The Melloo pizzeria in Florence, at via Luigi Gordigiani 4r, has introduced an original payment method, called Vinyl coin, to enrich the collection of records available in the venue, which can be listened to at will during your meal.
The vinyls are appraised directly in the pizzeria, in the presence of the customer, using the specialized website discogs.com, which employs the international “Goldmine Standard” classification—the strictest and most selective—published for the first time in 1974 and still used today by most collectors. The “vinyl coin” is valid only for dine-in customers, thus excluding takeaway and delivery, during the evening opening hours between 6:30 pm and 11:30 pm, and is a permanent solution launched after some testing in recent weeks.
“At the moment, this appears to be the first time in the world that such a payment system has been introduced,” says Massimo Mauceri, owner of the venue that has just celebrated its first anniversary since opening, “which we devised to bring together people—from locals to visitors from all over the world—who live the concept of conviviality as the sharing of good food and good music and, of course, who are passionate about vinyl records. We increase the number of titles in the collection and the musical choices, while customers either get a discount or get their dinner for free, depending on the value of the records they brought in for evaluation.”
How Vinyl Coin Works
The guest, after booking a table through the dedicated website melloo.ristoratoretopsuite.com and writing “vinylcoin” in the booking notes, comes to the venue with one or more used vinyl records, enjoys their dinner and, before paying, appraises the records with the staff using an impartial classification system (also displayed on the walls) that takes into account both the condition of the vinyl and the sleeve, as well as the rarity of the album. The value of the records is then discounted from the dinner price, up to the full cost of the meal. If the record is worth more than the dinner, vouchers equal to the difference will be issued to spend in the venue in the future.
The types of music accepted to turn vinyls into colorful pizzas and abundant burgers on the menu are numerous, spanning many genres and subgenres: blues, rock & roll, R&B, gospel, country, hard rock, jazz, swing, free & Brazilian jazz, tropical, soul, funk, hip hop, rap, breakbeat, ska, reggae, rocksteady, bluebeat, dub, rockers, DJ style, dancehall, dubstep, jungle, ragamuffin, bashment, soca, reggaeton. Evaluation of records in other genres is at the discretion of the venue.
“When we came up with the vinyl coin idea in the pre-Covid months,” concludes Mauceri, “we were afraid of being overrun, given the small size of the pizzeria, but the fact that this idea ultimately targets a niche audience, combined with the mandatory reservation system and distancing requirements, will help create that warm and intimate atmosphere we intend to promote as a lifestyle at the table. During the tests and in recent months, we were also surprised to see many customers gift us their records so they could listen to them and let everyone present enjoy them every time they come to dinner.”
Melloo, opened in June 2019, is a venue specializing in “pala” pizzas—rectangular, particularly crunchy pizzas despite having dough with a fermentation time between 48 and 56 hours. Besides pizzas, the menu is enriched by “soul food” such as Jamaican jerk, burgers, and sweet potatoes. All dishes are paired with craft beers from Italian microbreweries, and the coffee, available as a specialty version, is roasted in a local roastery.
