A year of lights and small shadows for the restaurant industry, in this 2023 that is about to end.
A year of lights and small shadows for the restaurant industry, this 2023 that is coming to an end. Small shadows when compared to last year, which had been extraordinary from both economic and social point of view for the entire restaurant industry; but that was also the year of the regained freedom from the pandemic and Italians had not yet started traveling abroad again.
Even 2023, however, will close with a small plus sign, a positive fact for a restaurant industry that is changing its skin, at all levels.
Fine dining sector is getting rid of the frills that were leading them astray; the restaurateurs that are more attentive to the guests’ different sensibilities understood that it had become necessary to create more comprehensible dishes and menus, always involving high quality raw materials, and to adopt less plastered dining room services. An example of how all this works well comes to us from Lorenzo, the long-standing restaurant in Forte dei Marmi, which under the leadership of Chiara Viani has cleverly responded to the new course of things. We will discuss this in the first issue of 2024.
The affordable-restaurant industry, on the other hand, understood that you can no longer survive in the market if you use low-quality raw materials and temporary staff. Smart restaurateurs immediately looked for a solution from the time they were forced to close due to pandemic. In those months, in fact, they already felt something in the air, as they say, they understood that the world would experience a profound change. A change whose new rules are not fully known perhaps they don’t even exist but which has profoundly transformed people. Today, going to a restaurant means experiencing a couple of hours of peace, in a comfortable environment, where everything should approach perfection, from the food to the people who bring it to your table.
And as it happens, those who have figured it out always have their restaurants full, even in times of economic crisis and inflation. Why? Because going out to a restaurant or a nice pizzeria is not just about eating well and differently than at home; it is about satisfying the need which is also primary for good relationships, knowledge of food and places, and pleasure.
Italy can offer all this, and American tourists who guaranteed the success of Italian restaurants in this 2023 summer understood it well. Italians are also realizing this, although only a few months ago, in a statistical survey, most people could not even list the names of all the regions.
This lack of knowledge is changing, the long days spent at home have resulted in a powerful desire to travel, to know, to overcome the fear that a trip can cause. This is why Italy has a bright future ahead of it, at least from a gastronomic and touristic point of view.
This extraordinary opportunity should not be wasted! This is what we wish for our readers this Christmas and New Year: choose a good restaurant in one of the many Italian places full of magic to start 2024!
