FSR October 2022

FirstCourse

of cats at mealtime,” a press release stated. Their menu showcased the new Medley flavors through fine-dining (human) dishes such as Tuscan-style spare ribs, braised beef in wine sauce, and baked sea bass. Dessert included lemon panna cotta and a chocolate topped, heart-shaped almond cake with cocoa dusted into paw prints walk ing across the plate. “My role at Purina and with Fancy Feast is to bring human food and pet food into focus together,” Hassner said in a statement. “I prepare and pres ent human food experiences to my col leagues who then create new pet prod ucts inspired by those dishes.” In terms of pop-ups, Gatto Bianco is hardly the most salacious, espe cially compared to the dumpster sup per clubs from summer 2016. It’s also not the first time a CPG brand has cre ated a themed restaurant of its own. One of the most successful, at least for a time, was the Kellogg’s NYC Cafe. In response to an ongoing sales slump, the cereal manufacturer tapped Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi to create the menu for a Times Square pop-up in 2016. The concept was so popular that Kellogg’s opened a permanent location the fol lowing year, though its novelty eventu ally wore off, and the café closed in 2019. Greek yogurt purveyor Chobani has also ventured into the restaurant space, and at one point even had three loca tions though it’s now down to one (also in New York City). But Gatto Bianco breaks the mold on three fronts. First, it was designed as a fine-dining experience rather than a casual café. Second, the pop up, which welcomed only eight guests total, was a publicity vehicle rather than an inroad to the restaurant sector. And lastly, it centered around a cat food product, not a human one. Purina has given no indication that it will open another feline-themed con cept in the future, but in the meantime, cat-loving foodies can try their hand at home with the Fancy Feast cookbook, which launched last year and is, alleg edly, the cat’s meow.

Overall, the restaurant gift cardmarket hasn’t quite returned to 2019 levels, but one segment in particular is posting promising results. According to Paytronix , the amount loaded on gift cards to fine dining establishments jumped nearly a quarter (22 percent) in 2021. What’smore, fine dining is the only segment to have boosted redemption rates in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period the previous year . (On the opposite end of the spectrum, quick-service redemption rates were down 10 percent.) Historically, November and December are responsible for nearly half of annual gift card sales, meaning fine dining—and possibly other segments— could see even better figures by year-end. Gift of the FineDining

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OCTOBER 2022

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