Photography by Gianni Fontana and Andrea Menin.

With a background in Engineering and a successful startup company, Leo Sculli never expected to enter the hospitality business. But when he and his business discovered an enticing property for sale just north of Milano Centrale station, they decided to take the risk of opening a restaurant bar, Nik’s & Co. Although there are few establishments in the area, Nik’s & Co is a quick 15 minute walk from Isola to the west and Piazza Gae Aulenti to the south west and 10 minutes north of Stazione Centrale and its popular Mercato Centrale.

Open from lunch until late evening, Nik’s appeals to a broad audience. The cocktail bar with kitchen in via Schiaparelli is a crossroads of flavors and imagination: it’s a meeting place for a wide range of clientele, from successful professionals, to young couples, to cocktail aficionados. Inside, the predominant style is New York of the roaring twenties: dim lighting, clean lines and furnishings that play by alternating different shades of green and wood. Adding to the warm atmosphere at Nik’s are retro decorations, making you feel like you’re in a space that’s a cross between a vintage cocktail lounge an elegant living room.

The concept at Nik’s & Co is built around the namesake Nik, a fictional creation of Leo Sculli. Nik is a jet set gentleman from other times, who loves to learn about new cultures, spices and botanicals during his travels around Italy and the world. The drink menu is inspired by Nik, and is a retro journey through flavors. The first two menus at Nik’s covered the 1920s and 1930s, respectively. The third iteration of the menu the most ambitious yet, and was launched this fall and was inspired by Nik’s tour of Italy in the 1940s, with a focus on typical regional products, and draws inspiration from iconic Italian figures of the period. What sets the third volume apart from the previous menus, and even those from other cocktail bars around the world, is a risky but well-executed pairing of signature cocktails and original dishes.

Heading the drinks and restaurant programs at Nik’s, are bar manager Selvi Panepinto and chef Paolo Bertin, respectively. Panepinto and Bertin worked in close collaboration to develop an innovative food and cocktail pairing menu that is on par with the standout menus of the past developed by Ryan Clift at Tippling Club (Singapore) and Luke Whearty and Outrage of Modesty (Cape Town).

Examples of the pairings include one dedicated to Marche with Mussels and potatoes paired with a cocktail of Gin Mare Capri, Cordial of tomato water and capers and a top of Perrier. Then there’s Emilia Romagna with a beetroot risotto with negroni caviar and fermented red fruits married with a drink made with sloe gin, balsamic vinegar cordial, and beetroot extract.

The standouts on the menu come near the conclusion of the tasting menu. The meat dish is dedicated to Nik’s travels through Lombardy and his discovery of a great Lombard wine. The second course in the tasting menu features Grilled venison fillet, Valtellina Superiore with beets and raisins paired with “C’era una volta il west” with bourbon whiskey, homemade artichoke shrub, Baldoria vermouth bianco, and Talisker whisky. Here, the sweet smoky notes of Talisker Skye and the aroma of the artichoke remind us of earth and underbrush, and hence are a great complement to the Venison fillet. In addition, the pairing works well because of the contrasts within the dish between sweetness and acidity.

The masterpiece of the menu is the dessert pairing. The white chocolate mousse with myrtle and pollen reduction is exquisite on its own but reaches new levels when paired with “Sa Seada”, a cocktail with Ketel One Vodka, pecorino sauce and honey. The bar and kitchen teams took inspiration from typical Sardinian products such as Seada and Mirto, distorting the classic consumption experience. During the first brainstorming, the staff described the pairing as follows "We made the dessert a drink the Mirto a dish". Hence the idea of creating a drink that had pecorino cheese, and a dish that had a reduction of myrtle. The starting raw materials are the predominant flavors, which blend in a perfectly balanced way, with honey as a common bond which ties them perfectly together.

With the extraordinary new food and drinks pairing menu at Nik’s & Co has immediately placed itself in the upper echelon of restaurant bars in the country. Although it is a lone wolf in the area North of Milano Centrale, Nik’s & Co with its stellar culinary experience and intimate and unique atmosphere is proving to be a magnet for customers, from all walks of life.

Nik's & Co: the best cocktail and food pairing in Milano /February 8, 2022 by shane eaton