How the restaurant will change: quality, informality and conviviality. Here’s what the employees think

Password: normality. Without rushing, let’s forget whether it is a week before or a week after. People can’t wait to find it as soon as possible, and among the Italians’ wishes in the lockdown there was also that of return to the restaurant. Even at dinner, without having to finish the experience by 10pm. Without worrying about regional borders, allowing the Romans to reach a restaurant in Abruzzo or on the Neapolitan coast like a Milanese going to the Langhe or the Ligurian Riviera.

Finding the pleasure (not mandatory, but sooner or later it will be possible) of sitting with six-eight-ten friends as in 2019, without risking a fine.

We’ll make it? Yes, of course. We’ll see when. Will everything be the same on the premises? No, for sure. Success will leave a legacy, not necessarily a negative one. Rather. It will not cause a revolution, it will not lead to the demolition of the pre-Covid 19 restaurant model but it will close many places (unfortunately) and it will change the games. As ten protagonists of the sector, chef-entrepreneurs or pure entrepreneurs explained to us (in the gallery above).

There will not be the disappearance of the current types: from trattorias to mega-starred restaurants, from pizzerias to out-of-doors, no situation is excluded. What will change is the internal redefinition. Goodbye to long menus, some tastings and go. But it will also be unthinkable that only a “good” cook can afford to impose his vision on customers, perhaps even at high prices. Trattorias and pizzerias will not lose their historic appeal, but in many cases they will have to be patient to review the numbers of the past: what has happened in recent months has made the safety aspect of the premises central. At the time of the dozens and dozens of seats, we only thought about the wholesomeness of food and a generic concept of cleanliness. Now it will no longer be possible to derogate from well-ventilated spaces, tables not attached to each other, a (right) sanitization (albeit with less terror) and a scientific control of the seats, especially for the easier places. It is obvious to emphasize the plus of those who have an outdoor space, whether large or small.

The price gap between clubs will easily widen, considering that the middle range, however, was already in difficulty before the pandemic. But at risk – except (perhaps) for Milan, Rome and the major tourist destinations – will be all the places of food and drink with a mediocre, phony, unbuilt story. The concept of “contamination” will remain interesting, but the Italian spirit – as we have already seen in recent months – will have an edge. There is no doubt that from the three-starred to the pizzeria, it will be more difficult to survive without a strong identity, based on the quality of the proposal but also on a total welcome, we hope post-mask as soon as possible. And easily, it being understood that a good service must be precise and professional, we will see more informality and fewer special effects: in fact, at a lunch or dinner – unless you are a gourmet prepared and fixed – you are asked to eat well, feeling pampered and paying a fair price. High, medium or low.

The concept of “destination” – abused in recent years – in our opinion will lose some of its sacredness to acquire greater significance. The trip out of town is an immutable pleasure but there is already a change in the proposal: on the one hand theagriculture – for a few and at a not low price – and on the other pure classicism, which is fine if it’s not fake and it’s cheaper.

We will certainly see the (almost) disappearance of fake trattorias and fake-gourmet pizzerias: the masters of the dough will be granted (almost) everything, the pale imitators better prefer an honest Margherita, obviously well done, for 6-8 euros. And more or less the concept of foreign cuisine restaurants: those who deserve and have something to tell on their plate will do well, beyond the ticket. With an increasing specialization in the offer on a product (bao or meat) or on a type (the Chinese restaurant, for example). Those who manage to make good quality, at competitive prices, will always get away with it. Whoever makes deliberate ‘confusion’ or proposes a hundred dishes, will hardly be able to live as in 2019.

Are we overly optimistic? Are we thinking of too positive an evolution? Maybe. But on one thing we are convinced 200 per 100: the enthusiasm of the fans. In the days between a lockdown and the next, rarely have we seen a clientele so happy to return to the table, well prepared (word of chefs and patrons: never heard so few useless comments) and eager to try new dishes alongside the unchanging ones . The return to conviviality will be the extra weapon. Luca Guelfi, a gentleman who has around thirty places in the world, and who is preparing to open a new format in a month – Dal Milanese Trattoria-Bottiglieria – has no doubts: “When everything will be really normal again, the places will be full seven days a week. Lunch and dinner. An invasion. You have to be ready. Everyone has immensely desire to go out, hug, laugh and no longer be afraid of being close. The next few years will be beautiful». Yes, it will go like this.

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