Restaurants need a new recipe for wages and menu prices

“If tips don’t bring a worker’s hourly pay up to $13—not uncommon at cheap eateries, nail salons and car washes—the employer must make up the difference. But enforcement is difficult; low-wage workers are afraid to file complaints. A single, more easily enforced base wage is a better way to level the playing field so that law-abiding businesses are not undercut by competitors who shortchange staff. Some dishonest or marginally profitable places would close, creating opportunities for establishments that offer decent pay and working conditions. But the tipped wage must be phased out slowly to give owners and customers time to adjust.”

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Pastrami Queen is opening a Times Square location

More than 60-year-old Jewish deli Pastrami Queen is making its way to Times Square. The popular Kosher deli known for a thick-cut, crumbly version of pastrami — and for being a go-to for the late Anthony Bourdain — will soon have an outpost at 230 West 49th St., between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.

It’s the second location for the restaurant, which had a dramatic move to Upper East Side from its longtime Queens home in 1998; a name swap to Pastrami Queen from Pastrami King accompanied the relocation.

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The Biggest Business Credit Card Mistakes to Avoid

credit card machine

“Few experiences in business are universal, but here’s one that is: running a company isn’t cheap. In fact, it requires a lot of capital—often, up front, even when you’re not generating any revenue to speak of. Thankfully, business credit cards make it easy for owners and employees to make purchases without having to worry about their daily checking account balance getting out of whack. Charging purchases on a business credit card does more than just free up cash: it also allows you to take advantage of special perks, membership bonuses, and even low- or no-APR rates.

But for all of the perks of a small business credit card, there are also a number of pitfalls. Some come in the form of missed opportunities, such as picking a card that doesn’t offer you perks and points in categories that match your purchases. Other mistakes—such as paying for long-term investments with a credit card—can be much more costly. Here are a few of the biggest business credit card mistakes to avoid.”

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Calorie Counts on Menus Slow Down Some Diners

Better data leads to better decision-making — except when it comes to dessert.

Calorie counts printed on restaurant menus prompt diners to consume less. Cornell University’s John Cawley and his co-authors collected detailed data from two restaurants, taking down numbers on everything from individual food orders to whether patrons shared a plate over the course of thousands of visits. They found that printed calorie information reduced calories ordered by 3 percent (or 45 calories a meal, roughly equivalent to a large plum or an Oreo cookie). That decrease came from entrees and appetizers, not from drinks or desserts.

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How to get the most out of your loyalty program

The most common action restaurant owners take with loyalty programs is the most obvious one: offer coupons or discounts.  But if these people are already paying full price, why would restaurant owners want to turn them into discounted diners?

When you have the tools to get to know your biggest fans and their preferences, you can build loyalty in other ways that can help reduce the number of discounts and other monetary rewards.  By listening and engaging with your customers you can learn what kind of rewards they want to receive and provide more targeted products and services.

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A Goodbye to Great Jones Cafe, a Vestige of Downtown NYC’s Old Magic

“The Jones it was reliable, it was cheap-ish, it was good (with flashes of comfort food greatness), and there were always seats or would be seats soon, whenever you went. It was the sort of spot where you were more likely than not to be elbow-to-elbow with the sort of ambiguously and stratospherically cool people who made New York a place worth moving to. It was old downtown long after old downtown was gone, not that I was ever really here for it, having arrived to the city in 1998. It wasn’t a scene to make, but the scene was a pleasure to try to blend into.”

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Walmart Automates Online Order Picking

As the popularity of online grocery ordering continues to rise, Walmart has partnered with North Billerica, Mass.-based Alert Innovation to introduce Alphabot into the picking process as the retailer’s latest technological innovation.

The first-of-its-kind automation, developed for Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart, helps store pickers speed up the process of filling online grocery orders, It’s being introduced in the mega-retailer’s Salem, N.H., Superstore as part of the location’s grand reopening.
A 20,000-square-foot extension was built onto the store to house the technology and serves as a dedicated grocery pickup point with drive-thru lanes for customers.

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Key ingredient in ‘Impossible Burger’ approved by FDA

“The Food and Drug Administration has approved the key ingredient in the vegetarian-friendly Impossible Burger. It’s a big win for Silicon Valley-based Impossible Foods as it expands its distribution.

The ingredient, soy leghemoglobin, releases a protein called heme that gives the meat substitute its distinctive blood-like color and taste. Just as the Impossible Burger was gaining in popularity and reach, The New York Times published a report last year revealing that the FDA was concerned that the soy-based ingredient had never been consumed by humans.”

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Stumptown Opens Third New York Cafe in Historic Brooklyn Firehouse

Stumptown Coffee Brooklyn Cobble Hill New York

“Portland, Oregon-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters today opened its third cafe in the New York area, inside an historic firehouse building in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood.

Coffee for the cafe will come from Stumptown’s Red Hook roastery, which also turns out coffees for the company’s other New York locations, including a bar inside the Ace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and a Greenwich Village standalone cafe with an attached training lab that offers public tastings.”

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Beer remains favorite drink in US

“More than four out of 10 Americans (42 percent) who drink alcohol said they prefer beer, while 34 percent choose wine and 19 percent opt for liquor such as whiskey.

Beer has almost always been Americans’ favorite alcoholic beverage across the last 26 years in which Gallup has tracked preferences. In 2005, wine gained favor and evenly vied for drinkers’ attention and did so again between 2011 and 2013, Gallup says.”

Read more here.