As many luxury shoppers can attest, the worlds of fashion and hospitality aren’t so far apart considering how designer forces like Prada, Dior, Ralph Lauren and Maison Kitsuné are known to also offer espressos as an added enticement.
As a sign of the overlap between food and fashion, the SA Hospitality Group has tapped Federico Turconi, a former Gucci executive, as chief executive officer. The company includes 14 Sant Ambroeus locations, 12 more for Felice and one Casa Lever restaurant. In an interview, Turconi said he was eager to dive into a new industry that he loves. So much so, that he exited as president and CEO of Gucci Americas on Oct. 4, and started his new post Oct. 7. Before landing that top-shelf job at Gucci Americas, Turconi had previously served as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Representatives at Gucci declined to comment.
Gucci’s chief commercial officer Cayetao Fabry is said to be overseeing his former president and CEO responsibilities at Gucci Americas. Further announcements are expected in due course.
Switching career tracks, however, was not a rash decision for Turconi, but one that he said he had first mulled over at the beginning of the year. He decided to do so even though Gucci had been his “home” and his “family” for many years, he said. Describing that “incredible ride,” Turconi said that after joining Gucci in 2011, its sales had quintupled by 2022 — exceeding 10.48 billion euros.
Raised in Como, Italy, Turconi said that hospitality has always been his passion, due to how his family prioritized food and spending time together. There was also always food at the center of the table for celebrations, holidays and other significant moments in his life, he said. Game for a career challenge, Turconi said he sought something that was “very much” connected to him as a person and what he loves. As much as he enjoys the hospitable aspect of his new industry, he also loves that Sant Ambroeus is a consistent, heritage brand that still resonates today.
He first experienced Sant Ambroeus during shopping trips to Milan with his parent as a child. Inspired by Saint Ambrogio, the patron saint of Milan, the first location bowed in 1936. His fondness for the Italian restaurant strengthened after he moved to New York and started frequenting Sant Ambroeus — often with clients. “Being Italian and coming to New York, it is a place where the old European world blends with the new American world. Sant Ambroeus became a home away of homes. It was one of those things that you did at the very beginning and you still remember the first conversations,” Turconi said.
As much as he enjoys leisurely lunches outdoors at the Madison Avenue location, he singled out the SoHo outpost as his favorite because of the neighborhood’s miche mache of architecture and billboards. Looking ahead, a new Sant Ambroeus will bow in Miami’s South Beach next year, and an Aspen outpost is expected to be unveiled by the end of the year. Clients’ familiarity and experiences with Sant Ambroeus plays into expansion plans. “The brand has tremendous opportunity to grow nationally and internationally,” said Turconi, adding that California, Texas, parts of Europe and the U.K. are other prospects for new outposts.
Just as consumers seek the best experience when choosing a handbag, they use similar discretion when dining, according to Turconi. From his viewpoint, the hospitality sector is a little reminiscent of the fashion world in the 1990s, when many brands were getting ready to scale internationally. In addition, luxury houses like Prada Café, Ralph Lauren’s Ralph’s Coffee and Dior Café have entered the hospitality sector with cafés.
And shoppers in major cities like Manhattan have no qualms about waiting in lines for bespoke bakeries, as they would for sneaker drops or luxury handbag launches. (When Jacquemus unveiled its SoHo flagship in New York City Friday, staffers offered croissants and orange juice to shoppers in line.)
Turconi said, “There will be more crossover. At the moment, every brand is fighting for market share and trying to develop something that will enable them to drive the traffic into their stores. It’s funny that somehow the product is not a bag or a pair of shoes any more, but a coffee. For some of these brands, the component of hospitality became more relevant than the product itself.”
With that in mind, SA Hospitality plans to open more Sant Ambroeus Gelateria and Coffee Bars, but only after much consideration and with an emphasis on consistency. “If you follow the trends, by the time you catch the trend, the trend is in a declining phase. That is something we would never do. We don’t want to be a trendy brand — we want to be a relevant brand,” he said.
