McDonald's closes in Piazza San Babila, symbol of the paninari Memories of an era that still shapes the identity of Milan

On December 6, the fast-food restaurant that became the symbol of an entire generation in 1980s Milan will carry with it the memories of an era that still shapes the city's identity. The McDonald's store in Piazza San Babila, former Burghy, is closing for good due to an expiring lease and excessive renewal costs. The lights went out at the meeting place of an Italian unique, that of the Paninari, one of the youth groups that most influenced the aesthetics and thinking of consumer culture in the 1980s, revolutionizing the notion of youth fashion and streetwear.

Opened in 1981, the first Burghy in Italy became an icon of ideological and generational change: children of the American model and of a new world of consumption, the Paninari became a symbol of fast food, a concept completely alien to the Italian way of life of the time and which helped to dilute the clear party line that had characterized the togetherness of the youth of the time (the right in San Babila, the left in Piazza Santo Stefano). Now that McDonald's has announced that the current employees of the San Babila branch will not lose their jobs, but will simply be relocated, one wonders what will be the fate of a place that has marked the history of Milan and our way of life.