What is the best cooking tip you can offer to home cooks? Be patient. Let the food cook. For example, meat needs a few minutes to sear in order to caramelize and lock in the juices before flipping.
What is the secret to your success? I have a passion for what I do and I enjoy meeting the diners and getting their feedback; it propels me to expand and be creative. I try to listen and respond to customer wants and needs.
The microwave in Kevin Hutchinson’s pizza restaurant is for boiling water.
For tea, not pizza.
It’s not a detail pertinent to the operations of his restaurant, Carboni’s Wood Fire Pizza and Pasta in North Portland. But it was something Hutchinson found himself explaining thanks to an unflattering review posted anonymously online.
“That guy who wrote that bad review talked about my microwave and how I take shortcuts. If anyone knows my practice, I don’t take shortcuts. My dough takes three days to make,” Hutchinson said. “I have to back up and explain every little thing on my practice.”
The days when restaurateurs fretted over the words of just a few local newspaper reviewers are gone. Now anyone who enters a restaurant can be a published critic by virtue of the Internet, whether through blogs, message boards, or sites like Portland.citysearch.com, where Hutchinson’s anonymous reviewer left a critique.
For some restaurant owners, the growing multitudes of food critics can be as valuable as free advertising, building word-of-mouth business with each review.
Yet some, like Hutchinson, believe the proliferation of online critiques can be just as much of a threat as a bad review in a traditional newspaper, if not more.
“It can be very damaging,” he said. “They go on a witch hunt and they put you down and that really hurts.”
See full story
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/05/12/focus1.html?b=1210564800%5e1632955
The 100 highest-grossing independent (non-chain) restaurants in the United States had combined 2007 food-and-beverage sales of $1.53 billion, a solid if not spectacular 4.8% increase from the $1.46 billion total for last year’s Top 100 Independents. This year’s total is nearly 31% greater than the Top 100’s $1.17 billion sales in 2000.
What was spectacular was the record $66.6 million in sales for top-ranked Tao Las Vegas Restaurant & Nightclub (above) in Las Vegas. Helped by the addition of its top-floor Tao Beach venue, Tao Las Vegas boosted its sales by $11.3 million (20.5%) from 2006 to 2007.
Coincidentally, $11.3 million was the minimum for inclusion in this year’s ranking. Five years ago, the restaurant that was ranked as No. 100 had sales of $8.3 million.
More than half of this year’s Top 100 restaurants are located in one of two markets: New York City is home to 32 members of this year’s list; Las Vegas is second—but continuing to close the gap—with 24 of the 100 largest. Chicago claims seven of the top restaurants; San Francisco has four.
The average dinner check for this year’s Top 100 was $64.73, a 10% increase from the $58.82 average for last year’s list.
http://www.rimag.com/archives/2008/04b/sr-top100-ranking.asp
Rialto is also collecting comment cards to gauge diners’ feedback and use it as a point of contact; the staff replies to each comment and the restaurant obtains that person’s information for future mailings.
“It makes us busy, later,” she said.
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/02/11/newscolumn3.html
MORE THAN BAD FOOD, MORE THAN TIPPING QUANDARIES, more than someone wondering if a free meal should follow a rodent sighting in a dining room, the most frequent concern I get from readers involves loud restaurants. The complaints about noise have crescendoed so high in recent years that I’ve decided to add noise ratings to my dining column in the Magazine, beginning April 20. Henceforth, as I make my restaurant rounds, a discreet sound-level meter will be used to determine the average decibel count. [See this article for how the ratings will work.]
I know readers will welcome the addition of a sound check. When I raised the subject of noise on a recent online food discussion, I got an earful from scores of restaurant mavens. The feedback came from both sexes and a wide range of ages.
“The noise levels don’t make me feel lively or youthful,” wrote one. “They make me shout and keep asking, ‘What?’ I’m 34, but recently I have been seeking out ‘oldster’ restaurants for the noise levels alone. Would much prefer a younger vibe at lower decibels, if such a thing existed!”
“Why do restaurateurs think we want to eat but not to chat with our companions?” another chatter demanded.
McDonald’s is dialing up mobile coupons for a regional test at 113 locations in Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. Consumers can receive one of the chain’s new iced coffees for free when they use a Cellfire mobile coupon at participating stores between April 7-27.
Customers are asked to go to cellfire.com or text “mcd” to 22888 to receive the Cellfire application. Upon signing up, they receive a unique redemption code that consumers show the McDonald’s cashier. Once registered, they can receive future offers from other Cellfire merchants as well.
“McDonald’s is the type of brand mobile couponing should do well for,” said John Hadl, managing partner at mobile marketing consultancy BrandinHand, Beverly Hills, Calif. “I’m cautiously optimistic that consumers will, beyond downloading it for the free cup of coffee, continue to use it for additional offers. That would be the ultimate win for all manufacturers looking to offer incentives using mobile devices.”
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003787180&imw=Y
Online social networking has businesses logging on.
Have you felt it yet? That sinking feeling that you’re finally going to have to figure out what MySpace or Facebook is. Makes you feel old doesn’t it?
Don’t worry, social networking—as these type sites are referred to—is still in its Wild West phase and ripe for experimentation without a big expenditure of cash.
Here’s how they work. Social networks at their most basic are Web sites where people can find and connect with each other. Users build profile pages to share information about themselves, usually pictures, bios and interests. They collect “friends”—other folks in the network that they already know or those who have found them based on similar interests. They can then engage with each other through the site by leaving and sending messages.
Increasingly, restaurants are joining these networks, building their own profile pages and connecting with existing customers and potential ones.
Social networking champs MySpace (myspace.com) and FaceBook (facebook.com) have millions of users. According to a recent report by Internet research firm eMarketer, 37 percent of U.S. adult Internet users and 70 percent of teen users engage in social networking each month. “Social networking is important for everyone, no matter what business you’re in. It gets your name out there and is a great way to communicate with your customers directly,” says Lindsey Jaffe, an emerging-media specialist with WordHampton Public Relations. It’s quickly becoming a situation where restaurants can’t afford to miss out on the opportunities.
It all starts with your restaurant building a profile page. “The best way to start is to just nibble at it bit by bit. Go to MySpace and go to Facebook and start an account. You don’t have to fill out your entire profile in one day,” says Jaffe. If you have limited time, Jaffe recommends checking into Facebook first. All Facebook profiles are built using a similar template, so you’ll save time by not having to pick out colors, backgrounds and other design elements. MySpace can require more design work.
With either one, it’s important to avoid clutter and make sure that the image of your restaurant is reflected in your profile choices. After your profile is launched, it’s time to focus on making the right connections. MySpace can connect up with your Webmail address book to find customers whose information you already have. You can also search for users by location to find local customers that may want to be friends with you. Facebook has stricter rules on businesses contacting users, so it helps to be creative when promoting your Facebook profile. Place a link back to your profile from your main restaurant Web site. Consider adding that Web address to your offline promo material as well. Put it on the bottom of your menu or include it in ads.
By –Amanda C. Kooser
http://www.restaurantbiz.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22811
(Feb. 25, 2008) Borrowing a page from the playbooks of such popular dot-coms as My Space and Facebook, vertically oriented online social networks have come to the restaurant and foodservice industry.
At least two Internet sites that have been launched lately seek to connect cooks, servers, managers, owners, vendors and curious foodies in virtual communities.
Similar to broad-based social networks, the new foodservice portals, Bite-Club.com and FohBoh.com, are all about the industry, for the industry and created by industry people.
“We felt there was a place or a niche for a social network specifically for the restaurant business,” said Randy Paragary, founder of the 12-unit, upscale-casual Paragary Restaurant Group in Sacramento, Calif., and chief operating officer of BiteClub.com.
SEE – http://www.nrn.com/landingPage.aspx?coll_id=632&menu_id=1408&globalMenuTab=-1
Most employees in the restaurant industry are under 30. Tomorrow’s core employees (and your best customers) are part of the new “Millennials” generation—just turning 21. Ask around your restaurants—see if you can find someone who doesn’t use MySpace or Facebook. See how many of your cooks or servers spend their free time in an online multi-user game. Does anyone not have an iPod or MP3 player?
See http://www.rimag.com/blog-starters/2007-11-29.asp?nid=3458
