A Meat Restaurant in Milan

“The man approaches the door with a firm step. He reaches out for the door handle, then stops. Stepping back, he looks around a little suspiciously. His has a bewildered expression. He can’t understand. It was always there but now suddenly it’s vanished. Or rather: there’s something entirely different in its place. Where people used to queue to make payments, withdrawals and occasionally deposits, they now sit at tables to enjoy Florentine steaks, ribs, carpaccios and other high-quality, exquisitely prepared dishes.”
Situated at one end of Corso di Porta Ticinese in central Milan, the sign outside the venue – with its reference to cows and oxen (Mucche & Buoi dei Paesi Tuoi, playing on the words of a famous Italian saying) – leaves one in no doubt that this is a place for meat lovers. The building has been skilfully converted from a former branch bank into a cosy but functional restaurant that combines the air of an old-fashioned butcher’s with the promise of fine home cooking.
The choice of open kitchens, together with traceability and product certification, guarantees a transparent, high-quality service – values that the management has embraced since 1860.
“Do what you’re good at, and cherish what you have”, is the motto of Mucche & Buoi and the family of Giovanni Ferrieri.
Designed by architect Massimiliano Faggioni from Costa Group as a blend of different influences, Mucche & Buoi is a cross between a butcher’s shop, a family-run restaurant and a chic wine bar. From the outside the restaurant looks just like a butcher’s shop with a fridge cabinet and cuts of meat on display in the window. But on entering, one’s gaze is captured by a long counter-like table that can seat about a dozen people facing onto one of the two open kitchens.
While enjoying a sandwich or a quick snack, customers seated at the counter can watch everything going on in the first kitchen, which boasts a prestigious Molteni artisanal spit, a space for cooking Florentine steaks and ribs, and an area for preparing raw food, carpaccios and salads.
The second kitchen is in full view of customers seated at the smaller tables and is used for preparing fried foot, side dishes, appetisers, bruschette and desserts. It is located further inside the restaurant in front of a mini-lounge with a single table for six, behind which hangs a blow-up of the interior of one of the butcher’s shops owned by the Ferrieri family in Naples, with Donna Carmela in the middle.
The same attention that is given to the selection and processing of the food ingredients – especially the restaurant’s speciality of meat – is also evident in the design of the interiors, the furnishings, the details and the meticulous choice of materials. A particularly important role is played by ceramic tiles from Ceramiche Refin, used on the floor and some of the walls of the restaurant. The elegant simplicity of the Borgogna series small-format tiles, laid in a soft black and white chequerboard pattern, creates a carpet effect with a domestic flavour in perfect harmony with the restaurant’s homely, familiar atmosphere. The large porcelain tiles from the Stone-leader series, chosen in a warm grey colour, help to give continuity to the floor surface running through the various rooms in the restaurant.
Produced using at least 40% pre-consumer recycled materials originating from production processes external to the company, these tiles meet the requirements of LEED certification, the most important American energy and environmental standard.