Free webinar: Optimize Operations by Running a Data-Driven Restaurant

February 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Free webinar: Optimize operations by running a data-driven restaurant

“(…) Now, on the afternoon of Thursday, March 7, Focus Brands Manager of Retail IT Systems Tyler Schack will join with Revel Systems Sales Engineering Manager Wajih Rahman to share how the two companies partnered to improve business at more than 1,200 brand locations that use Revel’s POS. The free hour-long webinar will give listeners a peek behind the curtain at how Focus uses data to drive profits.

Listeners will learn how Schack and others at the Focus brands first created a powerful framework for data collection and analysis and then put the findings to work to improve everything from overall on-the-job performance to more efficient operating practices, higher margins and a more impactful customer experience.”

See more here.

Filed Under: employees, Enterprise Insight, Global Market Buzz, Local Market Buzz, Operations, Opportunities, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In New York City, Restaurants Welcome Tables for One

February 26, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Customers dine at Boqueria for lunch. The Spanish restaurant’s tapas, or grazing-style menu, appeals to solo patrons.

In New York City restaurants, the party-of-one is becoming a cause for celebration.

OpenTable, the online reservation platform, said that bookings by solo diners at restaurants in the city jumped by 80% from 2014 to 2018. And while OpenTable said those parties-of-one represent a very small slice of overall bookings, some restaurants said that business from solo diners can now account for up to 10% of their sales.

Even on Valentine’s Day, the most couple-oriented dining occasion of the year, New York restaurants are making room for patrons dining alone. OpenTable said that Valentine’s Day solo reservations in 2018 increased by 33% over the previous year. And perhaps for good reason: Restaurants said solo customers represent the ideal, as they are truly there for the food and experience rather than the social occasion.

“The way we approach it is that when we have a solo diner, it’s more of an honor than anyone else,” said Andrew Kuhl, the dining-room manager at Eleven Madison Park, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan’s Flatiron District.

Restaurants are doing their part to encourage such business. At such establishments as L’Artusi, an Italian restaurant in the West Village, and Odo, a Japanese spot in the Flatiron District, solo diners are given a free offering—say, a small serving of an off-menu item or a glass of sparkling wine. And on Valentine’s Day, some restaurants said they make an extra effort to welcome the solo crowd. For example, at Jones Wood Foundry, a food-driven pub on the Upper East Side, a communal table is set aside for party-of-one diners.

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Filed Under: Baking, Cooking, Customer Trends, Events, Heard on The Street, Local Market Buzz, Openings, Operations, Trending Now, Wine, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

DoorDash Closes $400 Million Funding Round

February 25, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Image result for doordash funding round

“In the last month, a pair of food delivery startups were battling complaints about their tipping policies. Customers and workers chastised the companies for unfairly using tips to subsidize worker pay. As the furor grew, one of the companies, Instacart Inc., changed its compensation policies to match some of workers’ demands.

Meanwhile, the other company, DoorDash Inc., stood firm. It still uses tips from customers to offset some of the minimum payment that a worker gets for each delivery job, in which “Dashers” travel to restaurants or stores and bring food to customers. That decision apparently hasn’t harmed DoorDash’s reputation in the eyes of investors. The company said on Thursday that it received a new round of funding that values it at $7.1 billion.

In an interview Thursday to promote the investment, DoorDash Chief Executive Officer Tony Xu defended the tipping practice, which has been in use since 2017. Xu said internal data show that under the current pay model, Dashers stay on the platform longer, are more satisfied with their jobs and make deliveries in a more timely manner. He blamed recent backlash on Instacart’s implementation of its own policy.”

See more here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Heard on The Street, Local Market Buzz, Operations, Opportunities, Retail Spotlight, Shopbuzz, Trending Now, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New York City Bill Proposes Eliminating Cashless Stores and Restaurants

February 22, 2019 by Leave a Comment

New York City Bill Proposes Eliminating Cashless Stores and Restaurants

“Supporters of a new bill want to make sure New Yorkers are able to keep paying cash at their local stores.

The New York City Council held a hearing last week on the bill that proposes to ban stores and restaurants from refusing cash. The legislation is in response to a push for cashlessness across the city and the nation. Backers of the bill argue that by refusing cash, these establishments discriminate against the poor, victims of domestic violence, homeless people and undocumented immigrants—all of whom are more likely to be unbanked.

“Given the sheer prevalence of unbanked people, I worry deeply about the cashless economy,” said New York City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who introduced the bill. “Not everyone has access to debit or credit, but everyone has access to cash.”

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Filed Under: Customer Trends, Events, Local Market Buzz, Operations, Trending Now, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

CBD-Infused Food and Drinks Have Been Banned From NYC Restaurants and Bars

February 11, 2019 by Leave a Comment

“If you’ve been relying on a smidgen of CBD oil in your latte to relax after a long day at work, you might want to look into alternative methods of decompression (at least temporarily).

According to the New York Daily News, as of Tuesday, the New York City Department of Health is prohibiting restaurants and bars from selling any and all perishable products containing cannabidiol (or CBD, for short), a compound found in marijuana purported to have therapeutic effects.

This might seem dire, but the ruling was basically inevitable. When it comes to the ever-fluctuating invocations of cannabis law, state governments aren’t going to take any chances with validating CBD oil as a safe ingredient until the compound is confirmed to be harmless on a federal level. CBD oil was banned from Californian food last July, and authorities in Maine are taking steps to strip businesses of the marijuana-adjacent treats this week.”

Read more here.

Filed Under: Closings, Customer Trends, Events, Global Market Buzz, Heard on The Street, Local Market Buzz, Shopbuzz, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Digital Ordering to Triple by 2020

February 8, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Restaurant mobile app

Restaurant digital orders have grown an average of 23 percent, per year since 2013, and will triple by the end of 2020, according to a report from NPD Group.

The report, called Delivering Digital Convenience, found that 70 percent of a restaurant’s digital orders come through its mobile app or its website, with the remaining orders coming through third-party apps or websites. Customers used the restaurant’s own app most of the time because of rewards points or savings, and other brands appeal to customers because they want to create a custom order or take friction out of the ordering process.

Third-party apps like DoorDash, UberEats or Grubhub/Seamless accounted for 40 percent share of the 20 most used apps, and are used by consumers who want to look up various food items and check prices.

“Digital orders will remain an outsized source of growth for the restaurant industry over the next few years, and operators who desire to grow need to embrace a digital strategy,” said David Portalatin, NPD food industry adviser and author of Eating Patterns in America, said in the announcement. “There are clear leaders in the digital ordering space, and third-party providers who have achieved critical mass the fastest.”

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Filed Under: Events, Global Market Buzz, Local Market Buzz, Opportunities, Shopbuzz, Trending Now, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Restaurant Menu Trends: What to Expect to See on More Menus in 2019

February 7, 2019 by Leave a Comment

2019 restaurant menu trends

1. CBD (Cannabidiol) — up 99%!

It was only a matter of time before cannabidiol—or CBD—made its way into the restaurant industry. The non-psychoactive derivative from the cannabis plant has helped consumers looking for relief from inflammation, pain, anxiety, insomnia, seizures, spasms, and other conditions without the negative side effects of some pharmaceutical drugs.

According to the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) What’s Hot Culinary Survey, a barometer of U.S. food and beverage trends, 650 professional chefs—all members of the American Culinary Federation—said infusing food and drink with cannabis and CBD could create unique cuisine opportunities and potential new markets for experiential dining occasions. Of the survey’s respondents, 77 percent identified cannabis/CBD-infused drinks as the number one trend in the restaurant industry right now, and 76 percent tapped cannabis/CBD-infused food as the second most popular trend.

Data from Upserve customers revealeda 99 percent increase in CBD menu items in 2018, setting up 2019 as the year of CBD. From baked goods to CBD-infused beverages, restaurants across the country are responding to a consumer demand to chill out.

“There has been growing popularity and support around CBD, and if it makes people happier and less stressed, then why not give the public what they want?” says Nick Duckworth, owner of cafe Banter NYC. They currently only sell Dirty Lemon CBD, a packaged, CBD-infused drink, but will be expanding their CBD offerings in 2019, allowing customers “to add CBD drops to most beverages.”

View all 2019 Menu trends here.

Filed Under: Customer Trends, Events, Global Market Buzz, Heard on The Street, Operations, Organic, Trending Now, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A New Bill Proposes Foie Gras Ban for NYC

February 4, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Foie gras could soon be illegal to eat in NYC. A new bill from lower Manhattan councilwoman Carlina Rivera is proposing that the sale of the fatty duck liver be illegal, on the basis of animal cruelty. The bill proposes that violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor, with the potential for $1,000 in fines and one year in jail for each offense. The bills follows the Supreme Court rejecting a challenge on California’s foie gras ban. Brooklyn councilman Justin Brannan backs the bill, telling the Post, “Don’t tell me you’re a fan of the Central Park Mandarin duck but you think foie gras is ok.”

Read more here.

Filed Under: Cooking, Heard on The Street, Trending Now, Your Restaurant Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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