Wine Windows: Get Your Booze On
Earlier this week I read a story about 17th-century wine windows. What are those you ask? Well, they were these clever little hacks by Italian wine merchants of the 1600s.
A wine window | Via Food & Wine
TL;DR
→ Back in the days, wine merchants would sell their goods through small windows
→ These “pedestrian drive-thru” windows are making a comeback in COVID times
→ If you’ve got keen eyes, you may be able to find similar serving windows hiding around your city
You see, aristocratic merchants back then weren’t so keen on having to pay taxes on their wine businesses, so instead they opted to operate these businesses on the down-low. Plus there was this thing called the Black Death that was sweeping through towns in 1634… so, people had to devise some clever ways to continue doing business.
This resulted in so called buchette del vino popping up around town. They were little windows, big enough for a glass of wine to pass through (window slits essentially), that thirsty patrons could drop coins into and promptly receive a glass of wine. They came in a bunch of different shapes - appearing as cutouts in big stately wood doors or as hacked archways in a building’s wall. Many of the original wine windows have been filled in, yet it’s reported that due to the coronavirus, many are being reopened as a way of practicing social distancing and limiting customers having to come into a restaurant to pick-up an order. Now, the little wine windows are being used to deliver coffees, food, and a variety of drinks beyond wine. Plus, they’re Instagram worthy, helping local businesses profit from free customer-driven marketing.
Apparently due to the coronavirus, these small windows are making a comeback. There are about 300 of them remaining in Tuscany, waiting to accept your contactless payments in exchange for some booze.
Don’t despair! You might be seeing similar hole in the walls cropping up around the world.
These pedestrian drive-thru windows remind me of a story I read about Starbucks’ digital-first strategy. As the story goes, we should expect Starbucks to begin relying more heavily on their app as the central pillar of the customer experience. Having noticed that most of their customers prefer to grab-and-go their orders, one of their initiatives involves developing street-facing windows (ahem, pedestrian drive-thrus please) where customers can quickly pick-up their orders without even having to come in the store. Vehicle drive-thrus will remain, yet a new customer service model of convenience and order fulfillment is going to sweep through the Starbucks locations.
Goodbye coffee shop as a third place (for those of you unfamiliar with this term, the third place is one that is neither home nor work where people can socialize) and hello Buchette del Venti!
A generated image of a grown facade with hidden windows.