A Restaurant Brand Creator on How to Keep People Coming Back

“Sue Chan is the founder and chief executive officer of Care of Chan, a two-year-old brand management agency that has worked with a hit list of restaurants including Alta, Cosme, Una Pizza Napoletana, and Wildair to create that all-important but so-hard-to-capture great restaurant experience. Chan was previously the brand director at Momofuku for seven years.

At her own company, Chan focuses in on everything that makes a memorable restaurant experience the type of place that customers want to keep returning to again and again. While there’s no set formula for creating that unforgettable experience, once it’s in place it can drive sales and longterm customer loyalty like no quick-hitting press coverage can. “It doesn’t matter if you’re on Bon Appetit’s top ten, you could close in a year or two,” Chan explained. “That is a real thing that happens a lot. It’s more about just caring about the actual customers who come in every single day, and focusing on that community and building that community.”

See full interview here.

 

The Smart Espresso Profiler (SEP) Adds Flow and Pressure Profiling to Virtually Any Machine

Smart Espresso Profiler (SEP)

“Until recently, it has required thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of specialized equipment to accurately measure and act upon several of the more important factors in espresso brewing — factors such as the duration and force of pre-infusion, the pressure profile for the rest of the shot, and the cutting-edge tweak du jour: the flow rate.

These barriers to entry might be disintegrating, however, now that espresso accessory-maker Naked Portafilter has developed and launched a new tool for home and professional baristas that appears to be breaking the field wide open.

See more here.

Coffee Can Extend Longevity for People with Kidney Disease, Research Shows

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“According to the researchers, approximately 89 percent of the U.S. adult population drinks caffeine in some form daily, while 14 percent of Americans have chronic kidney disease.”

“The reduction in mortality was present even after considering other important factors such as age, gender, race, smoking, other diseases and diet,” Miguel Bigotte Vieira, one of the study’s lead authors, wrote, addressing the medical community “These results suggest that advising patients with kidney disease to drink more caffeine may reduce their mortality. This would represent a simple, clinically beneficial, and inexpensive option, though this benefit should ideally be confirmed in a randomized clinical trial.”

Read more here.

More New York City Restaurants Have ‘A’ Grades Than Ever Before

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“Eight years after former mayor Michael Bloomberg tasked the Department of Health with completely dismantling and rebuilding the city’s restaurant grading system, a record amount of restaurants have “A” grades, and that’s despite the fact that said grading system is as confusing and arbitrary as ever.”

“In this year’s Mayor Management Report, data shows that in fiscal year 2018, 93.7% of 24,000 restaurants received “A” grades compared to 93.3% of restaurants last year and 85.4% of restaurants in 2012. Meanwhile, the DOH continues to ding restaurants for violations that don’t relate to food safety, creating a system in which owners and chefs must pay fines and place “Grade Pending” signs in their windows while they contest their initial grade.”

View more here.

How Restaurants Can Cut the Costs Of Handling Cash

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“One of the last things a quick-service restaurant manager wants to do at the end of a long shift is count down registers and fill out reports. They’ve been on their feet all day, helping customers, prepping food and putting out fires (only the figurative type, hopefully).”

“(…) Counting, reconciling and depositing money manually causes unnecessary inefficiency and risk in the business. Managers and staff remain on the clock at the end of the day, making the simple act of counting and reconciling cash costly in itself. Other risks include:

  • Potential for errors
  • Opportunity for theft
  • Untracked deposits
  • Time away from customer-facing activities like cleaning, service or food prep/safety.”

“According to a 2018 study of cash by IHL Group, 41.1 percent of quick-service transactions are in cash. While debit and credit might prevail in other areas of retail, the Federal Reserve reports that cash is still the payment of choice for transactions under $25—certainly within the sweet spot for average quick-serve tickets. Shake Shack learned this lesson recently as its customers demanded the ability to pay cash at a previously cashless location.”

Read more here.

The Coffee Pendulum Swings Again

Rejoice! Coffee is good for you again; as usual, the tide has shifted and your favorite morning beverage is back on the table.  The World Health Organization has concluded that coffee does not pose a cancer risk, and a regular habit of drinking coffee might even have a positive health effect.

Coffee is no stranger to the spotlight–good or bad.  In 1991, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer listed coffee as a possible carcinogen based on “limited evidence” that coffee was associated with a higher risk of bladder cancer.  However, the past 25 years have changed the evidence in a new direction.  Researchers reviewed more than 500 studies on over 20 different types of cancer and concluded that coffee might actually help prevent against uterus and liver cancers, and reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

Consider replacing your pour-over with cold brew, though; research is also turning up some connection between consumption of very hot beverages and the risk of esophageal cancer.

To read more, click here.