Instagram quickly became one of the hottest ways for operators to interact with their clientele. It’s low-cost, you can receive and share customers’ photos on your own feed, facebook, twitter, or other social media. And for now, it’s still free.
Doughnuts Continue to Sweep the Nation: On Restaurant Menus
March 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The doughnut boom was fast on the tail of cupcakes, but this one seems to have taken an extra step forward: restaurants are increasingly adding them to menus. Not just Thomas Kellers’ Coffee & Doughnuts (A Life Worth Eating has dreamy photos), but in myriad forms and of many origins: beignets, bombolini, and the good ol’ U.S.A. hot, fresh, sometimes decorated doughnut.
Gluten-Free Requests Reaching a New High: NPD Group Reports
March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In January, about one-third of U.S. adults said they wanted to cut down on gluten or avoid gluten in their diet all together, marking the highest percentage making this claim since The NPD Group began tracking the trend in 2009.
NPD’s Dieting Monitor, which tracks on a bi-weekly basis top-of-mind dieting and nutrition-related issues, reports that 30 percent of adults, or one in every three, claimed to cut down on or avoid gluten completely in January 2013.
Noshlist Launches Mobile Waitlist App: Allows for Multiple Devices
February 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Roaster Led Specialty Coffee Seeing New Business in San Francisco
February 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
San Francisco is known in the Specialty Coffee sector for the abundance of excellent roasters which have long dominated the coffee house scene. Blue Bottle, Intelligentsia, Four Barrell, and Ritual, all with their own shops, have new competition from themselves and newcomers, and they’re stirring up waves in the city. A few months ago, Reveille, which brews Four Barrell Coffee, opened in North Beach. Last week, with the conversion of Emblem Market into The Mill in Divisadero, which specifically bills itself as a partnership between Josey Baker Bread and Four Barrell, we are growing more curious about the city’s coffee trends.
Eater SF has a great profile today of The Mill and the transformation, with gorgeous photos of the space.
Opening in New York: If You Can Make it Here You Can Make it Anywhere
February 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
From angling for prime real estate to fierce competition for customers, opening a restaurant in Manhattan, comes with a host of challenges. But it also comes with great benefits. NRN talks to some top operators about challenges.
Ingredients to Your Door, Measured, Just Add the Cook
February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
What’s on for dinner tonight? Julia Moskin writes about dinner kit expansion in todays’ New York Times. ” The dinner kit aims for a sweet spot somewhere between the bunch of asparagus and the finished asparagus-stuffed salmon” she writes. “And it addresses some paradoxes peculiar to today’s home kitchens: while Americans, fed a steady diet of TV cooking shows and nutritional news, care increasingly about what they eat, many feel too harried to hunt down new recipes and make dinner from scratch. Yet they remain unwilling to live on takeout and heat-and-eat meals alone.” She looks at the brand -new Plated, Chefday, as well as others we’ve written about previously, Blue Apron and Hello Fresh.
Sweetgreens Launches Mobile, No Processing Fees Means More Charity
February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Sweetgreen, a chain of East Coast eateries (one soon to open in NY), has launched a branded mobile payment app called sweetgreen rewards, built by Boston-based startup LevelUp.
An added plus: when customers use the app instead of a credit card, Sweetgreen doesn’t pay a processing fee. They’re donating 1 percent of all sales from the app to charity, said Jonathan Neman, co-founder of Sweetgreens, making this extra sweet.
Read more at FastCasual.com
What’s in Your Breadbasket?
January 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment
While some operators have dropped bread all together to save money, and have found that diners care less about it, others have been taking the opportunity to show their creativity and skills off before the meal begins. Read The Wall Street Journal on taking the elaboration or savings route when it comes to bread.
Mobile Food Ordering Gaining Popularity
January 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Consumers are becoming well acquainted with using their mobile devices to order food. Fast Casual reports on the trend, which seems to be holding on.
paigepapers.com 