SheeFood

The Restaurant of the Future

Cuisine type is only part of what will make the restaurant of the future successful. Until recently, we didn’t expect any more out of our favorite eateries than to satisfy our appetite. But philosophy is now as much a part of a restaurant’s identity and appeal as the food.

That’s the conclusion I reached when I worked on a recent article for QSR magazine about five restaurant brands you should be aware of but probably aren’t.

The magazine editor accumulated the brands throughout the year and assigned me to research what makes them so noteworthy. Here are a few of the winning characteristics of the restaurant of the future:

Support of local causes. Leftover food at the end of the day need never go into the dumpster. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Wildflower Bread Company, with 11 units, donates its daily leftovers to shelters or churches. It has a “Wildflower Cares” program in which it gives charitable donations to area causes rather than spend the money on advertising.  Nick’s Pizza & Pub (two locations in the Chicago area) does the same thing. It is big on community fund raisers and gives 15% of a day’s sales to the selected cause, which could be a Boy Scouts troop, a school band, or a local family’s medical need.  The designated group uses all manner of promotions to get people into the restaurant, so Nick’s Pizza never has to advertise itself.

“Natural” focus. Naked Pizza says it all. The 20-unit chain with headquarters in New Orleans is totally about healthy pizza, complete with prebiotics, probiotics and all-natural ingredients. Aren’t you noticing that processed is on the way out?

Look for another natural chain, LYFE Kitchen, to come on the scene, beginning in August in Palo Alto, Calif. Former McDonald’s execs have whipped some ideas into a new restaurant concept using famous chefs Art Smith (former personal chef to Oprah Winfrey) and Tal Ronnen, famed vegan and vegetarian chef. There will be no microwaves or fryers, and all dishes will have 600 or fewer calories, including many vegan options.

Carbon footprintless (or at least almost). LYFE Kitchens will be big into recycling and energy efficiency, and of course, not allowing delivery trucks to drive too far to get the food to the restaurants. Local sourcing is the goal.

Up-to-the-second technology. Life will be easier at LYFE Kitchens, which plans to use i-Pad-like technology for ordering at the table (and playing games, listening to music, etc.) This will be a big area, based on the booths I saw at the National Restaurant Association show touting on-line services, computerized menu boards and interactive menus. Along with all that will be customized ordering. Successful restaurants of the future won’t limit customers so much on the ingredients in an entrée.

In summary, the notable restaurant of the future will follow consumer interests and philosophies and will build them into the operation model. Consumers will offer their dining-out dollars as a reward (as long as the food tastes fantastic).

Long-existing chains, perk up. You will need to rethink everything.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

Bird's Nest Soup (Again)

It’s the annual visit from my Chinese-Malaysian father-in-law, who came bearing bird’s nests again for bird’s nest soup. In the nearly one year I’ve been doing this blog, one of my first posts, Bird’s Nests and Asian Cuisine, has been my most-viewed post. And so, for popularity’s sake, I’ll visit it again in more detail.

Bird’s nest soup, made from the saliva shells of swallows/swifts, is a status-proving delicacy to Asians—think caviar class, only hugely more expensive. Supply of the coveted nests doesn’t begin to reach demand. So I do not take my evening bird’s nest soup lightly.

My father-in-law soaks the nests in water for several hours to hydrate them. Then he boils them in a double boiler in water with sugar cane and dried Chinese red dates for hours. The result is still-intact bird’s nests, but they will come apart with a spoon. They are gelatinous and opaque—like I would imagine gummy grass to be if someone would please invent that. It can be served hot or cold. I choose cold. So into the refrigerator it goes after it has cooled a bit. Before I go to bed, I slurp bird’s nest soup, which is deliciously sweet and … springy.

I can’t even imagine where you could buy bird’s nests in the U.S. But you could have them imported, and I looked online for a source. I don’t necessarily recommend this supplier, since I’ve never dealt with them, but here’s the website: http://bird-nest.net.

Normally the nests are removed at great peril from cliffs and caves, but in Thailand, they’ve found ingenious ways to build this industry. You can watch it on this YouTube video http://bit.ly/Vp2kK.

I think there is one serving left of bird’s nests before my father-in-law returns to Malaysia. Next time I travel to Malaysia, I should bring him an American delicacy. Hmmm. I wonder what that would be. Any ideas?

Jody

(PS, the American wonders he is taking back with him, that he can’t get in Malaysia, are trail mix and paper towels.)

Restaurants at Your Service

Many a restaurateur has told me that “more butts in seats” is the prime goal of restaurants. That means return customers are gold, and keeping them coming back is the biggest challenge. Cheap prices is one way. But operators who know and respond to the collective customer psyche have more up their sleeve than coupons.  

Dining-out consumers are responding right now to fresh and local, genuine ingredients, premium ingredients, customization, variety and food that hints at healthfulness, according to Nancy Kruse, president of The Kruse Co., Atlanta. She spoke at the “Menus 2011: Turning Trends into Money Makers” workshop session in May at the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show. Following are some examples she pointed out of what restaurants are doing along these lines:

• Olive Garden is on top of it in the premiumization department with its Artisanal Ravioli Pear & Gorgonzola with Shrimp. Who combines gorgonzola and pears in an entrée? What a great idea. It also has gone premium with Chianti-Braised Short Ribs with Portabella Risotto. It sounds upscale, and that’s a recurring theme. Quick-serve and casual-dining restaurants are upping their game, and now customers expect premium items, like McDonald’s new frozen strawberry lemonade. They are spoiling us.
• Premiumization of burgers has been well thought out and addressed, as in Arby’s new Angus Beef Sandwich (three cheese and bacon!) and Red Robin’s Prime Chop House Burger. As Nancy pointed out, now it’s part of the diner’s DNA to expect premium items.
• Which Wich’s sandwiches come out winners in customization. Guests are handed a brown paper bag on which is written a list of proteins, breads, cheeses and condiments. Guests check off which they want, putting them in complete control of what they get.
• Red Lobster has grasped the importance of allowing guests to choose preparations, like wood grilled, blackened, fried, etc. The more that restaurants offer choices, the more we diners will demand it.
• Ruby Tuesday has long been in the game of offering health on the menu. When low-carb was the craze, the chain was on it. Now it has a menu section called Fit & Trim where each item is 700 calories or fewer. Salad Creation has a Diabetes-Friendly menu. And anyone who’s eaten at Five Guys Burgers & Fries knows that grease is part of the package. But even it makes some health claims… Zero Artificial Trans Fats; Cooked in Pure, No-Cholesterol, Tasty Peanut Oil.

I would add that in the quick-serve realm, I think Wendy’s is one to watch. It started on the “healthy” trail about a year ago when it began working on its crisper, skin-on French fries flavored with sea salt. Results are in, and the fries are wildly popular. Now Wendy’s has added a new salad to its Garden Sensations line, and it’s one the chain is quite proud of… Berry Almond Chicken Salad with fat-free raspberry vinaigrette that combines raspberries and acai berries. What women’s magazine hasn’t done a feature on the healthfulness of those? The company has itself stated that it’s a casual dining salad without the casual dining price. Wendy’s has raised the bar on fast-food salads—in fact, on casual-dining salads.

I’m curious to watch what happens on menus in the coming year as restaurants are finally paying attention to what drives consumers to the restaurant.

Tell me what you think.

Jody

Food Samples Say it All

The average Costco consumer would be jealous. Multiply the number of in-store food samplings by 1,000, and you have the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.

I usually cover booths and/or workshop sessions for one publication or another at the annual May event, but I take my time scoping the 1,900 exhibits for what’s new.

If there’s one category that stood out to me this year (other than technology, which is a subject for another day), it was beverages, and particularly coffee and tea. No less than 47 companies exhibited coffee, and 33 touted tea.

Watch Coca Cola. It’s extending its beverage bevy with its Georgia Coffee, a brand it has served in Asia for more than 30 years. Now it’s available to the U.S. foodservice market, both roast ground and ice coffee. And it was apparent at the show that ice coffee is becoming quite a star. Coca Cola/Georgia Coffee offers it as a concentrate in caramel, mocha, vanilla and hazelnut flavors to mix with consumers’ favorite dairy, as in skim milk, soy milk, etc. (This works with the growing customization trend.)  

S&D Coffee Inc. was sampling frozen, slushy caramel, vanilla and mocha coffee, and in the tea department, frozen honey green; pomegranate; and chai tea.

I’d say we have McDonald’s to thank for the burgeoning popularity of frozen coffee beverages. By its sheer volume, McDonald’s made the category a trend, and thus it was so on the NRA show floor.

Anything else I’ve gleaned as a food trend of recent certainly made an appearance at NRA. Let’s take oatmeal, which is multiplying like rabbits on quick-serve menus. There’s a category to capitalize on, and coffee-machine maker Bunn is on it. The company demonstrated a prototype oatmeal machine that’s the same principal as a powder cappuccino machine, only it dispenses oatmeal. That is, the operator can put up to three flavors of a suppliers’ dried oatmeal into the hopper, and with the push of a button, the machine releases the oatmeal and hot water at the same time into a cup. Wallah. Instant oatmeal.

And how about gluten-free everything? Any restaurant operator with any smarts knows from experience by now that there must be gluten-free options on the menu. Suppliers, of course, are also onto that. Wearing my media badge, I was nearly tackled on the show floor by a supplier of gluten-free cookie, pizza crust, waffle and chocolate cake mixes. I found gluten-free granola, soups, entrees, pancake and bread mixes, brown rice snacks, cheese puffs and baked fries for starters.

Just guessing which booth had the most visitors, I’d have to say Coca Cola. They were dispensing Coke like it was water. But they had a story to tell to those standing in the long lines for a nice-size guzzle. It had to do with the company’s Freestyle machine, which has been out for over a year now. 

Celebrating its 125^th anniversary, Coca Cola upped the number of beverages available in its Freestyle machine from 106 to 125. The company claims that some 400 outlets use the Freestyle machine that allows guests to push a button for the type of drink they want, such as Coca Cola or Diet Coca Cola, and then select from a list of flavors. This includes raspberry, orange, cherry and vanilla Coke, for starters. Guests can even mix flavors. I recommend 2/3 orange Coke and 1/3 vanilla!

Watch for my next blog when I’ll outline the restaurants that are most on top of food trends.

Jody