Del Posto Says Goodbye to Mark Ladner

fm05-2913-mark-ladner-del-posto-01

Chef Mark Ladner of Del Posto will be leaving the Mario Batali owned Del Posto, in Chelsea next month to pursue his own project. Ladner will be heading into the world of upscale fast food with his new concept, Pasta Flyer. The first location, already under construction in Greenwich Village. Ladner wants to create a place where consumers can get a bowl of pasta — reasonably al dente, appropriately sauced, made with high-quality ingredients — in the same amount of time it takes a Chipotle to roll a burrito and for about the same price. As for Del Posto,the restaurant will introduce a menu in February from the new executive chef, Melissa Rodriguez, who was Mr. Ladner’s chef de cuisine. Rodriguez will be the first woman to head the kitchen of a New York City restaurant that has received four stars from The New York Times. To read more about Mark Ladner and Del Posto, click here.

Food-Delivery App, Maple struggles to Turn a Profit.

 

3057405-poster-i-2-friday-is-peak-sandwich-and-other-big-data-insights-about-our-eating-habits

When operating a restaurant there is one guaranteed expense that will haunt you until the day you close – rent. Rising rent costs have put restaurants out of business. So, any easier way to operate is by delivery service operations. Maple, a Manhattan based food-delivery start-up allows consumers to search through their daily lunch and dinner options, order with the click of a button, and have their meals delivered to their doorstep. However, just like any food operation, food-delivery services struggle too. According to a new report in Recode the delivery app is struggling to expand and make money on the food it delivers, claiming Maple “appears to have lost money on average on every meal in 2015, resulting in an operating loss of $9 million for the year on $2.7 million in gross revenue.” Food costs at Maple were at a high of 63% of revenue in 2015, 26% food waste, and 17.5% for marketing. However, this past March, Maple managed to get their food costs down and allowing the company to turn a small profit of 30 cents for each meal it delivered. To read more about the struggles of food-delivery based operations click here. Also, to sign up for Maple or just browse their site click here.

Ivan Ramen

ivanramen-10041

Their Success . . . When Ivan Orkin opened his first ramen shop in Tokyo, he was entering uncharted territory. In 2007, here was a man from Long Island, New York opening a ramen shop in its birthplace, and no one knew what to expect. After opening, Ivan Ramen only grew in popularity and soon thereafter expanded to a second location in Tokyo. The draw? Ivan Ramen offered a unique take on a classic Japanese noodle dish. From these ventures, Ivan Orkin gained quite some notoriety.

Mr. Orkin has since handed over the reins of his two Japanese ventures to his longtime chef and manager, Hisao Matsumoto. He is now entirely focused on his two New York City Ivan Ramen ventures, the Slurp Shop located in the Gotham West Market and the flagship location at 25 Clinton St. in the East Village.

The East Village location seats about 40 noodle slurpers and its aesthetic is a mélange of clean, refined décor and vivid explosions of powerful color. The space has both traditional table seating as well as two bar areas where diners can saddle up and enjoy Ivan Ramen’s offerings. The larger bar area looks onto the kitchen, which is exposed by a large cutout in the wall space. Above is a colorful mural, depicting diners thoroughly engrossed with their bowls of soup.

The food itself is Ivan Orkin’s own unique spin on the identifiably Japanese dish. Mr. Orkin combines the flavors of his Jewish heritage with the more traditional Japanese palate of taste to create something truly unique. The broth is rich and flavorful, and the noodles offer a decidedly earthier, chewy texture than of that found in more classic ramen spots. The Spicy Red Chili Ramen in particular perfectly combines the flavors of old and new, all the while offering heat that is not overwhelming.

The menu features cold and hot appetizers as well as a number of ramen varieties to choose from. Additionally, ramen add-ons are listed at the bottom of the menu, some of which are traditional and others more adventurous. While the space itself is not overly large, the kitchen is efficient and completes orders quickly. Ramen appears almost as soon as you have finished ordering. The bowls range from $15-$18, slightly expensive as far as ramen in New York City goes, but well worth it for Mr. Orkin’s unique take on the dish.

Take Aways . . . Ivan Ramen offers an experience that is simultaneously familiar and new to New York City ramen fans. The space is clean, inviting, and engaging, offering a great place to eat and hangout with friends, or quickly fill you up and get you out the door. Whatever you choose, be sure to slurp your soup for the full experience.

Ivan Ramen

25 Clinton St.

New York, New York

10002

(646)678-3859

Robbing the Rich to Feed the Poor.

14angel1-master768

Photo: New York Times

Robin Hood. We all know the moral of the story; robbing from the rich to feed the poor. Well, this restaurant in Spain is taking that concept to real life. A Catholic charity in Spain has opened a chain of restaurants called Robin Hood. A regular operating restaurant during the day, but at 6 pm you can’t get a seat unless you’re homeless. The business model: breakfast and lunch revenue, paid for by guests, cover the free dinners. The project started about a month ago with already four locations throughout Spain. Father Ángel, the priest behind this project would like to bring the concept here to the United States, specifically Miami, not later than January. To read more click here.

Is the Tipping Culture Almost Gone?

12notipping2-master768

Photo Credit: Francesco Sapienza for The New York Times

We first saw a switch to a non-tipping system at Danny Meyer’s, The Modern back in November of 2015. Since then several other restaurants have eliminated the traditional practice of tipping such as, Huertas, Le Pigeon and Park Kitchen in Portland, Ore.; Dahlia Lounge and Canlis in Seattle; and Comal, Cala and Petit Crenn in the Bay Area. With restaurants eliminating tipping and paying their staff a salary, price increases have been seen on the menu. Huertas, a spanish tapas in the East Village has increased their octopus dish to $21 from $16 and has added an extra tentacle to the dish. By paying staff a salary now, restaurants not only have to raise menu prices but they need to manage costs in other aspects of the business. At Huertas, as mentioned above, not only did the octopus grow another leg, but the kitchen staff has gone from six cooks to four or five per shift. The Union Square Group has been purchasing in bulk and coordinating with other restaurants within the group about sharing whole animals instead of buying individual cuts. The non-tipping culture hasn’t quite caught on everywhere but it is slowly making its way. To read more about the transition click here.

Shake Shack Introduces Mobile Ordering

phone-carousel

 

After testing the technology at a single Midtown location, Danny Meyer is ready to roll out his mobile ordering app across the United States. In many US cities you can now order your burger, fries, or shake via the iOS app and pick it up from a designated location within the store. The app will send you a text when the food is ready, and you can walk in and pick it up without waiting in line. While this change is nothing revolutionary, it does signal the continued move towards the use of technology in restaurants.
You can read more about the app here.

Dim sum meets Katz’s deli

18j1k0ru247ngjpg.jpg

“The name of the game here is creativity, and the more creative things coming out of the kitchen tend to be the most satisfying. Order the Pac Man dumplings, the Katz’ pastrami egg roll, and the dumplings that look like stingrays, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a good meal. You’ll probably have a good time too, assuming you like to people watch. (You do).”

Read more about dim sum veteran chef, Joe Ng’s creations at RedFarm here

http://redfarmnyc.com

 

 

 

Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu’s Kitchen

09-hao-noodle-and-tea-madam-zhu-8-w710-h473-2xLook at the restaurant’s name, you probably would think this restaurant special signature dish would be noodle, and popular beverage would be tea. But forget about the name, because tea is never mentioned by the servers, and noodles may not always be the best choice on the table. However, this is still a good restaurant to eat Chinese food. The owner of restaurant is Ms. Zhu, who brought along a pair of chefs whose skillful manipulation of bubbling oil, steam and smoking-hot woks is evident in almost everything they cook. They also know a thing or two about dough and hot peppers. Peppers are not quite everywhere, but they are strongly represented in many dishes. Many of the dishes are drawn from either Beijing, Shanghai or Chongqing. Some recommended dishes for Zhu’s kitchen are chives with clams, sweetly smoked sole, Le Shan chicken and so on. The portion of dish will give you more enjoyment, and price for these dishes usually $5 – $26.

If you want to know more information about Hao Kitchen restaurant, please click here.

Lilia in Brooklyn— A Good NYC Italian Restaurant

20off-master768-v2

Do you want to pick a good restaurant for Christmas? There is a good Italian restaurants named ” Lilia” recommend to you. Lilia is located at Union Avenue of Brooklyn.Look around the concrete – floor dinning room of Lilia, glance at the one – page menu, you may fell just enter into a number of casual Italian Restaurant. However, when you star to eat their food, you will start to realize this restaurant has something difference. The owner and chef is Missy Robbins, she is good at making seafood and pasta. Her main courses of fish and meat grilled on an open fire. Pasta is also papular dish in Lilia, which is also made by Ms Robbins. You can’t tell how special of the pasta, there is no milk in this Bolognese and no tomatoes apart from some juice, but nothing is missing, which you can never eat without smiling. The pasta and main courses cost $18 to $29, and appetizers cost $7 to $16.

If you want to know more information for Lilia, please click here.

 

How could Mobile Technology Integrate into Customer Experience

mockup_mobile_iphone_restaurant_3

Today, mobile technology has helped many small restaurants to gain a greater brand exposure in public. However, most of business in restaurant industry are passively interacting with their customers by only posting menus on mobile websites and replying written reviews. Overall, the customer experience of the meal is not yet built into the mobile system. For example, collecting payments via mobile payment system such as Apple Pay might only provided an alternative way to pay, but integrating the restaurant service into mobile system such as informing customers how long they will have to wait for their food ready and suggesting potential delivery options could ultimately enhance customer loyalty and visit frequency.

You can read more about Mobile Integration here.