Lubna, the new listening restaurant bar in Milan already on everyone's lips, has conceived a food&cocktail menu entirely dedicated... to grilled food!
It has just opened, but has already received awards, recognitions and appreciations. The Lubna restaurant, the entrepreneur's new project Lorenzo Querci (already owner of Moebius) and its three partners Alberto Querci, Francesco Sicilia and Natascia Mila, promises to be one of the places to try and retry throughout 2025. The listening restaurant bar Lubna, but also the space events Magma and the art gallery Scaramouche: the winning team of Moebius this time he decided to try again within an urban regeneration area a few steps from Porta Romana, Fondazione Prada and Fondazione Ica, bringing back to life an urban area of about 3000 square meters after decades of abandonment and degradation. A contemporary "forum", where people can meet to pass the time in many different ways. With a long bar counter, obviously, to act as a compass for the many sailors who have already reached it.

Among the most interesting novelties of this hybrid space where you can eat, drink and listen to good music, there is the will – in facts and not just in words – to intertwine the world of food with that of cocktails. The signature, after all, is that of the award-winning team already protagonist in via Alfredo Cappellini 25: the chef Enrico Croatti, fresh from Michelin Star, and the bar manager Giovanni Allario, who together with his staff in 2024 dragged Moebius among the best 50 bars in the world (38th place in The World's 50 Best Bars). The result of this special combo? A special section of Lubna's menu dedicated to the grill, in which the chef clearly pays homage to his Romagna origins. Exactly the kind of union that we have chosen to tell in our column “Spirits at the Table”, since in this case the cocktail recipes have their roots in the food they are paired with.
“Spirits at the Table”: When, How and Why Spirits Enter the Kitchen
So let's make room for smoking, various cooking methods and burnt ingredients, with charcoal oil extractions, burnt bananas, seared rosemary and more and more... Let's start with the dessert “Peanut and Rosemary”, based on vodka, peanuts, lemongrass and burnt rosemary, and with an enveloping “Roasted Pumpkin” with gin, gentian, bergamot, champagne and roasted pumpkin. We continue with the complex “Toreador Yogurt“, prepared with tequila, apricot brandy, Triple Sec, lime, yogurt, oil and charcoal, and ends beautifully with the “Banana Punch”. Bourbon, Amontillado Sherry, buckwheat, toasted banana and clarified milk, its ingredients. The same principles inevitably guide the part “Embers” of the food menu: from “Passatelli in grilled broth and dried porcini mushrooms” to “Grilled Maltagliati with Lamon beans”, passing through “Beetroot underground with taleggio cheese and hazelnuts”, up to the classic “Mixed grill of pork, lamb and beef”. The spirits do not enter directly into the kitchen, this time it is the food that enters the spirits. Or rather, into the cocktails.

“At Lubna, as at Moebius, our approach to liquid creation is closely tied to gastronomy. The development of the menu revolves around the representation of the concept of the venue, with the categories of highballs, long drinks with simple and clear tastes designed for anyone who wants to have a good time without leaving their comfort zone, and twists on classics, recipes for historic cocktails – more or less known – to which we add aromatic layers or revisit on a structural level”, Lubna's four partners explained to us. “The third part of the alcoholic cocktails represents our vision of the beating heart of the place: the fire. In this section each drink revolves around a fresh product in relation to the grill and here we find cocktails served that go beyond the classic structure and focus more on the aromatic experience aimed at surprising the customer”. So all that remains is to go and try them, strictly in pairing.