La Ménagère

Not far from the Basilica of San Lorenzo, among the splendid palaces of Via de’ Ginori, large windows show La Ménagère, a concept restaurant that, in its 1500 square meters, houses a restaurant, a bistro, a cocktail bar, a florist and a design objects store. The elegant and romantic atmosphere is spread throughout the rooms under the high vaulted ceilings: vintage furniture and salvaged, uncoordinated chairs, scratched walls,  contemporary design objects and industrial materials give life to a refined, versatile and international restaurant welcoming guests from breakfast to after dinner.

The kitchen of La Ménagère meets all needs. The bistro’s menu is like a vintage newspaper, and proposes rich breakfasts from the small pastry shop at the entrance counter, quick and light breaks, selected take-away coffee for those in a hurry and tapas to accompany the happy hour. The restaurant’s menu-notebook proposes courses from seasonal, raw ingredients based on oxymoronic combinations, such as sweet and salty, hot and cold, soft and crisp.

Even the spaces are adapted to the variety of diverse customers. We pass from a large hall-gallery that houses an eighteen meters long wooden social table for convivial meals, to the bright room with the grand piano and small tables surrounded by hanging plants and orchids, from more intimate spaces for moments reserved to the room with open kitchen up to the downstairs space dedicated to live music lovers.

The drink menu, which varies from the bistro to the lower room, thanks to the international experience of the staff and the passion for experimentation, offers both traditional cocktails and unusual, signature drinks prepared with techniques like smoking, exotic ingredients and spectacular presentations. Going down the stairs, vintage furnishings decorate the room dedicated to private events and live music, especially jazz and live music, in which you can enjoy cocktails created ad hoc by the barmen of La Ménagère.

Concept-restaurant because it is a harmonious container of food, drink, music but also flowers and design. Among the many tables, in fact, there is Artemisia, a flower shop where to buy seasonal flowers, vases and rare plants after a good coffee. As a tribute to the first historic Florentine home store opened in 1896, from which the local inherits the name that in French stands for “the housewife”, in addition to the plants, you can also buy design objects for the home, the mise en place and furnishing accessories in line with the contemporary taste that characterizes all the rooms of La Ménagère.

An unavoidable stop while walking in the streets of Florence, an unusual culinary and visual experience that seeks beauty in every detail and where tradition and innovation come together in a unique setting.