19 april 2025
On thursday April 17th I went back to Art Mall Milano, I've talked about it
here. There were five of us,
should've been seven but two cancelled on me at the last minute.
It has changed a lot in two years, if not for the decor, it did in the management, which affects the decor given how it used to be. Back when I first set foot at Art Mall the first thing you noticed were all of the paintings that were on the walls. Not necessarely cohesive in the art style or theme, and all came with a price tag. Now the walls were empty, or at least, there were fewer paintings and they were not on sale. The bartender told us that they don't host paintings for sale anymore as with people dancing on weekends were just in the way. Instead they now just host exhibits of an artist's artworks for a limited time on rotation.
As we entered we noticed we were the only clients, it was raining a lot so I assume that was a big reason. As we went downstairs we saw that the part of the premise used for live music was closed, thursday was the day dedicated to liveshows and live painting, but I guess that's not the case anymore (or maybe they had few reservations so they called it off, idk). What was open was the smaller side of the place with just a bar and a few tables and couches. There was no drink list, the idea is that back in the day there were none, you'd just rely on the bartender's knowledge of drinks. You'd just state your preference or what you like to drink, and the bartender would make a drink following your taste.
As soon as we arrived we of course ordered our drinks, and in the meantime we started chattin up with the bartender. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the 6 of us spent a little over 2 hours just talking with each other. No one was checking their phone (if not occasionally just to check the time) and we had a genuine conversation for the whole time we were there.
It was a great evening, if you're looking for a relaxing time and would like to have a genuine conversation and maybe meet someone new I reccomend you check it out. Even if you're going alone, the bartender is a pretty good entertainer and has lots of stories to tell. If you're looking for this vibe go on week days since on the weekend there's usually a DJ set. He's always there but I'd assume the bar would be a bit crowded.
I went with BDR, aero-space guy, a friend from POuL and a friend of BDR that
I'll call sicilian goddess from now on (for obvious reasons).