The restaurant in Lomazzo is an interesting gastronomic laboratory, located in a place that resembles Silicon Valley. It is located on a campus that stimulates young talent, breaks down barriers between the kitchen, dining room, and public, and puts chef Davide Marzullo and his supporters on the same level.
The philosophy
There are normal restaurants, special restaurants, and then there is Trattoria Contemporanea, somewhere between Milan and Como. A restaurant that is really difficult to define. So let's start with the location: Lomazzo, a former cotton mill from the late 19th century that a group of entrepreneurs who deserve to be mentioned by name (Milva Bernasconi, Luca Bernasconi, Stefano Giusto, and Luca Di Pierro) took over and redeveloped a few years ago, transforming it into an innovation hub called Fabbrica Campus, a sort of Silicon Valley of Lake Como, where ideas, excitement, greetings, packages (it is the only fine dining restaurant with an Amazon locker), and sometimes even dishes are shared.
Yes, because Trattoria Contemporanea, as well as being a Michelin-starred restaurant for a couple of years now, is also a sort of canteen for the “startuppers” who frequent the place, thanks in part to the fact that there is a lunch menu offering a starter, main course, water, and coffee for €30, two main courses, water, and coffee for €35, or a starter, two main courses, water, and coffee for €40. I challenge anyone to find a cheaper Michelin-starred meal in Italy. But that's just the beginning.
What makes Trattoria Contemporanea what it is, is the collective. This is a concept that the restaurant's chef, Davide Marzullo, 28, insists on, rejecting any notion of personal exposure and describing himself as a “primus inter pares.” Trattoria Contemporanea is truly a restaurant that subverts the rules that have guided Italian dining over the last two decades, those of celebrating the lone wolf, the star, the name in large print on the billboard (and all the others in small print, requiring the use of reading glasses). And I have personal proof of this: when I asked him for an interview, he replied that I could interview the team. That is, him, Marzullo, but also Andrea Noto and Christian Malatacca, who support him in the kitchen, Elena Orizio in the pastry shop, and Mattia Piotto in the dining room. Almost all of them have a 2 in front of their age, which means that at thirty in Lomazzo you feel like a seasoned man.
And here they are, the magnificent five (or six? Or seven? Or ten?) speaking in unison: "Here at Trattoria, we are experiencing a small revolution without even realizing it. Every day, we live together in a healthy, pure, authentic project. There is no hierarchy here, we are a team of young people with an average age of 23. We are growing together, some situations are more difficult to manage than others, but each of us comes in here every morning with a smile on our faces, ready to contribute our value to the project we believe in. And we are proud of it, this team spirit has allowed us to keep the same staff intact for over a year and a half."
Of course, this does not mean that this collectivist approach to catering stifles individual creativity, as was the case in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Everyone, from the first to the last, is invited to contribute their ideas to the group. Talent is encouraged, and you know that, otherwise, individual initiatives are welcome as long as the ball is ultimately passed to those who are best placed. Okay, but how does all this translate to the customer? What does it mean to eat at Trattoria Contemporanea? First of all, this is a restaurant that is informal with its customers. Literally. No one addresses customers formally, so those who love formality would do better to book elsewhere. This circumstance, together with prices that are affordable even for dinner, means that at Trattoria Contemporanea, the clientele is also quite young and does not suffer from the Stendhal syndrome that normally affects the “under” in Michelin-starred restaurants, where you never know how to behave. Not at all.
During my recent visit, I saw a young man who was so comfortable during dinner here that he lay down on the sofa as if he were at home watching the Champions League quarterfinals. Maybe the show wasn't the most appealing, but it gave a sense of an unparalleled atmosphere. “In these two and a half years,” say the usual five, "we have slowly gained the trust of our customers and experienced a growth path that continues to amaze us and give us satisfaction. At first, people came to us for the food, then we started receiving compliments for the service; lately, there has been more and more talk of experience, of feeling good, of sharing valuable time, of feeling at home. And also of controlled informality, which consists of being genuine and knowing how to put people at ease while taking care of every detail of the service."
The cuisine
In purely gastronomic terms, Trattoria Contemporanea starts from the foundations of Italian cuisine, which Marzullo and his team transfer to the iPad to make them navigable and hypertextual. There is a certain propensity for pop references that do not detract one iota from the authority of a cuisine that is always precise and clear. The idea of fine dining is interpreted by foregoing many of the superstructures that seem untouchable elsewhere, and the raw ingredients are rarely prized, in the sense that it is not they that are entrusted with the success of the offering. There are three dinner menus: the vegetarian Istinto (€95), the more classic Passione (€115), and the extreme Coraggio (€135), which makes extensive use of offal, and customers are duly warned of this hardcore aspect. We start with a welcome consisting of four bites: a potato croquette, a Fiore di Loto reproduced with two brik pastry chips with mascarpone and honey, an airbag created from two puffed pasta sheets with seaweed mayonnaise, tamarind, vinegar, nori seaweed powder, and wakame seaweed, and a pizzaiola-style spumone. Then there is a savory crème caramel with capers and chive oil.
The bread arrives, served here on a dedicated, very impressive trolley, accompanied by various spreads and an assortment of salts from around the world. And then we really get started with a veal nugget breaded with rice flour and cereals, pear marinated in mustard seeds. Ah, it is not mentioned that it is brains, nor did the taste give any clue about it, but sometimes here they like to play with the customer and surprise them a little. Then there is a bruschetta with a base of fennel tripe cooked on the grill, topped with a brunoise of tomato, which is also fake (you will find out for yourself what it is), followed by grilled peas marinated in soy with aioli and rue sauce, served with a non-alcoholic cocktail made from the pod. Everything has been remarkable so far, flavor and fun, sacred and profane.
The heartier dishes arrive: first, a homemade Bottoni with overcooked onion on a base of grape must thickened with laurel oil and veal katsuobushi, then a unique ear mushroom with miso and citrus, pleasantly tart, followed by a spring roll with pork to be dipped in mint, cucumber, and yogurt, and a beef ribeye with corn cream.
The desserts are a world apart. There is a raspberry and banana ice cream served with a plastic mouthpiece to put between your lips, because a little Instagrammability never hurt anyone, then a reinterpretation of Pavlova, and an almond, black cherry, and saba dessert. Then there are the petit fours. The wine list, curated by the talented Alessandro Scarsi, who is also very young, includes a good number of labels, many of which are not mainstream, and there are also a few ‘combat’ wines. There is also room for non-alcoholic options, with herbal teas and a pleasant kombucha in a can, because that's the way things are these days and no one wants to have their license revoked on the way home.
Trattoria Contemporanea is also a beautiful restaurant. A small, leafy outdoor courtyard gives a sense of relaxation and provincial life, even in a post-industrial setting. The restaurant inside is rich in modernist details and reused and recycled objects.
CONTACTS
Trattoria Contemporanea
via del Ronco, 10 – Lomazzo (Como).
Phone 0280896040.
Website: www.trattoriacontemporanea.it,
E-mail: info@trattoriacontemporanea.it.
Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday for dinner only. Closed on Sundays.
