Restaurant and Foodservice
Fine-dining chef a role model for children, healthy eating
Washington, D.C., chef and restaurateur Todd Gray made the news last year as a high-profile player in first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign,...
Results for "fine dining"
Brands & Campaigns
Where fine dining and social media meet
To learn how restaurants can position themselves for success in 2010, Rebecca Pollack, SmartBrief’s food industry editor, reached out to marketing guru Ron Blake,...
Restaurant and Foodservice
2011 forecasts call for pie, ice pops and a pop for fine dining
A few weeks ago, we took at look at how last year’s food predictions played out. This week, it’s time to start looking ahead,...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Q-and-A with Anita Jones-Mueller, president and founder of Healthy Dining
Anita Jones-Mueller founded Healthy Dining in 1990 with the aim of inspiring chefs to create healthier options for diners and allowing Americans to include...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Communal dining — cozy setting or terrible trend?
This post is by Restaurant SmartBrief contributor Janet Forgrieve. For many of us, dining out at a nice restaurant offers a leisurely chance to...
Restaurant and Foodservice
The ins and outs of running an outdoor dining operation
(Photo: NEWSCRED) Last winter’s blizzards and arctic blasts started becoming a distant memory the minute restaurants around the country set up the patio tables...
Food
Al fresco dining options bloom with spring
Spring popped up on the calendar more than a month ago, but it’s taken longer for the weather to get with the program. Now,...
Restaurant and Foodservice
The 2nd annual RIZMYS finalists announced
The 2nd Annual RIZMYs Awards are quickly approaching! Again, the ceremony will be held at the at FSTEC NexGen conference, taking place in New...
Food
The family-friendly balancing act — for restaurants
This post is by SmartBlog on Restaurants and Restaurant SmartBrief contributor Janet Forgrieve. There’s a fairly memorable scene in one of the later seasons...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Restaurants ready to show the love this weekend
Dining out is part of the Valentine’s Day celebration plan for nearly 90% of respondents to a national OpenTable survey released this week, and...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Post-recession consumers and restaurant spending
Restaurant chains generally have been reporting more positive news on sales, including McDonald’s, which this week reported a 6% increase in April same-store sales,...
Restaurant and Foodservice
McDonald’s falls from the Top 10 in Foodable’s Most Loved Restaurant Brands
Today’s consumers, especially those in the millennial generation, are not easy to win over. Social media has created an environment where consumers feel comfortable...
Food
Feeding the needs of older restaurant guests
NPD Group and other industry analysts say eateries may be scrambling in the coming years to make up for slower sales to baby boomers,...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Restaurant guide goes behind the kitchen doors
A group that made news last year with a survey revealing that 63% of restaurant workers show up sick to prepare and serve food...
Food
Rising cocktail costs and other spirited stories
Consumers might be pinching pennies when it comes to some dining-out choices, but they’re not shy about spending more for a pre-dinner cocktail or...
Food
The truth about dogs and restaurants
This post is by SmartBlog on Restaurants and Restaurant SmartBrief contributor Janet Forgrieve. Last week we wrote about the balancing act eateries sometimes perform...
Food
Restaurant Weeks make their return
It’s that time again, when restaurants nationwide band together to fight the January slowdown with Restaurant Weeks. Eateries offer fixed-price menus to bring in...
Food
How do you deal with customers and their digital devices?
From laptops on every table at Starbucks to businesspeople wheeling and dealing on smartphones at white-tablecloth eateries, the digital universe has become a real...
Restaurant and Foodservice
The power of a high-priced meal
Not so long ago, many restaurants were all about meal deals. More recently, the pricing conversation turned to the higher cost of ingredients and...
Food
Top 10 social and digital predictions for 2013
Facebook falls Had Facebook not been the social behemoth that it is, most people would have probably bailed on this promiscuous social network that...
Restaurant and Foodservice
How “grocerants,” millennials and technology are changing the shopping landscape
Anyone who works in the consumer packaged goods industry can attest that the shopping landscape is evolving at an accelerated pace. As shifts in...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Why Greenz renamed its Southwestern Shrimp salad “The Joe” for a day
SmartBlog on Restaurants editor Megan Conniff interviewed Casie Caldwell, founder, president and CEO of Greenz Restaurants. Caldwell is responsible for the direction of the...
Food
2 cocktails in one, and one weird burger
This week’s roundup of offbeat food tales includes a follow-up on the fallout from one restaurateur’s decision to ban children younger than age 6...
Food
How restaurants can set themselves apart in 2012
Longtime Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo brought up some good points when he disagreed with my comparison of Restaurant Weeks with daily-deal websites. He...
Food
Joe’s campaign celebrates “100% Shore” roots
Culinary innovators at Houston-based Ignite Restaurant Group have been remaking the menu at Joe’s Crab Shack since shortly after it bought the chain from...
Food
Q-and-A: Roti’s Frederik Jensen and Peter Nolan on farm-to-fork
Demand for healthy and local meals on restaurant menus has skyrocketed in the last few years. Eateries of all types — from fine dining...
Restaurant and Foodservice
The future of gluten-free: Restaurants still weighing whether to jump on the bandwagon
The gluten-free market continues to grow as food companies and restaurants expand their offerings to cater to consumers’ appetite for gluten-free foods. Gluten-free dishes...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Locally sourced fast-casual menus feed fresh, transparency, quality trends
Today’s consumers expect fine-dining menus to boast locally sourced ingredients and change with the seasons, and now the locavore trend is fueling changes at...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Tasting menus gain popularity among diners, chefs
(Photo:Marigold Kitchen) America’s foodies have educated themselves about different cuisines and exotic ingredients through travel, food TV shows, social sharing sites and even old-fashioned...
Food
Holidays wrap gift cards in incentives
This post is by SmartBrief contributor Janet Forgrieve. Restaurants are hosting the biggest crowds they’re likely to see all year, as holiday shoppers stop...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Q&A: How to turn your restaurant into a community
Chef Lawrence Chu was young man when he opened Chef Chu’s in Silicon Valley, more than 40 years ago. Since then, his restaurant has...
Food
Behind the scenes of Morton’s “greatest customer service story ever told”
Morton’s The Steakhouse took to heart public relations guru Peter Shankman’s tweeted plea for a steak dinner after a day of travel, meeting him...
Restaurant and Foodservice
1789’s chef puts simple twists on Thanksgiving staples
More than half of Americans — and nearly 60% of women — look forward to side dishes over the main dish of ham or...
Food
6 strategies to win the fight for customers
Restaurant visits are likely to be slightly down this year, a disappointment for operators and chains that have been struggling to stay afloat since...
Restaurant and Foodservice
The latest on restaurant letter grades
A few short years ago, restaurants in New York City were warily waiting to see how a new letter-grade system, modeled after one put...
Food
Sponsored Content: Q-and-A with Wilbur Curtis Company’s Kevin Curtis
This blog post is sponsored by Wilbur Curtis Company. Kevin Curtis, Executive Vice President of Wilbur Curtis Company, is part of the third generation...
Food
Brewing up new food and beer pairings
It used to be that the word “pairings” automatically turned our thoughts and palates to wine, but the rise in craft beer production, small...
Restaurant and Foodservice
When chefs become entrepreneurs
Major chain restaurants increased their market share last year, and the 100 biggest commanded 49.5% of all restaurant sales and accounted for 44.5% of...
Restaurant and Foodservice
5 crazy menu items in 2010
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Restaurants — tracks feedback from restaurant owners and managers about current trends and issues. Last...
Restaurant and Foodservice
The importance of regular training
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Restaurants — tracks feedback from restaurant owners and managers about current trends and issues. Last...
Restaurant and Foodservice
Growth of food trucks creates governmental balancing act
Some of the most-clicked items in Restaurant SmartBrief, read by restaurateurs, chefs and foodies, are about food trucks. SmartBlog on Restaurants and Restaurant SmartBrief...
Restaurant and Foodservice
How to deal with the dine-and-dash
This post is by SmartBlog on Restaurants and Restaurant SmartBrief contributor Janet Forgrieve. A seemingly classy couple made international news this week, complete with...