Italians Reopen Medieval “Wine Windows” To Maintain Social Distance
Wine windows, buchette del vino, are small hatches built into stone buildings that were once used to sell wine directly to Tuscany’s working class residents. The bubonic plague reached Italy in 1629 and by the time it had passed in 1631, nearly 1 million Italians lost their lives to the epidemic. During that time, some of the nation’s best winemakers such as Antinori (which is still a leading winemaker), would sell wine and take payment in a contactless transaction using a metal plate passed through the wine window. Now, for the first time in centuries, several wine windows have been reopened to serve food and drinks while maintaining social distancing guidelines during the current pandemic. The Vivoli ice cream parlor put its wine window to use by selling gelato and coffee through it. More than 150 of these historic wine windows remain throughout the city of Florence, all protected by the city’s Wine Windows Association. While the windows have been frequently vandalized due to their accessibility, Matteo Faglia, President of Wine Windows Association, hopes people change their attitude toward them in light of current social distancing requirements. Fagila told Insider, “We want to put a plaque by all the wine windows, as people tend to respect them more when they understand what they are and their history.”
Star Chefs Fade As Restaurant Teams Enter The Spotlight
For centuries, the work of chefs remained behind closed doors. But in the 1970s, more chefs entered the spotlight and agents promoted their charismatic personalities, landing them higher-profile cooking engagements and appearances. At L.A.’s Ma Maison and Spago, Wolfgang Puck hob-knobbed with Hollywood celebrities, becoming a public figure unto himself. In New York, Mario Batali transitioned from distinguished chef at his flagship restaurant Babbo to Food Network star, host of ABC’s television show The Chew, and author of numerous cookbooks. By the 2000s, the celebrity chef had become a widespread, if relatively new, phenomenon. Despite the gleaming reputation of star chefs, they often ran kitchens where the staff who did most of the work rarely got credit for their contributions, even if they created dishes on the menu. Many chefs allowed a notoriously harsh and inhospitable restaurant kitchen culture to continue, or they even encouraged it. But the pandemic has blown the kitchen doors wide open, and hospitality workers are getting organized and more vocal about inequities in the industry. At Tartine in San Francisco and Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, Oregon, workers have unionized to lobby for their rights. In Chicago, 20 employees at the popular Fat Rice restaurant levied charges against the chef for creating a hostile work environment, leading the restaurant’s closure. The pandemic has leveled the restaurant playing field, and the value of a restaurant’s entire hospitality team has come into stark relief. It takes more than a great chef for a restaurant to survive and succeed.
Actor Morgan Freeman Joins Fight To Save Independent Restaurants
Morgan Freeman has partnered with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and his company, Intuitive Content, to produce a new video ad for the Independent Restaurant Coalition urging Congress to pass the Restaurants Act. The ad makes a fervent plea to pass the bipartisan bill to aid ailing independent restaurants with $120 billion in relief. It includes details on how the pandemic has disproportionately decimated independent bars and restaurants, the most prevalent small businesses in America. Within the clip, Freeman mentions the 15 million restaurant workers in the U.S. who would be affected by 85% of restaurants closing permanently. He also reminds us that one in four Americans who have lost their jobs in the pandemic are restaurant employees. “Without your help, our favorite places to eat will be gone forever,” Freeman says. Get the full story here at People or here at ABC News.
McDonald’s, Dunkin’ And Starbucks Permanently Close 1,400 Combined U.S. Locations
McDonald’s revenue dropped 30% in the second quarter of 2020 and is permanently closing 200 of its 14,000 locations in the U.S., including all restaurants in Walmart stores. The company said Tuesday that the move has been planned for more than a year, but low sales due to the pandemic have accelerated the company’s plans. Dunkin’ saw a 20% drop in second-quarter revenues this year and is closing 800 of its retail locations by the end of 2020, including 450 Speedway outposts as a result of terminating its relationship with the gas company. Starbucks saw a 38% drop in net sales in the second quarter this year and is closing 400 locations by the end of 2021 while simultaneously investing in pandemic-proof solutions such as mobile pick-up and drive-thru ordering. Several restaurants have shifted to takeout and delivery models to survive the pandemic, according to a study by Harvard Business School. Statistics from search giant Yelp show that 26,160 U.S. restaurants have closed during the pandemic, the largest number of closures among small businesses registered on the platform.
QR Codes Continue To Replace Physical Restaurant Menus
As contactless transactions become highly desirable in the time of COVID-19, QR code menus are replacing more and more traditional restaurant menus. Codes are being placed on tables, hostess stands, walls and doorways, allowing customers to capture the code with their phone cameras and peruse the menu on their own screens. In some cases, QR codes offer both a digital menu and an online payment method. “It’s so easy. Literally you just open your camera and you take a picture and it pops up,” said Julie Zucker, CMO of Branded Strategic Hospitality. Nearly one third of consumers say disposable and single-use menus would make them feel safer, according to Technomic. The QR code technology can also facilitate and simplify customer satisfaction surveys, loyalty programs, and the option to easily split the check at very low cost, allowing restaurants to engage more fully with customers at low cost. Not everyone is catching on, however. “Some people just look at you kind of weird like you’re talking a foreign language” when they’re given the option to view the menu on their phone, says Danielle Baerwald, owner of Erv’s Mug in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Restaurants with younger clientele have embraced the technology, while those with older customers have been more reluctant to make the switch.
Rare Blue Lobster Found At Red Lobster Is Donated To Zoo
About 1 in every 2 million lobsters are blue, due to a genetic anomaly. In Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, a Red Lobster employee spotted one of these rare blue lobsters in a recent shipment to the restaurant. Instead of cooking it, restaurant management set out to give the lobster, which they named Clawde, a new home. Red Lobster is a partner at Seafood Watch, the sustainable seafood organization run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Seafood Watch helped the Ohio Red Lobster management team secure a new home for Clawde at the Akron Zoo. Soon afterward, one of the zoo’s veterinarians determined that Clawde was a female lobster, so they renamed it Clawdia. “Shortly after we introduced Clawdia to her aquarium,” said Vince Jeffries, director of marketing and public relations at the zoo, “she started moving rocks around to create her own cave. That was a good sign. It means she’s doing well.” .
Meet The New Faces And Flavors Of West Coast Barbecue
With various influences from Central Texas and Mexico, California is developing its own distinctive barbecue culture. A handful of pitmasters are forging a tight-knit community and unique style based on their personal histories and preferences. One of them, Daniel Castillo, will soon open Heritage Restaurant in Orange County, California, after running a barbecue operation out of his backyard for years. At Moo Craft Barbecue in Los Angeles, Andrew and Michelle Muñoz incorporate Mexican flavors into their barbecue, sausage, and sides. And Burt Bakman of Trudy’s Underground Barbecue and Slab wants to take the flavors of his upbringing and open an Israeli restaurant, combining smoked meat with zhoug and hummus.
What unites these pitmasters is not only a dedication to barbecue but also an open and inclusive approach, sharing images, tips, recipes, and resources with each other and with those who ask for them. They also like to challenge assumptions that people have about barbecue and seek to put California on the barbecue map. “We all support each other wholeheartedly,” says Bakman. “The idea is for others to follow and do even better and better and better until California develops its own sound. I want California to be recognized as a barbecue territory. Until California barbecue becomes its own category in the barbecue competitions, we still have work to do.”
16,000 Restaurants Have Permanently Closed Since March, Says Yelp
According to Yelp, 60% of the roughly 26,000 restaurants that have closed since March have become permanent, about 16,000 permanent restaurant closures in total. The highest number of closures have occurred in California, Texas, and New York, which are states with more restaurants per capita than most. And permanent closures are likely to increase. “We anticipate states will roll back or delay reopening plans,” said Justin Norman, vice president of data science at Yelp, “which will inevitably impact the future success of businesses, possibly turning even more temporary closures into permanent ones. That said, we are seeing temporary closures reduce, which is a promising signal for many businesses.”
At the start of the pandemic, Swiss investment bank UBS predicted that 1 in 5 restaurants worldwide would close. While the industry’s fate hasn’t been quite so dire, another wave of shutdowns could result in more closures. “Unfortunately, we do expect closures to continue,” said Norman. “The virus isn’t going anywhere soon, so businesses will need to be resilient.”
“Waygu” Plant-Based Beef Wins Over Japanese Master Chef Hidekazu Tojo
Hidekazu Tojo, Japanese-Canadian chef and inventor of the California Roll, recently compared plant-based “Waygu” beef to real Wagyu beef. “I was unsure about the quality,” said Tojo. “But when I tried it, I could not believe it was made from plants. My first impression was that it was real wagyu beef. I was immediately very impressed.” The plant-based alternative to Japan’s famously rich beef is made with textured soy protein that is layered with fibers of plant protein multiple times and then flavored with rice wine, ginger, garlic paste, and soy sauce. The first samples of Waygu have already shipped to restaurants and food producers around the world, and full-scale production is expected to begin this August, according to Blair Bullus, president of Vancouver’s Top Tier Foods, who made the plant-based alternative. “Wagyu beef has long been recognized as the best beef in the world for its unique succulent texture and marvelous subtle flavors,” say Bullus. “We set about trying to make a plant-based alternative that would live up to this standard for texture, taste and quality so that those who choose not to eat meat can still enjoy a product of wagyu beef’s legendary quality.”
California Rolls Back Restaurant Reopening As Coronavirus Cases Surge
As coronavirus case numbers climbed up to 7,000 and counting in California this past week, Governor Gavin Newsom rolled back state plans for restaurants to resume dine-in service. The order immediately pauses indoor activities at bars, zoos, movie theaters, and museums as well. This past Monday, California reported 8,538 new cases and 23 deaths with daily cases skyrocketing over 20% in the last week. Outdoor dining in Alameda County, California has closed as well, sending many businesses into a hurry to close up again, just weeks after reopening. Restaurants will once again have to resort to takeout, drive-thru, and delivery services only. Thirty-one of the state’s 58 counties are re-closing, affecting roughly 33 million Californians and 85% of the state’s population. Get the full story here at Wall Street Journal and here at Los Angeles Times.
