Between Piazza Navona and Trastevere, a stone's throw from Campo de' Fiori, since 2018 is found Luciano Cucina Italianto, the restaurant of chef Luciano Monosilio which, from July 2023, will house the cocktail bar on the lower floor, Poison, signed bythe bar manager Luca Fanari.
If the kitchen menu is the same, both in the restaurant and in the cocktail bar, the same cannot be said of the drink list. If on the lower floor they are protagonists signature of research, dedicated to the circular reuse of restaurant waste, at the tables upstairs customers can choose to dine with a menu of classics and signature designed specifically, which takes the name of Luciano Italian Mixing and which is being inaugurated in these days.
The spaces
“It was an unused space, which I wanted to redevelop, giving space to one of my passions, that of cocktails”. Start like this Luciano Monosilio, talking about the lower floor of the place, where it is now located Poison. The name is all the result of the creativity of the chef from Lazio. “Nothing is poison in itself, everything is poison in itself, it is the dose that makes the poison” said Paracelsus. “Thanks to the use of poison, nature momentarily penetrates culture with its intoxicating power, capable of softening social barriers, inhibitions, conventions, stripping souls of the heavy daily armor”. Here, customers sit in an environment that is all streetlamp black and concrete grey, with flashes of "viper" green, not surprisingly the color of poison. The stylistic choice is completely different from that of the restaurant. Going down the stairs you access a secret room, which amazes, thanks to the architect's careful design Francesca Contuzzi and the interior designer Melissa Fabiano of study FraMe. The counter, in sheet iron, is the protagonist, with two stations that can be occupied by Luca, his collaborators, any guests and deejays, every Wednesday starting from October. “The objective was also to expand the covers of Luciano Cucina Italiana, providing customers with a completely different experience from the restaurant. It is precisely for this reason that the design used below has its own matrix, that of a basement cocktail bar."
Mixing
Eight are the signature, all twist on classics, which find space in the drink list of Poison. The theme of the menu, until January, is Waste End. “The goal is to give new life to waste from the kitchen, dining room and bar upstairs” says Luca. Each cocktail bears the name of the waste protagonist in the recipe. An example is Wine, prepared with all the bubbles when poured that are no longer usable because they have lost their initial carbonation. The latter are processed into a cordial flavored with a seasonal fruit – now it's time for figs – and then combined with Jameson Black Barrel and Amaro Lucano.
Another example is that of coffee grounds, which Luca infuses into the Coffeee drink in cold water to obtain a cold brew (cold extracted coffee). The other ingredients? Amaretto Adriatico, Campari, Flor de Caña, pineapple and cookies. “We could talk about circular mixing. However, this does not mean that all the raw materials used come from the kitchen. The common thread in the choice of ingredients is respect for the environment. I try to use Italian and possibly local ingredients as much as possible, a choice that I will continue in the next menus too." The alcoholic bases range throughout the world, but Luca's favorites remain tequila, mezcal and vodka: the first two because they go well with the culinary ingredients, the third because it does not alter the flavors of the raw materials, unlike rum and whiskey .
The kitchen
The menu you can taste at Veleno and Luciano Italian Cuisine it is contemporary. This is not regional cuisine, but a cross-section of Italian gastronomy, revised with quality products and according to the interpretation of Luciano Monosilio, identified by all as the king of carbonara. If the dish is a must not to be missed on the first visit, the other first courses are also worth tasting, because the pasta used, dry and made from durum wheat semolina, is produced in the pasta factory inside the restaurant, which shares the floor with Poison. From rigatoni, protagonists in cacio e pepe, to mezze sleeves, amatriciana, up to smooth sedanini, alla genovese (an almost sweet Neapolitan ragù, due to the presence of onion). In addition to the first courses, you can range from appetizers, such as the Piedmontese beef tartare | Marrow | Saffron or Roasted Endive Marinated in Miso | Solferino Beans | Fermented Orange, to the second courses, among which the Beef Entrecôte stands out | Sea urchins | Chickpea hummus and croaker | Asparagus | Harissa | Potato and Smoked Herring Cream. The conclusion is entrusted to classic desserts, many of which are comfortable on the palate. In addition to the Tiramisu with coffee-flavored dark chocolate brittle, you can't help but choose the Girella with butter cream and black cherries.
Pairings from Veleno
The drinks are not designed to be paired with the dishes because, unlike wine, “the most suitable pairing does not necessarily satisfy the customer's tastes. I believe" Luca continues “that the pairing exists between the drink and the person who drinks it”. Nonetheless, there are cocktails that go perfectly with some dishes. This is the case of Cacio e pepe-Parmesan, Luciano's favorite combination, and Carbonara-Bread, Luca's favorite. “I really like to accompany my Cacio e pepe with Parmesan. In addition to recalling the cheese note, due to the presence of Parmesan water, the recipe (a twist on Milk Punch based on Ketel One Vodka and Sherry Pedro Jimenez, ed.) it also contains a pineapple sherry, which completes the dish with a sweet note” says Luciano. “Bread is a Negroni flavored with crumbs of stale bread cooked on the grill, whose smoky and crusty note goes perfectly with the eggs and bacon of the carbonara” says Luca. Since today we cannot ignore doing research on non-alcoholic drinks, there is also room in the menu for Citrus.
“The base is a Tanqueray 0.0, which I use to prepare a cordial with sous vide cooked fig. The fruit, already cooked, I blend and reduce it into syrup and complete everything with lime, lemon and orange zests and with citric acid". The ideal match? The Tagliolini al verde from our pasta factory with chicken cacciatore ragù and mixed salad, or the organic egg | Parmesan Fondue | Bread crumble | Bernese sauce. “The first findings”, says Luciano, “They are enthusiastic, both from foreign customers, who are much more used to accompanying dinner with a drink than us, and from Italians, who were surprised. A place like this didn't exist in Rome. With the fact that the restaurant closes at 11pm, Veleno is also perfect for after dinner, as well as for an aperitif and dinner. In fact, many cocktail bar customers discover this during the evening: not everyone books their experience in advance."
The news: Luciano Miscelazione Italiana
Luciano Italian Mixing is the name of the new drink menu that Luca Fanari he thought for the restaurant. The idea is to serve a cross-section of national mixology, as already happens with the cuisine, “to let international customers, for the 75%, know about our know-how in this field too”. Hence, the choice to focus on nine choices, between classics and signatures. So make room for shaken Campari, with pineapple, al Negroni, also in the Sbagliato version, at theAmerican, to the Milan Turin, or to aperitif icons that are often less proposed, such as the Bellini, revisited here with seasonal fruit, and the Garibaldi. The two cocktails that conclude the menu are the Limoncello Spritz, a new contemporary classic made with Limoncello Mamma Mia, prosecco and soda, and the Adriatico Sour, a signature with Amaretto Adriatico, lemon, sugar syrup and egg white.
Luciano Monosilio is ready to write a new page in the capital, for the first time with the help of a bar manager.
The bar manager
Born in 1997, originally from Cagliari and Roman by adoption, Luca Fanari he attended the Hotel Institute and, immediately after, began working as a bartender in an Italian restaurant in Amsterdam. “A corner had been created in one space of the restaurant where the aperitif was served, but I wasn't very interested in working on it”. Then, one day, enlightenment. At the Perfect Serve Barshow he is fascinated by the work of the bartenders. Hence the choice to leave Holland, to follow a mixing course at The Jerry Thomas, held by Antonio Parlapiano, one of the partners of the Roman club that pioneered speakeasies in Italy. Then, his first experience as a bartender, at Baccano with bar manager Mario Farulla, where he learned the art of hospitality, and at Freni & Frizioni, where he speeded up the preparation of cocktails. After winning the Italian final of the Patrón Perfectionists, in October 2021, Luca moves to London, to work at Nomad, having just moved from New York. Here, mix the numbers of Freni & Frizioni with the hospitality of Baccano, in a boutique hotel. However, Luca is forced to leave London. Thus, this new experience begins at Veleno, in a place he already knew as a customer. “For me Luciano is an institution in the city. The idea of being able to take on the role of bar manager for the first time, preparing drinks to match his dishes immediately thrilled me." His favorite cocktail is the Mezcal Negroni, while his favorite spirits are tequila and mezcal.
The chef
Born in 1984 and older Albano Laziale, in the province of Rome, Luciano Monosilio he is a chef under 40 who boasts twenty years of experience in the kitchen. His first experiences, as soon as he finished the hotel school, were those that saw him in force at Roscioli, the Roman temple of carbonara. Then, after having trained under masters of recent and current Italian cuisine, such as Fulvio Pierangelini and Mauro Uliassi, he traveled to South Africa, where he worked in a large restaurant in Cape Town. Upon returning to Italy, after the Tordo Matto at Baldassarre and Crippa in Piazza Duomo, he began working under the orders of Alessandro Pipero, one of the reference maître d's in Italy. It was with him that, at just 27 years old, he obtained the Michelin star, as one of the youngest chefs in Italy. In 2018, he opened his Luciano Cucina Italiana, a restaurant with pasta factory that aims to tell the story of the Italian regional gastronomic panorama in a modern key, with the technique lent by gastronomic cuisine. His favorite cocktail is the Negroni, his favorite spirit is gin.
