Al Condominio restaurant in Verona, Italy, offers free wine to customers who leave their mobile phones at the entrance. Owner Angelo Lella said the goal was to encourage diners to chat with each other instead of constantly staring at their smartphone.
After the first days of opening, only a third of customers accepted the challenge. Now, “90% of customers have chosen to leave their phone behind in exchange for a bottle of wine," says Lella. "It's really a beautiful thing to see people embrace it. They talk to each other rather than looking at photos or responding to messages,' he says of the new rule, adding that most millennials did it, while those over 45 were reluctant to do it. The menus are offered on paper, without any QR code, and customers can leave a review using paper and pen, as was the case in the past.