October, 2024

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Restaurant Trends to Look For in 2025

Modern Restaurant Management

History will show that COVID was the line of demarcation for the hospitality industry in the 21st century. In almost every conversation I have with other industry professionals, someone will say “before COVID… ” or “since COVID… ” As a matter of fact, in many of my articles I make the same comparison. Since COVID, technology in the restaurant industry has moved at lightning speed.

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The AI Revolution in Restaurants: Transforming Operations and Customer Experience

Restaurant Business

The restaurant industry is undergoing a technological revolution, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerging as a game-changing force. A recent eBook by Softarex Technologies highlights all the main aspects of AI usage in restaurant operations, from customer service to back-of-house management. This transformation is not just about automation; it's about creating smarter, more efficient, and more personalized dining experiences.

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Little Homestead on the Prairie

EATER

Tours in a 19th-century-style schoolroom at the Ingalls Homestead. Laura Ingalls Wilder made generations of readers fall in love with the homestead fantasy in “Little House on the Prairie.” At iconic sites from her books and small farms across the country, those stories meet reality. “It wasn’t Susan’s fault that she was only a corncob.” I’m standing in the middle of a field, cradling a freshly shucked cob of corn in my hands, and hearing that phrase ringing through my head.

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Unique Ideas for Your Soft Opening

The Eat Restaurant

The paint is dry, the tables laid and your staff is trained and raring to go. Now’s the time to fling open those doors and invite in the customers by holding your official launch party. Or is it? Establishing a local presence prior to the grand opening date is crucial. While you’ve accomplished a lot so far and the final hurdle is undoubtedly within sight, before you declare the restaurant officially open , it would be exceedingly wise to hold a soft opening.

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10 HR Metrics for 2025: HR Data Toolkit

The right HR metrics can illuminate hidden trends, justify decisions to the C-suite, and give you an edge in this unpredictable economy. Download Paycor’s guide and learn how to calculate your: Cost-per-Hire Total Financial Impact of Absences Voluntary Turnover Rate And more!

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Frozen waffles sold at Walmart, Target and supermarkets are recalled over listeria risk

The Salt

The recall includes various certain frozen waffles sold in Walmart, Target, Publix and other stores. Some waffles for brands like Kodiak Cakes, Simple Truth and Food Hold have also been recalled.

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Dual Pricing and Cash Discount Program Guide

SpotOn

If you’ve ever seen a gas station sign with two sets of prices on it—one for cash and another for credit cards—then you’re already familiar with dual pricing. More commonly known as a cash discount program, dual pricing is a common pricing strategy to give customers the choice to pay with cash instead of a credit card, thereby avoiding credit card processing fees.

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What is a Group Purchasing Organization, and How Do I Use One?

ChowNow

A Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) is an entity that helps businesses save on purchases by aggregating the buying power of its members to negotiate discounts with suppliers. GPOs typically serve small businesses by securing favorable pricing on products and services like food and beverages, office supplies, and even technology! HOW A GPO WORKS Aggregated Buying Power: GPOs pool the purchasing power of multiple businesses to negotiate better prices with vendors.

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MRM EXCLUSIVE: Four Tough Calls Tech Makes Easier for Bar and Restaurant Operators

Modern Restaurant Management

Bar and restaurant operators often face tough dilemmas, ranging from the daily question, “Should we be mixing more drinks or turning more tables?” to strategic decisions such as, “Should we use a patchwork of digital features or one platform?” But these questions don't require an either-or answer. With today’s technology, bar and lounge operators can have the best of both worlds.

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I had chicken wings. at McDonald's

Restaurant Business

Dispatch from Singapore: Mighty Wings didn’t work in the U.S. But they’re an innovative add-on outside the U.S., where operators get plenty of freedom to tailor the brand to their populations.

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THE 21 KITCHEN RULES FOR EVERY CHEF TO FOLLOW

Culinary Cues

Nearly nine years ago, during the first twelve months of Harvest America Cues blog, one of my articles went viral attracting almost 40,000 views in one day. The article struck a nerve with its focus on A Cook’s Kitchen Laws. Since then, more than 100,000 people have read and shared that article. Today, I was thinking back on that piece and realized that these rules were relevant for all, but focused on what every cook should know and adhere to.

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Navigating Payroll Compliance: Future-Proofing Payroll in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

Speaker: Jennifer Hill

Payroll compliance is a cornerstone of business success, yet for small and midsize businesses, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of federal, state, and local regulations. Mistakes can lead to costly penalties and operational disruptions, making it essential to adopt advanced solutions that ensure accuracy and efficiency.

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For Restaurants Cutting Their Carbon Footprint, Composting Food Scraps Is Just the Beginning

EATER

Lille Allen Cooking, refrigeration, air conditioning, water use, and packaging contribute to greenhouse gas emissions too. These restaurants try to tackle them all. This story was produced in collaboration with Civil Eats. Rifrullo Café, a cozy farm-to-table restaurant in Brookline, Massachusetts, hums with customers on a steamy July mid-morning. Patrons sip coffee on the shady sidewalk patio.

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Spooky Halloween Cocktails to Elevate Your Bar’s Menu

Goliath Consulting

With Halloween approaching, it’s the perfect time to introduce themed cocktails that will excite your guests and make your bar the go-to destination for spooky sips. Crafting festive drinks is a great way to engage customers and set the mood for Halloween celebrations. Here are some Halloween cocktail ideas that will thrill your guests and add seasonal flair to your menu. 1.

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How to Negotiate with Restaurant Suppliers

ChowNow

Negotiating with suppliers can feel like a never-ending battle for restaurant owners. You’re juggling food costs, quality standards, and timely deliveries, all while trying to keep your menu profitable and your customers happy. But with the stakes so high, you can’t afford to lose out on better pricing or better terms. Successful negotiations can be the difference between staying in the black and losing profit.

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The Strain of Success: How the Labor Shortage Is Affecting America’s Restaurants

Modern Restaurant Management

According to the most recent Department of Labor report, there are more than 8.2 million job openings in the United States, yet only about 7.2 million unemployed workers are seeking to fill these roles. That means if every job seeker were hired, a million positions would remain unfilled. Many of these vacant jobs fall in the service sector, with a high concentration in the restaurant and hospitality industry.

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The Funding Recipe for Your Restaurant – A Guide To Growing Your Business

Fuel your restaurant’s success with our comprehensive 2025 funding guide! Running a restaurant comes with unique financial challenges, from managing seasonal fluctuations to covering unexpected expenses like equipment repairs or ingredient shortages. This guide dives into fast, flexible financing options for restaurant owners. Discover how to bridge cash flow gaps, fund expansions, or navigate slow seasons without compromising service quality.

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From Driver To Diner: The Direct Line Between Easy Pickups And Happy Customers

Restaurant Business

Third-party delivery (3PD) services play a critical role in bringing delicious meals from restaurants into the hungry hands…er, mouths…of customers. And with 31% of American consumers using third-party food delivery services at least twice a week, according to a comprehensive study done by Deliverect, that’s a lot of customers—and restaurants—relying on 3PD drivers to deliver their favorite meals to them fast and without incident.But many drivers making these deliveries experience significant he

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CHEF – SHOULD YOUR BELIEFS COUNT?

Culinary Cues

It is an important question that some of us wrestle with while others may simply shrug their shoulders. We are in the business of service and in service to the business. To your employer, the financial success of the business is paramount – understandably so. But, to chefs, as much as this objective will always reign supreme, there are also those personal stakes in the ground that surround food and people that are central to who they are.

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Dinner, With a Side of Climate Preaching

EATER

Restaurants hoping to make a positive impact on the climate face an enduring challenge: selling their ambitious goals to diners simply looking to have a good time This story was produced in partnership with Civil Eats. The “ PLNT Impact Tracker ” on PLNT Burger’s website wants you to think about what you’re eating. The tool from the East Coast vegan chain — a digital take on a split-flap mechanical display that appears on its website and in the chain’s ordering app — estimates the amounts of wat

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Overlooked Traits When Hiring Restaurant Managers

Modern Restaurant Management

When hiring restaurant managers, qualities like organization skills, experience and leadership are always at top of mind. However, many traits exist that often go overlooked in the hiring process impacting the success of a restaurant. Here are three traits that often go overlooked when hiring management positions within restaurants. Adaptability Restaurants are known to be fast paced environments with many different situations happening at once on any given occasion.

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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.

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Mastering Worker Classification: Seven Essential Tips for Restaurant Owners

Modern Restaurant Management

Navigating the bustling world of the restaurant industry comes with its own set of challenges, and one critical area that often flies under the radar is worker classification. Understanding whether your staff are employees or independent contractors isn’t just about following the rules—it’s key to maintaining a fair, compliant and smoothly running establishment.

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Revolutionizing Restaurants: Embracing Tech Solutions in a Challenging Labor Market

Modern Restaurant Management

Just as some people have experienced “long COVID,” with symptoms lasting well beyond the initial infection, so too have some industries struggled to fully recover from the pandemic’s economic impact. The restaurant industry is a case in point, where employment has yet to climb back from pandemic-induced losses. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), as of October 2023 eating and drinking places were 14,000 jobs below their February 2020 level.

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Why Your Restaurant’s Future Depends on a Tech-Driven Strategy

Modern Restaurant Management

The restaurant industry isn’t just evolving – it’s reinventing itself in real-time. Digital transformation has completely reshaped how we serve customers and empower employees, but the stakes are higher than ever. From personalized customer experiences to unlocking operational efficiencies, technology is the fuel driving the next era of restaurant success.

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Delivery Fraud: Fighting Scams to Protect Your Restaurant

Modern Restaurant Management

Restaurant operators need to be aware of a number of scams that food delivery apps are dealing with now including: Promotional abuse – Bad actors using advanced fraud technology to abuse promos like “15% off when you sign up” Driver fraud – Verified drivers doing things like renting out their accounts to illegitimate drivers or spoofing their location Collusion – Harder to spot because most of the fraud happens off the app but can include a person ordering food, the

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2025 Payroll Calendar Templates (Biweekly, Semi-Monthly, and Monthly)

Use these handy calendar templates to stay on top of payroll in 2025! Download them today to share with your HR team or post for employees. Whether your company has biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly pay periods, Paycor has you covered. Get your templates today!

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Little Treat Culture: How Restaurants Can Leverage Snacking Trend

Modern Restaurant Management

Little treat culture — the growing trend of people indulging in small-sized snacks or indulgences as a way to self-care or reward themselves can be transferred to the restaurant plate, providing opportunities for profitablity and creativity. According to an 84.51° study, 74 percent of US consumers under 35 snack at least a few times daily.

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Fire Prevention Week 2024 – Is Your Restaurant Safe?

Modern Restaurant Management

As a result of the Great Chicago Fire that killed 250 people in 1871, the National Fire Protection Association has declared the public observance of Fire Prevention Week since 1922, marking more than 100 years this year of the public observance. The holiday was later cemented by President Coolidge, marking the longest-running public health and safety observance on record.

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Elevate Your Restaurant Brand: Convert Value into Loyalty

Modern Restaurant Management

Now that the summer of the value meal has ended, what will autumn bring for QSR brands? Will they be able to capitalize on the good will and traffic boosts as the weather gets cooler? To learn how operators can take a forward-looking approach and ease customers back into a profitable pricing model, Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine reached out to Hope Neiman, CMO at restaurant ordering and loyalty platform, Tillster, which works with brands like Baskin Robbins, Popeyes and Burger King

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How Interpersonal Engagement Fuels Modern Restaurant Success

Modern Restaurant Management

Restaurant operators have long grappled with the question, "Should I hire for soft or hard skills?" and for good reason. In an industry where technical precision is essential, seamless service depends on more than just executing tasks. After nearly 30 years of supporting thousands of restaurant operators and HR leaders, first as the Director of HR for Potbelly Sandwich Works and now as the CEO of Restaurant HR Group, I’ve seen firsthand what truly makes a restaurant rise to the top

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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Seven Tips to Help Restaurant Owners Avoid Common Pitfalls and Grow

Modern Restaurant Management

Nearly half of restaurants fail in their fifth year of business. My long and largely positive journey in the industry hasn't been without challenges. That’s part of the price of doing business – especially when you own multiple restaurants. But if you learn from failures and misfortunes as we have, those experiences can spur you to even more success.

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Avoiding the Four Biggest Traps of Restaurant Payroll

Modern Restaurant Management

There are many cases of restaurateurs being charged with violations of labor laws, such as the owner of a DC fine-dining restaurant having to pay more than $500,000 following allegations of wage theft, or two Massachusetts eatery owners having to pay around $475,00 in restitution and civil penalties for violations including failing to pay minimum wage, failure to make timely payments to employees, violations of the state’s tips laws, and failure to keep accurate payroll records.

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How Interchange Fees Are Reshaping the Restaurant Industry’s Bottom Line

Modern Restaurant Management

In the modern dining landscape, where convenience and customer experience are paramount, restaurants increasingly rely on electronic payment systems to facilitate transactions. However, behind the scenes, interchange fees play a crucial yet often overlooked factor in shaping these establishments' financial health. These fees, charged by credit card companies to process transactions, can profoundly impact restaurants of all sizes.

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Restaurant Safety: How Restaurateurs Can Improve their Risk Profiles

Modern Restaurant Management

The outlook for restaurants is complicated. The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) demonstrates that a combination of inflation, consumers with less disposable income and rising labor costs have created a difficult market for restaurant owners. These issues have translated to the industry’s insurers as well – causing even more headaches for restaurant owners.

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HR’s Blueprint for a Successful 2025

The HR industry is changing. Did you know… 1. There will be 4M more jobs than workers by 2033 ( BLS ). 2. For 84% of workers, flexibility is a top priority ( FlexJobs ). 3. 75% of employees have used AI at work ( CFO.com ). It’s time to meet the moment! Use Paycor’s guide to design a blueprint for success.