GastroMap of Lodz

GastroMap of Lodz – we’ve got it! On July 29, 2023 we are celebrating 600th anniversary of granting city rights to the city of Lodz. GastroMap of Lodz is the gift of the Polish community of the SPOT project to the city of Lodz: its inhabitants and visitors.

GastroMap of Lodz is the result of 4th edition of MapoFaktura event held on April 14, 2023. This year, the participants of the event updated OpenStreetMap with the information about gastronomy services in the city of Lodz. MapoFaktura was also part of the GeoNight international initiative. Participants had the opportunity to take part in interesting workshops with the experts: editors of OpenStreetMap, GIS scientists, and spatial data analysts. MapoFaktura was organised and supported by the Faculty of Geographical Sciences of the University of Lodz, the SPOT project, the Tourism Geography Commission of the Polish Geographical Society, the OpenStreetMap Poland, Lodz Tourist Organization and TomTom company.

GastroMap of Lodz and the MapoFaktura event were contributed mostly by students of the tourism and recreation master programme at the University of Lodz. As the goal of the MapoFaktura was to create GastroMap of Lodz, students had to engage in work long before the event. Data on gastronomy in Lodz had to be collected, updated, validated and delivered to all participants of MapoFaktura event. The event itself had to be organised and promoted.

The conclusions drawn from the analysis of GastroMap of Lodz are extremely interesting. First of all, the high concentration of the gastronomic services in the city centre (mainly on Piotrkowska Street) was confirmed. But a significant number of those entities were evidenced also in the so-called sub-centres of the city – clusters of various functions, including gastronomic services, which have developed in the areas of large housing estates: Retkinia, Widzew Wschód, or in the Górna district.

Along with the discussion about sustainable development, we see the increase of awareness of the importance of what and how we eat. In this context, vegetarian and vegan cuisine are starting to play an important role. It is already confirmed that reducing meat consumption contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, from the perspective of sustainable development of Lodz, the availability of vegan and vegetarian offerings in the gastronomy services is important. Now, look at GastroMap of Lodz. Restaurants offering meat-free dishes are located mainly in the centre of Lodz. However, vegan and vegetarian cuisine is also available outside the central district, mainly along the primary communication routes.

Restaurants offering local, regional or Polish dishes have been operating in Lodz for a long time. They do not constitute the majority, but they guarantee residents and tourists access to dishes typical of the city, region or country. Importantly, this access is quite common outside the city centre. At GastroMap of Lodz we can find small gastronomy entities offering home cooking dishes prepared from products supplied by local food producers. This is very important in the context of the European “farm to fork” strategy. Its aim is not only to increase organic production. It is also important to reduce the environmental and economic costs associated with food transport. Consumers’ interest in local culture and identity, of which cuisine is a very significant part, is also important.