Nottingham Forest is Milan's most important cocktail bar, and one of the most influential bars in Europe. Founded by Dario Comini in the 1980s, it predated Milan's cocktail renaissance by two decades and helped define what serious bartending looks like in Italy. Milan now has a genuinely deep cocktail culture — from the rooftop pomp of Terrazza Aperol above the Duomo to the garden intimacy of Frida in Isola — but Nottingham Forest remains the place that built the foundation. Located at the corner of Viale Piave and Corso Buenos Aires in Porta Venezia, the bar looks deceptively simple from the outside — a small glass frontage, a handful of tables, the word NOTTINGHAM FOREST in clean type above the door. Inside, the cocktail list is extraordinary: 300 to 400 original recipes developed by Comini over his career, organized by spirit, flavour profile, and occasion. The glasses are correct. The ice is correct. The service is attentive without being theatrical. Nottingham Forest has never chased trends because it was already ahead of them. It is one of the few bars in the world that makes drinking feel like a genuine act of culture.
Tuesday to Thursday from 19:30 — the bar is full but not overwhelmed, and the bartenders have time for genuine conversation.
Serious cocktail drinkers, anyone visiting Milan who wants a bar that will outlast every trend, date nights for people who know what a good bar looks like.