Archives for January 2017

8 Marketing Ideas to Jumpstart Your Restaurant Traffic in January and February

January can be a mixed bag for restaurants: after the craziness of the holidays, it can present the opportunity to hit refresh, take a step back, and evaluate your business. It’s also a time when the weather gets (sometimes a lot) colder, and diners are feeling less inclined to go out to eat after the glutton of the holidays, all of which can mean slower foot traffic.

Don’t let the beginning of the year slump hurt your business! Here are some ways that you can turn these early months into robust marketing opportunities. [Read more…]

Going Mobile: How to Grow a Restaurant Business with Street Food

Historically food trucks and tents presented an entree for up-and-coming entrepreneurs to dip their toes into the food business. But now we’re seeing the movement come full circle: more and more, established brick-and-mortar restaurants are seeing opportunities in the world of mobile food.

As the restaurant landscape has become more competitive, restaurateurs are looking for new ways to increase their exposure. Food trucks and tents offer a low-stakes way to explore new, interesting opportunities — especially when compared to to the costs and resources required for opening a new restaurant.

“Restaurants have become an important part of the mix for us,” says Matt Cohen, founder and CEO of Off the Grid, an organization that operates more than 50 weekly street food events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In San Francisco, restaurants like A16 and Nopalito have joined Off the Grid events at the Fort Mason Center and the Presidio, finding a creative way to grow their reach. Now Matt and his team are doing more than ever to reach restaurants, supporting them with infrastructure like tents, banners, and signage to help attract those businesses.

We spoke to Matt about why restaurants should consider going mobile and learned his top tips for making it work. (And Bay Area restaurants, take note! Off the Grid is accepting applications for the Fort Mason Center, California’s largest food market, through Friday, January 20th — apply here.) [Read more…]

Friendship & Fundraising: What Happens When a Restaurant Community Bands Together

Most chefs rode out the holiday season in a whirlwind of special menus, private events, and service with a packed house. Tim Archuleta, who helms the kitchen at San Francisco’s beloved ICHI Sushi, spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in the hospital due to a major surgery and significant health scare.

He and his wife Erin, who co-founded ICHI, realized quickly that Tim’s long recovery and physical limitations meant they wouldn’t be able to keep the restaurant in its large current space. Now, they’re returning to their roots: ICHI’s original location, a 21-seat spot they’ve been operating as an oyster bar and for pop-ups since moving a few years ago.

“It’s funny, because we kept that space with the intention of creating a lunch spot,” says Erin. “Now we’re able to do ICHI as lunch and dinner — it’s kind of a sweet story.”

A month in the hospital — combined with what’s a essentially a new restaurant opening — gets expensive. Leaders in the San Francisco restaurant industry have banded together to support ICHI and the Archuletas, starting a GoFundMe campaign “to support friends who wouldn’t ask themselves,” as the page reads. Additionally, some of the city’s best restaurants — flour + water, Trestle, Tosca, Waterbar, and many more — are partnering on a ticketed tasting event with the goal of raising $10,000 for Team ICHI. [Read more…]

This Week in Restaurant News: Fake Meat, Obama’s Food Legacy, Death of the 3-Course Meal

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?

In Washington, Team Trump Inherits a Foodie City in Its Prime — Bloomberg Pursuits

Are We Witnessing the Death of the 3-Course Meal? — Vogue

I Work in the Restaurant Industry. Obamacare Saved My Family’s Life. — Eater

Will Fake Meat Ever Be As Good As Real Meat? An Investigation — Thrillist

Organic Pioneer Nora Pouillon Wins James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award — The Washington Post

Ground-Breaking Animal Welfare Organic Rules Moving Forward — Civil Eats

Annisa, a West Village Standout, Will Close — The New York Times

Rye, a Grain With Ancient Roots, Is Rising Again — The New York Times

Rene Redzepi on the Future of Fine Dining — Lucky Peach

The Exit Interview: Ag Secretary Vilsack on Obama’s Food Legacy — Grist

Restaurant Law Center Takes the Fight to the Courts — The Hill

The 16 Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings of 2017 — Eater

8 Things Restaurants Should Know About Working with Farmers

The rapport between restaurants and farmers is stronger than ever in today’s farm-to-table dining culture. Partnering is a win-win: restaurants want the best, highest-quality product, and farmers want to grow incredible ingredients, responsibly, for their local communities. But what really makes these relationships thrive?

Husband-and-wife team Kalayada Ammatya and James Beutel (the eponymous “K” and “J”) started K&J Orchards in the 1980s and quickly became one of the largest producers of Asian pears in California. Eventually they moved out of wholesale into farmers’ markets. Today, their daughter Aomboon “Boonie” Ammatya heads up the family business, now a year-round farm growing cherries, apricots, apples, and citrus, in addition to pears, and works closely with CUESA’s Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market.

Since a significant portion of K&J’s business comes from restaurants, we asked Boonie all about how she works with chefs and how to get the most out of a partnership. Here are a few of her top insights. [Read more…]

Archives for January 2017

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