Armani Makes Indochine Milano Permanent with September 22 Debut

Giorgio Armani's fashion house has turned its February pop-up of Indochine at Emporio Armani Ristorante in Milan into a permanent venture. On September 22, the restaurant's first floor will become Indochine Milano, the New York institution's first Italian outpost, with its own entrance on Via dei Giardini. The space will replicate Indochine's signature banana-leaf walls and floral arrangements. Indochine, opened in 1984 by restaurateur Brian McNally on Lafayette Street, has long drawn downtown artists and Hollywood figures, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Madonna, Mick Jagger, Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Giorgio Armani was a regular when in New York. The Milan menu will feature Franco-Vietnamese dishes such as spicy beef salad, crisp salt-and-pepper shrimp with ginger, shiitake mushrooms, and eggplant, plus Vietnamese barbecue chicken. Dinner will be served exclusively on the first floor, while the renamed Armani/Caffé will occupy the ground level and outdoor terrace. Executive chef Ferdinando Palomba, who has led the Emporio Armani Ristorante & Caffè kitchen since 2008, will also oversee breakfast and lunch there, applying Italian and Mediterranean classics. The move extends Armani's hospitality push, which began in 1998 with Emporio Armani Caffè in Paris and continued with Armani/Nobu in 2000, introducing Nobu to Italy. The group now operates more than 25 restaurants across Europe, China, and the Americas.