There are many factors that go to making a good restaurant. These include obvious things such as the quality of the food, service, atmosphere/ambience, friendly and helpful staff and value for money. There are others but these would probably make up most people’s list as to what constitutes a good restaurant that lasts over time. But there’s one other item which often gets overlooked: a restaurant which interacts with and serves as a focal point for its local community. Cafes are more commonly thought of in this regard, but a good restaurant, highly regarded by its community can serve as a combination of a community café and a restaurant where people can meet and relax.
A good example of this is Caffé Parma in Glasgow’s West End. Despite its name the venue serves a full menu of food, including a la carte and breakfast and provides a lovely selection of dishes.
The venue combines the informality and friendliness of a café with the quality food and service you would expect of a good restaurant. People can drop in for a natter with their friends over a coffee and biscuit or bring their families for a full three- course meal while still savouring that casual, relaxed atmosphere.
The crucial factor here is accessibility. Local people are made to feel welcome and use the restaurant as a place, yes, to eat, but also to greet and meet, have a blether and chill. This can include mothers with babies and young children, older people meeting up for an afternoon tea or families celebrating life’s great events such as birthdays, anniversaries and not so great ones such as purveys after funerals or commemorating solemn events.
Not all restaurants can do this. City-centre restaurants, fast-food diners and those catering for fine dining are not in that market; they cater for specific niches and good luck to them. But even in densely populated inner-city areas, as well as in the suburbs and rural settings a good, well-run restaurant can become a vital part of the local community.
In Dining Tales, the owner of Caffe Parma, Stephano Giovanazzi, highlights a classic example of this:
There’s a group of men of a certain age, all retired, and they meet up here every morning without fail and put the world to right. They call themselves “the Parma Hams”, and we’ve become an important if not vital part of those gentlemen’s lives.
Our customers also have lots of memories with us such as, to give a few examples, their parents having their first date, or a woman telling me her husband proposed here, a lady who brought her first baby here and so on. These are cherished memories for people which will, hopefully, last forever and so they should.