90s icon. The Italian-inspired restaurant that defined an era in Buenos Aires has reopened.
The news spread quickly through social media: Filo , the legendary Italian restaurant ( with an art gallery in the basement ) that defined an era in Argentina, reopened in mid-2018 in downtown Buenos Aires. A unique, highly personal place, as irreverent as it was delicious, where a good part of the local artistic avant-garde gathered alongside politicians, businessmen, athletes, and more. International figures such as Madonna, Alan Parker, Robert Duvall, and Francis Ford Coppola, as well as local artists Marta Minujín, Ana Eckell, Oscar Bony, Rogelio Polesello, and Luis Wells , among many others, passed by its tables. The mural on the wall, the welcome sign, the hypersexualized mannequin greeting diners, the DJ playing music—all of that was Filo. And it was also that Italian cuisine with an emphasis on the northern Veneto region, which stood out from the Italian-Porteño competition that was prevalent in Buenos Aires at the time.
Filo was responsible for popularizing arugula when in Argentina, speaking of "green leaves" was exclusively synonymous with lettuce; he remained true to his roots, serving Venetian liver and white polenta with ossobuco; he was a pioneer in making the Aperol Spritz fashionable, even long before that aperitif brand arrived in our borders. Along with Piola, they were among the first to introduce a thin-crust pizza cooked on the floor of a wood-fired oven, approaching—as much as was possible in those years—the Neapolitan model we all know today.
It's impossible to think of Filo without its three great historical hosts. On the one hand, the owners and partners, Deni De Biaggi and Giovanni Ventura , who opened this restaurant in 1994. On the other, the gallery owner and dealer Álvaro Castagnino , son of the renowned artist Juan Carlos Castagnino , who was in charge of curating the art gallery. Giovanni (accused in his native Italy of neo-fascist terrorist acts and later pardoned in his sentence) died in 2010. Castagnino, in 2014. For seven years, Deni was left in charge alone of Filo, a true gentleman of the night, a snake charmer with a smooth talk, an infectious laugh, a mischievous look and a cheerful gesture, equally incorrect and controversial, swimming against the tide.
First, the changing times; then, the years and the pandemic forced him to close the doors of the place to which he had dedicated all his energy in 2021. But, as they say, life always gives us a second chance: today, Filo raises the shutters once again, proud of its past and looking to the present.
“I worked for the DGSA group for many years, managing major brands like Kentucky and Dandy. Then I went independent: with my partner Santiago Domínguez, we have the Fuoco pizzeria in Núñez. Now, we're adding the reopening of Filo Ristorante,” says Omar Morales, an accountant specializing in the operation and development of food businesses. “In my experience, I discovered that it's much easier to open a place that already has a reputation than to start from scratch. That's why we decided to do this,” he explains.
–What does Filo mean to you?
"I was a customer; I know what this place represented. It marked an era. What we're trying to do now is respect its essence, with that blend of art, gastronomy, and music, but with the quality and focus needed today."
–What changes did you make and what did you keep the same?
–From a construction perspective, we worked with the Mad Dam studio to relocate the bar (we moved it across from where it was), build a new back, add a DJ booth, and eliminate the uneven floor space in the dining room that was complicating the office. We also installed large, stylish tables to match the more typical restaurant designs. But at the same time, we took great care with the aesthetic we inherited. Where the bar used to be, for example, we continued the mural with a Kandinsky reproduction; the same sign with the restaurant's name remains outside, a work of art in itself, and we kept the wood-fired pizza oven: we covered it with small mosaics by the artist Marino Santa María.
–How do you think of Italian cuisine today?
–Just like Filo did, but with our own unique touch. I feel like at some point, Filo began to thrive on what it represented socially, but for me, the main focus of a restaurant should be serving delicious, quality food with a solid kitchen team. That's what we're doing now. We're open all day, every day. We make our own pastries, we have Lavazza coffee. And we offer Italian cuisine designed in Buenos Aires—lasagna is one of our specialties—plus authentic Neapolitan pizza. When Filo was founded, Neapolitan pizzas didn't exist in the country; that's why they opted for a more stone-baked pizza, as if to stay close to what was eaten here.
–It's a huge place in the hard-hit center of Buenos Aires... Isn't that a big risk in post-pandemic times?
–Look, I have a Kentucky franchise in the downtown area, and I've been seeing how the flow of people is recovering for a while now. The Retiro residents are also joining in here, and they see this reopening as something unique to them. If there's one thing that's grown here since the pandemic, it's the food scene.
–Did you have contact with those who were in Filo before?
–We bought the business and the brand, but yes, I had conversations with Deni De Biaggi; he even still comes here regularly for a drink. I like talking to those who owned the business before, seeing how they saw it from the inside. That doesn't mean we don't have our own idea of where we're going. What was once considered transgressive is no longer so today. We're no longer aiming for that slightly underground movement that characterized Filo, but rather we're thinking about it with a contemporary perspective.
–But they keep the art gallery…
–Yes, the art, the music, the bar, the Italian cuisine—everything that was part of Filo is still key to us. The gallery is run by Laura Galimberti, who has her own space (Imaginario) on Paraguay Street. This week we premiered the exhibition Cero, a multidisciplinary art show, and we held a vernissage with wines and bruschetta.
–Do you have many clients from the “old days”?
–A very different crowd is coming. I think about 20% are old customers, but many more who work in the area are coming to take advantage of the lunch menu, which includes a starter, main course, dessert, and coffee, all for $18,000. It's packed on weekends, and the nights are getting longer. My partner, Santiago, is also a bartender; he designed the bar, and we're planning after-work events.
–What do previous clients tell you?
–In general, they're very happy. The only question we've had so far is why we don't have that mannequin that was there before when we walked in anymore. It was a woman who was often naked or half-dressed. But now a gallery owner has it, and when we tried to buy it, he asked for a fortune!
This article was originally published on September 14, 2024.
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