"Chinese New Year's Eve meals in old restaurants can also be eaten at the doorstep of the house this year!" On the first day of the New Year's Day holiday, at 11:00 a.m., the new Shanghai Old Hotel in Jiading Nanxiang Impression City was officially opened, which is the third store in Shanghai of the 145-year-old "advanced" intangible cultural heritage.
Since 2019, the old hotel in Shanghai, which is part of Yuyuan Culture and Food Group, has begun to continuously promote the brand chain layout at a steady pace of one new store per year. First settled in foreground vitality city, and then to today's Nanxiang Impression City, the old shanghai hotel that is constantly appearing with a new look of rejuvenation may represent a "butterfly change" that the domestic long-established brand is experiencing.
In recent years, the continuous influx of new brands into the consumer market, overseas brands and changes in the consumption habits of the new generation have squeezed the living space of local long-established brands to a certain extent. How to seize the mainstream consumer group dominated by young people, eliminate the "generation gap" between the old brand and the new generation, and regain the brand confidence of the old brand... Faced with these difficult questions, the Old Hotel Shanghai gave its own answer.
Keep pace with the times New stores and new products to reshape the taste of Shanghai
Founded in the first year of the Qing Dynasty (1875 AD), the old Shanghai Hotel is known for its cooking skills and is a protection unit for the national intangible cultural heritage "Shanghai Benbang Cuisine Traditional Cooking Techniques". Therefore, whenever the old hotel in Shanghai is mentioned, many people can't help but think of a lot of local tastes: the gold medal eight treasure duck made of more than 8 ingredients, the "Chinese foie gras" blue fish bald lung that can only be tasted every autumn and winter, the shrimp seed large black ginseng that enjoys the reputation of "the world's first ginseng", the fried shrimp that is so crisp that even the shell can be eaten, and the "peak of knife gong" buckled by "China on the Tip of the Tongue 2" filmed. These dishes are not only the signs of old Shanghai restaurants, but also the "regular customers" on the table of Shanghainese. Today, these bengang flavors span more than 20 kilometers, from the century-old Yu Garden to the millennium Nanxiang.
Although it is a new store, the unique historical and cultural sense of the old hotel in Shanghai has been re-portrayed by the designers. From the moment you enter the door, the eye-catching cinnabar red and gilded yellow are wrapped in a strong national tide; on the ground, there are black and white checked floor tiles with a retro fashion sense of Shanghai Beach; on the wall, there are carefully selected old photos of Shanghai's old city... These microcosm captures of different eras in Shanghai seem to be a summary of the changes in Shencheng that he personally experienced in the 145 years of the old Shanghai Hotel standing in a corner of Shanghai: although it is changing with each passing day, the inheritance will never end.
Indoors, a large staircase connects the fifth and sixth floors, and at the same time, with the staircase as the boundary, the interior of more than 1300 square meters, enough to accommodate nearly 250 people to eat at the same time, is cleanly divided into two major areas: the lobby and the private room. Moving to the sixth floor, the brass characters embedded in the private room make people shine: Xiafei Hall, Huangpu Beach, Huaihai Fang, Paramount... These are all once famous landmarks in Shanghai, and they are also the "same style" in the Yu Garden Main Store of the old Hotel in Shanghai. The original intention of this ingenious design is not only a tribute to Shanghai's urban culture, but also hopes that customers can feel the old taste of the old hotel whether they are in Yu Garden or Nanxiang.
As the foundation of the old hotel, the shanghai benbang flavor naturally needs to be inherited in the new store. To this end, the core personnel of the kitchen team of the new store are all transferred from the Yuyuan Main Store, and the head chef is one of the fifth generation of non-hereditary inheritors. Therefore, all dishes are cooked in accordance with the traditions of the old restaurant, and the supply of ingredients is also uniform, so that the taste of the gang is not limited by geography.
Speaking of the signature dishes of the old restaurant, the gold medal eight treasure duck will not be absent. According to the head chef of the new store, this dish was first remade from the eight treasure chicken in the old Hongyun Building, "Everyone who does catering knows that 'chicken fresh duck fragrance', although the chicken is delicious, but the aroma is still better than the duck." "At that time, the chef of the old hotel in Shanghai boldly innovated, took the whole duck from the back ridge and filled it with chestnuts, white fruits, diced pork, diced chicken, diced shiitake mushrooms, diced chicken gizzards, bamboo shoots, diced ham and glutinous rice, and fried and mixed with glutinous rice. When eating, the duck can be cut with only a tablespoon, which is crisp but not rotten, and the flavor is rich, which has won the praise of new and old diners.
In addition to the classic bengang dishes, when looking through the menu, you can also find many "new faces", such as: secret onion grilled opium fish head, mini buckle three silk, crab powder peach oil ginseng, etc., just looking forward to the name of the dish. The head chef told reporters that the new dishes are basically based on the bottom taste of the gang, integrating the advantages of other cuisines, and combining the cooking methods that are popular with young people nowadays, "so that even new dishes can inherit the old taste of the gang." ”
For example, the secret onion grilled opium fish head is a typical creative dish. It uses the method of grilling shallots that is most familiar to Shanghainese, but the "partner" of scallion grilling has become a fish head. About 2 pounds of fish head do not look big, after marinating one night in advance, the fish meat not only maintains the tender state but also more flavorful, and eats it with crispy grilled onions.
People familiar with the old hotel know that the fine buckle three silk is also a must-have sign here, which has been "hand-picked" by "China on the Tip of the Tongue 2". The soup is clear and fresh, and the red and white three silk thicknesses are evenly described as silky. Mini buckle three wire is improved from the fine buckle three wire, although the size is reduced, but the production can be said to be undiminished, a lot of knives. The three-wire miniature buckle after this improvement is exquisite, which is not only favored by old customers, but also attracts many young people to order and taste.
The source of a variety of Shanghai dishes is still in the old hotel
"Inheritance is not conservative, innovation does not forget the original" - looking back at the century-old development history of shanghai old hotels, it is not difficult to see the spiritual meaning behind this sentence, which has long been engraved in the "bones" of shanghai old hotels like the taste of this gang.
The earliest Shanghai old restaurant was originally called Rongshun Restaurant, the owner is a couple surnamed Zhang in Chuansha, Pudong, they are good at cooking dishes, and everyone around the home holds a wedding banquet, and the couple is happy to go and help. Over time, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang became famous near and far, and then in the first year of Guangxu (1875 AD), they came to the old Shanghai City God Temple area to break out and opened a restaurant called "Rongshun Restaurant" on the old school road. Although the store was small at that time, they were well versed in the way of business because of their outstanding taste and reasonable price, and cultivated a group of loyal repeat customers.
Yuyuan Main Store
By the 1930s, The Rongshun Pavilion has developed to a two-story building, the couple's son inherits the mantle, diligent in entrepreneurship, he pays great attention to the color, aroma, taste, shape of the dishes, and is good at learning, thus creating a number of "housekeeper dishes", such as: oil fried river shrimp, braised water, eight treasures hot sauce, pretzel strips, bad bowl head, etc., the business is more and more prosperous. At that time, Shanghainese used to call the places they often visited "old places", so the old diners of Rongshun Hall nicknamed it "old hotel". Over time, the name "Shanghai Old Hotel" was born.
With the joint efforts of Li Borong, Yang Yuying and other famous chefs and several generations of chefs, Shanghai Old Hotel has been awarded many honors such as "China Famous Restaurant", "Chinese Time-honored Brand", "Shanghai Famous Trademark" and "Shanghai Famous Brand". In November 2014, the Old Hotel Shanghai officially became the protection unit of the national intangible cultural heritage representative project "Shanghai Benbang Cuisine Traditional Cooking Techniques".
After more than 140 years of rapid development, Shanghai Old Hotel has long been transformed from the old model of "one trick to eat all over the world", constantly refining the core competitiveness of the brand, using good products and new ideas to break the gap between the old brand and the new generation, and "dialogue" with young consumers, providing another reference answer for how the old brand responds to the wave of change in the new era.