Another famous chef opens a fast-casual concept. That’s the reoccurring headline in foodservice magazines. Each article takes a stab at what is behind this trend—confirmed as a trend by more than 1,500 chefs who collectively rank chef-driven fast-casuals No. 2 in “hotness” in the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot 2016 Culinary Forecast report.
But chef-driven fast or fast-casual is not new. We have to credit restauranteur extraordinaire Wolfgang Puck for thinking of it in 1991 when he opened Wolfgang Puck Express leading to Wolfgang Puck to Go airport units.
Back in 2008, I interviewed Sacramento chef Mai Pham of Lemon Grass Restaurant, for QSR magazine regarding a Sacramento airport opening of a scaled-down version of her upscale restaurant. HMSHost Corporation approached her about opening a unit at the airport as the “local” movement was emerging. At that time, HMSHost’s senior vice president of business development told me they picked Mai Pham’s restaurant because she already had a great following in that local community. With the same view, the airport company had also recently established Providence Oyster Bar at the T. F. Green Airport in Providence, Rhode Island, and 42nd Street Oyster Bar at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
It’s great for the chef when “the world’s largest provider of food and beverage services for travelers” with its deep pockets and proven know-how comes knocking at the door.
Sports stadiums and movie theaters are also looking for stand-out chef-driven convenient food. (We will have to stop using the terms fast food and fast casual someday.)
I completely expect that as the combined world of chefs, the food media, millennials and venture capitalists equally look at food through “culinary” lenses, food courts are going to change. It’s an opportunity to leave the corporate chain giants to their own devices while property management companies assemble the perfect chef partners for shopping-district food courts 2.0.
I was just reading about The Pennsy, a new food hall in Penn Station, in QSR magazine. It highlighted how New York’s Marc Forgione, chef-owner of Restaurant Marc Forgione, just rejiggered some of his food and opened Lobster Press at The Pennsy. The article further mentions other stalls at The Pennsy, including “Mario Batali (Mario by Mary, an Italian concept in collaboration with caterer Mary Giuliani) and Pat LaFrieda (Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, a butcher shop and sandwich concept).”
Wherever lots of people go is where trained chefs need to be, and they are recognizing that. Look for more chef-driven small, convenient eateries to open focusing on just a few healthy, trendy, tasty items—in previously food-forsaken venues.
Tell me what you think.
