Path Coffee Roasters Leads the Way for Specialty with Westchester County Training Facility

cupping-lab-frank-large-03

“Five-year-old specialty coffee wholesale roasting company Path Coffee Roasters has unveiled a new specialty coffee destination at its home base in Port Chester, New York.

Working with Dianne Eaton of Mamaroneck-based Keller/Eaton Architects, Path has created a new cupping lab and training space adjacent to its roastery that is designed to give advanced training, skills development and cupping opportunities to wholesale clients and home baristas alike.

Despite the brand being just five years old, it also constitutes the specialty division of Empire Coffee Roasters, which has been producing wholesale, mostly private-label coffees for clients throughout New York for more than three decades.”

Read more here.

Will you be any time soon at the West location?

This sleek seafood destination on Staten Island, with waterfront views that take in the sweep of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is the latest from the restaurateur Victor Rallo. It’s directly across the street from his restaurant Surf, which, despite its name, is more about turf, and has a sibling for barbecue in Rumson, N.J. Mr. Rallo’s partner in the new venture is Dave Pasternack, the executive chef and an owner of Esca, the long-running Italian seafood magnet in Manhattan. So it comes as no surprise that Mr. Rallo’s executive chef is Katie O’Donnell, who was a chef de cuisine at Esca several years ago. Offerings like a crudo tasting, spicy spaghetti with lobster, and Sicilian-style fish stew with sea urchin and crab meat echo some of Esca’s specialties.

View more here.

Taco Bell’s Strategy to Win in Urban Markets Involves Delivery, Kiosks and Alcohol

Screen Shot 2018-12-19 at 9.10.26 AM.png

“Throughout its company history, Taco Bell has dominated with a development strategy that focused on sprawling suburban locations equipped with drive thrus wrapped around the side. That is beginning to change.

The gigantic American Mexican quick service chain has been testing a handful of small-format restaurant concepts, branded as Taco Bell Cantina and Urban In-Line restaurants, in various urban centers for the past three years. The Urban In-Line format is essentially a regular Taco Bell, modernized and shrunk to fit on a street corner. The Cantina format is similar but also features twists on the traditional menu, including alcoholic drinks and shared platters of food.

Both concepts are tailored for densely populated locations where the rent is overwhelming, the foot traffic is high, and there’s no space to fit a traditional Taco Bell unit.”

See more here.

 

Starbucks Roastery opens in New York City

Screen Shot 2018-12-14 at 1.54.45 PM.png

“The design of each Starbucks Roastery— with locations in Seattle, Shanghai, and Milan — is inspired by its home city. Architect Rafael Vinoly’s designed the three-story New York City location in the city’s Meatpacking District. The design was inspired by the geometry of New York City’s buildings and will feature systems of “symphony pipe” tubes where beans will be transported, as a nod to the city’s subway system.

Exclusive to the New York City Roastery will be a cellar-level terrarium featuring vegetation inspired by the Starbucks coffee farm in Costa Rica.

The Roastery will also feature a 10-foot copper sculpture of the Starbucks siren, which has become a design staple at each Roastery location. This statue, designed by Brooklyn artist Max Steiner, is New York City-inspired.”

See more here.

A guide to Scandinavian food in New York City

“(…) Many Scandinavian and Scandinavian-inspired chefs take their cues from the Manifesto for a New Nordic Cuisine, the defining text that Meyer penned with 11 other Nordic chefs. It lays out more philosophy than instruction. It’s thinking that’s rooted in landscape, be it local plants, wildlife, seasons or relationships with farmers and producers. It puts a premium on foraging, sustainability and mindful sourcing. And it has stirred much interest on these shores.”

Read more here.

New on the Menu: Jack in the Box’s Late-Night Proposition

Screen Shot 2018-12-12 at 4.29.42 PM.png

“Jack in the Box is expanding its “french fries in a box” concept to two more potato, fat, and dairy concoctions that would make any cardiologist squirm. In the company’s defense, they’re going to try just about anything to keep their franchisees happy right now. Also in Jack’s defense? It doesn’t have the meal in this installment that must worry doctors the most.

Every few weeks Skift Table will wrap up the latest seasonal and new items on chain restaurant menus in the United States. We don’t call out everything (sorry limited-time Pumpkin Spice something), but we will call out items that are notable for what they mean to a chain, the season, or consumer habits.”

See more here.

New York City Restaurants That Are Open on Christmas Day

Screen Shot 2018-12-12 at 4.37.31 PM.png

“Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you may be in the market for a festive meal on December 25. While plenty of kitchens will be closed so employees can take well-deserved breaks, many restaurants across New York City will be running service. From festive brunch and prix-fixe dinners to good ol’ à la carte dining, you can find the Christmas Day meal that suits your needs.

DaDong

Beijing import famous for its roast duck open for Christmas lunch and dinner with its à la carte menu, as well as three prix-fixe menus for groups of two to six guests. All three menus feature Champagne-glazed vine tomatoes and DaDong’s “SuBuNi” roast duck served with sugar, pancakes, crispy sesame buns, and special sauce.”

Read more here.

How CPG companies should adapt to “the new consumer experience”

"The traditional five Ps of marketing are obsolete in the era of the new consumer experience"

“It’s a brave new world for CPG brands – and the critical organising principle for food companies should be what I call the new consumer experience, which involves how we shop, what we consume and how we form personal relationships with brands.

And central to the new consumer experience is the millennial-minded consumer.

In this age of the new consumer experience and millennial-minded consumer, the traditional five Ps of brand marketing no longer apply as conventionally interpreted and understood. The emergence and centrality of the new consumer experience is changing everything we were taught in business school or on the job.

Why? Because consumers today want brands that create experiences that resonate with them personally and with those in their tribe or community who share the same values and lifestyles.

For example, telling stories and creating experiences around a CPG brand using social media and other creative online and offline platforms matters as much or more today than the free-standing coupon insert and 60-second television spot has over the last 50 years.”

Read more here.

Romaine’s Woes Are Great News for Other Kinds of Greens

Image result for Romaine’s Woes Are Great News for Other Kinds of Greens

“Prices for iceberg, green leaf and other types of lettuce are soaring as demand surged in the wake of the romaine recall. A carton of iceberg lettuce at wholesale markets in California fetched as much as $60 this week, U.S. government data show. That’s up from as low as $24 on Nov. 19, the day before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning to consumers about romaine.

The same holds true for other salad staples: the price of Boston lettuce surged 175 percent, while green leaf lettuce gained 160 percent, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Even kale, a member of the same family as cabbage, was not immune, rising to as much as $16 a carton from a low of $12.

“It’s uncertain how long it will last,” said Trevor Suslow, the vice president of food safety for the Produce Marketing Association, referring to the price spike. “I would imagine it will stay high for a while because of the understandable disruption.”

See more here.

Fast Food Prices Rise to Better Reflect True Costs

Screen Shot 2018-12-03 at 4.21.28 PM.png

“Dollar cheeseburgers and discount nuggets are getting Americans in the door at their favorite fast-food joints, but the savings end there.

Even as the recent fast-food discount wars rage on, with Burger King advertising 10 chicken nuggets for $1 and Pizza Hut offering $5 pies, fast-food items that don’t make it onto value menus are actually climbing in price. Median fast-food hamburger prices have jumped 54 percent over the last decade to about $6.95, according to menu researcher Datassential. Chicken sandwiches are up 27 percent. Both surpass overall U.S. price inflation during that same time.”

“McDonald’s Corp., the world’s biggest restaurant chain, recently started touting a $6 meal including a burger, fries, a drink and a pie, but it’s also offering plenty of items at the other end of the price scale. Its honey-barbecue glazed chicken tenders are more than $6 without any drinks or sides, and the new Bacon Smokehouse Quarter Pounder meal runs nearly $9 in Chicago.”

Read more here.