At 39 Via Plinio a sinuous neon sign against a red backdrop lights the Milanese nightlife up. It is Bar Basso’s. The joint isn’t just a favourite among the Salone’s revellers, but it also is the beating heart and symbol of a city that, during the Design Week, becomes a place of encounters, dreams, dramas, exchange of visions and ideas. Bar Basso has been establishing its bond with the culture of design since the 1980s, that of the so-called ‘Milano da Bere’. It was back then that many international designers, such as James Irvine, Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison, Kostantin Grcic, Thomas Eriksson and Emmanuel Babled got into the habit of meeting at Basso for aperitifs or after-Salone chats, sipping cocktails like Manhattan, White Lady, Bloody Mary, Margarita and, of course, the ever-popular Negroni Sbagliato. 

Alongside them came the Italians. From the 1990s, influential firms like Alessi or Baccarat began to take an interest in cocktail glass design. Bar Basso, true to itself, never bothered to keep up to date with trends. Its old-fashioned wooden bar and furnishing, its mirrors and crystal chandeliers become perfect to welcome the modernity of design and of its demiurges. After all, opposites attract. 

Opening image: Bar Basso, photo by Renzo Giusti on Flickr