Heritage Radio Network recently sat down with Helena Tubis, Managing Director of The Vendy Awards. She is joined by food writer Siobhan Wallace, author of New York a la Cart, and Christine Chebli of Toum Food Truck. The program discusses the increasing amount of high-quality street food in New York, shares street food stories from Wallace’s book, and talks about the history of The Vendys and the Street Vendor Project.
For the full story, click here.
French bakery concept Maison Kayser plans to open two new locations this fall, both in midtown. One location, at 58th and Broadway, will open at the end of September. A second will open on West 40th Street, near Bryant Park, by the end of the year.
Maison Kayser currently has two locations open in NYC, one on the Upper East Side at Third Avenue and E. 74th Street, and another in the Flatiron at Broadway and 21st Street. There are dozens of other locations throughout the world, including the original Paris location which opened in 1996.
Founder Eric Kayser has become known for his breads and viennoiserie. For the full story, click here.
Hyper local sourcing is a major trend for fine-dining restaurants, many of whom have started their own rooftop gardens. But Northeast chain B. Good has shown how the model can work for the fast casual segment. The chain reports it has actually saved money growing their own produce, compared to buying it from local farms, but insists the benefits are broader than financial success. The brand’s identity centers on sustainability and healthy food, so growing produce on-site “‘…reinforces what our brand is supposed to be about. Our customers will get really crazy about it,'” said B. Good co-founder Jon Olinto.
For the full story, click here.
Concept development is a critical phase in creating a new enterprise. A strong, well-articulated concept defines who you are in the marketplace and will guide you in writing your business plan, seeking funding, and setting up your enterprise’s operations. It will also aid you in making decisions about the look, feel, and experience in your enterprise, from design and décor to service style. In this month’s retail spotlight, we highlighted Williamsburg bakery Bakeri, whose concept is both authentic and clear. But while developing your concept is an exciting and necessary step, it can also be challenging. Below, we discuss one of TaraPaige Group’s methods for developing new concepts with our clients—a market tour.
A market tour is the perfect first step to defining your concept. After all, if you want to define yourself in the landscape of your market, you have to know what else is out there. To build a great market tour, create a list of enterprises that are similar to the one you envision. Then consider enterprises that differ in a specific way— perhaps they are in a different neighborhood, have a different service style, offer different products, or have a slightly different target market. By creating a diverse list, you give yourself the broadest slice of your potential inspirations and competitors, allowing yourself to learn from their successes and their missteps. You may find in the course of your tour that your concept changes and adapts from what you originally envisioned, or you may have your original ideas confirmed. Either way, seeing a varied group of enterprises will give you guidance on the direction of your concept.
Furthermore, by seeing many different concepts and discussing them, you will also make sure that you and your business partners or team are thinking similarly about your concept. What one partner means by “simple breakfast items” or “open layout” may differ from the rest of the team’s interpretation. Seeing concrete examples of different spaces, products, and service styles will open a constructive dialogue amongst your team.
Most importantly, a market tour will allow you to determine the size and scope of the general market, including generating revenue estimates, determining traffic, discovering trends, and finding unmet demand in the marketplace around you. Maybe, for example, there are very few coffee shops near a major university, or a lack of made-to-order sandwich enterprises near a large office building, or not enough authentic ethnic food enterprises in your city to meet the demand.
By discovering a need in the market, you begin to define the key descriptor of your enterprise—your mission statement. Your mission statement answers three questions: why does your enterprise exist, for whom does it exist, and what need does it serve? When you have discovered the answer to the final question, the other two will fall more easily into place. Moreover, by addressing a clear and demonstrable market need, you give more weight to your business plan and show investors the market potential for your concept. The additional data you can gather about market size will further serve to underscore the strength of your proposed enterprise.
Beginning your concept development with a market tour is a fun, effective, and productive way to kick off the important work of positioning yourself in the marketplace.
Happy touring…TaraPaige Group
A bill was unveiled this week by NYC lawmakers to impose a ten cent charge on grocery bags in New York City that businesses give customers, eliciting immediate opposition from some business owners, politicians, and many citizens.
The bill is favored by environmental groups looking to reduce the 100,000 tons of plastic bags that the city sends to landfills each year, following the paths of cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, and San Francisco.
The story has been widely covered this week:
The Gothamist runs with great City Hall photos.
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has issued a Request for Proposals for the operation and maintenance of a snack bar at the Ocean Breeze Track & Field Complex at Ocean Breeze Park, Midland Beach, Staten Island.
All proposals submitted in response to this RFP must be submitted no later than Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 3 pm. There will be a recommended proposer meeting on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 at 11 am. They will be meeting in Room 407 of the Arsenal, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, in Central Park, Manhattan. If you are considering responding to this RFP, it is recommended you attend this meeting.
Hard copies of the RFP can be obtained, at no cost, commencing on Tuesday, August 20, 2013 through Tuesday, October 15, 2013, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., excluding weekends and holidays, at the Revenue Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which is located at 830 Fifth Avenue, Room 407, New York, NY 10065.
The RFP is also available for download through Tuesday, October 15, 2013, on Parks’ website. To download the RFP, visit http://www.nyc.gov/parks/businessopportunities and click on the “Concessions Opportunities at Parks” link. Once you have logged in, click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFP’s description.
For more information, contact Jeremy Holmes, at (212) 360-3455 or at jeremy.holmes@parks.nyc.gov
By Robin Sharma
- Know what you want. Clarity is power. And vague goals promote vague results.
- Remember that every problem has a solution. Maybe you just can’t see it. Yet.
- In this Age of Dramatic Distraction, the performer who focuses the best wins the most.
- Before someone will help you, you need to help them.
- Become the most passionate person you know. It’ll be contagious.
- Know more about your craft/the work you do than anyone who has ever done the work you do…in the history of the world.
- Join The 5 am Club. Your most valuable hours are 5am-8am. They have the least interruptions.
- Devote yourself to learning something new about your field of mastery every day. Success belongs to the relentless learners. Because as you know more, you can achieve more.
- Remember that when you transform your fitness, you’ll transform your business.
- Don’t check your mobile when you’re meeting with another person. It’s rude. And rude people don’t reach world-class.
- Every time you do what scares you, you take back the power that you gave to the thing that scared you. And so you become more powerful.
- A problem is only a problem if you make the choice to see it as a problem.
- Stop being a victim. Your business and personal life was made by you. No one else is responsible. To make it better, make better choices. And new decisions.
- You can lead without a title. Don’t wait to get a position to stand for excellence, peak quality and overdelivery on every expectation.
- Find your own style. Be an original. Every superstar differentiated themselves from The Herd. And marched to their own drumbeat.
- Understand that when you play small with your success, you betray your potential. And the birthright you were born under.
- Eat less food and you’ll get more done.
- As you become more successful, stay really really hungry. Nothing fails like success. Because when you’re successful, it’s easy to stop outlearning+outOverDelivering+outthinking and outexecuting everyone around you. (Success is Beautiful. And dangerous).
- If you’re not overprepared, you’re underprepared.
- The only level of great manners to play at is “Exceedingly Polite”. In our world, this alone will make you a standout. And differentiate you in your marketplace.
- Remember that the moment you think you’re a Master, you lose your Mastery. And the minute you think you know everything, you know nothing.
- To double your results, double your level of execution.
- Invest in your personal and pro development. All superstars do.
- You don’t get lucky. You create lucky.
- When you push through a difficult project, you don’t get to the other side. You reach The Next Level.
- Smile. And remember to inform your face.
- Spend time in solitude every day. Your best ideas live there.
- Debrief on how you lived out your day every night in a journal. This will not only record your personal history, it will make you uber-clear on what you’re doing right and what needs to be improved.
- If you’re not being criticized a lot, you’re not doing very much. Ridicule is the price of ambition.
- Develop a monomaniacal focus on just a few things. The secret to productivity is simplicity.
- To get the results very few people have, be strong enough to do what very few people are willing to do.
- Rest. Recover. It’ll make you stronger.
- Buy a smaller TV and build a larger library.
- Remember that the bigger the goal, the stronger a person you must become to achieve that goal. So goal-achieving is a superb practice for character-building.
- Food fuels your body. Learning feeds your mind.
- Don’t ask for respect. Earn it.
- Finish what you start. And always end strong.
- Breathe.
- In business, don’t play to survive. Play to win.
- Protect your good name. It’s your best asset.
- Remember that words have power. Use the language of leadership versus the vocabulary of a victim.
- Give more than you take. The marketplace rewards generosity.
- Know that if it’s not messy, you’re not making progress.
- Be a hero to a kid.
- In business, aim for iconic. Go for legendary. Make history by how awesome you are at what you do.
- Please don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many many people are simply busy being busy.
- Your doubts are liars. Your fears are traitors. Stop buying the goods they are attempting to sell you.
- The best anti-aging remedy in the world is working really hard.
- World-Class performers have no plan B. Failure just isn’t an option.
- You have the power to change the world—one brave act and one person at a time. Please use it.
The City Harvest Bid Against Hunger will take place October 22, 2013, at Metropolitan Pavilion. The walk-around chef’s tasting event is attended by philanthropists, businesses, foodies, and celebrity chefs. Last year saw 900 people in attendance and raised more than $1 million.
This year’s lineup, so far, is:
| ACME Mads Refslund Aldea Apiary Ardesia Wine Bar Atera Barbounia Beauty & Essex Benchmark Restaurant Betony Blue Hill Blue Marble Ice Cream Brooklyn Soda Works Buttermilk Channel Caviarteria Commerce D’Artagnan Devi Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Donatella Restaurant Dos Caminos Dough Ed’s Chowder House Ed’s Lobster Bar El Colmado Empire Diner |
FP Patisserie François Payard Frankies 570 Spuntino Gramercy Tavern Great Performances Hecho en Dumbo High Road Craft Ice Cream Hudson Valley Foie Gras Hybird Juni Junoon Landmarc Le Bernardin Liddabit Sweets Loi Restaurant Mad Mac Macarons Maialino The Marrow Michael Jordan’s The Steak Millesime Murray’s Cheese Oceana OUEST people’s pops Picholine Pig & Khao The Pines |
Pok Pok NY Andy Ricker Qi Restaurant Rao’s Recette Red Rooster & Ginny’s Ron Ben-Israel Cakes Roni-Sue’s Chocolates Rosa Mexicano Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto Saxelby Cheesemongers SD26 Restaurant & Wine Bar Serafina Sirio Ristorante New York Strip House Sullivan Street Bakery SUSHISAMBA Park Talde T-Bar Steak & Lounge Telepan This Little Piggy Had Tom Cat Bakery Tribeca Grill Untitled at the Whitney William Greenberg Desserts Worldwide-Soba, Inc |
BEVERAGE STATIONS:
| AmstelThe Butterfly Eben Freeman |
L’Apicio Joe Campanale SerendipiTea |
You can purchase tickets here.
150 Wythe Avenue at North 8th Street (Williamsburg) • 718.388.8037
Bakeri
Their Success…telling a story through their guest experience. From the artifacts in its storefront to its layout, to its passionate and dedicated staff, everything about Bakeri paints a more in-depth picture of its concept, indicating to guests what type of products they might expect to find, what type of service they will experience, and what the enterprise values.
When guests first glimpse Bakeri, they might notice the antique scales in the window, or the mid-century light fixture illuminating the lettering on its front window, or the vintage containers perched on the ledge as though someone’s grandmother had left it there for a moment. Inside, guests will certainly notice the 1950’s-style jumpsuits that serve as staff uniforms, the handmade signs for products, and the farmhouse-style kitchen adjacent to the main counter. Bakeri feels as though it were the central hearth plucked from a Midwestern farm, which is echoed in its products—largely comprised of updated versions of American classics.
Furthermore, each space within Bakeri builds upon the others to create an experience for guests. Guests can linger up front, or wander towards the back of the enterprise into its garden like one would at a home. While normally we spotlight streamlined service flow, the relaxed flow at Bakeri serves to enhance the guests’ experience, rather than detract from it. It generates a leisureliness that reinforces the feeling of being at home in the enterprise.
With its design—both spatial and interior— coming together, the experience at Bakeri feels genuine, authentic, and comforting, just like its delicious baked goods.
Take Aways…Each element of your enterprise, from your layout to your staff uniforms, should speak to something about your concept, building upon each other to create a true experience for your guests—a feeling that they have entered a space completely separate and distinct from the world around it. Being a guest in your enterprise should feel like a story that guests are told through the atmosphere and products you have created.
paigepapers.com 