She is tall and slender and wears a sophisticated conical hat. She frequents tables in New York City’s most coveted restaurants. She brightens up her room.
Perhaps you have seen her? she is a lamp Pina Pro Cordless Lamp From the Italian design company Zafferano to be exact. And she is everywhere.
Serve at a stylish Italian restaurant in the evening alto paradisoin Soho, put pinapro on the outside table. Each little LED light casts a mellow, romantic glow over the pappardelle served with duck ragout. Light cozy enough to make you forget about the rats you just passed and the noise from the Ducati dealership across the street.
and DutchLocated a few blocks away on the corner of Prince and Sullivan Street, the black hues of the lamps match the pillars surrounding the outdoor tables. Down one street he finds several Pinapros lined up in the plant-filled dining shed of a French-Indonesian restaurant. wayangThe list of lamp supporters continues to grow, mostly in Manhattan. little owl, market table, coat, mercer kitchen, vestry, Lodi, CiprianiThe Brooklyn restaurant with Pina Pros has Evelina When aurora.
“The most perfect model of restaurant outdoor lamps. Matos HospitalityOperates Altro Paradiso, like a candle, “very easy to use, lasts a long time, and doesn’t blow over.” At $149 per lamp, it’s not cheap, but it’s rechargeable.
At Altro Paradiso, several lamps mysteriously disappeared, Miller said. “People fought over them,” she added, when the restaurant still didn’t have one of hers on every table.
The fuss over light sources may remind you of the exposed filament Edison bulbs that became a staple of restaurant decor a decade ago.
One of the reasons Pina Pro has become so popular is because of the pandemic. When closed New York restaurants were allowed to open for outdoor service in the summer of 2020, owners suddenly had to dine on sidewalks and streets amidst the smells and sounds of the city. .
It’s time for the lamp to shine.
“Restaurants across the city started setting up tables on the sidewalks in the dark,” said Barrett Gross, president of Zafferano America.
Pina Pro debuted in February, one year after Zafferano officially opened. America branchHowever, it did not sell very well at first. So one night in June 2020, Mr. Gross walked around Soho where he lives with two of his lamps in hand. He approached the host stand, lowered his lamp and turned it on.
At Italian restaurant Cipriani, “one of the hosts said, ‘When can we eat?'” Gross recalls. “It was the most enthusiastic response I’ve ever sold anything in my life.”
Gross said that after the lamps reached some Cipriani stores, he started getting inquiries from other restaurateurs. A diner asked if a lamp for the table could be purchased.
Joey Campanaro, chef and owner of Little Owl, said, “This lamp was a real treat for restaurants at a time when they didn’t know how to serve food outside.” It offered “comfort and practicality.”
“Especially in restaurants, the power of light is incredible,” he added.
More than 20,000 lamps were sold in the United States last year, Gross said.
Sales are expected to grow 910% from 2020 to 2021 and more than double by 2022, according to Ben Austin, director of marketing for Zafferano America. He said 20-30% of these purchases were made in restaurants, most of them in New York. But Austin said the lamp is gaining momentum in other cities, including Miami (where white models are popular) and Washington.
In some restaurants you can order Pina Pro directly from your table using a QR code under the lamp. The company says it spends no money on traditional advertising.
Gianni Mosel, who was dining in Holland last Saturday night, said he had never seen a lamp like the Pina Pro. would,” she said.
KwangHo Lee, president of Soho and Upper West Side Japanese restaurants Momoya, saw a lamp in Holland in March. He now uses them in his Soho store and says he won’t go back to candles that need to be replaced and cleaned regularly.
But there are always people who prefer candlelit dinners. On a recent night at Altro Paradiso, Jillian McKigney turned off her Pina Pro at her outdoor table and said it was “a little sterile.”
Her dining companion Blair Bryce said the lamp’s small head and heavy base felt out of proportion. She missed the yellow glow of the candle and the way it flickered and danced. “I will dedicate it forever,” she said.
