Mixed sliders from STK
The dividing line between meals has been getting fuzzy for awhile now, and snacks are the status quo. According to research firm The NPD Group, 18% of all restaurant dining occasions fall into a non-meal (or snacking) day-part: either mid-morning, late afternoon or late night. And that doesn’t include shareable meals that are made up of smaller dishes, like tapas. The cultural shift is partly generational, and part of a larger move toward casualness and flexibility in dining. Not to mention the fact that these smaller items allow the diet-conscious to order what they want without leaving half their plate untouched.
Naturally, restaurants are adapting their menus to fit the trend, with more and more menus including a small plates or bar snacks section. According to a study conducted in February by Penton Food and Restaurant Group, 43 percent of restaurant operators saw an increase in revenue from snacks in the past two years. What does this revenue look like? It can be anything from sliders at the bar to mix-and-match tacos or sushi – any cuisine is snackable.
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It’s getting a lot harder than it used to be to walk down a grocery store aisle and tell what will give you a buzz – at least at first glance. For starters, there’s the growing proliferation of alcoholic versions of sodas from childhood, like Not Your Father’s Root Beer, or Crabbie’s Ginger Beer. But the trend also moves the other direction, as more and more foods and beverages without alcohol draw on the flavor profiles of beer, liquor and cocktails.
We’re always excited to see what comes out of the marriage of food and tech, and the latest event may be unexpected but it’s certainly exciting. Next Friday, April 15th, Google Translate will host a 4-night long pop-up restaurant in honor of their 10th birthday, called the Small World Pop-Up. According to their website, “Languages from around the world will be your guide as our guest chefs take you on a journey through the lens of food — our universal language.” Guests will use Google translate to order their food from chefs Gerardo Gonzalez, JJ Johnson, Danny Bowien, and Einat Admony (each chef has a different day, and is partnering with friends from the industry to handle drinks and service).
As baseball season gets underway, more and more attention is being drawn to an often overlooked part of the stadium experience: the food. It may take awhile to overcome associations with dry pretzels, standard-issue hot dogs and over-priced beer, but at least a few stadiums are trying to bring fans a better dining experience.
With the return of Spring comes the return of outdoor markets, and April 2nd/3rd is the first weekend you can catch Smorgasburg and the Brooklyn Flea, now in Fort Greene, Dumbo, Williamsburg and Prospect Park. Smorgasburg, which began as a spin-off of the Brooklyn Flea and now includes 100+ local and regional food vendors, is open Saturdays in East River State Park at Kent Ave. and N. 7 St., and Sundays in Prospect Park at Breeze Hill (both days from 11 to 6). Brooklyn Flea itself has two additional locations. The markets will be open rain or shine, but fingers are crossed that April showers bring May flowers (and sunny days) soon.
In today’s interconnected world, there are more and more ways to decide what’s for dinner (or lunch, or breakfast, or brunch, or a midnight snack, or…you get the idea). There are brick-and-mortar bookstores riddled with cookbooks from seemingly every popular restaurant or bakery, not to mention every food network star and popular blogger. It’s also easier than ever to Google a dish and find countless recipes for it, each with a rating, time estimate, detailed instructions and lengthy comments section. Or you can subscribe to one of the many meal kit companies like Blue Apron, and have the ingredients delivered to your door along with the recipe.
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