EMERGING BRANDS
Soccer superstar Lionel Messi is a partner in the 70-unit Argentinian restaurant chain El Club de la Milanesa. The focus: a breaded veal cutlet that serves as a canvas for a world of flavors. Will it work in the U.S.? THE WORLD CUP IS COMING. SO IS THE MILANESA
I taly brought pizza to the U.S. The Middle East gave us shawarma. Japan donated sushi. Now husband-and-wife team Kitty Rosso and Fede Sala hope to bring a culinary contribution from Argentina to the American food scene: Milanesa. Call it the Argentinian cousin of schnitzel, a Milanesa is essentially a fried, breaded thin cutlet, usually made with veal, but chicken or even eggplant can step in. It’s classic comfort food in beef-loving Argentina and it’s the specialty of the 70- unit El Club de la Milanesa restaurant chain, which Rosso and Sala co-founded. El Club first launched in Buenos Aires 19 years ago, and now most locations are in Argentina, with two units in Uruguay. In 2024, El Club opened for the first time in the U.S., landing in Miami. Two more units are scheduled to open there in 2026, and Rosso said they are preparing to franchise the brand here, after the third location is launched. Rosso admits they are in a bit of a hurry— though, she joked, “The words ‘hurry’ and ‘opening’ don’t seem to go together well in the U.S., when it comes to restaurants.” The clock is ticking because the FIFA World Cup is coming to America in 2026. And El Club is owned in part by Lionel
Messi, a global soccer superstar originally from Argentina, who is now captain of the Major League Soccer team Inter Miami. Messi speaks often about his love for a good milanesa. His favorite is the Napolitana, which is a veal cutlet topped with tomato sauce and melted mozzarella (sometimes also ham, but Rosso said Messi doesn’t like it with ham). And because Messi is arguably the most famous soccer player on the planet (and probably several other planets) Rosso would really like to get the brand established here as the World Cup fever pitch continues to rise across the U.S. Her goal—and that of Messi, who took a 25% stake in the brand in July—is to spread the joy of milanesas, which at El Club are vehicles for other flavors. A milanesa, for example, might be topped with fried eggs, or perhaps with prosciutto, mozzarella, arugula and olives with honey vinaigrette. There’s a pizza-style version, in which cutlets might be topped with pepperoni, cheese and hot honey; or stracciatella and mortadella with chopped pistachios. “That’s not what is done in Argentina, traditionally,” Rosso said. “But we did it first 19 years ago, and now everyone does it there.” Miami has a large Argentinian (and Latin)
LISA JENNINGS
LISA.JENNINGS@INFORMA.COM
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RESTAURANT BUSINESS JANUARY 2026
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