The most visionary restaurants in Italy (and the winner). Here is the final ranking by Gambero Rosso

Art, architecture, gastronomic proposal, entrepreneurial vision, the ability to generate well-being: Italy's most visionary establishments respond to various demands. We have thoroughly examined them in the Visionary Places project promoted by Gambero Rosso with Artribune and Feudi di San Gregorio, starting with defining a manifesto and appointing a scientific committee that brings together representatives from the worlds of gastronomy, art, and culture to select Italy's most visionary establishments. With Gambero Rosso, Artribune, and Feudi di San Gregorio, there are the artist and passionate gourmet Gabriele De Santis, the CEO of MondoMostre Simone Todorow, and Emilia Petruccelli, founder of EDIT Napoli and co-founder of Galleria Mia in Rome. The committee identified the 30 most deserving addresses  from which a selection of 10 finalists was made, and from there, the podium, with the top three ranked.

These are very different establishments, in terms of style, design, cuisine, context, and atmosphere. However, all of them have been able to set new directions in the world of catering, expressing the manifesto's contents in an original way and intertwining a fruitful dialogue with other artistic and cultural disciplines. The podium goes to Luminist, a brilliant example of a museum refreshment inside the Gallerie d'Italia in Naples; we head to the high mountains to reach the second-place winner: SanBrite in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the flagship of a gastronomic organism that also includes farming and a dairy; while in third place is IO Luigi Taglienti in Piacenza, born in synergy with the art and design gallery Volumnia, which has returned to the city a precious deconsecrated church. The other names – with equal merit – are AlpInn in Plan de Corones (BZ), Ristorante Torre in Fondazione Prada in Milan, Il Sale in San Vincenzo (LI), Arnolfo in Colle Val d'Elsa (SI), Mazzo, and Ninù in Rome, and Vettor in Bari.

The most visionary restaurants in Italy. The podium

Photo: Alberto Blasetti

Luminist

The project of the Gallerie d'Italia by Intesa Sanpaolo is advancing at full speed, increasingly focusing on the relationship between art, architecture, and gastronomy. The Naples branch, located in the spaces of Palazzo Piacentini restored and redesigned by Michele De Lucchi, is perhaps the most accomplished example, with the Luminist café-bistro on the ground floor, the fine dining 177Toledo, and the cocktail bar Anthill, a multifaceted organism orchestrated by Giuseppe Iannotti, chef and owner of the Kresios restaurant in Telese Terme.

Napoli - https://gallerieditalia.com/it/napoli/

SanBrite

The ecosystem developed by Riccardo Gaspari and Ludovica Rubbini brings together gastronomy, the environment, and sustainability. The original nucleus is El Brite de Larieto, a mountain hut with a kitchen, a chalet, and a stable with animals grazing freely, born 20 years ago. From there, the dairy farm first and then the SanBrite restaurant developed: the same sustainable approach, the same ethical vision, a style of mountain cuisine, mostly based on self-produced raw materials and spontaneous products of the territory. A mix of regenerative production, great hospitality, impeccable style, the ability to create events and collateral initiatives that allow guests to fully experience the mountains (such as the Genesis event or Gaspari's mobile kitchen). Recycled materials are combined with a design that contemporarily tells the aesthetic of the mountain without ever falling into the postcard image.

Cortina d’Ampezzo (BL) - https://www.sanbrite.it/sanbrite

IO Luigi Taglienti

Born in the former carpentry annexed to the Sant'Agostino complex, redeveloped by gallery owner Enrica De Micheli and now the site of the Volumnia art and design gallery, Luigi Taglienti's restaurant is called IO and has been open since summer 2022. It shares many pieces of design with the adjacent gallery, including some of the most important and well-known of the 20th century, designer lamps, and a clear style in a fruitful dialogue with the cuisine, which looks to the best classic table, which lives on very bold contemporary impulses but always understandable.

Piacenza - https://www.ioristorante.it/

Visionary Places. The other finalists

AlpiNN – Food Space & Restaurant

The interiors by the South Tyrolean Martino Gamper (but based in London) mark a clear break with the stereotypes of alpine shelters, but strengthen the bond with the surrounding environment, also thanks to the sharing of spaces with Lumen (the Museum of Mountain Photography), which consolidates the intimate relationship with the alpine peaks in an artistic and environmental project. Much of the credit goes to the glass and concrete box: a modern palafitte, in the former Kronplatz cable car station with a hypnotic view of Plan de Corones. An impact that takes your breath away even before entering, with that palafitte overlooking the void. Inside, there is the solid and concrete cuisine of Fabio Curreli, to whom Norbert Niederkofler and Paolo Ferretti have entrusted the task of projecting the Cook the Mountain philosophy at an altitude of 2,275 meters, where the limited availability of resources dictates the rhythm of a cuisine that interprets the surrounding environment in a modern, profound, and sustainable way.

Kronplatz (BZ) - https://alpinn.it/it/

Arnolfo

The new home of Arnolfo is a flattened, elongated building that rests on the hill facing Colle Val d'Elsa. The lifelong dream of the Trovato family (Gaetano, Giovanni, and Alice), it is a space dedicated to future generations, tailor-made, from the kitchens - two, one at the level of the dining room and one on the lower floor with huge and well-organized service areas - to the large underground cellar, beautiful. Pieces of design, cutting-edge technologies complete the modern space but harmoniously inserted into nature. Arriving is already an experience, both in the evening, with the scenic promenade and the illuminated structure, and during the day, when the reflective surface offers other visual sensations. Light triumphs also in the dining room, large, dominated by the slab in rare yellow Siena marble from the surrounding area like many of the materials used in the project, starting from the travertine of Rapolano, a continuity element with the history of this place.

Colle Val d’Elsa (SI) - https://www.arnolfo.com/

La Torre in Fondazione Prada

On the sixth and seventh floors of the Tower designed by Rem Koolhaas for Fondazione Prada, the restaurant and cocktail bar of the cultural center housed in a former distillery from the early 20th century, offers one of the most beautiful views of Milan's skyline. Inside, designer furnishings and artworks are set up in coherence with the aesthetics of the place and the vision of the collection exhibited on the lower floors (bonus are the artist dishes specially made for the restaurant). In the kitchen, after an initial phase of settling in, in 2020 Lorenzo Lunghi (from the Pierangelini school) arrived, who also made the gastronomic experience worthy of visiting the Tower, as is Bar Luce, designed by Wes Anderson to pay homage to the old Milanese cafes.

Milano - https://torreristorante.com/it/ristorante

Mazzo

After 4 years of interruption, the now legendary contemporary trattoria of the Fooders (but they, in a recent chat, defined it as a post-trattoria) has finally found a new home, in the San Lorenzo district in Rome. Excellent selection of records, natural wines, and amazing dishes that are at the same time nostalgic and futuristic: we challenge anyone not to feel good at dinner. The style is now consolidated, where great cuisine, street culture, and fun blend clearly and promisingly. And a relaxed, friendly, and warm atmosphere that invites you to stop. PS: the floor tiles are nothing less than Nathalie Du Pasquier, founding member of the Memphis group.

Roma - https://mazzoroma.it/

Ninù

In a charming alley in the heart of Rome's historic center, Ninù is an articulated, intimate, and personal space. Born in the premises that have been the owner's home, which still speak of her history, her taste, her personality, it is an artist's restaurant/home, with a cafe, cocktail bar, seafood restaurant, and inn with three rooms. 850 square meters in total where you can find trinkets and works of art, memories of home and pieces by Ontani, Marc Quinn, or Paola Navone from the owner's personal collection. A place full of charm, warmth, with carefully curated details, works of art and design, and many original corners, such as the library room or the kitchen with the large counter for private dinners and show cooking. In the kitchen, there is Simone Ianiro putting into practice a clear, recognizable gastronomic proposal, signed by Marco Gallotta.

Roma - https://ninuroma.com/

Il Sale

Hidden among the picturesque streets of San Vincenzo, on the Tyrrhenian coast, Il Sale is an unexpected jewel. For the magnificent view of the Tuscan archipelago and for the lush garden, but also for the cuisine that manages to blend tradition and modern intuitions. It starts from fresh and local ingredients, chosen carefully or self-produced in the organic farm, to celebrate the authentic flavors of Tuscany but with a personal touch. That of the couple at the helm: Shimpei and Sayuri who infuse Japanese references into the local cuisine, giving bursts of flavor, intensity, and unexpected nuances with grace and balance. The credit goes to Francesca Vierucci, a visionary patron, a careful entrepreneur of the good, the beautiful, and the just.

San Vincenzo (LI) - https://ristoranteilsale.com

Vettor

Dedicated to the Bari artist Vettor Pisani, Vettor is an art gallery-restaurant opened in 2019 by collector Michele Spinelli, in the Umbertina area, to combine art and design with food culture. The gastronomic proposal, curated by Nicola Ricci, focuses on the meeting between the Mediterranean and Japanese tradition, in the name of a careful fusion. In addition to the permanent exhibition of Pisani's projects, Vettor hosts temporary and site-specific artistic projects and exhibitions. And all the spaces benefit from this vision. Creativity also in the kitchen that starts from a brainstorming on the concepts, ingredients, and techniques to be developed in each menu.

Bari - https://ristorantevettor.it/