Prior to setting foot in Fiero Milano, we recommend making a list of priority exhibitors. (It’s easy to overlook a brand you love while trying to navigate the crowded halls.) Plus it’s all but impossible to see everything at Salone each year, so setting a few priorities and then letting yourself wander is often the best bet. On our radar? Minotti, which continues its collaboration with Rodolfo Dordoni, who is now softening the angular silhouette of his 2022 Goodman modular seating system for a fresh take at 30-, 75-, and 90-degree widths (Hall 11, E15 G12 G16 E27 G22).

Over at EuroCucina, Officine Gullo keeps things in-house with stunning results: The surface level of the elegant Isola, its new line of kitchen islands, can integrate everything from induction cooktops to lava-stone barbecues, fry-top plates with mirror finishes, and, of course, pasta cookers, while below, ovens, dishwashers, and pantry spaces serve as back-of-house (Hall 4, C10).

Where to Eat, Drink, and Stay

Getting through Milan Design Week requires stamina, and while the city offers endless (and essential) espresso and Aperol spritz opportunities, design aficionados have more celebratory options as well. To ring in the 60th anniversary of Maija Isola’s iconic Unikko pattern, Marimekko has teamed up with Apartamento to transform Bar Stoppani into conceptual café Bar Unikko, where day-to-night dining is plated up on limited edition collectibles boasting the beloved abstract floral (Via Antonio Stoppani 15). Meanwhile, the fabric-patterned façade of The Bar at Ralph Lauren will get a refresh in time to welcome Design Week attendees to the breezy courtyard serving up elevated American fare (Via Della Spiga 5).

We Are Ona, the art, fashion, and design world’s favorite roving dining room, is serving up lunch and dinner (book your seat here) during Milan Design Week for the third year in a row. This time, Marseille-based chef Megan Moore will be cooking at the new location of cultural center Fondation Sozzani, located in the industrial north Milan Bovisa neighborhood. The elegant setting, conceived by scenographer Laura Floor, will center around photographs by Mark Borthwick. And after staging iterations of the Caffé Populaire concept in a defunct panettone factory and a garden temple in years past, Lambert & Fils and DWA Design Studio come home to DWA’s own chocolate factory turned office space for a week-long launch of new projects, aperitivi, and food art (Via Giulio e Corrado, Venini 85).

Architects Emil Humbert and Christophe Poyet brilliantly reinterpreted the chapel of the former Archiepiscopal Seminary to create the dapper new digs of Beefbar Milan.

Photo: Francis Amiand