers a fashion-friendly menu full of steamed fish and low-cal alternatives.
Dolce’s Sicilian homeland plays heavily in the cuisine. (Before Gallina got the job, he had to prove he could do real Sicilian. In the ultimate tryout, he cooked nightly for Domenico and his brother Alfonoso.) Gallina later toured the island of Sicily to source the best ingredients, from Pachino tomatoes to natural sea salts, but the traveling didn’t stop there. The rest of Italy also seeps into the menu: There’s rice from Piedmont, handmade egg pasta from Le Marche and olive oil from Tuscany.
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The highly articulated spirits list features close to 3,000 wines — predominately Italian and French vintages — more than 40 whiskeys and an impressive reserve of Champagne, including a 1992 Dom Perignon Rosé, among others. (Dolce & Gabbana poached sommelier Bruno Canetti from Milan’s Bulgari Hotel.)
In a country known for its rustic trattorias, Gold is a sophisticated alternative. The duo turned to longtime collaborator Ferruccio Laviani to craft the warm, dazzling interiors, a stark contrast from their gray stone and black lacquered Martini Bar.
“We wanted to create an atmosphere where you would not only have a great dinner but really have a fun, wonderful night out with friends,” said Dolce. “Gold represents the sun, the Mediterranean and positive energy.”
Dolce added that much of the restaurant’s inspiration came from his and Gabbana’s Portofino villa.
Walking into Gold is like being in a gilded chocolate wrapper. The two-floor establishment, which also features a cafe and a smoke-friendly cocktail bar, radiates but never overpowers.
Cream circular divans cut a swath through the bistro while a glass “Champagne wall” frames the upstairs restaurant. Matte wood floors, irregularly cut pale stone walls and Barovier & Toso chandeliers create a retro feel that continues into the rest rooms.
The waiting area, swathed in gilded bamboo, leads to multimedia bathrooms where each stall sports a video monitor showing a loop of James Bond flicks.
Of course, “Goldfinger” is one of them.
Gold, 2/A Via C. Poerio; Tel.: +39-02-75-77771