From creative coffee shops to decadent whiskey bars to embarking on fine-dining escapades, dining out in all of its fabulous forms continues to be a favourite collective pastime…

But what is it about dining out that we really enjoy? Well that’s a question to which there is no absolute answer – for some, it’s simply the convenience of not having to wash up the dishes; others are culinary connoisseurs who relish the opportunity to tantalise their tastebuds; others still enjoy purely the social aspect of spending a night together with a group of friends…

Although there exist a myriad of further reasons, these seem to be the main three. And it’s not simply a case of one mate being the “let’s-grab-a-quick-burger” convenience guy all the time and another strictly sticking to a diet of caviar and filet-mignon (although we all have a friend firmly planted in each camp); but rather that each of us enjoys eating out for an obtuse mixture of the above reasons.

In fact, many long standing foodie traditions hark directly back to these points – try to pick the raison d’être: truck stop bain maries, Michelin-starred degustation menus, fast food chains, late night bar menus, fine-dining, Sunday brunch, pop-up food trucks and food & wine festivals… the list goes on.

So if we seemingly have these three main bases well and truly covered, where to next for the hospo industry?! Now I’m not claiming to be Nostradamus, but here are my thoughts on the future of food.

In many recent conversations I’ve had regarding this topic, people have exclaimed along the lines of: “it’s not enough to serve straight-up sausage rolls and Blend 43 at a country bakery anymore unless it’s Instagrammable” or “I’m sick of seeing all this high-end food porn on my feed when I can’t even afford a 10-pack nuggets meal from KFC!”

This kind of thinking leads to the idea that all channels of food – be they convenience, culinary or social – are converging, and someday in the near future we will be able to drink single malt whiskey while munching on a share plate of loaded fries with a bunch of our best mates on a Wednesday night for under $20! (Some places come close but at a heftier price tag!)

But ultimately I do believe that segmentation is real and in fact becoming more prominent in the food and drink industry, and I have a clue as to why we aren’t noticing it: granularity.

These days, restaurants don’t market broadly to capture a wide category such as “luxury/fine-dining”, but are far more specific – we have international fine dining, local fine dining, high end wine/beer/spirit matchings, vegetarian/vegan fine dining, luxury dining experiences in planes/helicopters/penthouses… the list goes on. Sure, it’s fairly simple to see the clear divide between convenience/luxury/experience in food categories, but it is much more difficult to comprehend the carefully thought out muddle of segments that marketers aim at: who of us can even taste the supposedly pronounced differences and nuances that terroir and microclimate effects produce on wines of the same grape varietal?

And now you’re probably thinking this whole micro-segmentation stuff is complete nonsense, but I assure you that it’s not! It serves a very good purpose, because now we have enough options and disposable income to be able to be more picky with the food we choose to eat, and so offering the right food at the right time to the right people is precisely what these campaigns aim to do.

Many other factors come into play when considering the future of the industry, considerably: the decrease in production costs blurring the line between cheap/expensive food quality; increasing space premium pushing towards meal delivery service; the frenetically paced social media phenomena that can make or break a restaurant in a heartbeat with a single effective snap…

These considerations again lead us to think that the restaurant of the future is some aggregated, robust beast that offers a little in the way to please everybody, but not be placed in too much of a niche that it can come unstuck in an instant. But again, this couldn’t be further from my predicted truth – on a more granular level, there are enough people in most main cities that drive the need and fuel the growth for all sorts of niche offerings – all of a sudden we have “intolerance cafes”, “sky high whiskey flights” and restaurants that dump a bag of boiled crabs on the butcher paper in front of you, dress you in a bib and gloves and let you messily slurp away.

It’s a crazy world and I love what it has to offer in the food and drinks industry – long live the rise of the artisan culture!