Milan - Nottingham Forest

I’d heard about this place when researching my previous trip to Milan, but rather ignorantly dismissed it, assuming it was just some sort of British pub. Like most people I come to Italy for a slice of la dolce vita - something a little exotic and glamorous - and having grown up near Nottingham the name suggests anything but. It turns out to be a very misleading name, simply an artefact of the owner’s football allegiance, and, in fact, this is a rather sophisticated experimental cocktail bar.

Whilst I generally enjoy having the classics done well, ideally in a grand and historic setting, every now and again I do also crave a bit of novelty. I have slightly mixed feelings about “a twist on a …” - sometimes you experience something new and exciting, and if cocktails were exactly the same everywhere you went what would be the point in going to lots of different bars? Life would also be pretty dull for the bar staff if they just had to keep endlessly making the same things without any variation. On the other hand sometimes the bar staff utterly butcher your favourite drink. If the “twist” is going to involve adding an egg white, then I’d really rather you didn’t bother.

Anyway, having had some solidly made classics already in Milan prior to coming here, I felt I was ready to risk something a bit more experimental. So I asked for “something a bit like a Negroni, but different”, which Google Translate rendered for me as “qualcosa come un Negroni, ma diversi”. I needn’t have bothered, the barman understand the English version.

I did have a slight moment of apprehension when he reached for some foam, but, he reassured me, it was made entirely from vodka. Not an egg white in sight.

He was partially obscured whilst making some of the drink (the bar has rather a lot of nik naks etc) so I didn’t see all the ingredients used, but, in summary, it was as far as I could tell a fairly standard Negroni (no complaints from me there), topped with the vodka foam, and then finally with a spray of a nutty (hazelnut?) perfume. This was like the Kinder Surprise of Negronis. Other than the fact you know what the surprise is going to be - a Negroni. The foam had great staying power, and didn’t just dissipate into the rest of the drink, and who in their wildest dreams would have thought of pairing hazelnuts with a Negroni? Certainly not something I’d have come up with, but somehow - and maybe because it was partly separated by the foam - it worked.

It had been a rather, erm, busy evening in Milan, so I decided after that drink I really ought to call it a night. Thus I didn’t get to explore the rest of their cocktail offerings, but look forward to doing so next time I’m in Milan.