Joy Napolitano, Gabriele Bagnasacco, Shane Eaton at The Barber Shop Speakeasy (Rome). Photography Massimo Maestri.
In 2023, I had the privilege of organizing a series of events around the world in collaboration with Arnolfo di Cambio and Matiba digital marketing. Dubbed Secret Nights, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the iconic Italian crystal glassware company Arnolfo di Cambio in the most exclusive cocktail bars around the world. These events would not have been possible without Rossella De Stefano, who kindly put me in touch with Massimo Maestri of Matiba, the visionary behind this exciting project. Massimo was flanked by Account Manager Alessandra De Luca in carrying out this ambitious marketing project. Thank you also for the kind support from Winarto Sutjipto of Arnolfo di Cambio distributor LuxeRoom Singapore.
For each bar, Arnolfo di Cambio CEO Gabriele Bagnasacco and I invited between 10 and 20 distinguished guests, including world renowned designers and artists, cocktail lovers, drinks writers and bon vivants. In total, we held the Secret Nights in eight different cities, including Rome, Milano, London, Singapore, Barcelona, Paris, New York and Florence.
At each venue we served signature cocktails from the respective bars in the Cibi double Old Fashioned glass, a large and beautiful rocks glass ideal for a Negroni, Old Fashioned or for sipping whisky neat. The Cibi Old Fashioned glass was designed by Cini Boeri, a pioneering woman in Italian design and architecture. Boeri was one of three female architecture graduates in 1951 from Politecnico di Milano, my current employer.
The visionary Cibi glass won its place in the history of world cinema thanks to an unknown customer who visited the Arnolfo di Cambio store in Beverly Hills in 1981 and bought several glasses from the Cibi collection. The following year the movie Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s visionary masterpiece, was released in cinemas. Harrison Ford sipped his whisky in Cini Boeri’s creation, which brought widespread fame to the glass which then took on the nickname the “Blade Runner glass”.
A special thank you to Joy Napolitano, Sandra Cristache and Tommaso Di Spirito of The Barber Shop Speakeasy Rome, Tommaso Cecca and Marco Poletti of Camparino Milano, Salvatore Calabrese and Federico Pavan of The Donovan Bar London, José Domínguez and Indra Kantono of Gibson Bar Singapore, Giacomo Giannotti and Gabriele Armani of Paradiso Barcelona, Timothée Prangé, Alex Francis, Barney O’Kane and Alessio Zenaro of Little Red Door Paris, Harrison Ginsberg of Overstory New York and Tommaso Ondeggia and Edo Sandri of Atrium Bar at the Four Seasons Florence. Without your support, none of this would have been possible!
Thanks to the cocktail lover friends who attended the events including Marialuisa Iannuzzi, Gianni Fontana, Jessica Caputo, Peiyi Chen, Lauren Caramico, Simone Mina, Anthony Poncier, Indra Kantono, Annie Yuan, Cesar Montilla, Xin Ge Liu, Dario Schiavoni and Millie Hanson.
Gianni Fontana, Jessica Caputo and Peiyi Chen at Camparino (Milano). Photography Massimo Maestri.
Millie Hanson, The Donovan Bar at Brown’s Hotel (London)
Shane and Team EDITION at Gibson (Singapore). Photography Larry Lim.
Gabriele Armani at The Macallan Room inside Paradiso (Barcelona)
Shane and Anthony of Le Cocktail Connoisseur/Top 500 Bars at Little Red Door (Paris). Photography Massimo Maestri.
Ricky Reyna of Overstory (New York)
Alessandra De Luca at Four Seasons (Florence)
