How does a restaurant work without a cell phone?

A wine bar with excellent wines, almost always from small, artisanal local producers. Ideal for a bite to eat and enjoying the aperitif ritual, without wasting even a moment. experience of a conversazione, of physical contact, of a meeting between people who have things, and quite a few, to say to each other. Vitis Vinifera, this is the name of the place, it is located in the popular Roman neighborhood of Centocelle, and its three partners, Marco De Santis, Laura Cuocina and Sabino Valentini, wanted to launch something more than a provocation. In their wine shop, among wines and food, cell phones and The smartphone they are silent. Are extinguishedThere's no chatting, no fiddling, no trilling. There's no wasting time ignoring others and disturbing others. And we spend time together, as the Non sprecare community so loves, primarily through the pleasure of conversation. Uninterrupted by the annoying noises of our electronic devices.

The impact is truly unbearable. You walk into a restaurant, look at the tables, and what do you find? A crowd of people, all apparently in good company, glued to the smartphone to tinker. In this way the company of other diners turns into a group of ghosts, and they waste time, human relations, warmth of a meeting. Without considering the aesthetic aspect and the breach of etiquette: those mobile phones Placed on the tables like Wild West-era pistols, they're truly hideous. And they often trill, disturbing other patrons, just like what typically happens on trains when you're trying to rest and are jolted awake by the ringing of your neighbor's cell phone.

Faced with this phenomenon that combines bad education and waste resulting from the compulsive use of technological devices, a new, interesting trend is growing: several restaurateurs, all over the world, are inviting customers to leave cell phones at the entrance and in exchange they even offer one discount significant impact on menu prices. Even in Italy, there are those who are converting to this new belief. From Friuli Venezia Giulia, passing through Roma, up to Campania, the proposal of “free phone” meals is gaining more and more ground.

This countertrend trend is starting in the US, where, for example, a restaurant in Georgia has decided to offer free ice cream to those who manage to eat without looking at their cell phones, as well as in Los Angeles, where a 5% discount is offered to those who give up their phones. In Italy, a few years ago, one of the first places to draw attention to the issue was Stonehenge Bar, restaurant of Teramo: offered a 15% discount to anyone who decided to leave their cell phones at the restaurant entrance, provided that everyone sitting at the same table did so and not just a few members of a group of friends or family.

An important signal to rediscover good manners and enhance relationships between people, with a marked improvement in the quality of one's life.

The «PanXFocaccia» bar-bakery on Corso Dante at the corner of Via XX Settembre Cuneo Instead, every Wednesday evening it organizes the Aperitivo Sociale – #nosocial, which allows customers who decide to leave their cell phones in a special plastic bag for the bar's management to earn double points on their card, which, after 10 drinks, offers a free one. A growing number of young people and others are joining the initiative, putting their smartphones aside, Wednesday after Wednesday.

And there are more and more of them too Milan the places that periodically organize social aperitifs where you can enjoy a good glass of wine in company without being disturbed by the screen of your phoneAmong these: Frida, Ostello Bello, Le Biciclette.

In the capital, however, an original idea is the one promoted by the restaurant Coppelle House where you can dine while reading poetry instead of smartphone notifications. Once you hand over your phone to the restaurant staff, you'll receive a specially selected volume. The initiative is proving incredibly successful. Among the most requested poems are those by Pablo Neruda, William Shakespeare, Charles Baudelaire, Eugenio Montale, Alda Merini, and Emily Dickinson.

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