La Menagere: new restaurant opening in Florence

La Menagere: new restaurant opening in Florence

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Sun 28 Jun 2015 2:00 PM

 

I’ll never forget when kitchen store par excellence La Menagere closed its doors over a decade ago. New to Florence, my typical Saturday morning consisted of stocking up on macinata from Mercato Centrale (the ground floor!), indulging in a cappuccino and sfoglia alla nutella, and a wander around the brass pots and pans at via dei Ginori, 8R.

 

Florence has changed considerably in the last ten years. No longer solely the ‘cradle of the Renaissance’, the city is shaping itself into a cosmopolitan city to rival Milan, Paris and Berlin. And the newly opened La Menagere is a hallmark of this international revival.

 

Reminiscent in ambience of Paris’ Merci store, as you turn the corner from piazza San Lorenzo, energy emanates from the space: study-abroad students gather in front to make use of the password-less free wi-fi and hip Chinese tourists sip coffee in the outside-inside seating area.

 

 

Designed by q-bic architectural and design studio (the minds behind Ditta Artigianale in via dei Neri), Luca and Marco Baldini completed the bold project in less than 90 days. The unplastered pillars, the once-tiled now unceramiced walls, the one long, though sectioned, tree trunk table running almost the entire length of the restaurant, purposely rusty tables, the cookpot sinks in the toilets: all deliberately distressed touches of brilliance and bravery in a high-ceilinged and vast open space with a variety of moods. ‘The instruction to the workers was to leave things unfinished, not to do things perfectly,’ explained Luca. ‘I think they thought we were mad. But now they’re proud and keep bringing their friends and family to show off their handiwork.’

 

 

So, what is La Menagere exactly? It’s a coffee bar serving Ditta Artigianale blends by brilliant barista Francesco Sanapo at breakfast, lunch and dinner; a top-level restaurant with mature yet vibrant contemporary dishes prepared by a young team from Florence’s Istituto Alberghiero Saffi catering college; a cocktail bar at aperitivo hour with both traditional and 100% unique mixology creations; a store selling Italian kitchen- and tableware as a reminder of the venue’s much loved past; but most of all it’s an enormous space of inspiration and beauty.

 

 

At the heart of the ‘concept restaurant’ is Ilaria the florist. Smiling, warm and welcoming, she put down her bouquet of beautifully arranged flowers to explain to me that she closed her established shop in the Gavinana neighbourhood to take part in the La Menagere project. ‘I believe so much in the idea that I shut up shop after 12 years in the same place. My customers are so curious that they are coming into the centre to see where I am now.’

 

 

Ilaria’s customers are not the only ones. Open for less than a week, La Menagere is taking Florence by storm.

 

All photos by Marco Badiani.

 

La Menagere €€

via dei Ginori, 8R

lamenagere.it

055/0750600

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