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Feast on food & fashion: Luxury fashion house Gucci have just opened their first restaurant
By Rose Adams | 10 January 2018 | Culture
Gucci take their first foray into fine dining with the opening of their Italian restaurant Gucci Osteria
* Gucci have added a restaurant Gucci Osteria to their portfolio
If your appetite for luxury dining is as strong as your appetite for luxury fashion, praise for Gucci as you can now combine the both at once as the fashion and accessories giant have just opened up a luxury 50-seat restaurant in Florence, Italy. The Italian fashion house, whose creative direction has been completely transformed since Alessandro Michele joined at the helm, counts Jared Leto, Rihanna and Margot Robbie among famous fans of their unique, must-have sartorial pieces, and sees this cuisin project as the first time they've ever forayed into the world of food and dining
* Gucci are known for their luxe logo accessories
The Gucci restaurant named Gucci Osteria is situated behind the walls of the Palazzo della Mercanzia building, which overlooks the city’s most famous square, Piazza della Signoria. Reuters reported the restaurant is part of “Gucci Garden”, which includes an exhibition area, a boutique and cinema room too. On offer on the menu are decadent high-end delicacies cooked up by three-Michelin-star chef Massimo Bottura, such as Parmigiano Reggiano tortellini, Peruvian-inspired tostadas, pork belly buns and mushroom risotto, for around 20-30 euros per dish.
While this is the first food venture for Gucci, they are not the first luxury store to open such a foodie franchise. Fellow luxury goods firm LVMH added a second high-end three-storey food hall ‘La Grande Epicerie’ to their portfolio in the well-heeled 16th district of western Paris last year, while Tiffany & Co have famously opened up their ‘Blue Box Cafe’ in their Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York too, offering customers the chance to feast on both luxury goods and food and enhancing their global brands.
These ventures into the gourmet market will inevitably boost their investments and profiles further, however this is not the main purpose of doing so. Opening up an eaterie can also be a way to make the most out of large, city-centre store sites as consumer's shopping habits are changing as they make the move to purchase online.
Speaking to Reuters, Fabrizio Pini, professor and joint director of the International Master in Luxury Management of Milan's MIP Politecnico business school said: “The big brands are following where their high-spending clients' cash is going,” and this is backed by numbers too. According to Bain & Co’s yearly report, sales of luxury wines and spirits and food, together worth just under 120 billions, last year grew 6 percent, more than personal luxury goods such as bags, shoes and clothing, so this could indeed spark a new trend to enhance the shopping experience with fine wine and dining.