Would you eat at a reSTOREant?
In New York, you can now get branded meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Last Saturday, I set off on a mission: Could I eat branded meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and if so, would I be satisfied? Every store now seems to also be a restaurant, a café, a bar, or all of the above, and I wanted to know if anything on the menu was worth the trip.
Of course, reSTOREants are not a new phenomenon. Department stores, like malls, have long housed dining establishments to help attract customers, provide them with enough fuel to stick around, and maybe even get them a little drunk. Brands have also historically used food and beverages to express their sense of taste and allow customers to indulge at a lower price point that still feels like a splurge. Armani, for example, opened its first restaurant in Paris in the ‘90s. In November, Armani/Ristorante arrived in New York, and you can order any bowl of pasta there with an extra sprinkling of truffles.
Coffee and treats offer the lowest barrier to entry. In 2015, Kith launched Kith Treats, a “cereal bar” for man-children that has since expanded worldwide in partnership with Major Food Group. That same year, Ralph Lauren opened the Polo Bar, following the launch of Ralph’s Coffee the year prior. On Saturday, I stopped by the new Uniqlo Coffee inside the Fifth Avenue store and spent $7.45 on an iced matcha latte. (It was fine.)
What feels different now, I’d argue, is the sheer number of brands getting into the food/beverage space and the intense rise in consumer demand. I spent weeks trying to get a reservation at Le Café Louis Vuitton, which also opened in New York in November and is currently “climbing” the charts on Resy, and, after reading multiple Reddit threads about it, realized it was a lost cause.
Why so many reSTOREaunts in New York? And why is it harder to get into them than Carbone?? After my expedition on Saturday, I have some thoughts:
Brands are dying to get you into their stores, but everything inside is too expensive for anyone to buy.
Retail was already in a precarious position before Trump. Now, luxury brands really need you to open your wallets, and fast. However, few customers can afford what these stores offer. A monogrammed Louis Vuitton cake the size of your palm might set you back $24, but that’s a fraction of the price of a handbag. Plus, you’re obviously going to Instagram it and hopefully come back for more. “You can come in and only have a coffee, but if you have a coffee every day, you're more loyal than the person who spends $100,000 a year,” said Laura Lendrum, the CEO of Printemps America. I spoke with her a few weeks before the opening of the Parisian department store (whose tagline is “not a department store”), about its robust food and beverage program led by the Queens-born chef Gregory Gourdet. Having been a part of the team that launched the Polo Bar and Ralph’s—and having served as president of Dean & Deluca before the luxury grocery store closed (RIP)—Laura knows a thing or two about luring people (me) in with a good chocolate chip cookie, and I can confirm that the $6.53 one at the Printemps café is very good. “Everyone still uses the word ‘experiential.’ But what does that even mean?”
People are dying for something to do and a place to hang out.
If brands can’t convince you to buy anything substantial, they can at least get you to hang out and stay a while. I thought Uniqlo Coffee resembled a sad airport lounge, but Uniqlo Bookshelf, a small reading nook adjacent to it curated by Kinokuniya of Japan, felt more welcoming. “The world is so transactional now—you're in a decision funnel, and you go from here to here,” said Laura. What retail spaces offer that traditional restaurants can’t is the opportunity to meet like-minded people and connect… If anyone ever looked up from their phones.
A branded cup of coffee is a new way to signal clout.
Unfortunately, we rely on brands to help us connect, however superficially. During the hype sneaker craze of the mid-to-late 2010s, I remember interviewing a bunch of teenage boys at Sneakercon and realizing that, like sports, they used shoes as a gateway to talk to one another about life in general. Since streetwear culture has died down and the players have grown up, restaurant reservations and hard-to-get pastries have become the new hot-ticket item. When I visited the Alaïa Café & Bookstore in London this winter, which houses a more centrally-located outpost of the fabulous Violet Cakes, phones ate first, but I inevitably ended up chatting briefly with the sassy barista and the girl sitting beside me. We were all there for the same reason: For the ‘gram, but also because we wanted to be a part of the club.
And reSTOREants are (mostly) for the girls.
I arrived at Printemps for lunch on Saturday afternoon to find a line stretching down the block. I then went again at around 5 p.m., hoping I might be able to get in for a pre-dinner snack (the full restaurant opens April 17), and it was the same thing. Finally, I got in on Monday morning, and one of the first things I noticed was that the champagne bar was filled with women (and a few men) drinking before noon. Now that’s chic.
New York restaurants and the “boom boom” of it all feel very masculine to me right now. I like the idea of a place where the girls, specifically, can gather and gossip.
That said, after my failed attempt at a brand restaurant crawl on Saturday, I walked to the Odeon, sat at the bar, and read an article about declining birth rates while sipping a martini. It was the best money I spent all day.
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Crazy how effective a cup of coffee is to get you in the door. I’m guilty of spending at Ralph’s on Madison. My dogs love it there. It’s probably the only coffee shop they can go to at this point.
I tried to go to the MaxMara cafe at the Americana mall but they weren’t open! Next time.
Feel like you nailed it with the “they want you I. The door but no one can afford the product” tbh!! Honestly feels similar to the florist-cafes that have popped up - you might not be in the market for a bouquet every day, but they can get you in the door with a cute latte and then you’re more likely to grab some flowers every once in a while “just because,” so it’s bonus business for the shop either way. I don’t need to shop every day (or at least, I’d feel guilty if I did that lol), but stopping to grab a pastry feels guilt-free & low-stakes. And then maybe I get tempted by a scarf or some lipstick, since beauty is the *other* lowest rung for pricing at these stores. Kind of wish the places shown here would use warmer lighting though??? everything looks so stark/airport-coded as you said. seems like printemps cracked the code on that one though!