Memories: The Milano, Edinburgh

Among Edinburgh’s Italian restaurants around half a century ago, the trend setter was the Milano at the top of Victoria Street. Originally it was going to be called Ferrari, after the name of its owner, but since its aim was to serve benchmark Milanese cooking, the Milano was what it became.

 It was a good place at a time when there was a dearth of good Italian restaurants in Edinburgh. Cosmo Tamburi, whose basement room in Forth Street had been a brilliant one-man show, served the best Italian food in town, but had recently moved to posher premises in Castle Street where the atmosphere was wholly different.  Vito’s, a good though not very handy place in Fountainbridge, was soon to move to Dundas Street. Valvona & Crolla was still exclusively a food shop. Gimi’s, a lively trattoria in Cockburn Street, had Tito Gobbi as a customer when he was here for the Festival, and invariably, or so it was said,  persuaded him to sing.

But one way or another  there was scope for the Milano and it deservedly prospered. A long, narrow room, decorated with quiet elegance, it was not overpriced (as Cosmo’s, alas, became) and  its team of waiters included Giancarlo Tinelli and Bruno Raffaelli, both whom would soon move to  restaurants of their own - Tinelli in Easter Road and Raffaelli in the West End, though both would later vacate these excellent long-established places.

The Milano continued to win acclaim for its north Italian veal dishes,  its calf’s  liver and osso buco, its superb old-fashioned portions of  Parma ham and melon, its well priced bottles of Barolo and Dolcetto. But even Mr Ferrari in the end moved on to open a high-quality Italian delicatessen halfway down Dundas Street, not quite big enough to make a real impact.

Before long, as a result of family problems, he returned to what I think was his hometown south of Milan, but he and his restaurant are still missed, certainly by me.
23 November 2014