Autogrill launches the first motorway Bistrot

Autogrill opens for the first time in the motorway channel its Bistrot concept, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Gastronomic Science (UNISG) in Pollenzo and reflects the evolution of food culture by privileging local Italian products and the recovery of craft techniques.

This point of sale will thus become an exponent of a new food culture – travelling but not only – and of Autogrill’s sharpening focus on its consumers’ changing needs and eating styles to offer travellers a quality break.

The new Bistrot is in the Arda service area in Fiorenzuola d’Arda (Piacenza) on the A1 Turin-Piacenza-Brescia motorway, where two major flows of travellers and two important culinary traditions, those of Piacenza and Parma, meet.

A new offering for on-the-road customers on the road

Characterized by an interior layout evoking the atmosphere typical of covered markets in cities, the Bistrot Fiorenzuola d’Arda is an eclectic place in which high quality goes hand in hand with the concepts of naturalness, in-season and local supply and respect for the life cycle of the products. The point of sale promotes a vision that emphasizes continuity between production and consumption, with innovative in-store communication that provides customers with the faces, backgrounds and characteristics of the main suppliers. 

The renovation of the Arda location has changed both the lateral pillars, by which travellers enter, and the bridge level.

The offering on the ground floor includes a bakery (Il Forno) which has its work area visible to customers and features a wide assortment of pizzas, numerous types of bread made with sourdough and local cakes and pastries, such as the typical Torta di Vigolo (from Pasticceria Perazzi, a long established firm in the province of Piacenza), a Caffetteria, where genuine Neapolitan coffee made in the traditional “cuccuma” can be enjoyed, and a fresh fruit & veg area (Il Frutteto) which prepares a generous choice of centrifuged juices, fresh smoothies and fruit salads.

On the upper level (on the bridge over the motorway), on the other hand, travellers can try 1^st course specialities from Il Pastaio, which, in full view of the customers, produces a variety of fresh pasta (bronze-drawn) using flours from I Molini di Voghera; street food style 2^nd courses at Cucine di Strada, which has a barbecue grill for meat (from Azienda Agricola Morini, just 20 km from Fiorenzuola, for example); and cold dishes and salads from the delicatessen (La Gastronomia).

The offering is rounded out by a number of market points featuring select high quality products from local producers, such as vinegar from Acetaia Bellei, which has a history of over 600 years.

The Fiorenzuola d’Arda location was the first bridge type motorway diner to be built in Europe, in 1959 and is still one of the most eloquent icons of Italy’s modernization and economic boom

It was designed by Angelo Bianchetti, (born in 1911 and graduated in architecture at Politecnico di Milano in 1934) and was the prototype for subsequent bridge-type f&b locations.

The Fiorenzuola d’Arda service area has always been an innovative facility in step with the times and has thus reflected growth in the country over the last 50 years and the habits of generations of Italians travelling on the “Autostrada del Sole”.