…. After years of shifting the work and craftsmanship upstream to the processing plant, restaurateurs are going to recast the mission. Keep doing as much work as you can in the factory, yes. But leave enough leeway for some restaurant-level artistry. And could you reconsider all the processing that goes into the product? It might affect your yields and overall costs, but we want less human interference between field and fork. More of the natural, less of the scary science.
It would be a recipe for open warfare if there weren’t one calming reality: Consumers want that integrity. And that means they’ll pay more for it. So operators can afford to pay more.
Read the full Editorial from Restaurantbiz
“A loyalty card,” says Spence, “is a piece of plastic. Most loyalty programs are plastic. They do nothing more than replace traditional paper coupons with electronic coupons. Why would that generate loyalty?”
FastCompany
CHICAGO (January 27, 2005) - Food and beverage products that support healthy diets, weight loss, and on-the-go lifestyles are among the world’s fastest growing, according to a new global study from ACNielsen, based here. Specifically, soy-based drinks, drinkable yogurts and eggs were the top growth categories, reporting revenue growth increases of 31%, 19% and 16%, respectively, from 2003 to 2004, the report showed. Soy-based drinks and drinkable yogurts were among the fastest growing in a similar study conducted in 2002. The new findings are contained in ACNielsen’s report, “What’s Hot Around the Globe - Insights on Growth in Food and Beverages 2004.”
Supermarketnews
Reviewing a sampling of recent studies, two answers become clear. Tabletop and tableware actually do matter a great deal-but not always for the reasons most often given.
It’s well established that both the state of the tabletop and its settings can re-enforce a restaurant’s theme as well as send a quality message (or a lack of one) to guests. A 2002 poll by the Maritz organization revealed that 80% of Americans rate interior cleanliness as their top requirement when choosing a fast-food restaurant, and the tabletop has historically been where the rubber meets the road in that respect. (The same poll reported that visitors find dirty tables that included spills and trash 14% of the time.) Read the rest of this entry »
Restaurant menus will undergo profound and rapid change over the next two decades, reflecting the convergence of two significant factors. One is the power exerted by huge Generation Y as its members become autonomous restaurant-goers.
The other is the demands of diners of all ages who want menus to cater to their health, nutrition and weight concerns.
That’s the meta-message of Flavor & the Menu, an industry quarterly that tracks trends and makes predictions for the future of restaurateuring.
Miami Herald
