WEARING YOUR PLATE ON YOUR SLEEVE

As more diners follow restaurants, bars and cafes with the dedication of groupies trailing musicians, hospitality merchandise has become a badge of honour.

In 1968, concert promoter Bill Graham started Winterland Productions, which is often credited as the first concert T-shirt manufacturing company. It produced concert T-shirts for musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, cementing the apparel as a cultural phenomenon. For the buyers and fans, these tees allowed them to openly pledge allegiance to their favourite bands.

More than 50 years on, bars, as well as chefs and their restaurants, are now the new rock stars, attracting a cult status just like the bands do. And what better way to declare your allegiance than with the T-shirt?

Restaurants have been selling merchandise or merch for as long as such establishments have been cool. But these aren’t your Hard Rock

Cafe tees emblazoned with a print dedicated to the country of purchase. Restaurant merch now is a more complex mix of community spirit, bragging rights and cool cred.

Take, for example, St John in London, where owner-founder Fergus Henderson, based on his philosophy of nose to tail eating, is famous for using offal, neglected cuts of meat and just about every other delicious part of the pig in exhilarating dishes marrying high sophistication with peasant roughness.

He has worked with everyone from Scottish artist Douglas Gordon to Comme des Garcons to put the restaurant’s signature logo of a pig (reproduced on the cover of his recipe book NosetoTailEating:AKind ofBritishCooking) on apparel and accessories.

However, while bands usually draw a significant portion of their income from merchandise, restaurants make little, if any. Instead, the merch is a way to engage

“Restaurant merch now is a more complex mix of community spirit, bragging rights and cool cred.”