Trattoria del Ciumbia | DIMORESTUDIO

Dimorestudio unveils a new restaurant project in Milan for Triple Sea Food with the whole architecture and interior design project of Trattoria del Ciumbia. Inspired by the traditional Brera eateries frequented by the representatives of Milan's artistic avant- garde of the 1960s such as Piero Manzoni, Nanda Vigo, Paolo Scheggi, Enrico Castellani and Agostino Bonalumi, the Milan-based studio founded by Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran reinterpreted the space to ensure guests the warmth of the typical trattoria in a setting that does not forgo unexpected contemporary twists.

A wood-and-glass box with lace curtains at eye level recalls the entrances of old-fashioned restaurants, creating a visual barrier between the indoor and the street while providing natural light to the first room of Trattoria del Ciumbia. Here, the aperitif area is characterized by a custom-made pewter counter with inserted brass profiled vitrines, inside of which an installation of reassembled plates is displayed. The lighting is provided by long lines of opaline glass tubes with integrated neon on the ceilings.

A central balcony, which overlooks the staircase leading to the basement, extends the view to the second room, creating a spatial continuity between the two areas with shot walnut wood paneling and custom floor tiles arranged in mosaic patterns in milk, mustard yellow, liver red, opium, tenebra black, and swamp green colours – a nod to the typical simple flooring for trattorias revisited from Dimorestudio in an unexpected way.

The essentiality of the wall boiserie is interrupted by retro newspaper racks, coat hooks and a series of watercolors depicting Italian rationalist architecture from the 1930s. In this room, a checkerboard of square opaline ceiling lights set into liver red painted ceiling panels illuminates the dining area, as well as a series of Pietro mirror wall sconces from Dimoremilano, the Milanese studio’s own contemporary furniture brand.

Additional pieces of furniture by Dimoremilano distinguish the space, with the Rei model chairs with steel frames and woven straw seats and the Ignazio tables in the same shot walnut used for the paneling. Also on the ground floor, a discreet private dining room is lined with plum and burgundy velvet curtains. Here, guests can sit on original Carimate chairs by Vico Magistretti around a Dimoremilano retro glass table, illuminated by Flos' striking Splugen Bräu hanging lamps, designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in the 1960s for the eponymous Milanese brewery.

A shot walnut paneled staircase with sleek neon inserted handrails leads to the private Disco club in the basement of Trattoria del Ciumbia, exclusively reserved for the guests of the restaurant. The intimate club lounge is an ideal spot for after-dinner drinks in an environment softened by brown carpeting, deep blue satin wall drapery, an upholstered sofa bench and the iconic Parigi poufs by Dimoremilano. A porthole in the steel-effect laminated paneled wall discreetly reveals a perfectly stocked bar.

Protagonist of the space is a brass column with a steel support surface. The spheric shapes of a Gae Aulenti Giova table lamp dialogue with the bar porthole, while the sound system provides enveloping music atmospheres of the Italian hits from the Seventies and Eighties, perfectly matching the interiors of the space.

Photography: Paola Pansini