Peck CityLife

January 2019, Milan, CityLife Shopping District - Peck, the symbol of Italian gastronomical delights, opens a new venue, which explores a new concept in food&beverage and merges in a single place all its distinctive features: deli shop, restaurant, wine bar and cocktail bar.

Designed by the Milan-based studio Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, the new Peck is located in the CityLife Shopping District, the largest urban shopping district in Italy. Peck brings to the new vertical city - under the skyscrapers designed by internationally renowned architects - all the flavours, aromas and expertise that have made it the benchmark for highquality foods and a well-known brand all around the world.

Vudafieri-Saverino Partners, took care of every phase of the project: from the concept to the interior design, also following the engineering of the furnishings. The aim was to create an environment rich with symbolic elements to reconcile Peck’s historical identity with its contemporary dimension. A bridge between the tradition of fine dining and the new city.

Peck CityLife is located in a 300m² organically-shaped pavilion, central in relation to the entrance to the Shopping District. Not only a treasure trove of flavours, expertise and traditions, but also an atmospheric place where the food is one of the ingredients in a larger experience. A central role in defining the overall picture of these meanings is played by the interior design, which has been entrusted with the responsibility of expressing the core values of the Peck identity.

Claudio Saverino and Tiziano Vudafieri – who have extensive experience in restaurant design and many high-quality examples already in Milan itself - have defined a concept capable of expressing the fundamental features of Peck’s historic identity, with a design which is at once timeless and highly contemporary.

It is, first and foremost, a project of “designing relationships”, namely those between different people and times. The interior design was structured so as to provide a narrative continuity throughout the different areas to create a fluid relationship between the delicatessen, restaurant, wine bar and cocktail bar. Four places which differ in their function and relationship with the public, but which all make for a unique experience.

The space pays tribute to post-war Milan, the reconstruction, the economic miracle - the Milan in which the legend of Peck established itself - without making the place didactic. The quotations pay homage to a shared history: the flooring is redolent of historic Milanese stone, the ceppo di Gré from the quarries of Lake Iseo; the restaurant’s false ceiling, with wooden panelling, recalls Villa Necchi Campiglio of the great Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi; the struts which hold up the shelves are evocative of the BBPR’s Velasca Tower; for the seating, meanwhile, Gio Ponti was chosen: elegance and essentiality.

Subliminal, rather than explicit, messages of a sober yet bold Milanese character.The decorative lamps, with their modern, post-industrial look, are intended to recall the aesthetic tradition of Milanese palaces, with attention to the choice of light fixtures whose presence is peculiar.

The vast deli counter welcomes visitors at the entrance. Entirely designed to offer technical performance, aesthetics and practicality, it also introduces a new option: eating sat directly at the counter. Enjoying food whilst sat at the counter is not merely an aesthetic gesture, but a philosophical one: it strengthens the relationship between foods and their production, between selection and tasting, between preparation and consumption.

The folding tables by the counter allow diners to a privileged view of the authenticity and quality of the products and a new and involving experience of gastronomic traditions. The space was designed to the millimetre to be able to open and close, multiplying the seats at the tables - 70 covers in total, including 50 at the restaurant/delicatessen and 20 at the wine and cocktail bar. A series of retractable tables allows the restaurant to multiply its covers by creating surfaces where there was once free space.

The restaurant is an elongated space in which the mirrors amplify the depth of the display walls: punctuated by vertical pillars and long wooden shelves to display Peck products. To accentuate the feeling of intimacy, the setting is made cosier by a low suspended wooden ceiling in a diamond mesh shape. The theme of the diamond-shaped panels also characterises the decorative motifs of the moving tables, another tribute to the Milanese architectural tradition.

In the wine bar, the shelving units create a metric in which the bottles of wine are treated like notes in a piece of music, expressing the value of the overall composition whilst highlighting a handful of great soloists. The sense of verticality is emphasised by the black lesenes which punctuate both the furnishings and the wainscoting of the bar counter. The displays set up in the window were designed to avoid complete closure, promoting permeability for the eye as well as the hand. Each shelf is also a support for the moving tables which make the space versatile and multifaceted.

The bar of the cocktail station is covered with handpainted porcelain tiles with a unique design created especially for Peck, taken from a historic photograph from the 1950s. The counter is made of copper, along with the large mirror which hangs on the wall behind. In the evening, the volume lights up like a lantern, revealing the product windows and drawing one’s gaze to the atmospheres of the restaurant which finds intimacy in spotlighting.

The iconic materials of Peck, such as wood, black iron and copper, have been reinterpreted in a contemporary way; even in the kitchen, the white and blue tiles from the kitchens of via Spadari have been reused.

Food & Beverage
The temple of haute cuisine, in Milan since 1883, arrives at the CityLife Shopping District, adding a new location to the historic shop and restaurant in the heart of Milan. Peck CityLife is introducing a new restaurant formula, whose theme is delicatessen eating.

The new restaurant - 50 covers, open at lunch and dinner with two different menus - is not just the place you can go every day to enjoy a series of signature dishes such as rib of beef, saffron risotto with osso buco, veal Milanese - in addition to a constantly-changing offering of daily specials - but it is also a location where you can find a selection of the most iconic Milanese traditional dishes, such as boiled meats, cassoeula, spit-roasted meats or less common products such as pickled tongue or marbré.

The tapas-style starter formula deserves a special mention: designed for sharing, they are meant to evoke a social ritual of participation in tasting and to give the diners the opportunity to discover various flavours. The offering vary greatly and allow diners to explore the must-haves of Peck’s deli selection, such as Russian salad, pâté, prawn cocktail, sturgeon, veal in tuna sauce and Peck’s famous own-recipe bresaola.

The wine bar showcases a selection of wines and spirits theatrically arranged on a striking wall which holds a selection of 150 label, both Italian and French. Just the tip of the iceberg compared to the more than 3000 labels - always available to order - which make the shop on via Spadari, in the heart of Milan, the finest wine bar in Italy.

The final surprise of this new opening is the bar of the cocktail station - decorated with handpainted tiles with a design taken from a historic photograph of Peck circa 1950 - entrusted to the skilled hands of Riccardo Brotto, supported by a staff of young bartenders who have put together a cocktail list which blends the history of Peck with a modern twist.

In the words of Leone Marzotto - whose family took over the brand in 2013 and who has been CEO since 2016 - Peck is many things: “a Milan institution, a historic shop which is spreading across the world with the opening of satellite branches in Japan, Singapore South Korea and Taiwan, a de facto authority on product knowledge, a collection of people brought together by skills, values and passion for what they do.

The opening of Peck in the CityLife Shopping District is doubly historic: not only is it the first time that Peck is opening in Milan outside its neighbourhood, but this shop is also the first of the new Pecks. The challenge is to bring our extremely high idea of quality, service and our passion into contact with new audiences: with innovations designed to endure over time, and without chasing trends or passing fads.”

Interior design: Vudafieri-Saverino Partners - Tiziano Vudafieri and Claudio Saverino
Design Team: Simona Quadri, Alessandra Bottiroli and Nicolo Spina
Construction management and construction design: R4M Engineering
Lighting design: Leukos Studio
Executive planning and supervision of works: R4M Engineering, Carlo Bacchini and Luca Arcari