McDonald's closes in Piazza San Babila, symbol of the paninari
Memories of an era that still shapes the identity of Milan
Lifestyle
December 5th, 2022
December 5th, 2022
On December 6, the fast-food restaurant that became the symbol of an entire generation in 1980s Milan will carry with it the memories of an era that still shapes the city's identity. The McDonald's store in Piazza San Babila, former Burghy, is closing for good due to an expiring lease and excessive renewal costs. The lights went out at the meeting place of an Italian unique, that of the Paninari, one of the youth groups that most influenced the aesthetics and thinking of consumer culture in the 1980s, revolutionizing the notion of youth fashion and streetwear.
If today's restaurant industry has eradicated the passion for fast food, it is also and above all thanks to the Paninari and the historic building in Piazza San Babila. If originally it was the very Italian sandwiches of the Al Panino bar in Piazza Liberty that made the first Milanese 'Chicks' run, the opening of the first Burghy in Milan changed the rules. Burghy is run by the supermarket chain GS supermarket chain, Burghy embodied the American consumer style that animated the fast food way of life. The chain, acquired by Cremonini in 1985, owned 96 restaurants across the country by 1995, taking aim at giant McDonald's. The company gradually took over all Burghy restaurants throughout the boot, until the last one finally changed its sign in 2006.
Opened in 1981, the first Burghy in Italy became an icon of ideological and generational change: children of the American model and of a new world of consumption, the Paninari became a symbol of fast food, a concept completely alien to the Italian way of life of the time and which helped to dilute the clear party line that had characterized the togetherness of the youth of the time (the right in San Babila, the left in Piazza Santo Stefano). Now that McDonald's has announced that the current employees of the San Babila branch will not lose their jobs, but will simply be relocated, one wonders what will be the fate of a place that has marked the history of Milan and our way of life.
