Restaurants as groceries: A new look for neighborhood dining
The past may be the future for many ambitious restaurateurs, said Kate Krader in Bloomberg.com. Around the country, various restaurants have survived the Covid-19 shutdown by re-creating the days when great cooks doubled as grocers.
In recent months, “the hybrid restaurant–grocery store has become such a viable model for struggling places that several are planning to keep it going.”
Il Buco Alimentari e Vineria New York City Il Buco has always had a market section; that’s the alimentari in its name.
But the challenges of Covid have lured back beloved chef
Justin Smillie, whose focus is now on doubling that side of the business while continuing to serve Il Buco’s signature spit-roasted short ribs and bucatini cacio e pepe. Customers will be able to stop in not just for salumi, pastries, and aged pecorinos, but also porchetta and other offerings of the counter’s new “concierge” butcher. 53 Great Jones St.
Café Cancale Marché Chicago Dining in is out at Café Cancale, so chef Paul Kahan and his partners have converted their French-inspired Wicker Park operation to a market selling fresh seafood, specialty pantry items, house-made sauces, and take-out dinners such as trout amandine. The marché even sells cook-at-home meal kits for mussels à la Normande and flounder en papillote. 1576 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Sightglass Provisions Los Angeles Sightglass, a popular San Francisco coffee chain, opened its first L.A. location in a bright warehouse-like space one day before the city’s shutdown. Six weeks later, it relaunched as Sightglass Provisions, stocking coffee, yes, but also artichokes from local farmers, brined chickens, vegetable stock, and the freshbaked bagels and cinnamon rolls of pastry chef Jillian Bartolome. 7051 Willoughby Ave.