Oxalis Is a Neo-Bistro With Fine Dining Credentials

December 3, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“(…) Over the course of a couple years, Oxalis popped up over 30 times around New York. Dinners sold out, and Russell’s precise, ambitious cooking clearly hit the right note with dishes like sasso chicken with rainbow chard and a caramelized mousse whey. To see another middle-tier but ambitious restaurant open is an exciting thing, too, when it can feel like almost everything opening these days is either a hyperexpensive, high-end tasting-menu spot or a fast-casual venture tailored for replication. “New York is a great city for a few different things, there’s a ton of high-end and a ton of low-end. It’s hard because what defines the middle?” Russell asks.”

See more here.

Filed Under: Cooking, Events, Heard on The Street, Local Market Buzz Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Chipotle Is Tired of Being Behind on Digital Strategy

November 6, 2018 by Leave a Comment

“Chipotle’s new CEO Brain Niccol pulled no punches when he sat down for his first earnings call in April and candidly described Chipotle as an invisible brand. “This brand needs to be leading culture, not reacting to it,” Niccol said at the time.

In day-to-day operations, that’s led to a significant shift in the way that the company thinks about growth. Niccol said that he encourages more of a “test-and-see approach” on new initiatives under his watch, and in practice, the team has been freed up to move much more quickly on making decisions and testing new innovations. Niccol himself practices what he preaches — three months after he officially started as CEO, Niccol announced that Chipotle would be relocating its headquarters from Denver to southern California and closing down the New York City office.”

Read more here.

Filed Under: Opportunities, Trending Now Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Lawsuit Against Chipotle Execs

June 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment

With sales and stocks still reeling, a small group of Chipotle shareholders have now filed an additional lawsuit against the company’s executives, claiming that they “abused their control of the Company, and dealt themselves excessive compensation worth hundreds of millions of dollars through a corrupt stock incentive plan.”

The suit explicitly names Co-CEOs Steve Ells and Montgomery Moran, and CFO Jack Hartung, among others. It claims that these executives, using insider knowledge about the food safety protocols that would cause Chipotle’s well-reported downfall in 2015, dumped their stocks at an artificially inflated price and raked in millions before the food poisoning scandals began. Supposedly Ells made $78 million by selling 119,057 shares, Moran raked in $107 million, and Hurtung $28 million.

Chipotle has not admitted any wrong doing, and both this suit and one from January are still pending.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz Tagged With: , ,

Free Burritos Can’t Help Chipotle Recover before 2018, But Maybe Burgers Can?

April 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
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Chipotle’s next move?

After their colossal – and well publicized – downfall, Chipotle has been doing everything possible to get back in customer’s good graces. That includes giving away about 9 million free burritos earlier this month, according to the chain (that’s $62 million worth, if anyone’s counting). They plan to send another 21 million free food coupons in the mail this month. But analysts from Wedbush Securities point out that, while sales may be returning slowly, the coupon strategy isn’t a sustainable one. Eventually, guests have to forget the reason they stopped coming in the first place.

The investment firm downgraded Chipotle’s shares and cut their target stock price from $450 to $400, saying that “current valuation reflects an overly optimistic outlook regarding Chipotle’s path to recovery.” They do not expect Chipotle to recover the sales lost from the salmonella, norovirus and E. Coli outbreaks until at least 2018.

One curveball to these predictions may be the news that Chipotle has applied for a trademark on the name “Better Burger,” indicating they have plans to recoup the losses in another way. It’s a strange move considering the number of existing burger chains, and there’s no word yet from Chipotle on how they plan to market themselves in this arena.

To read more, click here and here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz Tagged With: , , ,

The Financial Toll of Chipotle’s Troubles

March 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Now that the saga of Chipotle’s food safety issues, stock market tumbles, and attempts to win back loyalty are finally dying down (or so it seems), it’s reasonable to ask: what exactly was the cost of that widely publicized downfall? When a company sees a 25% drop in shares, and a 14% decrease in sales in one quarter, what does it actually cost the executives behind the brand?

In Chipotle’s case, it meant about a 50% decrease in profits for the two CEOs, Steve Ells and Monty Moran – or 15 million dollars each. While that is a steep hit, it’s worth keeping in mind that the two are among the highest paid executives in America, each reportedly earning more than the heads of McDonalds, Starbucks and Panera combined prior to 2015. So it stands to reason that Ells and Moran will weather the storm – even if the company’s struggles continue.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Operations Tagged With: , ,

Russ and Daughters at Brooklyn Navy Yard

February 2, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Gantry_corridor_R_D.0.JPG2016 is already shaping up to be the year of exciting food halls, with The Pennsy opening to fanfare and Brooklyn Navy Yard expected later this year. Now, we have another exciting announcement regarding the latter: the New York icon Russ & Daughters will be opening a location in the 60,000-square-foot Navy Yard space. The team says this location will be focused on fast casual breakfast and lunch, and they plan to increase bakery production with classic New York and Jewish baked goods like bialys, babka, challah and knishes.

The Russ & Daughters company recently turned 100 years old, and they’ve been celebrating by making big moves to expand, from opening the Orchard Street Cafe in 2014 to their planned location in the Jewish Museum to their baked goods facility in Bushwick. With new businesses constantly opening, it’s always nice to see a beloved standby keep things fresh.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Local Market Buzz, Openings Tagged With: , ,

Fast Casual + Hawaii = Wisefish Poké

January 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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In a true sign of the chain’s enduring influence even in it’s downfall, you can now find a “Chipotle of” nearly every cuisine, from salad to curry to falafel and back again. So the opening of fast casual “Chipotle of Hawaiian” Wisefish Poké yesterday should come as no surprise to anyone, although poké itself might be a dish non-Hawaiians are less familiar with.

Traditional poké is a raw fish salad extremely popular in Hawaii. It’s most commonly made with yellowfin tuna but also available with salmon, octopus or shellfish and dozens of seasoning combinations. At Wisefish you can construct your own bowl from bases of rice, zucchini noodles or mixed greens and toppings like crab salad, wasabi-avocado cream, and citrus-ponzu sauce. The fish is responsibly sourced from vendors like Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co, and aims to be un-selfconsciously fresh and healthy. All told, this seems like a great moment for a concept like Wisefish: fast casual bowls are as popular as ever, and mainland Americans have already fully embraced raw fish. Poké provides just enough of a twist to get the lunch crowd out of their usual routine.

Check out Wisefish Poké at 263 West 19th St., and read more here.

Filed Under: Openings Tagged With: , , ,

Competitors See Opportunity in Chipotle’s Troubles

January 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Chipotle food-safety saga has been impossible to ignore for the last few months, as everyone from hungry college students to Wall Street traders are forced to reckon with the chain’s downfall. For other fast-casual and fast food restaurants, however, the news is an opportunity to snatch some new guests. As we wrote earlier, Sweetgreen has already earned the moniker “the new Chipotle” to some, and they’ll undoubtedly benefit at least somewhat from the Mexican chain’s decrease in sales. Others are hoping that they can improve their image by highlighting food safety practices – and surreptitiously reminding everyone that they haven’t caused any norovirus outbreaks recently.

Canadian chain Freshii is twisting the knife by offering half-priced Mexican food while Chipotles everywhere are closed for an all-hands meeting and regroup. They claim that this is to “help consumers through these dark hours,” and that “the least [they] could do was look after their customers while Chipotle paused to recalibrate.”

White Castle, while not a direct competitor of Chipotle, has decided now would be a good time to launch a website devoted entirely to advertising their food safety practices. The website is unambiguously named http://www.WhiteCastleClean.com, and it showcases their commitment to “promoting food safety, cleanliness and transparency.”

Chipotle meanwhile is struggling to recover while their stocks are in free-fall. CEO Steve Ells has made repeated statements about their new food safety practices, and promised that they will release any information about the source of the outbreaks last year. This Super Bowl, they are offering $50 currency card and a limited-edition gift from the makers of Tabasco sauce to anyone who uses their catering service.

To read more, click here and here.

 

Filed Under: Closings, Global Market Buzz Tagged With: , , ,

Sweetgreen Expects a Full Half of Sales to Come from their App this Year

January 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen had a big year this year, opening 3 new stores in New York alone, moving their headquarters to California, and being dubbed “the next Chipotle” by CNN and others. One could argue that their success is built on many things – timing, a growing demand for healthy, sustainably sourced foods, their youthful aesthetic (one of their limited edition salads last year was named in honor of a Kendrick Lamar song) – but it would be a mistake to underestimate the role mobile has had in that success.  So far, 21% of Sweetgreen’s sales come through their custom app, and they expect that number to jump as high as 50% this year.

The appeal of mobile ordering is understandable: with lunchtime lines out the door, the Sweetgreen app allows guests to order from the office and pick up immediately, and once downloaded, a rewards system makes it more likely for them to keep visiting. Additional features like the ability to flag dietary restrictions, add favorites, and integrate with the iOS health app, add an additional layer of appeal.

Of course, for many small chains it simply isn’t feasible to build out this kind of ordering system. Sweetgreen has had the benefit of $95 million in total investments in recent years, and they’ve clearly dedicated a fair amount of that to building their mobile presence. But they do serve as a reminder of the kind of return such an investment can have.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Operations Tagged With: , , ,

Retail Spotlight: Fuku NYC

July 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

163 1st Ave. New York, NY, 10003.

Their Success…This summer a rising trend fukuwebof Chicken sandwiches are evident. David Chang,
Founder of Momofuku Inc., is named a leader in this trend with his opening of Fuku NYC,home to an $8 spicy-fried-chicken sandwich. Since its opening on June 10th, Fuku has been on headlines and trending throughout social media because of its chicken sandwich. There is an obvious inspiration by Chick-fil-A which Chang grew up eating in suburban Virginia, and he also claims to be a fan of In-N-Out for its unique corporate culture as much as for its burger. Chang describes Fuku as “our attempt to sort of honor the great fried-chicken places and fast-food concepts out here, to do our version of that, and hopefully, to make it better.” With never-ending lines around the corner of the restaurant , one can say Chang has successfully started a fried-chicken culture and redefined “fast-food.”

Fuku NYC is located on 10th St. and 1st Ave. This location is also the original location of the Momofuku Noodle bar. After six months of intensive renovations and development, Fuku now boasts a very chic urban atmosphere. Utilizing their space to its full potential, an open kitchen, and bar side tables are available for those who are eating-in. Although no chairs or stool are available for consumers, customers are fully accommodated as a fast-casual restaurant.  After ordering, customers are given a number where then Fuku employees will bring their orders to customers whether it was to eat-in or take-away. Likewise, employees are constantly walking around the restaurant to take away trays.

Employees are also seen refilling their ketchup and ssam sauce bottles throughout the restaurant. The Ssam Sauce is Fuku’s’specialty’ sauce that adds more spice to the chicken burger. Ssam sauce is Fuku’s rendition of an already existing Korean chili sauce and is sold to customers separately. While most customers order a spicy chickenburger, Fuku does serve salads and fries. Fuku also offers a lunch special where customers can easily get a spicy chicken burger, fries and a drink for $12, potentially saving themselves $1 when buying them separately.

Take Aways…Fuku NYC does a great job with creating traffic and retaining customers. With Fuku only at 600 square feet and an open kitchen and bar, there is limited space for people to stand in line so customers are forced to wait on line outside. However, Fuku makes ordering very quick and easy. While one stationed register takes orders, another employee is seen walking down the lines to take orders through their iPads. This potentially retains customers on line by binding orders. Moreover, consumers feel well accommodated and less annoyed from waiting. Fuku only accepts credit cards which speeds up the ordering process.

Their chicken sandwich is simply a fried chicken, pickles and a buttered bun but consumers are attracted to Fuku’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich because of its large fried chicken at an affordable price of $8.

To read more about their grand opening, click here.

Filed Under: Retail Spotlight Tagged With: , , ,
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