From The Boston Globe: Meat loaf just doesn't get it done anymore. And Salisbury steak? No way.

A new survey of the casual restaurant industry finds that consumers - and in particular, young men - need exotic flavors to lure them away from home meals and motivate them to dine out.

The study is from Technomic, a food-service industry consultant based in Chicago, and the Technomic study found that 42 percent of consumers, especially males aged 25 to 34, are more likely to visit restaurants that offer new or unique flavors.

Meat loaf might get a young man to salivate at home. But when he's out and about and spending hard-earned cash, the same young man can be transformed into a fussy gourmet who is more likely to choose a restaurant that features exotic dips and marinades than one offering bland and commonplace fare.

So what's a restaurant chef to do? Take a world tour with the spice rack, Technomic suggests, and drench those entrées in unusual marinades.

After studying the best practices of successful restaurateurs, Technomic concluded: "Garlic, pepper, and smoky barbecue flavor profiles dominate entrée menus. Global influences are also prominent, specifically those with a Mexican, Asian, and Italian flair." Full Story

From Christopher Borelli of the Chicago Tribune: Decades from now, when you reflect on what dining was like during the fledgling years of the 21st century, on a good day you will picture a heartening trend toward comfort food in the wake of Sept. 11 and a well-meaning push toward locally sourced menus.

But on a bad day, when someone asks what the worst restaurant trends of that first decade were, will you be able to shut up? One restaurant type cracked: "As long as we're not naming names, I'll talk. Because now that you ask this, specific chefs and self-important restaurants are coming to mind."

Then there were those who, like It Boy and New York chef David Chang, when asked to name the worst trends of the decade, simply blurted: "The Cheesecake Factory. The Kobe beef movement was stupid -- it was never meant to be a burger! Sliders are stupid too. Sorry, I mean to say 'a trio of sliders' is stupid. What else? Walls of wine bottles as decoration. The steakhouse craze -- why does there need to be more than a couple of steakhouses in any metropolitan area?"

Then, when his outrage subsided, Chang made an excellent point: "Bad trends were usually good trends. They just got watered down into a really bad, overdone trend."

Here are the top 10 with a link to the full article below:

• Fried Onion Blossoms
• Molecular gastronomy
• The $40 Entree
• The Communal Table
• Proudly Obnoxious Fast Food Options
• Knee-jerk Online Reviews (ie. Yelpers)
• Foam
• The Menu as Book
• The Chef as Media Whore
  
• Deconstruction

FULL STORY

From William Neuman, New York Times: Just in time for football season, the Lion’s Head Tavern in New York City stopped selling 25-cent chicken wings on Monday nights. In Tucson, a sports bar called O’Malleys on Fourth scrapped its fall special of a dozen wings on Monday nights for $4.

And in restaurants from Sarasota to Seattle, an improbable poultry part is showing up on menus: a little chunk of chicken breast that is fried and sauced and sold, with marketer’s brio, as a “boneless wing.”

All this is happening because wholesale chicken prices have turned upside down. The once-lowly wing is selling at a premium over what has long been the gold standard of poultry parts, the skinless boneless chicken breast.

Like the tail that wags the dog, the wings are now flapping the chicken.

Mike Bell knows chicken prices. The logistics and purchasing manager for Buffalo Wild Wings, a national chain with about 600 restaurants, Mr. Bell will buy 57 million pounds of chicken wings this year. Describing recent conversations with poultry processors, he said: “Basically a whole bunch of them are throwing their hands in the air and saying, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. We’ve never seen it this way.’ ”

In seven of the last 11 months, wholesale wing prices have been higher than breast prices, a reversal in a market where breasts usually reign supreme. In September, the average wholesale price for whole chicken wings in the Northeast was $1.48 a pound, according to the Agriculture Department. Yet skinless boneless breasts were $1.21 a pound.

A year earlier, wings sold for 94 cents and breasts for $1.15, and as recently as May 2008, skinless boneless breasts were selling for 57 cents more than wings.

The wholesale price shift has generally not been reflected in supermarkets, where grocers appear to be trying to preserve their margins on breast meat. Nationally on average, breasts are $2.80 a pound at retail, still 83 cents more than wings. However, some grocers are exploiting the wholesale price drop to run aggressive sales on breasts.

The recession is the cause of the price flip-flop.

Restaurants, normally big buyers of breast meat, slashed orders as millions of people cut back on eating out, and breast prices slumped. But demand for wings has remained strong, partly because people perceived them as a cheap luxury.

Adding to the demand: the brisk growth of restaurant chains focusing on wings, like Atomic Wings, Wingstop and Wing Zone. Several chains have been remarking this year about how much business is up in the recession. The major public company in this group, Buffalo Wild Wings, reported a 27 percent earnings jump in the first half of the year.

Eventually, as the economy improves, wing and breast prices may return to their traditional places. But for now, the triumph of wings over breasts has wing partisans celebrating. Full Story  

From Nation's Restaurant News: Offering chef-driven flair with a cherry on top, spiked milkshakes are emerging as signature adult beverages at several upscale burger concepts around the country.

Boasting names such as the Bourbon Malted, Grandma’s Treat and the All Nighter, these liquor-laced concoctions offer comfort-food appeal with a grown-up twist when paired with their longtime partner, the burger, according to operators.

“In the food and beverage realm, it really doesn’t get more comfortable than a burger and a shake,” said John Rothstein, corporate beverage director of Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Restaurants, which has BLT Burger locations in New York City and in the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

One of the notable choices at BLT Burger is the All Nighter, made with Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream, espresso and coffee ice cream, Rothstein said. It is priced at $11.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t like milkshakes,” said Noah Ellis, beverage director of the San Francisco-based Mina Group restaurants, which includes chef Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak concept, where gourmet burgers are served in the lounge.

Ellis notes that burger concepts were growing even before the recession encouraged consumers to trade down from higher-priced restaurants.

The Bourbon Bar Burgers on the new Bourbon Steak lounge menu include prime and American Kobe beef burgers and turkey burgers, both priced at $14; lamb and salmon burgers, both priced at $18; and a falafel burger at $12. They can be topped with an array of artisanal cheeses, farmer’s market vegetables and exotic sauces ranging from black truffle aïoli to yogurt raita.

To create companion beverages equal to those elevated patties, Ellis looked in a direction different from his “serious” cocktails.

“I don’t think a Manhattan is something you want with a burger,” he said.

He teamed with corporate pastry chef Lincoln Carson on three dairy-based libations that are less sweet and more refined than the typical milkshake.

“We wanted something you could sip with a burger and fries and be satisfied but not overwhelmed,” Ellis said.

Enter the Bourbon Malted, made with Jim Beam bourbon, salty caramel sauce and malted milk powder; the Grasshopper, with green crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, vanilla vodka and peppermint oil; and the Rum Raisin, with Appleton Estate 12-year-old rum and puréed rum-plumped raisins.

Each shake has a base of three scoops of Tahitian vanilla ice cream plus whole milk and half and half. The shakes are spun in a spindle-style milkshake mixer and served in frozen, footed pilsner glasses. Ellis estimates that the restaurants sell about one adult shake for every four burgers sold, amounting to a nice bit of additional income at $11 apiece.

The Bourbon Malted’s distinctive brown streaks are made by a few random squirts of salty caramel sauce on the inside of the frozen glass. As the shake is sipped, the caramel streaks melt and add flavor, Ellis said.

A similar salty-sweet nuance shines in 25 Degrees’ top-selling Salty Caramel shake, a blend of vanilla ice cream, bourbon, butterscotch and Hawaiian red sea salt, priced at $8.

“The touch of salt in the caramel really makes it taste great,” said Tim Goodell, who has 25 Degrees locations in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel as well as in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Phoenix. On average, each unit uses seven to eight gallons of ice cream for shakes each day.

At BLT Burger, Rothstein said he sees spiked shakes as a continuation of the experimental mixology that is revitalizing classic cocktails like the Sidecar, Manhattan and French 75.

“We’re giving the classic milkshake a distinctive twist, yet keeping the alcohol subtle enough so that you still enjoy it as a milkshake,” he said.

In addition to the aforementioned All Nighter, another BLT Burger crowd pleaser is Grandma’s Treat, made with vanilla ice cream, Maker’s Mark bourbon and caramel, priced at $11.

Chefs are still using these high-end ingredients, but many have modified their menus or opened lower-priced offshoots to woo people who are concerned about costs.

"At Del Posto, our fanciest restaurant, we have taken some of the luxury items off and dropped the fancy menu from $275 to $150," Mario Batali said at the annual Food & Wine Classic this summer in Aspen, Colo.

"There's less caviar, foie gras and truffles, but they're still there. They're just not on nine courses. They're on one course."

Marcus Samuelsson, chef/owner of Aquavit and Riingo in New York and C-House in Chicago, says that over the past two years, he has done "menu engineering" to offer more price diversity. Pork belly and ox tail dishes, for example, are more wallet-friendly than a ribeye.

"Our menus should be something for everyone," Samuelsson says. "You should be able to sit at the bar and eat a great meal for maybe 20 or 25 bucks, and then if you really want to celebrate, there should be something for you, too."

The recession seemed non-existent at The Bazaar by José Andrés, judging by the food served to well-heeled diners on a recent August evening. Small plates of caviar buns and cotton candy foie gras flew out of the kitchen at the bustling restaurant inside the luxurious SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills.

"I don't have a sense that I've been cutting more because of the economy," says chef Andrés, who also owns restaurants in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. "Over the past 15 or 20 years, I've been moving more slowly toward vegetables, but that doesn't necessarily mean (they) are any cheaper. "

Rather than eliminate high-priced fare, some chefs/owners are opening separate, lower-cost restaurants inside their high-end eateries. This year, chef/owner Tom Colicchio, the mastermind behind Craft restaurants across the country, opened Damon: Frugal Friday with Craft executive chef Damon Wise, serving nothing over $10. The event started as a once-a-week affair in Craft New York's adjacent private dining room but has since grown to six times a week.

Colicchio also started Halfsteak in Craftsteak New York's bar area, where menu prices are kept under $15.

"We were never a big proponent of luxurious ingredients," says Colicchio, whose sides of asparagus at Craft New York sell for $11. "We do use some white truffles when they're in season and occasionally have some caviar and foie gras, but other than that, we use basic ingredients. We just make sure we buy the best. ... We feel we shouldn't cut back on that."

Ming Tsai, chef/owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass., was ahead of the game. In May 2008, he doubled his space with the addition of a 50-seat bar/lounge area featuring an Asian street-food menu with a price point of about $25 a person, as opposed to Blue Ginger's $55 to $60.

"I've still got foie gras and caviar and truffles when they're in season (at Blue Ginger)," Tsai says, "because at the end of the day, people need two hours of relaxation and not to think about their problems."

What's not selling, Tsai says, are bottles of Cristal rosé, Grand Dame Champagne and $600 bottles of (Penfolds) Grange Shiraz. "People are not buying the big wines because they don't want to be seen with that bottle on their table," he says. "It's tacky and gauche now."

And Batali is one chef who believes that attitude may remain. "The period between 1989 and 2005 will be looked back upon as kind of like Roman excess," he says. "Everybody went crazy. I don't think it will happen like that again, which is good."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-08-25-restaurant-cutbacks_N.htm

From Elissa Elan of Nation's Restaurant News: Restaurant industry guest traffic fell 2.6 percent for the quarter ended May 31, the largest decline since 1981, as consumers continued to cut spending and families with children reduced dining out, a report by market research firm The NPD Group said Monday.

The traffic decline is compared with an increase of 0.5 percent during the same quarter a year earlier, NPD officials said.

The newest report blamed the restaurant traffic decline mostly on reduced visits among parties with children, which typically represents one-third of all industry traffic. NPD’s Consumer Reports on Eating Share Trends said that more than half of the industry’s decline in the May quarter could be traced to fewer dinner visits from parties with children at restaurants throughout all industry segments. Restaurant visits by adults in households without children remained stable in the May quarter, NPD said.

Rising unemployment also took its toll on consumer spending, the report showed.

“The commercial foodservice industry has been struggling since last fall, and it appears that as unemployment increases the struggle is increasing,” said Arnie Schwartz, president of U.S. foodservice for NPD.

According to the report, guest traffic was down 2 percent at quick-serve restaurants, 4 percent at casual dinnerhouses and 6 percent at family-dining operations.

The biggest decline was felt during the dinner daypart, where most consumers pulled back on visits to both quick-service and full-service restaurants, the report indicated. Breakfast and lunch also declined, but those served at quick-service outlets fared better than their full-service counterparts.

Looking forward, Schwartz said that operators that utilize coupons, offer value meal deals and re-engineer menus will have better luck in attracting consumers.

“It’s going to take continued innovation, creativity and perseverance to capture share in a market where the pie may not be growing in the near term,” he said.

For the May-ended quarter, NPD said that restaurant industry check averages rose 2 percent, compared with the same quarter last year, suggesting that diners are willing to spend about the same on a restaurant meal as in the past, but are reducing the number of times they do it. The higher check average was unable to offset the steep decline in foot traffic, so total restaurant spending fell 1 percent across the industry, NPD said. Nations Restaurant News

From Ron  Ruggless of Nation's Restaurant News: Pizza Hut on [July 15] unveiled a free application for iPhone and iTouch users that allows customers to place food orders and download coupons. With the application, available from Apple's iTunes App Store, users can find nearby Pizza Huts through the phone‚s location functions and scroll, tap, pinch, stretch, drag, drop, tilt and shake their orders. (See a demonstration at www.pizzahut.com/iPhone.) Customers can also pull „coupons‰ off a "virtual refrigerator" that touts current deals.

Penetration among the 40 million iPhones users is especially high among men 18 to 34 years old, which Pizza Hut says is a target demographic. Users in that group are more often likely to make purchases using mobile platforms as well, said Brian Niccol, chief marketing officer for Dallas-based Pizza Hut.

 

 

From Devra J. First of the Boston Globe: On Dec. 2, computer consultant Jen Deaderick got on the social-networking site Twitter and posted: “Tupelo02139 is preparing.’’ It was her first missive, or tweet, on behalf of the Cambridge restaurant Tupelo, where her husband is a chef. The restaurant was more than four months away from opening.

Other tweets followed, about getting inspected, planning the menu, picking the paint. By the time Tupelo opened at the end of April, word had spread among followers of the restaurant’s Twitter stream (@tupelo02139), and their followers’ followers, and so on.

“Our opening night was packed,’’ Deaderick said. “At least half were there because of Twitter.’’

From M.S. Enkoji of The Sacramento Bee (www.sacbee.com): Dining at some restaurants will be a new experience starting today, when California becomes the first state to require that chain restaurants supply calorie counts for virtually everything they serve.

"Consumers should be able to make informed decisions about their health and it will raise the consciousness of how much we eat," said John Rogers,Sacramento County environmental health division chief.

There will be no guessing – or denial – about that double Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl's Jr.: 960 calories. Side of Chili Cheese Fries to go with that? 990 calories. Maybe stick to the fried zucchini at 330 calories?

The new law requires restaurants with at least 20 stores in California – about 17,000 locations statewide – to provide a brochure on site listing calories, sodium, saturated fat and carbohydrates for each menu item. Both sit-down and drive-through restaurants must comply.

Drive-through menus must notify customers that the information is available at the pickup window.

A second phase, effective January 2011, will require restaurants to list calorie counts directly on menus or menu boards.

Alcoholic drinks aren't included. Also, at restaurants that serve only buffets, such as Hometown Buffet, you'll be on your own.

Menu labeling was conceived as a way to help customers make choices, said Rogers. His department conducts restaurant inspections, which will include monitoring for proper menu labeling.

Consider this information from Rogers' department: An estimated one-third of all calories ingested by Americans are from restaurant food, and studies show that diners will shave off as much as 100 calories a meal when presented with calorie counts. FULL STORY

From CNNMoney.com: Restaurants could see their margins squeezed as inflationary pressures return to the commodity markets, especially as the chains find it harder to wean customers off a steady diet of meal deals.

Analysts expect higher ingredient and energy costs for restaurants in 2010, with inflation returning to normal levels after a year when costs increases moderated and, for some items, fell from year-ago levels. That could make it harder for chains to continue with the aggressive stream of coupons, buy-one- get-one-free offers and other promotions to bring customers into their doors.

"There's no sign of a pullback yet on discounting," Barclays Capital analyst Jeffrey Bernstein said in an interview. But, "if you see a return to inflation in 2010, it'll prove more challenging to offer these deals."

Consumers are responding to those deals, said Morgan Keegan & Co. restaurant analyst Robert Derrington, who believes that Brinker International Inc.'s (EAT) Chili's Grill & Bar deal offering 10 items for $7 or less is putting more customers in its seats.

But as ingredient costs rise, restaurants may find it harder to raise menu prices to protect their profit margins, especially since consumers have grown accustomed to deals. Derrington termed the casual-dining environment as a competitive "flea-market" for consumers, who are going out to eat when they get coupons or see a good deal advertised on television.

"Consumers are being extremely frugal," Derrington said.

With aggressive menu price increases no longer in their arsenal, restaurants may face margin pressures in 2010, when most chains will see their current purchasing contracts expire and they encounter a pricier market for their basket of goods.

The challenge could damp the rally that casual-dining stocks have had so far this year, with some chains bouncing off multiyear lows to post big gains. Go to Full Article

Food consumes us more than ever: To the delight of CSA advocates, wholesome, organic food is a priority of both the Obama administration and the Obama family. We're more aware than ever of what we put into our bodies. Lawmakers have banned dreaded trans fats from restaurant food in New York City and elsewhere, and chain restaurants in some cities are now required to post nutritional information openly in the hope that you'll get turned off by that 670-calorie Whopper. And with the ability to purchase specialty and ethnic ingredients online, someone in Alabama can just as easily learn to make Chinese food as someone living in Chinatown.

For more and more Americans, food has become far more than just fuel. Learning about it, growing it, preparing it, and enjoying it have become obsessions. To feed this gnawing hunger for knowledge, Slate has put together a special issue examining food from a range of perspectives. Jennifer Reese tests the theory that you can throw away recipes and learn to cook using only ratios. Sara Dickerman highlights the best recipe detectives, who bring foreign food cultures to life. Regina Schrambling explains why lard is finally having its moment. And that's just for starters. Bon appétit! FULL STORY

By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY: The recession is jolting the restaurant industry to concoct who'd-a-thunk-it products that are redefining what even the industry's biggest brands stand for.

Never mind that KFC's (YUM) middle name is "fried," as in Kentucky Fried Chicken. Its biggest campaign of 2009 is to sell what it calls unfried (i.e. grilled) chicken.

Pizza Hut, whose first name is pizza, is pushing pasta like there's no tomorrow. Home delivered, no less.

McDonald's, (MCD) the world's biggest fast-food chain, is in the midst of rolling out a line of designer coffees — even as Starbucks (SBUX) is peddling value meals.

It gets crazier. Domino's (DPZ) is delivering subs and pasta-stuffed bread bowls. Boston Market, the rotisserie chicken king, is pitching crispy chicken. Arby's (WEN), the anti-burger chain, is hyping Roast Burgers. Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), known for its gigantic servings, is offering "small" meals. Even Morton's, (MRT) the pricey prime steakhouse, has $5 burgers at the bar.

"This is a defining moment for the industry," says Hudson Riehle, research chief at the National Restaurant Association. "The financial crisis has brought with it a redefining of boundaries."

The fallout looks — or tastes — surreal. Many of the food innovations appear to be the opposite of some chains' founding principles, and carefully honed brand image. Could sushi at Taco Bell(YUM) be next?

The driver is how the recession is eating into the heart of the $566 billion restaurant industry, which has seen 10 consecutive months of same-store sales declines and 19 consecutive months of falling store traffic.

"The industry has never faced a period of stress like this," says Alan Hickok, a veteran restaurant industry consultant. "There's never been anything this deep."

As a result, the big chains are spinning out new products about as fast as any time in the industry's history. "There are innovations, and there are spinovations," says Russell Weiner, marketing chief at Domino's. "When you're trying to grow a category, you need to bring in innovations."

Innovations beyond a chain's usual fare can build sales by helping to quash the "veto vote," the person in a group who can stop or divert a fast-food run because they don't want a burger or chicken or pizza. If all three items and more are on the same menu, it can thwart the trip-killer.

Go to USA article to read more