Growth Starts at Home

EVERYONE KNOWS TRAVELING is simply an excuse to eat out at restaurants for every meal, right? A reporting trip recently took me to Dallas, where I had the chance to try some true Texan grub and sip some local spirits. A growing societal norm is to support local businesses as much as possible to keep food and beverage dollars going back into the community, which escalated even more during the pandemic. A great format to sample various local beers, wines, seltzers, and cocktails—without creating extra waste if you dislike a drink—is at restaurants with self-pour walls, like Can Can Wonderland and First Draft in Minneapolis, and West Palm Beach’s Garden District Taproom, which are reaping the benefits of the self-serve technology (PAGE 23). Consumers also love when a restaurant can highlight how they got their ingredients from local farmers, growers, and fishers— and even better if the restaurant happens to own a farm or grow their own produce, like Maui’s Pacific’o on the Beach (PAGE 51), where a bar manager is using farm-fresh ingredients to craft cocktails.

Another recent trend is restaurants getting creative with infusing CBD into drinks and dishes (PAGE 22) as more cities decrease regulations on the hemp-derived ingredient (which does not cause a high). But perhaps even more popular is the race to open eatertainment hotspots featuring America’s fastest-growing sport, pickleball—like Smash Park, Chicken N Pickle, and emerging brands like Camp Pickle (PAGE 42). While the pandemic did damage to restaurants across the country, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Firebirds Wood Fired Grill ramped up innovation and has been blazing a growth path that caught the eye of Garnett Station Partners, which acquired the lodgelike steak-and-seafood chain in late March this year.

Elsewhere across our June issue, you’ll find seven industry experts weighing in on best practices for hiring, retaining, and engaging a modern restaurant workforce, from Black Bear Diner and Front Burner Society to Tupelo Honey and more (PAGE 36). Chef Brad Wise is showcasing his range at his San Diego-based TRUST Restaurant Group, which encompasses concepts running the gamut from fine dining to a butcher shop to an ice cream window, including Trust Restaurant, Rare Society Steakhouse, Cardellino Italian Chophouse, The Wise Ox, Fort Oak, and Mr.Trustee Creamery (PAGE 15). Meanwhile, Joseph Kim is leading Dae Gee Korean BBQ into future growth through franchising with five stores in Colorado and five more on the way (PAGE 56).

Per usual, there’s no shortage of inspiring stories found across the restaurant industry—so let’s dig in.

On the Cover

Callie Evergreen EDITOR

This month’s cover features Firebirds Wood Fired Grill’s Cozy Campfire cocktail, made with Jack Daniels Rye, Fireball, Angostura cocoa bitters, and torched marshmallow. Known for its flame grilled steaks and seafood, Firebirds launched a hot new seasonal cocktail menu in March at its award-winning FIREBAR, which also offers shareable bar bites like crispy fried green tomatoes and chile chicken tostada bites.

Sustainable Madesimple

9 PLANT-BASED

Ingredients

Focused on the ocean —

and your bottom line.

Your food can do a world of good. Finless Plant-Based Tuna meets front-of-house seafood demands and simplifies backof-house operations, while alleviating pressure on the wild fish stock supply. It’s easy-to-use, versatile, not subject to price fluctuations and has a long refrigerated shelf life — so you can craft the flavorful dishes your customers crave and support a brighter future where oceans thrive.

PLANT-BASED TUNA POKE

Marinated Plant-Based Tuna with charred chili aioli, quinoa, kale, nori, edamame, avocado, and sesame.