Food Halls Offer Unique Opportunities for Food Vendors and Guests

July 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment

bergn1

Food halls have been opening at a rate that’s made them difficult to ignore.

From a guest’s perspective, food halls provide the opportunity to pick and choose from different vendors to create just the elevated (shared or single) artisanal and chef-driven meal they want. They can drop impromptu without needing to coordinate party palates ahead of time. Food halls also offer a place to linger while enjoying the hustle and bustle of a busy food market.

From the operator’s side, the format is attractive as well. Tenants share overheard expenses while getting the exposure and traffic that comes from being part of a high-profile venue. For up-and-coming entrepreneurs, it’s a way to break into the business without a lot of capital. For established, even celebrity chefs, it’s a way to meet the people where they are and sell to their food—and their brand—to a broader audience.

New food halls are emerging most often in once-abandoned urban spaces as local governments and neighborhood groups bend over backwards in to pave the way for developers. There’s fierce competition for coveted vendor spaces. For operators looking to nab a spot, this means having a tight concept that’s on-trend and can turn orders quickly—all while offering food quality that’s several notches above standard food court fare.

Filed Under: Local Market Buzz, Opportunities

How To Make Your Restaurant A Pokemon Go Hotspot!

July 14, 2016 by 1 Comment

pokemon go

As smartphone apps go, the augmented-reality “Pokemon Go” really is a monster. “Pokemon Go” has been downloaded to more than 15 million smartphones in less than a week, according to the analytics consultancy SensorTower, and restaurant operators are asking how they can capture them as customers as well as Pokemon hunters catch the little Pocket Monsters.

A restaurant operator can buy 30 minutes of heightened Pokemon action by buying Lure Modules and installing them at PokeStop locations. Here’s a seven-step tutorial on buying and using the “Lure Modules” that the developer Niantic is selling and experts recommend to draw customers’ attention:

  1. Make sure your location and your smart phone are near a PokeStop, which is designated by an elevated blue cube on the app that turns into concentric three-dimensional spinning circles as you near it.
  2. If your restaurant is within yards of a PokeStop, buy Lure Modules by first tapping the red and white ball at the bottom on the “Pokemon Go” app. That will take you to a “Settings” screen with options such as Items, Pokemon and “Shop.” Tap “Shop.”
  3. You are now on a purchase screen, and you can purchase PokeCoins through the iTunes or Google Play stores by scrolling to the bottom. A Lure Module costs 100 coins (99 cents). You can buy larger amounts such as 550 Pokecoins for $4.99 and 1,200 coins for $9.99.
  4. After the PokeCoins are purchased, you can by a Lure Modules for 100 PokeCoins or eight Lure Modules for 680 PokeCoins. Your purchase will show up among the Pokeman Go “Items.”
  5. During the period when you want to increase possible “Pokeman Go” traffic for 30 minutes, tap on the spinning “PokeStop” and click on the white bar immediately beneath its location.
  6. A screen noting an “Empty Module slot” will open and tap the white bar to install the module. Your location is a “Lure” spot when you see what looks like a mini blizzard of pink leaves. The Pocket Monsters will show up for you and others for 30 minutes.
  7. Let potential customers know you’ve made in investment by posting your alluring purchase to your Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat fans, such as Just Salad did in New York as seen in the tweet pictured above.
Filed Under: Enterprise Insight, Opportunities Tagged With: ,

America Throws Away Half of Its Edible Produce

July 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment

fresh-produce

New research suggests that fully one-half of the nation’s produce now probably ends up as garbage. This dismal nugget from the story pretty well summarizes the findings:

Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the US are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill, because of unrealistic and unyielding cosmetic standards, according to official data and interviews with dozens of farmers, packers, truckers, researchers, campaigners and government officials.

The story distinguishes waste that’s “downstream,” or ruined because it goes bad on a grocery shelf or sits forever in a fridge bin, from waste that’s “upstream.” The first kind supposedly accounts for $160 billion worth of produce every year — which isn’t hard to believe when you remember each American family single-handedly trashes $600 worth of food in that time frame — but factor in ugly produce left to rot in the field or rejected by grocery stores, and The Guardian estimates this figure quickly climbs to half of all of the fruits and vegetables the country grows.

Read more here.

Filed Under: Local Market Buzz Tagged With: ,

Angel’s Share Alums Open New Cocktail and Ramen Bar

July 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

11-rokc-009.w710.h473.2x.jpgShigefumi Kabashima and Tetsuo Hasegawa, both formerly of the popular speakeasy-esque bar Angel’s Share, have just unveiled the full cocktail menu at their new spot in Hamilton Heights. The bar is called ROKC (short for Ramen, Oysters, Kitchen and Cocktails), and the menu is a playful American twist on the high quality Japanese drinks at Angel’s Share. Examples include a Thai tea spiked with absinthe and cachaça, a matcha latte with Japanese whiskey, and a fruity cocktail called “Flower” with shochu, lavender, elderflower, and cranberry, served in a lightbulb and presented over ice in a trapezoidal pot.

These cocktails are all newly unveiled, but the ramen and limited raw bar have been available for a few weeks during he restaurant’s soft-open. Ex–Maison Premiere sous-chef Jeff Srole has been heading the seafood menu, and Isao Yoneda (formerly of Totto and Hide-Chan) is responsible for the three types of ramen bowls.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Openings Tagged With: , ,

Ice Cream gets Honored With Its Own Museum

July 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

MUSEUM OF ICE CREAM .jpgBeginning in August, the meatpacking district will be home to a new museum dedicated to the wonderful world of ice cream, where guests can play in an ice cream-themed playground, learn about the history of the cold treat, and of course try samples. Co-founders Maryellis Bunn and Manish Vora originally embarked on the project last year in order to fulfill Bunn’s childhood dream of being able to swim in a pool of sprinkles. That specific fantasy will be available to all visitors at the museum, where the pair have filled a life-size pool with sprinkles that may not be edible, but are designed to look and feel exactly like the kind usually seen on sundaes.

The rest of the exhibit, which is sponsored in part by Tinder, features a playground with equipment like an ice cream scoop seesaw and ice cream sandwich swing, a tasting lab with weekly rotating flavors from New York ice cream shops, plus sculptures, paintings and murals throughout the maze-like space. Black Tap and Oddfellows have already been announced as partners.

Tickets are $18 for single admission or $30 for a couple. To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Events, Openings Tagged With: , ,

Craft Brewers Go Hi-Tech

July 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment

craft hop

The dirty secret behind today’s IPAs: There’s little dirty about them. Brewers are sourcing their signature bitterness in sterile labs, not muddy hop fields.

The hop plant contains oils and resins that give beer its bite; lab-made extracts of those flavorful and bitter oils and resins were once relegated to Big Beer’s industrial toolbox, while craft brewers stuck to cramming whole cones of the hop vine into the brewing kettle. No more. Not that industrial hop extraction is anything new. In the 1870s, the New York Hop Extract Company supplied brewers with hop resins made by soaking flowers in gasoline. Today, labs use liquid CO2 as a solvent, boiling hops to extract oils and then venting the gas away. The liquid that remains is clean, shelf-stable and concentrated, easy to preserve and to ship. “Extracts have better longevity [than raw hops], particularly in countries with developing logistics or harsher climates,” said Alex Barth, CEO of John I. Haas.

Still, the new wave of extraction is small. Robert Bourne of Extractz makes variety-specific extractions in an Ohio garage. He supplies a few local brewers but admitted he’s on the fringes: “It’s more of a home-brew thing.” Even when they come from a garage, extracts haven’t quite shed their industrial associations. The Hop Stoopid label shows a rustic barn; the fine print proclaims the “mountain of extracts” in the beer. “People read the label and call us up saying they won’t drink it,” says brewmaster Jeremy Marshall . “They think it’s some industrial, nonnatural thing.” Others maintain that whether from a leaf or a vial, flavor trumps all.

Read more here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

England’s Restaurant Business ‘Regrexit’

July 8, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Bibo-Restaurant-Lounge-Substance-1

Add this to the roughly 1 million bad things the U.K’s “Leave” coalition should’ve seen coming: Brexit is having a adverse effect on England’s restaurant industry. In a story today featuring reporting by chief restaurant critic Richard Vines, Bloomberg essentially gave prominent restaurateurs free rein to grumble about their compatriots’ vote to leave the EU, and they say business is already getting hammered in this post-Brexit world where “bean-counters keep closer tabs on expense accounts, a weak pound raises prices of imported food, and eateries struggle to hire workers from the EU.”

The country’s dining scene had actually been doing pretty well up till now, too — Bloomberg says the number of restaurants jumped by 21 percent over the past five years. But even in advance of the vote, sales growth industry-wide nose-dived by half. One restaurant group immediately scrapped multi-million-pound plans to buy four pubs in Scotland. Stats show there’s been 12 percent less corporate credit-card spending since the referendum, while many chefs worry the worst is yet to come because they fear already-costly products like Spanish jamón ibérico are going to climb even higher. Richard Corrigan, a celebrated chef, expects the price of French wine to jump by 15 percent and so has given staff very clear instructions to stock up on the Bordeaux.

Read more here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz Tagged With: ,

Women Challenge the Gluttony Ceiling at a July 4th Ritual

July 7, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is an annual American hot dog competitive eating competition. It is held each year on Independence Day at Nathan’s Famous original, and best-known restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.

If you know the name Joey Chestnut (men’s hot dog eating champion with a record total of 70 dogs this July 4th), you should also know the names Sonya Thomas and Miki Sudo.  Ms. Sonya Thomas holds the female hot dog eating world record of 45 hot dogs in 10 minutes.  Ms. Sudo’s hot dog tally of 38 this year beat the fourth-place total in the men’s division.

Among the 15 female contestants were a hairdresser, a taxidermist, a truck driver, a marine mammal trainer and a fashion model from New Zealand.  “You have to be physically fit to stand up there for 10 minutes and go full force” said Nela Zisser, the 24-year old model.

Each contestant has his or her own eating method. Takeru Kobayashi pioneered the “Solomon Method” at his first competition in 2001. The Solomon method consists of breaking each hot dog in half, eating the two halves at once, and then eating the bun.  “Dunking” is the most prominent method used today. Because buns absorb water, many contestants dunk the buns in water and squeeze them to make them easier to swallow, and slide down the throat more efficiently.  Other methods used include the “Carlene Pop,” where the competitor jumps up and down while eating, to force the food down to the stomach.

The women trained throughout the year by exercising, eating healthy and practicing techniques at smaller competitions such as gobbling dozens of Twinkies in six minutes.

Ms. Mary Bowers of Beverly Hills, California said she hoped the women’s competition would eliminate a cultural stigma that often discourages eating among young girls.

Please click here to read more…

 

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

8/31: RFP for a Restaurant and Banquet Facility

July 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The NYC Parks Department has issued a request for proposals for a restaurant and banquet hall at 201-10 Cross Island Parkway, Queens. For full details of the RFP, see below:

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 operation, renovation, and maintenance of a restaurant and banquet facility at 201-10 Cross Island Parkway, Queens.

There will be a recommended site visit on July 27, 2016 at noon.  We will be meeting at 201-10 Cross Island Parkway, Bayside NY 11360, off the Cross Island Parkway between 201stand 202nd Streets in Queens.  If you are considering responding to this RFP, please make every effort to attend this recommended site visit.  All proposals submitted in response to this RFP must be submitted no later than August 31, 2016  at 3:00 p.m.

Hard copies of the RFP can be obtained, at no cost, commencing on July 1, 2016 through August 31, 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 June 30, 2016 through August 31, 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 Alexander Han, Director of Concessions, at (212) 360-3452 or at Alexander.Han@parks.nyc.gov.

TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR THE DEAF (TDD) 212-504-4115
Filed Under: Opportunities Tagged With: ,

Do You Know Your Food Waste?

July 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Did you know that the average restaurant in one year creates more than 50 tons of food waste?

Talk to any restaurant owner, and you will likely find that food waste is one of the top concerns when it comes to revenue loss.   A 2013 study conducted by Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), on behalf of the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, indicated that more than 84 percent of the food waste generated by surveyed U.S. restaurants ended up in the landfill.  Only 1.4 percent was donated, while 14.3 percent was recycled, and most of that was reclaimed as cooking oil.  On average, that translates to 15.7 percent food loss across the industry, or 3.3 pounds of food waste per $1,000 of company revenue.

Reducing waste makes good business sense for a restaurant.  The first step in reducing waste is to measure and track the amount, type, and source of the food and packaging waste.  Maintenance of a daily waste logbook can help food establishments (1) save money by reducing over-purchasing and disposal costs, (2) lessen environmental impacts, (3) support efforts to eliminate hunger, and (4) increase tax benefits by donating food.  It would be best to assemble a team of employees who prepare the meals (because they are familiar with the amounts of ingredients used in the dishes) and clean the dishes (because they are familiar with the type and quantity of food left over by guests).

Pre-consumer kitchen waste, which could be caused by incorrectly prepared food, spoiled food, trim waste, or simply overproduction, constitutes an estimated 4-10% of purchased food, and becomes waste before it ever reaches the table.  There are solutions for reducing this portion of food waste, such as donating to a food bank and creative re-use of certain foods (e.g., making day old bread into croutons).

Post-consumer waste after the meal relies heavily on consumer preference.  Some people take home a doggy bag and others send it back to the kitchen trash.  Garbage left over after dining represents the food not eaten, as well as disposable packaging such as plastic plates and cups.  Promotion of extra-large servings of food has been used as a marketing gimmick in the United States, and has backfired, leading to increased food waste.

In the kitchen, the easiest way to sort waste is by using different containers.  Categories may include meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, glass, paper and plastic.  A large number of categories provides a clear picture of the type and quantity of waste and brings more recycling options.  The sorted waste should be measured at the end of each working shift, to compare how much food a restaurant sells and how much food is wasted.

Action items to reduce food waste

  • Identify the restaurant menu items that have the most leftovers, and consider reducing the portion size of these menu items to reduce waste and food cost. In addition, purchase ingredients in smaller packages if you are not using the inventory timely.
  • Conduct inventory in the restaurant on a regular basis so that you can identify the need for new purchases in due time – not too soon and not too late.
  • Purchase high-quality kitchen equipment such as specialized knives that can help to lower food waste when peeling fruits and vegetables, or cutting meat and filleting fish.
  • Invest in new dinner service; plates and glasses with smaller volumes will reduce portions.
  • Handle fruits and vegetables properly by cleaning them and storing them in a suitable container to extend their lives.
  • Rotate the food in the refrigerator and warehouse on a regular basis; set the foods that should be used first in front of the food that is newly stored.
  • Encourage your local restaurant to sell half portions of food if the serving size is too big.
SAMPLE WASTE LOGBOOK
Facility:
Date:
Special Events
TIME

NAME

 FOOD TYPE LOSS REASON # OF PORTIONS # OF QUARTS # OF POUNDS
        PICK ONE

How to Use the Waste Logbook

Pre-Consumer Food Waste should be tracked every day.

  1. Track pre-consumer food waste at the time of discard. Record waste on the logbook immediately prior to placing it in the trash, compost or garbage disposer.
  2. If donating food to a food bank, record all food donations on the waste logbook immediately prior to donation.
  3. Record the type of food and the reason why it is being discarded on the logbook. These are the two most important pieces of information that will reveal opportunities for change.
  4. Record how much is being wasted according to weight or portions.
  5. Chefs and Managers should review the prior day’s waste logbook at the beginning of the following day’s shift.
  6. The Top 5 waste items should be discussed with the kitchen team at a pre-shift meeting. Ask the team for ideas to reduce those items.
  7. Review progress on the Top 5 items every week until the amounts drop.

 Post-Consumer Food Waste should be tracked once a month.

  1. Use a logbook to track the total weight of the trash (or another standardized metric such as number of trash cans or number of trash bags).
  2. Keep a record of total weight or count of post-consumer food waste in an Excel sheet or automated tracking system.
  3. When measuring post-consumer waste, always do so on a busy day and track subsequent measurements on the same day of the week. With this approach, you will have comparable data.
  4. Make sure to look at the food in the garbage and note any trends. There may be items that customers do not like which should be removed from the menu. In other cases, you may find portions need to be adjusted to avoid waste.

 

Filed Under: Enterprise Insight Tagged With: ,
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