Home / Milan / Cocktail Bars / 1930, members-only hidden speakeasy · $$$ · No. 13 on our 50 best cocktail bars in the world
Milan's most coveted drinking address is one you are not supposed to have. 1930 is a members-only hidden bar whose exact location is kept private and passed quietly between insiders, part of the influential Farmily group that reshaped the city's cocktail scene. Inside, it is intimate and low-lit, faithful to its Prohibition-era name, with a bartending team that treats the classics with real reverence and a sense of secrecy that is far more than a gimmick. We rank it thirteenth in the world, at the head of our alphabetical fifty, because it captures something Milan does better than almost anywhere: turning a cocktail into an insider's ritual.
Milan's best-kept secret
Access to 1930 is deliberately difficult, and that is the point. The address is undisclosed to the public; historically you entered through an unassuming window that looked like a takeaway, needed a password, and had to charm your way in. At the heart of the concept are its members: a limited group of roughly 193 cardholders, a number that deliberately echoes the "1930" name, who can book in advance and enter whenever they like. For everyone else, the route in runs through the group's associated bar: you drink at the connected Mag venue, ask whether there is space downstairs, and, if there is, a host leads you to the discreet entrance and its dark door. It is a ritual of belonging as much as a night out, and it has made 1930 the stuff of Milanese legend.
The Farmily story
1930 is the crown jewel of the Farmily group, the hospitality collective created by Flavio Angiolillo and Marco Russo, with Fabio "Benji" Cavagna among its leading bartenders. Farmily transformed Milan's drinking culture through a string of influential venues, including Mag Cafè, Backdoor43, Barba and Iter, and 1930 functions as the secret, members-only counterpart to the group's beloved Navigli cocktail bar, Mag Cafè. Born in 2013, it has been billed as Milan's first and most storied modern speakeasy, and the group's fingerprints, meticulous technique, playful concepts, deep hospitality, are all over it.
The drinks
Behind the secrecy is serious bartending. 1930 built its reputation on flawlessly executed pre-Prohibition classics, the Martinez, the Sazerac, the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, alongside forward-thinking original cocktails made with house-prepared ingredients. Since a 2025 reinvention the menu has turned overtly gastronomic, structured like a restaurant's courses, from appetisers to desserts, with drinks that read like dishes. Documented creations include a Coffee Manhattan, a Porcini and Soy Manhattan, a Parmigiano Colada (rum, pineapple, a white-pepper cordial, truffle oil and parmesan foam) and a "Tortellini in brodo," a hot Boulevardier riff served with a real tortellino in nutmeg-infused broth. The Manhattan is a recurring house theme, and its coffee version is a fine place to start.
The room, and a recent move
1930 is small and atmospheric, dressed in Prohibition-era style, with the original space seating only around thirty-two guests amid dim light and period detail. In 2025 the bar relocated within the city, moving into a vaulted brick basement beneath the group's Mag La Pusterla venue in the Ticinese quarter, near the Colonne di San Lorenzo, with two arched rooms and a marble-topped bar. The exact address remains, in keeping with the concept, something you have to earn rather than look up.
A permanent fixture on the world stage
For all its secrecy, 1930's quality is a matter of public record. It has appeared on The World's 50 Best Bars every year since its debut in 2019, when it entered at No. 44. It climbed quickly to No. 25 in 2020 and reached a peak of No. 20 in 2021, and has remained a fixture since, at No. 35 in 2022, No. 42 in 2023, No. 50 in 2024 and No. 43 in 2025, and it placed No. 22 on the inaugural Europe's 50 Best Bars list. That sustained presence, from a bar most people cannot simply walk into, is a remarkable testament to the strength of the drinks and the concept.
How to visit
Getting in takes a little effort, which is the whole idea. If you are not one of the members, the realistic route is through the group's associated Mag venue: go early, be friendly, and ask whether a spot downstairs might open up. It is an intimate, exclusive room, so patience helps, and the reward is a genuine sense of having been let in on a secret. Prices are upper-tier for Milan, in line with the ambition of the drinks. Come for the ritual as much as the cocktails, and give the evening time to unfold.
Explore the rest of the city through our Milan cocktail-bar guide and the wider Milan bar guide, and see how 1930 sits against the world's best on our ranking of the 50 best cocktail bars.
Why it's number thirteen
1930 leads our alphabetical fifty because it turns the very act of getting a drink into an experience found almost nowhere else. The secrecy could easily be a hollow trick, but here it is backed by a bar that has held a place among the world's best for years and a group that helped make Milan a serious cocktail city. To find the door, earn the seat, and drink a perfectly made classic in that hidden room is to understand why the speakeasy format, so widely copied and so often diluted, still works when it is done with this much conviction.
What to order
- 01
Coffee Manhattan
A coffee-infused take on the house's signature Manhattan theme.
- 02
Parmigiano Colada
Rum, pineapple, white-pepper cordial, truffle oil and parmesan foam: savoury and playful.
- 03
Tortellini in brodo
A hot Boulevardier riff served with a tortellino in nutmeg-infused broth.
- 04
A pre-Prohibition classic
Martinez, Sazerac or Old Fashioned, built to a very high standard.
