Louis Vuitton débuted its Da Vittorio Café Louis Vuitton and the DaV by Vittorio Louis Vuitton restaurant on via Monte Napoleone 2, 20121 Milano.
The café is its first in the Milanese fashion capital, adjacent to the prominent Duomo. It lies on the esteemed designer street of via Monte Napoleone, connected at the hip to its flagship store. Louis Vuitton operates five other global cafés in Osaka, Tokyo, New York City, Saint-Tropez (with seasonal restaurant), and London Heathrow Airport.
The café operates from 8.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday–Saturday and 8.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. on Sundays. Online reservations are currently unavailable. Visitors seeking a table or bar seat must wait in a joint line outside the flagship store or inside the interwoven boutique.
The bar prices are advertised as more economical than dining at a table, but sitting at the bar still entails paying the table price. The only way to pay the bar price is by requesting a treat to go, or standing at the bar while consuming a beverage.
The café–restaurant has three detached dining spaces: the courtyard–bar near the front entrance, a dining room past a portion of the boutique, and a dining room on the underground floor beside the restrooms.
The courtyard dining space, tucked beside its flagship store, extends a homey and botanical welcome: numerous blooming leafy plants, lofty ceilings inviting in bounds of light, ivory archways with soft holographic hues, and mellow couch and cushioned seat options. The complete space presents a cream, citrus, and forest green palette. The re-established Palazzo Taverna unveils the epitome of Italian simplicity and French charm.
After an approximate 15-minute wait outside the storefront, I was led inside to a bright orange bar chair with a crisp grey menu.
The bar menu offers six cocktails for €20 a piece such as DaV Velvet Mary (Bloody Mary), Midnight Almond (espresso martini), Speedy Ipnosi (vodka, St Germain, rose syrup, and ginger beer), Trono di Zafferano (gin, lemon juice, sorso saffron soda), Tango Tequila (tequila, fresh raspberry), and Out Negroni (sake, Campari cask tales, gin, ratafia’ alle amarene).
On the beverage menu, there are three mocktails (City of Stars, Capucine Elipse, and Overnight Blackberry), three types of beer (lager and IPA), and several specialty wines, counting champagne. Operating as a traditional Italian café, lattes, macchiatos, espressos, cappuccinos, flat whites, Americanos, and ginseng are offered.
The Louis Vuitton cappuccino can be regarded as exquisite, for the branded detailing alone. The highly crafted beverage makes drinking coffee a pleasure rather than a must. Every beverage and dessert served to guests is presented on floral monogrammed porcelain. By observing closely, one can notice LV faintly engraved on all the dessert spoons.
A seat at the bar provides an ideal view behind the buzzing espresso machines and meticulous craft of Louis Vuitton monogram coffees. However, the predominant appeal is the array of sweets.
The left-hand selection holds a handful of traditional Italian pastries like cornettos (croissants) with cream and pistachio filling. The middle section flaunts the cute teeny cremini (mini Louis Vuitton-shaped chocolates).
Each cremino is priced at €5 and sold in flavours such as chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, passionfruit, coconut, and hazelnut. The hazelnut cremino is sweet, creamy, and cake-like. All cremini have an outer ring composed of a chocolate hard shell to pair with the cakey filling.
The end of the dessert selection on the right-hand side flaunts the most picturesque items. For €16 apiece are the Mono cioccolato (chocolate tart), Mono Charlotte (vanilla cake and frosting topped with strawberries and jam), and Mono tiramisù (traditional tiramisù).
The pinnacle of dining at the café is the Mono cioccolato. The first bite will spark heaven for the fusion of smooth mousse and rich milk chocolate inner cake, primarily since the treat doesn’t deem to be classified as mousse at a glance. A sizeable astonishment apart from the smooth and melty chocolate is the chewy sea salt crust. The richness of indulging in every bite will attract all eyes to gravitate toward the heavenly treat.
Who would have speculated that the trunk maker could produce such divine desserts?
For its lunch menu, the three-Michelin-star Da Vittoria offers renowned Milanese-inspired dishes such as tomato paccheri pasta touched with fresh basil and saffron-hued risotto in the shape of a monogram flower.
Via a merged Instagram post from @louisvuitton and @davittorioristorante, one can see the eyes behind the passion and eloquent craft of Italian cuisine for the new establishment. There is great emphasis on slow cooking and fresh pasta.
The three-tiered store, interconnected to the restaurant, holds an identical botanical design of Italian simplicity and French charm. The flagship store sells the latest spring–summer ready-to-wear bags, shoes, menswear, and the brand-new LV Home Collection. The boutique was designed by Peter Marino.
The joint venues reflect the iconic 171 years of the trunk makers’ heritage and the in-demand emergence of personal brand experiences.
Isabelle Exsted is a guest correspondent for Lucire.
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