Corby Kummer: Restaurateurs moving to suburbia "not really completely new"

While many think the suburbs have a “boring, white bread reputation,” the pandemic has caused a wave of restaurateurs to set their eyes on suburbia over the big city.

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Monday to share why increasing numbers of restaurateurs are choosing to open restaurants in the suburbs rather than the big city – and how new of a trend this really is.

Although the pandemic spurred many people to move from urban areas to suburbia, Kummer notes that independent, award-winning restaurants have long pre-dated the pandemic.

“There's lots of different groups that are opening restaurants, and I think there's a more discerning customer base that wants higher quality,” Kummer noted.

Kummer pointed to Il Capriccio Ristorante e Bar in Waltham, an award-winning Northern Italian restaurant that first opened in 1981. The original owner of IL Capriccio, Enzo Danesi, worked at Barsanti’s in Boston and Le Bocage in Cambridge before opening his restaurant in Waltham. Il Capriccio recently reopened at The Merc at Moody and Main.

“This is part of a trend that has been accelerated by the pandemic and people moving to suburbs, but it's not really completely new,” Kummer said.

Kummer is the executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.