The 23-year-old Western restaurant on the Bund will be closed, and the old restaurant will not be able to escape the industry reshuffle

Following the fall of the new elements on the eve of the 20th anniversary, M on the Bund, which has stood on the Bund for 23 years, is also about to close, and the restaurant industry at the end of 2021 has left a silhouette of the faltering forward.

In 1999, just nine years after McDonald's entered China, the citizens of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou ate "Western-style fast food", and Michelle Garnaut, an Australian, took her accumulated dining experience in Hong Kong to open the first Mi's Western restaurant on the Bund 5, which quickly became one of the most popular Fine Dining restaurants in Shanghai, and two years later added the Charm Blue Bar, which became the window for many Shanghai diners to enter Western food.

In mid-December, the veteran Western restaurant announced that it would close its business after the lease expired on February 15 next year, causing the industry to sigh. Some people miss its iconic terrace with river views, unconventional jazz music, European-style décor and elegant service etiquette, "which sits at the intersection of Shanghai's classical and new era". Some netizens also pointed out that as an old store that has been in business for more than 20 years, Mi's Western Restaurant does not have the novel cuisine of the later Michelin restaurant, and it has stagnated in terms of marketing communication and service.

Although the opening and closing of catering enterprises is not uncommon, is the "end" of established restaurants inevitable? Before the century-old Tao Taoju was acquired by peers, there was a Taiwanese tea on behalf of the brand one tea one sitting lonely, and with the sporadic counterattack of the epidemic, the catering industry continued to suffer. Incomplete data shows that in 2021, more than 1 million restaurants will close, of which 400,000 are Chinese fast food restaurants, followed by milk tea shops with 350,000, and nearly 100,000 hot pot shops are cancelled.

A generation of Western restaurants came to an end

Self-media person Yu Ling is keen to search for food in the streets and alleys, and the protein cake of Mi's Western Restaurant is a dessert that she has tasted for more than 20 years. It has a crispy crust but a marshmallow-like soft inside, a billet covered with fine cream, piled with fresh fruit, and drizzled with sour, debilitating passion fruit sauce.

Fruit meringue is a national dessert in Australia and New Zealand, and debuted in Hong Kong in 1989 M at the Fringe, a dessert that has been popular with diners for its unique taste, and as Garnot brought Mitch's Restaurant Group to Chinese mainland, it became the signature of M on the Bund in Shanghai and Capital M in Beijing's Qianmen.

In the first decade of the 21st century, after China's accession to the WTO, a large number of foreign enterprises settled in domestic cities, and the Western food industry began to enjoy the dividends of the times for more than a decade. In Shanghai, where foreign companies gather, high-end restaurants are piled up in the Bund business circle, Hakkasan, Bo Shanghai and other Fine Dining restaurants are stationed in a frenzy, and going to the "Bund X" has become a must-have for fashionable diners, and a meal costs often thousands of yuan.

However, as more players flock to the restaurant industry, the competition for this track is becoming increasingly fierce. Standardized, chained and popular catering brands have risen to differentiate the flow of customers, while after the emergence of young consumers, innovative concepts such as creative cuisine, fusion cuisine, and new Chinese style have become more popular, which has challenged the operation and transformation of traditional Western restaurants.

In fact, before Mi's Western restaurant announced its closure, its stores in Hong Kong and Beijing were closed in 2009 and 2017 respectively. For the closure of the last store, founder Garnot declined an interview with CBN, but said that he did not think it was a negative decision. "I've been in the industry for almost 50 years, and more than half of that time has been spent in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. The decision was mixed for me, but I think it's time to step down and I want to pursue different interests and start a new chapter in my life. According to people familiar with the matter, after His retirement, Garnot will continue to devote himself to Public Welfare undertakings in China, participating in China's rural girls' education projects and community shared agriculture.

Still, on the Bund, the upscale restaurant of legendary chef Joel Robuchon, who died in 2018, is still packed. The most business-savvy French chef runs a huge food and beverage conglomerate, and in Shanghai, it has hidden in a department store to open a light restaurant, while separating the baked dessert category and appearing on the live broadcast room of popular anchors, becoming a "Michelin delicacy" chased by young diners.

The catering industry that does not advance or retreats

But when people accuse these established restaurants of being unmotivated and derailed from the times, they are often overlooked as once well-known trendsetters.

Now a new element of bankruptcy liquidation, the central kitchen was established early 20 years ago, and the store was expanded to a maximum of 50 with a set of high-standard chain operations, becoming an important brand in the field of light food and light food.

Clean back kitchens, textured utensils, healthy recipes, and even free cakes for couples are also a plus for consumers today. Since 2008, New Elements has also become the designated sponsor of the China Tennis Masters Cup, and a few years later, Li Na was invited to participate in the design and image promotion of new dishes. These are all advanced marketing concepts.

Whether it is the exquisite and authentic Mi's Western Restaurant or the new elements that focus on healthy and light food, the decline of traditional Western food is accompanied by the disenchantment of the Western perspective lifestyle. People no longer flock to Western food, but prefer localized food. With the acceleration of the reshuffle of the catering industry after the epidemic, those companies that are immersed in the old aura inevitably slide to the line of life and death, while adapting to the ever-changing marketing rules and internet celebrity play.

At the end of the year, a news of "millions of annual salaries to recruit chefs" caused a hot discussion in the catering circle. Jiumaojiu Restaurant Group, which owns brands such as Jiumaojiu Northwest Cuisine, Taier Sauerkraut Fish, and Uncle Nawei, has offered high-profile recruitment with annual salaries of 500,000 to 2 million yuan, requiring "enhancing research and development capabilities for existing brands and future brands". Earlier, 57 Degree Xiang also released a similar high-paying recruitment advertisement, and the requirements were more straightforward: focus on technology and bold innovation.

The desire for R&D chefs, giving a salary level comparable to that of executive chefs in star hotels, also confirms that the battle between chain restaurants is in full swing. Haidilao, which was once sought after by capital, was also complained by consumers about the "lack of novelty", coupled with the failure of counter-trend expansion, and finally "broken arm" to stop the loss of hundreds of stores. However, unlike the ups and downs of fast food, the "butterfly effect" of high-end catering needs time to verify.