Lifestyles, routines, schedules and workplaces are changing and so are people’s priorities... including how they choose their restaurants.
For the younger generations experiences matter enormously. And being able to share them on social media will be key for some time to come. It’s priority number one for Millennials, while Gen Z go online mainly to look for positive reviews. One figure supplied by Global WebIndex is particularly telling: 15% of instagrammers post pictures of what they are about to eat.

But something else seems to be carrying more and more weight now, particularly in recent months, and that’s entertainment. The chance to spend an evening enjoying a meal and much more besides could well be one of the secrets to success in the years ahead. Especially in a situation where people are eating out less, because of the recessionary times that will now force large swathes of the population to cut back. Millennials, for example, are 20% more likely than average (10%) to say that the entertainment a restaurant lays on is a decisive factor when choosing where to eat.

This summer there have been picnics – that hugely popular post-Covid activity – under an oak tree in the countryside or in a meadow in the hills to the accompaniment of a DJ set. Suz Mountfort, co-founder of Gingerline, a London-based company that has been mixing food with experience for the past ten years, explains the success of the concept: “We’re so caught up in the humdrum of our working lives now that we’re all looking for a way to escape the mundane and bring that sense of freedom and experience we enjoy so often as children. That desire for adventure, risk, spontaneity is what is driving the demand for immersive experiences; whether that’s cinema, dining, or theatrics.” So food takes you on a journey with a narrative that holds everything together. Gingerline has managed to overcome the limitations of lockdown with the Picnic Hunters Club project: gourmet hampers for bucolic picnics with friends and family, complete with treasure hunt, quizzes and puzzles and extra prizes on offer.

Theatre and exhibitions can transform locations used for quite different purposes, like restaurants (which can be considered as places where people satisfy their hunger with food prepared and presented as works of art) into places that offer a more rounded and unique immersive experience. That was the idea behind Tournée da Bar, an Italian concept that brings a revisited Shakespeare to the restaurant or bar.

Meanwhile, cinema was the direction taken by Marennà, the restaurant in Feudi di San Gregorio that set up a cine forum in its extensive outdoor area, serving food, together with still and sparkling wines, gourmet aperitifs, a selection of local cheeses at the restaurant… and of course popcorn.