Pregnant New Yorkers Not to be Refused

May 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Pregnant women in New York City are now legally entitled to purchase an alcoholic beverage, regardless of how it makes the bartender or patrons feel.  New guidelines based on the city’s Human Rights Law now say that refusing to serve a pregnant woman is discriminatory, and restaurants and bars are explicitly prohibited from refusing mothers-to-be.

Specifically, “While covered entities may attempt to justify certain categorical exclusions based on maternal or fetal safety, using safety as a pretext for discrimination or as a way to reinforce traditional gender norms or stereotypes is unlawful,” said the Commission on Human Rights.

Multiple medical associations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Surgeon General’s Office discourage any alcohol consumption during pregnancy.  And currently, restaurants and bars are required to post signs warning the dangers of alcohol to fetuses.  This new law now has foodservice establishments “stuck in the middle on this one,” noted Robert Bookman, a lawyer with the New York City Hospitality Alliance.

The new law also covers foods such as raw fish and soft cheese.  To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Local Market Buzz Tagged With: ,

Quinoa and California; an Unexpected Love Story

May 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Quinoa–you’ve heard it, seen it, tasted it in nearly everything over the past few years.  The ancient grain, indigenous to the Andean regions of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Chili, has grown wildly in popularity due to its complete-protein profile.

However, the seed itself hasn’t grown as wildly.  The pseudocereal is can be difficult to cultivate, and the surge in consumption had recently put a strain on farmers south of the equator.  Between the increasing price of quinoa and the increasing exports, consumers began to express concerns for the origin of their new favorite super food.

Meanwhile, in small, hot, below-sea-level area of the Imperial Valley in California, the Lundberg family has been able to grow the seed with great success.  In 2014, the family farm started with just 40 acres in Northern California.  Now, Lundberg has 800 acres planted and is looking at expanding this dry, forsaken patch in Brawley to 500 acres of what might be the next brown rice.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Brooklyn Brewery Joins the Navy Yard

May 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment

View-1-png.pngBrooklyn Brewery, the borough’s most iconic brewer, originally opened their Williamsburg location in 1996 and helped propel the neighborhood from its downtrodden industrial past to an international destination. But with rents steadily on the rise and showing no signs of slowing, the brewery has been looking for new spaces for several years to move the bulk of their operations once their lease is up in 2025. This weekend they announced that they’ll be following in the footsteps of Russ & Daughters and the Mast Brothers and opening a huge (75,000 square-foot) production facility in the updated Brooklyn Navy Yard under a 40-year lease.

The new facility will include brew space, offices, and a rooftop beer garden and restaurant. The move represents the first time the Brooklyn Brewery will be offering food as well as suds, and chief executive Eric Ottaway promises the menu will be “more than pretzels and bratwursts.” The borough has already committed to $80 million to revamp the Navy Yard’s building 77 as a food hall open to the public. The beer garden there should be open to the public by 2018, and early renderings promise the space will be a major destination for the “foodies” borough president Eric Adams is hoping to attract.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Local Market Buzz, Openings Tagged With: , , ,

The Pre-Shift Meal May be Your Best Tool For Team Building

May 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Many full service restaurants already incorporate a staff meal as part of their operations, but for some that meal may not seem worth the expense or planning required. If you fall into the latter category, we invite you to reconsider some of the added benefits of bringing the team together over a staff meal. Studies done in firehouses show that firefighters who share meals are more cooperative and perform better as a team. And while the stresses of putting out a burning building may not be exactly the same as those of serving a full dining room, there are some basic skills in common. And teammates who are able to relax together and connect when they’re not on the clock are more likely to communicate well when they are. Organizing a shared meal is also a good way for managers to take on joint responsibility and foster teamwork between front of house and back of house.

If organizing a full pre-shift sit-down is impossible at your establishment because of the time required or the nature of the business, we still recommend doing a lineup to go over the latest menu changes and any information that can be shared with guests. For more ideas about adding this simple but powerful step to your daily operations, click here.

Filed Under: Operations Tagged With: ,

Instant Tortillas Are Worth $100,000, According to Kickstarter

May 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment

flatev.0.0.jpgDubbed by many as “The Keurig of Tortillas,” the Flatev calls itself an “artisan tortilla maker,” and the people of Kickstarter want in.

The Flatev is a machine that makes one thing and one thing only – fresh corn tortillas from small pods of dough (all in under 90 seconds). It’s not the first oddly specific cooking device, and it definitely won’t be the last, but with Kickstarter funding of more than $100,000, they’ve already surpassed their own goals. As Eater points out, there is a certain precedent for Kickstarter projects like this to go awry, bringing in huge amounts of money without ever delivering. The “Coolest Cooler” was one of the best funded products on the site, but has yet to deliver to any backers. Hopefully fresh tortillas are easier to deliver than a cooler/blender/bluetooth speaker combo.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz Tagged With: , ,

What’s Next for Retail?

May 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Retail Customer Experience, the online publisher of current retail news and research, just released their latest Whitepaper on what’s next for retail (and how to navigate your business there). It includes research and advice on mobile POS, inventory management, and omnichannel brand representation, including warnings about some of the pitfalls retailers face navigating new technologies.

To download a copy, click here.

Filed Under: Operations Tagged With: , ,

Reserve Goes after Instant Reservations

May 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment

We’ve written a lot recently about the delivery wars currently being waged between competitors like Grubhub, Uber and Amazon, but less has been said about the battle to become the go-to reservation system. Current heavy hitters OpenTable and Yelp’s SeatMe have enjoyed a relatively open playing field for awhile, allowing each of them to acquire thousands of restaurant partners.

Reserve has been in the game since 2014, but has marketed its app as a restaurant “concierge” rather than a traditional reservation system. They partner with a much smaller list of restaurants (currently around 350), and users of the app provide a time window and a number of guests rather than making a reservation on the spot. Restaurants then confirm the time and Reserve alerts the user. Evidently with their eyes on a bigger prize, Reserve has now rolled out instant reservations at a subset of it’s current restaurant list. That subset may be small, but it includes impressive names like Russ & Daughter’s, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and Mission Chinese. Reserve’s Head of Restaurant Product, Peter Esmond, says that their focus is largely on creating a product that works better for restaurants by offering more flexibility and greater customer support.

While Yelp and OpenTable continue to go head to head, Reserve may quietly sneak up on them through the high-end market. Or they may just add a delivery feature and take on the world.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Local Market Buzz, Operations Tagged With: , ,

Behind Chick-fil-A’s Success

May 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Political controversy aside, Chick-fil-A’s success is undeniable. In 2015, they averaged $3.2 million in per-store sales, which is 25% higher than McDonald’s, and double Burger King or Wendy’s. In 2014 they overtook KFC as America’s biggest Chicken chain. Analysts now predict that they are on track to become the 4th largest chain in America in terms of revenue by 2020, calling them the largest and least appreciated threat to McDonald’s. And if you think that this is largely irrelevant in New York, where Bill De Blasio has come out officially against the company for the CEO’s homophobic remarks, you might want to think again. 8 blocks from their first NYC location in midtown they are currently construction a second, and there are additional plans in the works to open a dozen more around the outer boroughs – bringing them close to the number of Panera breads in the city.

Needless to say, controversy does not seem to be slowing them down too much. Analysts credit their tight operations, and perhaps a certain amount of exclusivity: apparently only 0.7% of the 20,000 applicants who applied for franchises last year were given a spot – an acceptance rate lower than Harvard.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Heard on The Street Tagged With: , ,

Joe’s Crab Shack Defects from Gratuity-Free

May 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Several months after going the no-tipping route, Joe’s Crab Shack has now rolled back the model from 18 restaurants to just 4. CEO Bob Merritt tells investors that customers simply don’t like it, and foot count is down 8 to 10% on average among the locations.

The chain was originally praised for their efforts, which followed on the heels of higher-end restaurateurs like Danny Meyer, Gabriel Stulman and Andrew Tarlow. Overall they raised server wages to $14 an hour and menu prices by 12 to 15%. “We tried it for quite a while, tried communicating it different ways,” Merritt explained, but a large portion of guests were unswayed. Research indicates that about 60% of guests disliked the model, either because they didn’t trust management to pay the higher wages or they preferred being able to incentivize good service.

Joe’s will revert 14 locations back to their former tipped model, but the remaining 4 have apparently been working much better. Merritt says they plan to treat those stores as a rich source of research, and figure out what distinguishes them from locations where it doesn’t work.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Trending Now Tagged With: ,

6/17: Request for Proposals due for Snack Bar in Columbus Park

May 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The NYC Parks Department has issued the following request for proposals (RFP) for a snack bar in Columbus park, due Friday June 17th.

In accordance with Section 1-13 of the Concession Rules of the City of New York, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“Parks”) is issuing, as of the date of this notice, a significant Request for Proposals (“RFP”) for the renovation, operation, and maintenance of a snack bar at Columbus Park, Brooklyn.

All proposals submitted in response to this RFP must be submitted no later than Friday, June 17, 2016 at 2:00 PM. There will be a recommended site visit on Monday, May 23, 2016 at 11:00 AM.  We will be meeting in front of the snack bar on Joralemon Street, between Court Street and Adams Street, Brooklyn.  If you are considering responding to this RFP, please make every effort to attend this recommended site visit.

Hard copies of the RFP can be obtained, at no cost, commencing on May 6, 2016 through June 17, 2016, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and holidays, at the Revenue Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 407, New York, NY 10065.

The RFP is also available for download, commencing on May 6, 2016 through June 17, 2016, on Parks’ website.  To download the RFP, visit www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities, click on the link for “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” and, after logging in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFP’s description.

For more information or to request to receive a copy of the RFP by mail, prospective proposers may contact Zoe Piccolo, Project Manager, at (212) 360-3495 or at zoe.piccolo@parks.nyc.gov.

TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115

 

Filed Under: Opportunities Tagged With: ,
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