September, 2024

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Most customers think restaurants are getting expensive

Restaurant Business

The Bottom Line: A pair of studies by Revenue Management Solutions provide a sobering look at the views of consumers on restaurant prices and their dining habits.

Pricing 116
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Leading with Heart: Five Keys to Successful Restaurant Management

Modern Restaurant Management

Operating a restaurant is more than managing a business; it’s about building a vibrant community and fostering a sense of family where every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities. As the Regional Director of Operations with one of Genghis Grill’s franchise groups in Arizona, I've learned that a successful restaurant thrives on a blend of passion, patience and people-centered leadership.

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Trending Sources

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Restaurant Math Isn’t Working

EATER

Lille Allen Six chefs and restaurant owners from across the country explain why restaurants feel so expensive right now, and how they’re coping with high prices and customer complaints Dining out involves calculating the intangible: What is hospitality worth to you? On the one hand, you get the possibility of technique and flavor you cannot, or don’t want to, create yourself, plated and served with attention.

Pricing 145
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Ina Garten shares her secret for a great dinner party: 6 people and round table

The Salt

"I like when everybody's knees are almost touching and it feels very intimate," the Barefoot Contessa host says. Garten's new memoir is Be Ready When the Luck Happens.

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Reduce Bias in Hiring: Structured Interview Questions for Employers

Structured interview questions are a valuable tool for reducing bias in hiring. They help: Ensure all candidates are asked the same questions in the same way Level the playing field so all candidates have a fair chance of being successful Improve credibility, reliability, and validity Download the guide to get the most out of your interview questions!

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How Little Italy Ristorante Turned Hours of Payroll Processing into Minutes

7 Shifts

Executive Summary Location: Groveport, OH Restaurant Type: Casual Dining Problem: Too much time spent on manual processes. A payroll provider that couldn't support employees with multiple roles. Solution: Team management software that handles scheduling, time clocking, and payroll in one place. Payroll runs went from four hours to a few minutes. Family Pies When Chuck and Janet Ward dropped by a grocery store on a long drive, they never imagined this pit stop would change the trajectory of their

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Please Put Your Light Away at the Restaurant

EATER

Alex Staniloff/Eater NY No one asked to be part of your content The conversation was easy and lively, the way it always is when the four of us are together. We sat in the bustle of a packed brunch at Pastis , sipping our masala chai at the Dishoom pop-up , the restaurant moving with the grace and bang of a Broadway number. We weren’t just eating, we were part of an organism of service and communion.

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Franchisees are still struggling with inflation

Restaurant Business

Nearly 90% of operators said in the International Franchise Association’s annual franchisee survey that inflation continues to impact their operations. And more say customers are reacting to higher prices.

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THE TOURIST TOWN RESTAURANT

Culinary Cues

So, you’re the chef or a cook at a hot spot tourism destination restaurant. You know, the type of place that is crazy busy for five -six months a year, people line up out the door, vendors try to find a place to unload with all the traffic clogging streets and parking lots, there’s never enough help and almost none who have worked for you before this season.

Tourism 385
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The Food Service Industry’s Digital Transformation Journey Heading into 2025

Modern Restaurant Management

The modern restaurant industry has always moved fast, but the pace continues to accelerate. Consumer demands are changing at a rapid rate. Macroeconomic conditions cycle quicker and quicker. Supply chains, while showing more stability, are fraught with uncertainty. And yet, the modern restaurant is thriving. The food service industry is forecast to reach $1 trillion in sales this year.

2025 180
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When Your Local Sales Rep Becomes Godfather to Your Kids

SpotOn

When Nick Arnoni saw it was Doug DeBlasio calling, Nick was ready to talk about anything. Well, almost anything.  The two met a few years prior when Nick worked as a sales rep for an alcohol distributor in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area. Doug, who owns DeBlaze at 131 , was his customer. When Nick started working as a Hospitality Specialist for SpotOn, Nick converted DeBlaze from another point-of-sale company to SpotOn’s restaurant POS , significantly streamlining operations.

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Food & Beverage Industry Report 2024

Driven by a diverse and exciting ecosystem of passionate, ambitious, and often young entrepreneurs, the Food & Beverage (F&B) sector is a highly competitive environment full of immense challenges and exciting opportunities. Expert Market’s 2024 industry report, sponsored by Toast, is informed by a survey of 522 U.S. food and beverage professionals, from restaurant owners to food service managers, providing insights into the real-time challenges and opportunities within the industry.

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What’s Next After Farm-to-Table?

EATER

Just because food is grown locally doesn’t mean it’s climate-friendly. But for chefs looking to emphasize the latter, it still starts at the source. This story was produced in collaboration with Civil Eats. At the height of summer, chef Rob Rubba and his team at Oyster Oyster , a vegetable-first restaurant in Washington, D.C., are preparing for the dwindling of food in the coming winter.

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Buzztime Weekly Bar Trivia Challenge – Week 49

Buzztime Business

Are you hungry for more trivia? Is one night of bar trivia per week not enough to satiate your senses? Buzztime has tens of thousands of questions in its database. Pub trivia hosts and players could spend a lifetime with them! However, as the years pass, some of the questions become outdated and obscure. Events that are important one year become irrelevant many years later.

Bar 148
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Tupperware, no longer a kitchen staple, files for bankruptcy

The Salt

Tupperware's reliance on people selling its storage containers at home-and-garden parties or through social media was once its strength. Now it's a weakness, the company says in its bankruptcy filing.

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What Is Mise en Place?

Wasserstrom

“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius Mise en place (also known as “the meez” or simply “mise”) isn’t a suggested practice or optional task. It’s a way of life in the restaurant world and a necessary skill for new cooks to master. Everything in […] The post What Is Mise en Place?

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Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

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Revealing Data: Minimum Wage, Closures, and Macroeconomic Trends

Modern Restaurant Management

Restaurant industry eyes have been fixed on the impact of the minimum wage law for fast-food workers in California. Data is bringing a fuller story more into focus. While QSRs did see a spike in closures after the law was signed – 71 percent in California compared to 25 percent nationally – that has leveled off where closures are at the same pace as nationally/comparable states and more related to economic factors than the law, according to “ Assessing the Impact of California&

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Denny's hires a president with a familiar name, along with a new IT chief

Restaurant Business

Christopher Bode is returning to the company to handle operations as well as the usual duties of a president. Minh Le will be responsible for tech planning and adoption.

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How ‘This Must Be the Place’ Became the Ultimate Restaurant Song

EATER

Does David Byrne know that the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place” has made it onto countless restaurant playlists? | Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images One song about food and a building It happened again. I was hanging out in a chic pizza place run by a well-known chef, and I heard the same bouncing bassline and whistling synths that have lived in my heart ever since my dad showed me Stop Making Sense when I was 14.

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253. Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast Ep. 253 – The State of Restaurant Technology with NRN’s Joanna Fantozzi

Restaurant Technology Guys

Embracing Technology in the Restaurant Industry: Insights from Joanna Fantozzi Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast! This time, our host Jeremy sat down with Joanna Fantozzi, a Senior Editor at Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality.

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Maximize Restaurant Profitability: 5 Key Strategies to Control Costs Effectively

Running a profitable restaurant requires more than great food and service. Our guide breaks down five actionable strategies to help you control costs and maximize profitability. Learn how to track and reduce food waste, optimize labor costs with smart scheduling, make data-driven decisions with regular P&L reviews, and manage fixed and variable costs efficiently.

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Eating less beef is a climate solution. Here's why that's hard for some American men

The Salt

Climate researchers have long grappled with how to get Americans to eat less beef, a food with a huge global warming impact. Now some are thinking about it through the lens of gender.

Food 145
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A Quick Trip To Monferrato!

The Wine Knitter

Since 1925, the Marenco family has been producing wine. Photo courtesy of Marenco. It began with Michele Marenco, whose dream was to make wine from his vineyard in the heart of the Bagnario Valley, situated in Strevi, in southern Piedmont, and part of the Monferrato wine region in northwestern Italy. Michele’s son, Giuseppe Marenco, who understood the territory’s potential, followed in his father's footsteps and continued to make quality wine from indigenous grapes.

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Using Safety Incentive Programs to Improve Workplace Training

Modern Restaurant Management

In multiple industries, employee safety can be a chief concern that requires careful consideration by employers. This can especially be the case in food service industries where employees are often in loud, busy environments while moving in and out of kitchen areas with any number of hazards. The best way to mitigate the risks for employees and reduce workplace injuries is for businesses to establish comprehensive safety training programs.

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Shake Shack reinvents the labor deployment model

Restaurant Business

The burger chain joins a growing number of fast-casual chains using AI-driven technology to better manage staffing.

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Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

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What Should a Restaurant Give You When It’s Your Birthday?

EATER

Lille Allen/Eater A slice of cake and glass of Champagne are customary, but some places go the extra mile I love birthdays. It’s fun to get dressed up, go to a fancy restaurant, and await the pièce de résistance: a slice of cake with a glowing candle on top and, maybe, some singing. A flute of Champagne works, too. So when I took my partner to a well-loved (and pricey) restaurant in the heart of Los Angeles’s arts district for his birthday — a neighborhood known for some of the most sought-after

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What is the Average Restaurant Food Cost?

Sculpture Hospitality

Food cost - the price of your ingredients compared to the money you bring in from selling dishes - is the silent assassin lurking in the shadows of every restaurant.

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AI can generate recipes that can be deadly. Food bloggers are not happy

The Salt

The Woks of Life. '/> Apple, Google and Samsung are all working to integrate AI that can generate recipes into their virtual assistants, like Siri. People who work to develop recipes respond.

Food 140
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The Board: September 2024

Margin Edge

This month we look at: cucumber prices, how to lower credit card transaction fees, making the most of slow seasons, inflation and national restaurant sales trends from August.

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Pricing for Profit: How to Set, Negotiate, and Succeed

Speaker: Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader

In today’s competitive market, pricing is more than just a number — it’s the cornerstone of profitability. The right pricing strategy ensures that you capture the true value of your offering, paving the way for sustainable growth and long-term success. Join Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader, in this exclusive session where he will explore how a well-crafted pricing approach balances customer perception with business objectives, creating a powerful tool for securing both competitive advantage a

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Operational Empathy Should Be Part of Restaurant Leadership

Modern Restaurant Management

As the QSR industry becomes increasingly crowded, understanding operations from the inside out is more crucial than ever. The pressure to deliver high-quality products quickly, efficiently, and consistently is immense. As competition intensifies, companies must innovate and streamline operations to stay ahead. This is where real, hands-on experience becomes invaluable.

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Consumer trends are on Great Greek Mediterranean Grill's side

Restaurant Business

The fast-casual Mediterranean chain says it is getting customers who want a good in-restaurant experience as well as those who want a family-style meal at home.

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The Next Generation of Indian Cheese Is Here

EATER

Sonny Ross India’s artisan cheesemakers are pushing boundaries, shaping palates, and celebrating the country’s traditional dairy practices Creamy, tart, and friggin’ delicious: The pineapple cheese sandwich at Manek Sandwich is a thing of beauty. Three slices of crustless white bread with butter, layered with pyramids of grated processed Amul cheese, pineapple jam, vanilla ice cream, and a ring of canned pineapple, and finished with a flourish of grated cheese for good measure, it’s gone in 60 s

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How to Calculate Food Cost Percentage (Formula & Tips)

Apicbase

Next to labour costs and rent, food costs are the highest expense for every restaurant. The average restaurant food cost percentage is between 28% and 32% of total food sales, with peaks up to 45%. In the restaurant industry, profit margins are thinner than a stroopwafel. So you need to know how to calculate and manage food costs. But it’s not as simple as plugging food production costs and sales figures into a food cost calculator.

Food 98
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The HR Leader’s Survival Guide

HR leaders drowning in paperwork struggle to meet C-suite's strategic expectations. Burnout and high turnover plague the field, with 95% feeling overwhelmed. This guide explores how the right tools can free HR from admin tasks and empower them to become the strategic leaders they’re meant to be.