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Beyond the restaurant itself, dining serves a role in
placemaking, with developers across the capital using
eating out to create vibrancy and footfall. This ranges
from traditional restaurants, to orchestrated street-food
and markets, and a growing shift back to food-hall style
offerings. Furthermore, with increasing numbers of
residents choosing where to live, based on the Trip Advisor
ratings of local restaurants, this is an opportunity not to be
missed for housebuilders.
Looking forward, it feels inevitable that property
companies (themselves moving downstream into service
provision) will increasingly take financial / shared risk
positions in restaurants, recognising the correlation between
the success of these activities and that of their wider estate.
London’s dining out industry has gone through a period
of flux, and we should expect further dynamism. Looking
beyond the short-term disruption caused by Brexit, there
are big societal shifts which play towards the sector. As
homes become smaller and working hours become longer,
the push to eat out is greater. Rather than being the
great unknown, some of the trends we see in today’s and
tomorrow’s market have echoes in the past; for instance
our Roman street food, and the use of coffee shops and
restaurants as business venues. Above all, the lesson
from history is that we should celebrate and promote the
diversity of our offering.
We are
adopting
other eastern
trends such
as Keuken’s
vending
machine
meals and
Café X’s
robot
baristas
Café X’s robot baristas
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD
38
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE