Open for Business

This week in restaurant news: America’s Classics, dry January, why small restaurant groups succeed

Every week we’re rounding up some of our favorite articles with trends and tidbits from the world of restaurants. Tell us: what made your reading list this week?

Announcing the 2020 America’s Classics Winners – James Beard Foundation
Ahead of the big show this spring, the James Beard Foundation announced six recipients of their America’s Classics Awards. The restaurants honored include a chicken-dinner behemoth and an ice cream shop, and span from Seattle to Little Rock. Read their stories here.

‘Rage Baking’ Authors Under Fire For Not Crediting African American Baker Behind a Similar Project – The Washington Post
A new cookbook titled Rage Baking sparked debate after an African American artist named Tangerine Jones accused the authors of co-opting the “ragebaking” idea, which first appeared on her website. Here, Tim Carman contextualizes the controversy in the long history of women of color being denied credit for their work.

Heavily Hyped Restaurants Are Closing at an Alarming Rate – Grub Street
Even big names, fancy pedigrees, and successful track records couldn’t save some recent New York restaurants from closing in their first couple of years of operation. What does that say about the value of hype in translating to real, sustainable business?

Does Dry January Dry Up Bar Sales? – Eater
More people are starting the year off alcohol-free, meaning slower sales and fewer tips for servers and bartenders. Find out the real effects of Dry January on a bottom line, and how bars can get creative with thoughtful mocktails.

The secret to San Francisco chefs’ success? Small restaurant groups – San Francisco Chronicle
Small organizations allow independent restaurants to borrow structure and stability from the corporate world without sacrificing the mom-and-pop atmospheres they love. Read on to learn why that’s more important now than ever before.

In demand: Dana Cowin and branding in the digital age

Every era has its hero. Dana Cowin was editor-in-chief of Food & Wine, one of the last bastions of swoon-worthy food magazine heavies, for 21 years. Over those two decades, Cowin and her team were gastronomy mile markers. They thoughtfully crafted the words and images that defined those legendary pages, inspiring a generation of curious eaters.

It’s no surprise that the woman who revolutionized how people read and learn about food and wine is busier than ever.

A Day in the Life

Cowin gets more done in a day than most people cross off in a week, and that’s just how she likes it. She is the chief brand advisor for Dig Food Group, host of the podcast Speaking Broadly, and a coach for others in the industry.

“I will sometimes begin the morning with a coaching client,” says Cowin, who consults with industry professionals eager to figure out how to make meaningful changes, just as she has in her own life. “For me, it was so hard to have the perfect job for so long and such a pain point, because I couldn’t leave until I could visualize what was next and take that leap.”

Cowin relishes devoting time to Dig Food Group, which just opened 232 Bleecker with Chef Suzanne Cupps, the chef of the celebrated Untitled. New Dig projects include openings in Philadelphia and more to come.

“Then, potentially there is lunch and putting in some time working at The Wing, where I pop in, open my laptop, and get a few emails done,” says Cowin, who supports nonprofits like the Food and Finance High School, New York City’s only culinary public high school.

In Cowin’s world, a big chunk of every perfect day would be reaching out to someone for her Speaking Broadly podcast, which airs each Wednesday for listeners on Heritage Radio Network, iTunes, and Stitcher. This spring, Cowin will also launch her own zine of the same name.

“This is one of the most exciting creative projects I’ve ever worked on, filled with people and meetings, and weekends with a week’s worth of email to catch up,” says Cowin. “I’ve been busy going out to new restaurants to see what people are eating and thinking about, so food adventures are always high on my list.”

When Cowin took over running Food & Wine in 1994, she and her team changed the magazine in a way that no one else had done before. It gave readers a different way to look at the world through the lens of food, rather than houses or fashion. Her zine aims to be of this particular moment, when food writing has become very personal.

“I like to help other people shout out broadly, pay it forward to pay it forward, and it goes to the heart of what people consider in their daily lives,” says Cowin.

Branding in the Digital Age: Staying a Step Ahead

The recent H.O.S.T. Summit + Social was founded by industry powerhouse producer Shari Bayer, the brains behind Bayer Public Relations. (The H.O.S.T. acronym stands for hospitality, operations, services, and technology.) Bayer brought her popular All in the Industry podcast to life in the inaugural event last month, when Cowin moderated a panel called “Branding in the Digital Age.”

Since leaving Food & Wine, Cowin has worked with several companies on branding projects, so she understands how the myriad digital tools available today can feel complicated and noisy to chefs and restaurateurs.

“So many chefs I know have become disenchanted with PR, believing they can do that part on their own and develop relationships one-on-one with journalists to pitch their story,” she says. “Plus, they often don’t have the budget for PR. Some of that is pragmatic and some is confidence, owning your own channels.”

To win the digital marketing race, Cowin favors the long game. But that requires vision and dedication.

“Authenticity is the starting point to any brand, because these days everyone can sniff out the inauthentic,” says Cowin. “There is so much in the world that is the same. To me, the difference between authentic and inauthentic is the difference between original personalities, not cobbled together through an algorithm.” [Read More…]

What to do after Valentine’s Day

If you’re a restaurant operator, you likely just had one of your biggest days of the year. Congratulations! Keep the momentum by carrying your Valentine’s Day success forward into the months ahead, leveraging learnings, and encouraging repeat business. First, take stock of how you did, from the hard numbers to guest feedback. Next, follow up with guests to make sure they come back. Here’s how.

Take stock of how you did

First things first: run the numbers. Pull covers and revenue data to measure the impact of the holiday. Look at the mix of party sizes, average turn times, and the pacing of seating. How did your game plan perform? Was the floor efficient? Did you have enough staff? What could have gone better?

Dig into guest and menu data. Review the books to see who dined with you on Valentine’s Day. Make note of first-time guests and repeat ones, locals and out-of-towners in guest notes. Integrate your OpenTable and POS systems to analyze the most popular and profitable menu items (from a regular or set menu) and beverages, such as cocktails or bottles of wine.

Close the loop on marketing campaigns. Restaurants using OpenTable’s marketing tracking feature can measure reservations and revenue back to digital marketing channels and campaigns. If you’re tracking already, see how many guests booked as a result of a Google Ad or email send. You can also track ROI on email campaigns with Venga. Whether you promoted a special Valentines Day menu or targeted your VIP’s to welcome them back, check in to see how many covers and how much revenue was generated directly from your email marketing efforts.(If not, be sure to set up tracking for Mother’s Day!)

Assess staff performance. Hospitality is paramount every day, but guest expectations for service are even higher on Valentine’s Day. Analyze staff performance with Venga’s Server Scorecard, which shows each server’s average feedback rating, server comparison data, and all reviews associated with that server. Identify and reward your top performers on the floor with a bonus or special shout-out, and tailor growth opportunities to each individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

Read the reviews. Pull up all the review sites where you have a presence and start reading. Notice one-off criticisms, but don’t dwell on them. Instead, focus on issues that come up repeatedly, such as wait times, an over-salted dish, or an unenthusiastic server. Venga’s Sentiment Analysis feature aggregates and analyzes reviews from across the web in one place and matches sentiments to food, service, and atmosphere, so restaurants can take action on feedback. Finally, run keyword search for “Valentine’s Day” or a specific menu item to learn about guests’ overall impression. [Read More…]

This week in restaurant news: women food critics, weird Valentine’s Day asks, the future of wine bars

Every week we’re rounding up some of our favorite articles with trends and tidbits from the world of restaurants. Tell us: what made your reading list this week?

A Wine Bar for the People – Eater
Countless Parisian nights unfold at the city’s famous natural wine bars, which haven’t achieved the same hold in U.S. cities. That’s because commercial American rents are too high to allow lingering – which is exactly what makes the French drinking culture so special. As Meghan McCarron argues here, the best hope for a relaxed bar culture stateside might be in smaller cities like Milwaukee or Kansas City, rather than NYC.

We Asked the People Behind Some of DC’s Restaurants and Hotels to Share the Weirdest Valentine’s Day Requests They’ve Received – Washingtonian
A “real” cupid to shoot a romantic partner. Hearts made out of Goldfish crackers. An engagement ring hidden in a raw oyster. Read on for some truly original guest requests on Valentine’s Day – and how restaurants went above and beyond to pull them off.

How Much Should Restaurants Pay Employees? – Toast
To play in today’s competitive hiring market, restaurants have to offer a great culture, career growth opportunities, and of course, attractive compensation. Toast dives into the details of structuring employee pay, from hourly vs. salaried to the minimum-wage laws that affect the bottom line.

“No One Suspected Me”: Women Food Critics Dish on Dining Out for a Living – Salon
Women don’t always enjoy the same level of service that men do – even if those women are professional critics. Writer Cara Strickland shares tales of gendered dining inequality, including one restaurant that offered a male critic an entirely different wine list than a female one, and another who cautioned a female critic about ordering a pork chop that was (he assured her) too large.

The Blockbuster Era Changed Movies Forever. Now It Will Transform Restaurants. – Robb Report
The golden age of television and movie streaming has a dining equivalent, Jeremy Repanich writes: delivery and fast casual. He predicts that restaurants in the future will have to be “big, bold and pegged to recognizable names,” just as today’s films need superheroes and villains to get a green light on production. Read his take and discuss.

7-step guide to choosing the best restaurant point-of-sale system

Choosing the best point of sale for your restaurant is no easy task. Your restaurant’s POS system touches almost every aspect of your business. Your choice needs to be carefully thought out and based on your restaurant’s current needs, while also keeping in mind how you want to scale your business down the line.

Especially if you’re new to the restaurant scene, having a step-by-step guide can help you consider the most important features and elements a POS system can bring to your restaurant. While the items below aren’t an exhaustive list, consider this your must-have starting point for choosing a restaurant POS system ideal for your business needs.

1. Make sure it’s easy to use

Restaurant POS systems are designed to make your staff’s lives easier. However, if your POS system requires 15 manuals and an advanced calculus degree to operate, getting your staff to adapt isn’t going to be easy.

When selecting a POS solution for the needs of your restaurant, consider the following:

How quickly orders come in
The flow of the restaurant floor
How many items are on the menu
Average turnover time

You can add about 1,000 other common variables to this list depending on your restaurant’s workflow. Each restaurant is unique, and a restaurant POS system needs to reflect that. A highly customizable, simply laid out restaurant POS system is key to keeping business moving at the right pace, while also being accessible to new staff members. The easier your system is to learn and use, the faster your new hires can hit the floor running (and selling).

2. Choose a POS system that focuses on data

As simple as the POS system interface should be for operators, the backend needs to offer the depth of detail necessary to gain a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. Opting for a POS system that garners customer data, inventory information, and countless other metrics will allow you to adjust ordering, staff appropriately for each shift, and determine the right strategy for optimal success on your busiest nights. Considering all of the information flows through your POS system each day is vital when evaluating POS systems.

What’s more, your POS system should more than just gather data; it should organize data and automate decisions based on it, from automatic ordering of low-stock items to optimized seating arrangements. With information about diner preferences, you can quickly identify their preferences, and from there, launch highly targeted, data-driven marketing campaigns.

3. Pick a system with scalability

To get the most out of your cloud-based POS system and plan for restaurant growth, you want to find one that has the ability to automatically upgrade software, add features and apps, increase data collection, and remain optimized for the lifespan of your equipment. Scalability is something that is often overlooked by newcomers to POS systems, but is something that is indispensable when productivity and profitability increase.

Features you may not currently need might become paramount once you expand your restaurant’s offerings or open a new location. Think about this: A couple of years ago, online ordering was something individual restaurants had to carry out themselves. Today there are a variety of apps that do it for you, but they require a POS system that can integrate with theirs. [Read More…]

Beyond zero food waste with Zero Foodprint

The USDA estimates that 30 to 40% of the United States’ food supply is wasted, so it’s not surprising that one key element of the zero waste movement is reducing food waste in particular.

Some cities like San Francisco and New York are passing legislation to achieve the goal of zero waste, and restaurants in Europe – such as Silo in the UK, Amass in Denmark, and Nolla in Finland – have become models of zero waste. It’s not clear whether those efforts will be enough to combat climate change, but according to Anthony Myint, one of the founders of Zero Foodprint and the Perennial Farming Initiative, restaurants hold the key to literally reversing global warming through regenerative agriculture.

If that sounds crazy, it’s important to note that very recent research shows that removing carbon from the soil is a major solution – perhaps even the primary solution – to the climate crisis. Recognizing that the restaurant industry represents the biggest economic sector in the food system (beating retail and agriculture), Zero Foodprint not only helps restaurants to improve sustainable practices, reduce food waste, and become carbon neutral, but also to fund regenerative agriculture by connecting diners, restaurants, and farmers.

“Many restaurateurs are pretty disconnected from farming, so they don’t understand the potential that the 8 billion acres of farmland and grassland represent to society in terms of turning bad atmospheric carbon into good soil carbon,” Myint explains. “They also don’t understand the actual levers for change.”

Myint says that nature can heal itself quickly as soil increases in vitality, and as atmospheric carbon becomes living things in the soil. A ranch that sells cows into a feedlot may not have the money or resources to switch to grass-fed practices, but “society needs them to use that land to take carbon out of the atmosphere.” With a different model, the same ranch might be able to pull enough carbon out of the atmosphere each year to offset the emissions of millions of gallons of gas.

“This program allows an average restaurant, and by extension, the average citizen, to invest in projects on the land,” says Myint.

The Zero Foodprint website details their crowdfunding approach to capturing emissions through farming, using restaurants as the engine and the science behind the project. A few cents from every meal at a participating restaurant (1% added to the customer’s bill) adds up to provide the funds needed for farms to switch to renewable farming practices, or restaurants can participate by going carbon neutral, which begins with an audit, called the Life Cycle Assessment.

While most Zero Foodprint restaurants are in San Francisco, New York, and Copenhagen, we spoke with three chefs and restaurateurs in other parts of the country to learn how they have adopted more sustainable practices in partnership with Zero Foodprint.

Audit

The Zero Foodprint program requires a Life Cycle Assessment, which gauges the climate impact of operations in the restaurant.

For chef and restaurateur Stephen Williams of Bouquet in Covington, Kentucky, the audit was fairly easy. As a farm-to-table restaurant, he says, “we were already composting and using compostable paper and little to no plastic. Most of our food is locally sourced. It just took time to fill out the form.”

Executive chef and co-partner Kevin Fink of Emmer & Rye in Austin, Texas agrees, adding that an energy audit from your city is an easy first step that allows you to “recognize very quickly where you’re wasting energy.”

Chef-owner Ryan Ratino of Bresca in Washington DC points out the simple, achievable changes, noting that a lot of ideas save money without impacting the guest experience. “We eliminated 80% of the gas in the kitchen – there’s one gas range and everything else is electric or wood fire,” he says. [Read More…]

V-Day Prep: How to Train Your Staff on Special Menus

“Anybody who’s going out for Valentine’s Day wants to have a good time and be in love,” Guillaume Magnani, General Manager of Cafe Centro, a brasserie-inspired restaurant in Midtown New York, says with a laugh. “It’s up to us to create that atmosphere.”

It’s a challenge on the busiest dining days of the year, but he and Chef Ted Rozzi have a game plan that spans all touchpoints of the restaurant.

Their plan starts with creating a menu to make the holiday special. All other prep stems from that — including preparing every team member for the occasion. Getting your entire staff to embrace the menu and empowering them with knowledge to sell it can be a challenge, but the effort to get everyone on the same page so your guests have the right information is key to making the evening a success.

[Read More…]

Rise Above the Noise: Learn How to Reach More Diners with Our New Guide

This week in restaurant news: America’s Classics, dry January, why small restaurant groups succeed