Space creates “world’s first bring your own table restaurant” with Birra Moretti
Birra Moretti and celebrity chef Gennaro Contaldo unveiled the world’s first bring-your-own-table (BYOT) restaurant. It offered diners a delicious Italian sharing menu on the house if you turned up to the restaurant with your table.
Most people will be familiar with the concept of a BYOB (bring your own bottle/booze), but this BYOT restaurant signaled the start of Birra Moretti’s ‘Il Grande Invito’ – a nationwide campaign to bring friends and family together around tables.
Heading up the kitchen was the godfather of Italian food, celebrity chef Gennaro Contaldo, who designed the money-can’t-buy exclusive six-course sharing menu that diners ate from their own tables.
Whether it was kitchen tables, coffee tables, pottery tables, garden tables or even pool tables, BYOT diners brought any sort of table they wanted to the restaurant – provided they were large enough to seat at least four people, balance your beers and meals on and they were returned to their rightful homes after the meal!
The BYOT pop-up dining experience opened after research by Birra Moretti revealing that 72% of Britons wish they spent more quality time with those who matter in their lives. As a result of the pace and pressures of modern life, most notably work demands (42%) and a culture of being ‘always on’, one in four (25%) of people surveyed by the beer brand feel they spend less quality time now with friends and family than they did in the past.
After working up an appetite transporting tables of all shapes and sizes to the restaurant, guests enjoyed their delicious six-course feast surrounded by rustic Italian interior design, beautiful green foliage and atmospheric lighting. All food was created and served under the supervision of Gennaro Contaldo.
Mouth-watering dishes from Gennaro’s exclusive menu included sweet and sour agrodolce di peperoni, slow cooked cuttlefish with wine, olives and plum tomatoes, a potato, pecorino, pancetta and Moretti tray bake, as well as lasagne made with a twist. All of the dishes were designed to pair perfectly with a refreshing Birra Moretti and enjoyed with the people that matter.
“If carrying a table through London to a restaurant doesn’t bring people closer to their friends and family, then the delicious food and drink surely will! I’m honoured to open the world’s first BYOT restaurant with Birra Moretti, and accept their ‘Il Grande Invito’ to bring people together around tables and share some of my favourite Italian recipes with the nation.”Gennaro Contaldo
Diners who didn’t wish to – or couldn’t – bring a table of their own could hire one from the restaurant in return for making a £10 donation to Birra Moretti’s chosen charity, the Campaign to End Loneliness, which encourages people to connect and bring communities together.
