There are dynamics, in the food world, that move slow like underground rivers. Sometimes a global trend gives them a boost — think of the growing attention to healthy eating that has put criteria like wholesomeness and freshness on every chef’s checklist — but in other cases it’s technology evolving. Not only in fine dining, but also in casual cooking and in that universe sandwiched between two slices of bread that is the burger, the eye has come to demand its share, convincing nightlife venue owners to prepare dishes that are not only tasty and healthy, but also pleasing to look at. A concept that today, fueled by ever more complex devices and the media boom around the food chain, has found its expression in “instagrammable plates”, but that on closer inspection was born well before the arrival of smartphones. For several decades now, the awareness of having to pay attention to plating has meant that even “young” and casual cuisine, more or less voluntarily, mirrors trends and general fashion, embodying the spirit of the times: let’s indulge in a small experiment and go back in our minds to the 1980s, the period when Italy saw the rising burger joint phenomenon develop — a format that, on the other side of the Atlantic, had already been the norm for a few decades. Bearing in mind a necessary simplification, it’s hard not to notice analogies with the clothing world in the shared use of flashy colors and combinations of ingredients judged innovative at the time but later relegated to oblivion by history, if not outright damnatio memoriae.

Let’s take the burger itself: what has remained as a value through the sieve of time, beyond the succession of fashions, is the focus on quality and the arrangement of elements, layer by layer, as a factor that can determine the success of the sandwich. On this front, Red Garted in Via de’ Benci stands both as a witness of the flow of time and a mirror of taste evolution, and as a thermometer of Generation X trends, local and international.

“Compared to a not too distant past — says Riccardo Tarantoli, owner of the venue that has been driving the main artery of Florentine nightlife for sixty years — in recent years people eat less but pay more attention to quality. Food is more and more seen as sharing and conviviality, not just filling your stomach. Beyond these macro trends, however, the strong comeback of sweet-and-sour in dishes shows that today we generally eat less salty. And certainly not for health reasons, as one might think, but because of a widespread shift in the common taste perception — common to pretty much every variation of contemporary cuisine”. From here the choice to keep serving the ribs, an evergreen of the venue, leaving the pork ribs to marinate for 48 hours in a sweet-and-sour sauce. Also worth noting is the renewed attention to chicken, a meat that for a long time suffered from an unjustified inferiority complex: while beef still rules the roost — both generally, in a city as steak-oriented as Florence, and in the specific case of a nightlife venue that during the lockdown recorded record sales volumes in delivery and takeaway — demand for chicken has exploded both in burgers and in the fried items served at the table. The theme of sharing is shown by the success of the tailgate, a dish thought for big tables, while a real novelty is the three variants of the international breakfast that mix bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes and the unmissable hash browns. However, the flow of time and the evolution of taste haven’t only brought new additions to Red Garter’s menu: for example, the pasta courses have disappeared, while the dishes that helped turn the Via de’ Benci venue into an institution stay rock-solid. That’s the case for chicken wings — also much harder to find in Florence until twenty years ago, which shows how taste undergoes meaningful changes — as well as for tacos with pulled pork, where Latin suggestions mix with a US-style cut.

Sixty years ago as today, however, the king of the Red Garter table remains the burger. Not just any burger, but the traditional American one, which has subtle differences from the versions we’ve introduced in Italy: on the other side of the Atlantic the canonical recipe is preferred (a meat patty, possibly angus, dressed with lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, pickles, onions and bacon), while in the Old Continent variants with local meats are more appreciated — we are still in the homeland of Chianina — and fewer sauces as dressing, balanced out by more local additions (mushroom paté, lard, truffles, parmesan, etc.). Even on the bread front, the soft American “bun” is sometimes different from the bread used in Italy, where biodiversity allows different flours to be used. And what about the meat, an element that depends not only on the different cattle breeds used but also on the percentage of fat added to the mince to get a more or less juicy patty? Here too, Riccardo Tarantoli gives an up-to-date picture of the tastes of the night crowd: “Americans who come to Red Garter usually ask for a drier burger — they prefer it well done rather than rare. But in the ranking of our most loved sandwiches, the ‘Magnifico’ with onions marinated in Jack Daniels, and local ingredients like mascarpone and gorgonzola cream, certainly doesn’t fall behind. It’s our most-sold specialty after the Rodeo Burger (with fried onions) and the classic NY Bacon Cheeseburger”. Compared to a menu from about ten years ago, vegetarian options are also much more common today, with the meat patty replaced by a mix of vegetables and legumes.

In short, in just a turn of the calendar, the move from the 2010s to the 2020s has seen far more significant changes than past stretches that needed longer time. Thanks to smartphones, as we said, but also to a popular awareness more attentive to quality and health. But nothing has been lost on the front of the pleasure of conviviality — paradoxically reinforced by two years of restrictions and lockdowns. Not only at the table, but also in another “social space” that has turned Red Garter into a one-of-a-kind in the Florentine scene: karaoke. “It hasn’t gone out of fashion at all — Riccardo Tarantoli confirms — but its success still depends on how it’s run, on the way you manage to break down the barriers for those who choose to step up and get involved”.