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APR. MAY. 2017
VI
MAGAZINE
GOOGLING LIFE
Food consumption styles have deeply
changed in recent years: natural,
healthy, zero kilometer, gluten-
free, or vegetarian foods are sought
after. In line with one’s dietary
values or needs. The millennials are
accustomed to a life of the web where
they seek and find what they want
at that moment: whether it be a blue
bag or a vegan lasagna. Once, going
out to dinner was was by identifying
an area (near the cinema, theatre),
instead today it often starts with a
desire, a whim. “The monoproduct is
a more commercial and gastronomic
operation, it lends itself to a direct
communication, immediate, impulsive
- says Roberta Ingrò, owner of Norma
Artisan Polpetteria in Turin that has
on the menu a dozen variants of
meatballs (of meat, lean and fish),
with in addition the desserts, also
spherical. Every day on the web we
are bombarded with proposals, so we
look for something different, an idea.
“And often too much choice is tiring.”
A study of Stanford and Columbia
universities demonstrates how too
many options put the consumer into
difficulty, complicating the ordering
process. For the same reason the
current trend is to limit the length of
menus. Apps are also being adapted
to reserve a seat at the table. TheFork
for example, just to mention one of
the main (from TripAdvisor), gives
the option of choosing between 62
types of cuisines (ethnic, regional,
fish and meat), 16 recipes and six
necessary food. Deliveroo also selects
by “Favorite Dish”. And among the
last to arrive there is SnapFood,
which combines the custom of
photographing the dish in the
restaurant to the review of the same,
pushing the “themed” choice further.
PASSION AND KNOW-HOW, FIRST
OF ALL
But how does the idea of opening a
monothematic restaurant begin? “My
partners and I have transformed a
passion into a project -says Ingrò -.
You risk cutting out a some customers,
but concentrating on quality and
reworkings you can get a good variety.
The economic advantage you have
basically is on the staff: you do not
need to have a chef always present,
once a recipe is developed and the
product and processes standardized,
even if from us then everything is
done by hand. “ The Americans, who
in monothematic restaurants are
decidedly more advanced (legend
has it that in New York there is a
restaurant for every traditional dish in
the world that has crossed the national
borders), also detect the advantages
for the business: less waste, higher
margins, greater personalization for
the clientele. Aiming for an excellent,
unusual and territorial product is
certainly an additional gear for the
monothematic that wants to attract an
increasingly demanding and informed
public. “We propose an original
product, locally sourced, Italian, but
which also has exceptional health
properties with 75% of unsaturated
fats, without preservatives and
nitrates-emphasizes - underlines
Greta Pavan, Marketing Manager of
Quack, anagricultural outlet with
tasting in the centre of Milan, the farm
Cascina Madonnina, which proposes
for 95% goose-based dishes, and
then other game and cheese. “We
have a monothematic restaurant with
100/150 places at the premises and
we are thinking of opening a bistro:
The youngest clients are curious to
taste something new, the more mature
appreciate the health benefits. The
disadvantage? Especially in large
groups there is sometimes someone
who wants to eat something else,
and doesn’t find it on the menu.”
The tipical customer? In the end,
there is no other myth to dispel: the
monothematics are liked only by the
millennials. “In fact the type customer
does not exist, we imagined to have
only young people and instead come
from us all age groups. Maybe for
different reasons: those who discover
something new, those who seek a
taste of childhood and tradition “. Says
Ingrò. The monothematic proposal
also attracts tourists, who want to eat
a typical dish of the area, whether it
be tigella or pizzocchero, the farinata
or the crescia sfogliata and and away
by region. Explains Gianmaria Melotti,
owner of three risotterie at Isola della
Scala (VR), New York and Rome: “In
New York it is the moment of the
risotto, a very trendy Made In Italy
dish, and they also like the idea of the
gluten-free, now more than a fashion
a necessity for many. In Rome instead,
where we have recently opened, the
clientele varies from the tourist who
enters by chance attracted by an
Italian dish to the locals, to whom we
carefully communicate the provenance
of the raw material, which arrives from
our company, and we try to establish a
deeper relationship, to retain it
“and bring it back.” Therefore
choosing a product of tendency,
versatile, attractive, knowledge of the
raw material and professionalism in
its preparation, various packaging
methods to grasp the tastes of the
many groups of customers, from the
traditionalist to the innovative; it is
this which, in the end, is the “recipe”
to operate a monothematic restaurant.
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BOX
FOLLOWING TRENDS...
They will also be those flash in the
pan or who last little more than a
season, or maybe they will stay for
years: who knows? The examples are