Executive Briefing
The summer of outdoor commerce
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By Dan Frommer on Sunday, May 17, 2020 at 2:30 pm
As coronavirus restrictions loosen, Noma, the fine dining restaurant in Copenhagen, is reopening this Thursday — as an outdoor wine bar, serving drinks, cheeseburgers, and veggie burgers in its garden, which overlooks a lake.
“Basically, you can just pop in, no reservations, sit, enjoy, order a glass of wine and order some food,” chef René Redzepi said in a recent roundtable interview with the WSJ. “Since we’ve all been in lockdown, I don’t feel like I want to sit and have a five-hour meal.”
It’s only temporary — Noma, one of the best and most successful restaurants in the world, plans to reopen later this summer, in some variation of its recent past self. (It’s also worth noting that Noma, unlike many restaurants, is in a privileged position to even do this.)
But this sounds like exactly the right feeling for the moment — and perhaps an idea for how many restaurants, retail stores, and commercial districts might approach reopening: Simple and outside.
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