Milan's Bar Bardo goes all red in nod to Vienna classic
Milan has a small new cocktail bar dressed almost entirely in red.
Bar Bardo sits across the road from Bar Basso in Milan, in a 55-square-metre single room with an additional bathroom. Its red-hued interior was designed by NM3, a Milan-based design company founded in 2020, which said almost every element was custom-designed for the space, Dezeen reported on 19 October 2026.
The layout is simple. A stainless steel bar stands in the centre of the main room. Around it, the walls and ceiling are clad with polished rosewood panels, a dark timber finish that gives the room its warm, reddish glow.
Seating is built in. The bar has red velvet banquettes, meaning long upholstered benches fixed to the walls, plus crimson curtains. Light comes from globular pendant lights designed in the 1950s by Luigi Caccia Dominioni. Those pendants are the only vintage pieces in the room. Everything else is new.
Music is part of the plan. Bar Bardo describes itself as a soundroom and cocktail bar. Inside, NM3 installed bright red speakers, a stainless steel DJ booth and metal shelving for vinyl records. It is a tight fit. Every interior element except the bar and the banquettes is movable, so the floor can be cleared.
The design looks back to Vienna. NM3 said the scheme was inspired by Adolf Loos's American Bar in Vienna, a compact wood-lined bar finished in 1908. NM3 co-founder Francesco Zorzi told the outlet that the American Bar was more of an aspiration than a direct formal reference. Another reference was the Kronenhalle in Zurich, the restaurant with interiors by Robert and Trix Haussmann.
What makes this stand out is the discipline of the colour palette. Red does most of the work here, carried across fabric, paint, lighting and sound equipment.
Even the bathroom keeps the theme. It is covered floor-to-ceiling in bright red 10cm-by-10cm tiles, with a toilet, sink and other fixtures in stainless steel. The bar had announced its inauguration for 12 September, with doors opening from 19:00 till late.
