London Inc. May/June 2021 - 13

Restaurant, Grace Bodega was
partially funded by crowdsourcing - over $25,000 was raised,
with each dollar contributed
being returned in the form
of store credit. The unit will
include refrigerated displays
for grab-and-go produce, meats
and dairy, dry goods, larder, bottle
shop, specialty coffee and other
select merchandise.
Murphy believes it is the kind of
adaptation you can expect to see from other
operators, post-pandemic.
" I think restaurants will have to do something else in
order to build back, " she says. " We're just decimated, even
with government supports, even with subsidies. "
Plenty of restaurants out there will have government
loans that need repaying, she points out. " It's not great if you
can't come back stronger than you were, and I think the only
option is to diversify. "
By the time the dust settles on all this, ﬁne dining will
have almost certainly taken a massive hit, in London and

right around the globe. There's
almost no escaping it. Those
ﬁne-dining establishments that
remain will need to innovate to
survive and grow back.
And it's not as simple as
expanding hours, Murphy
explains. " It's complicated to be
open for lunch, " she says. " In this
city it can be difficult to make it
worthwhile. "
Instead, she thinks ﬁne dining's process of diversifying - some might call it
their democratizing - will stick around, and in
a lot of bigger cities, restaurant groups will move towards a
ﬂagship supported by several smaller, affordable concepts.
It's easy to imagine that, in some ways, their customers will
be better for it.
As of press time, Grace Bodega was still playing the
waiting game, with lockdown restrictions delaying their
opening. Murphy says it'll be worth the wait.
" We're going to be ready as soon as the world is ready. "
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London Inc. May/June 2021

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