http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/9258077.htm
PowerPay is like an E-Z Pass for sports fans, a cashless technology for buying beer and food in a hurry. Starting with tonight’s soccer match at Lincoln Financial Field, fans can get a free, thin plastic tag that has an Eagles logo printed on the outside and a tiny antenna and radio-frequency identification chip embedded inside. It can be used like cash at the more than 300 permanent concession stands at the Linc.
Fans can link the tag to any existing credit card, but if a fan also signs up for the Eagles’ new Extra Points MasterCard, each dollar spent accumulates one point toward prizes, such as autographed jerseys or even dinner with a player. And 3,000 of those new MasterCards will be available with the chip technology built in, eliminating the need for the separate tag. They’ll go first-come, first-served at the stadium or at www.eaglesextrapoints.com
Seems that what we in the industry have known for year is now… well trendy… i guess
“Drinkers v. Diners. “You can’t be just a great mixologist — you have to provide hospitality,” says Paul Grieco of Hearth, a N.Y.C. bar and restaurant, commenting on a trend toward people having dinner at the bar, as quoted by William L. Hamilton in The New York Times. “You can’t be a bartender anymore … You have to be a top-notch sommelier, a top-notch waiter, a top-notch food runner,” he says. It’s not that Paul Grieco is unhappy about that, though. In fact, Hearth anticipated bar diners in its design, including “stations for plates, napkins and silverware below the bar as well as for barware. And bars, from front to back, are wider, to accommodate table settings.” Indeed: “According to bartenders, managers and owners across New York, bar space at most restaurants has become de facto dining
space.”
Read the article at http://reveries.com/cool_news/2004/august/aug_18b.html
Sunday Times reports on an investigation that found a Tesco chicken and bacon salad contained more fat than a PizzaExpress margherita, a Big Mac and a portion of chips combined.
From The Restaurant Game
Canteen Vending Services, one of North America’s largest vending machine operators, is planning to install 7,500 vending machines over the next five years across the US that will stock only better-for-you food choices. The nutritious items to be sold include fresh melon and berry fruit cups, healthy salads and wraps, dried fruit and nuts, cereal bars, vitamin-enhanced water and vitamin packs.
http://just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=58069
Garlic candy, bacon and egg ice-cream, chilli chocolate, consumers are getting more daring, and challenging flavour combinations are gaining ground.
Pushing the envelope on exotic flavours can mean big profits for innovative producers.
http://just-food.com/features_detail.asp?art=881&lk=rss
