Is there a future for take-out in the fine-dining space?

Huy Tran, National Marketing Director, Aburi Restaurants Canada

From New York to Chicago and Toronto, while many fine-dining restaurants shuttered during the darkest days of COVID-19, some were adapting to the ever-changing and increasingly challenging pandemic with never-before-seen take-out options.

NYC’s Masa was introducing an $800 temaki (handroll) box, Chicago’s Alinea sold out their $34.95 beef short-rib Wellington and mashed potatoes, and Toronto’s Alo was doing weekly at-home rotating coursed menus for $65 (CAD) per guest. The case was no different at Aburi Hana; we sold out $800 bespoke take-out Osechi (traditional Japanese meals served in square lacquer boxes) on celebrated evenings during the pandemic.

While most of these establishments quickly returned to their dine-in-only format after the pandemic, fine-dining take-out remained top-of-mind as it was made more accessible. It is essential to look at some key elements when considering the place of take-out in your restaurant operations when dealing with rising food and labor cost.

Occasion or On-demand

This past year at Aburi Restaurants Canada, we decided to maintain our premium take-out option for New Year’s Eve after receiving Canada’s first MICHELIN star. The pick-up-only New Year’s Eve Oju box was priced at $1,000 (CAD) and was suitable for a group of 3-4 at-home diners. 

Despite having full reservations during the holiday season, the pandemic has allowed us to expand and capture a unique audience that prioritizes the intimacy and convenience of dining at home while still satisfying the cuisine and ingredient quality that our Executive Chef Ryusuke Nakagawa produces. Chef has designed the concept to perfectly translate the original New Year’s dining tradition in Japan, an experience that many Canadians now have access to right in the comfort of their home. From the kitchen side, our team was able to maximize labor, control demand with pre-orders, and up-sell select premium sake options.

“While dealing with low brand recognition and availability, implementing meaningful PR strategies and ingredient solutions might be a good starting point.”

On the other end of the order frequency chart, we are looking at industry titans who have digitized their kitchens. Months before the industry-breaking news about Noma’s René Redzepi discontinuing operation to focus on e-commerce, NYC’s Eleven Madison Park introduced their direct-to-consumer all-vegan HOME collection in April 2022. The launch, even though seemingly obvious following the pandemic, signaled a fundamental shift in fine-dining operations--that the traditional model is collapsing. Coming into last year,s holiday season, Momofuku Toronto announced it closing of the physical landmark location on 190 University Ave after ten years. The celebrity chef and owner David Chang introduced his successful Momofuku Goods e-commerce venture just a couple of weeks before the closure, which remains accessible in Canada today.

For The Case of Low Brand Awareness

What about other fine-dining restaurants and Chefs who were starting to establish their reputations? While dealing with low brand recognition and availability, implementing meaningful PR strategies and ingredient solutions might be a good starting point.

Canada often sees creative collaborations between fine-dining chefs that go beyond its city’s borders through partners such as VISA’s Infinite Dining series and American Express’s By Invitation Only dining events. This past year’s highly raved collaborations included Rafael Covarrubias of Hexagon (Oakville, ON) and Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson of Published On Main (Vancouver, BC), as well as Emma Cardarelli of Joe Beef & Le Vin Papillon (Montreal, QC), Atticus Garant of Fairmont Banff Springs, and Justin Leboe of Lupo (Banff, Alberta.) While the option might be less obvious, some chefs have found success through competitions such as the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition and the Garland Canada Culinary Competition.

At ABURI, we partner with the Japanese Iwate Prefecture to promote one of the world’s best beef - the A5 Iwate Wagyu - through creative take-out and dine-in options. Our strategy is to minimize food wastage by utilizing the entire cow for different take-out options, from steak and BBQ cuts to curry sauces and delicious onigiri.

We are constantly reminded that our solutions will only be sustainable with the necessary investment into digital in the ecosystem. From off-premise order aggregation software (UEAT, Cuboh to name a few), and marketplace platforms (such as The Third Place),  to AI-powered inventory solutions, our group is looking to dive head-on into this change of consumer habit when enjoying food off-premise, especially with fine dining.