By Pietro Lombardi
ROME -- A fast-food fight has broken out in the shadow of
Florence's magnificent, centuries-old Duomo.
The bitter battle is pitting McDonald's Corp. against Florence's
city fathers, who -- in the name of a beautification campaign --
are trying to keep the fast-food giant from opening a new
restaurant a stone's throw from Brunelleschi's soaring dome.
The war has its roots in new licensing rules that Florence's
city hall passed in January with the aim of beating back the
proliferation of mini-markets, kebab shops and convenience stores
that serve throngs of flip-flop clad tourists in the city of Dante
and Michelangelo.
The new rules favor food outlets serving up Tuscan fare, but
subject all others to an exacting scorecard to determine whether
they make the grade to grace Florence's historic center.
When news broke in the spring that McDonald's, which has long
struggled to win Italians over to Big Macs and gigantic milk
shakes, was seeking permission to open its 10th restaurant in
Florence alongside the Duomo, a local insurgency ensued. More than
24,000 people signed an online petition in protest. Some launched
an event dubbed Lampredotto Pride -- named after a Florentine
specialty made from cow's stomach -- and marched into the city
center brandishing local products and dishes.
"Florentines have been pushed out of the historic center, which
is already crammed with stores offering shoddy, and often
expensive, food," said Gilberto Bertini, who headed the
protest.
Eager to lure some of the roughly three million tourists
visiting the Duomo each year, McDonald's was willing to rewrite its
own rule book to win over the city.
Wait staff would serve customers at tables, thus eliminating
takeaway orders to deflect the city's fears of hordes of picnicking
tourists. The Americans also promised to source 80% of ingredients
locally, including 100 tons of Tuscany's prided Chianina beef for
burgers.
But city officials were nonetheless merciless in grading the
newfangled McDonald's, granting failing grades to the project on
originality and locally sourced products. McDonald's even put forth
a proposal for a completely new store design that retained only its
golden arches: the idea earned a 5.4 out of 10.
Last month, McDonald's struck back, filing an EUR18-million
($19.8-million) lawsuit against the city that branded the official
response as "a manifest injustice." A profanity that the mayor of
Florence used publicly to describe McDonald's earlier this year
betrayed "a belligerent contrariety," the suit says.
"We completely agree that the cultural and artistic heritage and
the Italian historical town centers have to be protected,"
McDonald's said in a statement. "But we cannot accept
discriminatory regulations that damage the freedom of private
initiative without helping anyone."
The city, which has beaten back other challenges to its new
rules, remains unmoved. "It's a not a blanket rejection of
McDonald's," says Giovanni Bettarini, Florence's deputy head of
tourism and economic development. "It's just a rejection of that
specific project."
The battle in Florence reflects tensions elsewhere in Italy,
where local authorities are struggling to defend centuries-old town
centers from hordes of tourists. In its complaint in Florence,
McDonald's in turn threatens other suits should other towns pass
similar local identity regulations.
Indeed, residents in Rome are now challenging the opening of a
6,000-square-foot McDonald's just outside St. Peter's Square on the
grounds that it violates local rules aimed at protecting Rome's
mom-and-pop trattorie and restaurants.
Locals, including cardinals, view the new McDonald's as further
degradation of the Eternal City, which saw tourist numbers rise by
a third to almost 14 million between 2010 and 2015.
"The problem is not McDonald's per se," said Moreno Prosperi,
who is leading the protest by Roman residents. "The area is already
saturated with fast-food outlets, cheap souvenir shops and
convenience stores." Elsewhere in Rome, residents around Piazza
Navona are still seething over McDonald's' opening of a new outlet
there few weeks ago.
Rome city officials say the vagueness of existing rules gives
them no grounds to deny the authorization, but they are considering
an overhaul of the regulations aimed at preserving traditional
businesses in historic areas.
Italy has long been a challenging market for McDonald's. When it
opened one of its first Italian restaurants in Rome's Piazza di
Spagna in 1986, demonstrators bearing plates of spaghetti
protested. The event helped prod Carlo Petrini to launch his Slow
Food movement that year. Today, McDonald's has 540 restaurants in
Italy with about EUR1 billion in revenue. But that is just 2% of
Italy's casual dining market.
In food-savvy France, by comparison, the American chain has also
sparked protests over the years -- most infamously in 1999, when a
group of farmers sacked a McDonald's under construction in the
country's southwest. But its similar moves to adapt to the French
market, such as using homegrown products and selling "McBaguettes"
and macarons, have found more success: More than 1,300 McDonald's
outlets operate in France, although its population of nearly 67
million people is only 10% larger than Italy's 60.7 million.
Some in Italy say the anti-McDonald's campaign is misguided.
Massimiliano Tonelli, content manager of the Gambero Rosso, an
Italian bible on quality food and wine, said the proliferation of
gelato parlors and Italian-owned eateries serving mediocre Italian
fare is a far greater threat to the country's culinary
heritage.
"When tourists eat fake or shoddy Italian food, the harm to our
cuisine's image is huge," Tonelli said. "If those tourists had
eaten at a fast-food restaurant, there would have been no such
harm."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 05, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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