Go Inside Gucci Garden, the Brand’s New Combination Restaurant, Museum, and Shop in Florence
Dolce and Gabbana may have designed specialty packaging for designer pasta in 2017, but Gucci is pushing the fashion-food envelope a step further this year. The fashion house is opening up a full restaurant and concept store, Gucci Garden, located in Florence, Italy, wherein the fine dining lover, museum goer, and fashion aficionado can all coalesce.
The idea is, of course, the brainchild of superstar creative director Alessandro Michele, who has made Gucci the It luxury brand since he took the helm in 2015. Michele said in a statement, “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.”
Michele tapped none other than Massimo Bottura of the famous Osteria Francescana, based in Modena and featured in Aziz Ansari’s Master of None, to helm the 50-seat restaurant, the Gucci Osteria, according to a press release from the company. The Osteria will serve Italian classics, like Parmigiano Reggiano tortellini, pork buns, and mushroom risotto that are sure to be as deliciously decadent as the fashions produced by Gucci.
The restaurant sits in the Gucci Museo, located at the Palazzo della Mercanzia between the Piazza della Signoria and the Piazza di San Firenze. According to Harper’s Bazaar, the goal of the immersive Gucci Garden experience, which includes a retrospective and a shop, of course, 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.”
Entry to the bazaar-like experience will cost around $10 with half of the fee donated to support restoration projects around the city of Florence.
Recently, the brand also made a foray into home decor for the first time, using common motifs from the brand such as snakes, tigers, and other animals. So you can get a taste of Gucci Garden at home, as well.
