Gucci, the Italian luxury brand, has opened a full restaurant, vintage Gucci museum, and store in Florence, Italy, on January 10. The location is perfect for those who enjoy fine-dining and couture. Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director, used his aesthetic to launch the project and turned this unique idea into a reality. The name “Gucci Garden” derives from Michele’s passion and love of nature.
“The garden is real, but it belongs above all to the mind, populated with plants and animals: like the snake, which slips in everywhere, and in a sense, symbolizes a perpetual beginning and a perpetual return.”
The Gucci Osteria (or restaurant) is headed by the three-Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura of the world-renowned Osteria Francescana. Bottura will direct the 50-seat restaurant. Massimo is a longtime friend of Gucci’s president and chief executive officer Marco Bizzarri .
The decadent Gucci restaurant will serve all dishes on Gucci plates that will include classic Italian dishes like Parmigiano Reggiano tortellini, Gucci taka buns filled with pork belly and lacquered with balsamic and miso, mushroom risotto, and Gucci scampi. In addition to this, diners can also drink a Gucci cappuccino. The dishes are expected to be as extravagant as the fashions that are produced by Gucci.
Within the Gucci Garden is an art exhibition space which will display vintage Gucci pieces and will be curated by art critic Maria Luisa Frisa.
“I wanted to give a sense to the location that would not have a deadly [mood].”
Michele adds that Gucci Garden is more like a bazaar that encompasses a variety of different things which will be combined in an authentic and “spirited way.”
“I am very happy, I had fun setting it up and I think you can feel it’s a lively place. It’s a museum that is not a museum.”
Michele said Gucci Garden is both a magic and mythical place.
“It’s in Florence, which plays such a powerful role for this brand. It invites you to enter.”
Michele took a modern approach when it came to the food served in the restaurant. Chef Bottura said the historical approach to food would not work because we cannot eat as we did 50 years ago, according to Women’s Wear Daily .
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Bottura adds that we should eat in a “contemporary way.” In regard to food, he said, “I look at the past as a critic and not in a nostalgic way. We should break the rules for a new tradition.”
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In 2017, Dolce and Gabbana designed specialty packaging for designer pasta . Dolce and Gabbana teamed up with Pastificio di Martino to run a limited edition of 5,000 boxes of pasta which totaled $110, according to WM magazine . The pasta is said to have a “great chewy, non-sticky texture.” Tiffany’s & Co also opened the Blue Box Cafe in New York.
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According to Harper’s Bazaar , the goal of the Gucci Garden experience is to “curate a wide range of pieces from collections dating back to the House’s Florentine origins in 1921 and marry these with recent work, memorabilia, ephemera and contemporary art.”
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Michele has also introduced Gucci into the home decor market with Gucci Decor and has used images of snakes, tigers, and other animals as the flagship units of their brand.
Michele worked for Gucci for 15 years and was a second-in-command before rising to Gucci’s head creative director in 2015.
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Entry into Gucci Garden will cost around $10. Half of the entry fee will be donated to support various restoration projects around Florence.
