FSR July 2023

HAWAII’S ECO-EATERY KNEAD HOSPITALITY’S RISE

‘TOP CHEF’ JEREMY FORD’S FLAVOR-FILLED JOURNEY

HOW STUBBORN SEED IS EARNING MICHELIN STARS AND HEARTS IN MIAMI

DISTILLED SPIRITS SOAR

LATE NIGHT DONE RIGHT

TOP 50

INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS

THESE INDIE EATERIES SHOWCASE AMERICA’S DIVERSE RANGE OF CULINARY EXCELLENCE

PLUS

INSIDE ILLINOIS’ FEMALE-LED SCRATCHBOARD KITCHEN

CONTENTS 30

CHEF JEREMY FORD FEATURES A ROTATING TASTING MENU FORMAT AT STUBBORN SEED, WHILE HIS PASTRY CHEF BELLA PINELLI SERVES UP ELEVATED DESSERTS LIKE THIS PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CANDY BAR.

30 Inside Jeremy Ford’s Flavor-Filled Journey

e ‘Top Chef’ Season 13 winner took an unusual journey to becoming an independent restaurateur and opening Stubborn Seed, which is now earning Michelin stars and hearts in Miami.

34 Top 50 Independent Restaurants

From intimate family-owned gems to chef-driven destinations, these 50 indie eateries showcase the range of culinary excellence found across America’s dining landscape.

CHEFS & INGREDIENTS

15 Inside Illinois’ FemaleLed Scratchboard Kitchen

Chef Grace Goudie has paved her own culinary path, from crafting recipes in home economics class at 12 years old to opening up a restaurant in the suburbs of Chicago.

20 Late Night Done Right

Streamlined menus are key to creating a winning after-hours program, according to leaders at Big Whiskey’s and Norms Restaurants.

LIQUID INTELLIGENCE

26 Distilled Spirits Soar

High-quality spirits boost restaurant bottom lines as cost-conscious customers sip better value, avor, and freshness for their buck.

7 True Food Kitchen’s

Incredible

Evolution

The wellness-focused brand recently debuted a total menu overhaul and the launch of its first quick-service location.

8 Franchise Frenzy

Midwest favorite Culver’s is making waves in the South while breakfast concept Eggs

Up Grill is seeing visits soar. Both franchise brands are growing rapidly.

BACK OF HOUSE 51 Knead Expands and Retains

ON THE RISE Knead Hospitality + Design is growing its upscale concepts, MI VIDA and Bistro Du Jour, while focusing on employee wellness.

53 Hawaii’s EcoEatery

BEHIND THE SCENES Chef Peter Merriman is creating

sustainable dishes at Merriman Waimea, Hawaii’s first carbon-neutral restaurant, by making connections with local farmers.

55 Start Me Up

Five of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ restaurants are permanently shifting from counter service to a full-serve casual-dining format.

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

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FSR EDITOR Callie Evergreen cevergreen@wtwhmedia.com

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DESIGN

ART DIRECTOR Erica Naftolowitz enaftolowitz@wtwhmedia.com

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Turning Point Seeks Growth, But Won’t Compromise Core Values

The 24-unit breakfast concept has been franchising since early last year, and it’s keeping strict guidelines to ensure restaurants are being put in the hands of worthy operators. FSRmagazine.com/Growth-with-Values

Brand Stories From FSR

A NASHVILLE PIZZA POP-UP FOUND ITS PERMANENT HOME

Chef Michael Hanna revived sfincione-style pizza as a pandemic project under the St. Vito Focacceria banner, with a communitydriven approach.

FSRmagazine.com/Permanent-Pizza

TWIN PEAKS BUILDS TRIUMPHANT POST-COVID FUTURE

The casual-dining brand seeks 200 stores by 2027 and expects to surpass $1 billion in sales.

FSRmagazine.com/ Twin-Peaks-Triumph

GOLDEN CORRAL TO DEBUT FASTCASUAL SPINOFF

The location will have a drivethru and feature new and familiar dishes, like a Cajun Mac & Cheese Bowl.

FSRmagazine.com/ Golden-Corral-Spinoff

Why Charcuterie Boards Are Expected to Grow 25 Percent

Charcuterie boards are the ultimate shareable item.

SPONSORED BY BOAR’S HEAD BRAND

This Versatile, Chef-Driven Item Is One to Watch

The bite-sized potato product has fast become a hit.

SPONSORED BY MCCAIN FOODS

How Firebirds Manages Its Kitchen Consistency

Solutions that deliver bold flavor.

SPONSORED BY SUPHERB FARMS

BELGIOIOSO CHEESE

Craving Comfort and Creativity

SOMETIMES, IT CAN BE COMFORTING to know exactly what you’re going to get at a restaurant concept, no matter which location you go to. When those expectations are met, restaurants are rewarded with consumer loyalty. America knows the appeal of chain restaurants especially well— which is why franchised breakfast concepts like First Watch and Eggs Up Grill are seeing visits soar rapidly (PAGE 8). And as price-conscious consumers are weighing their options for places to eat out, the promise of value at all-you-can-eat concepts can’t be beat, which explains why bu et chains like Golden Corral, Cicis, and Pizza Ranch are experiencing a meteoric rise in tra c (PAGE 10). You also have NextGen Casual concepts like wellnessfocused True Food Kitchen, which has quickly expanded to 43 locations and counting, and recently rolled out a new menu revamp and a quickservice prototype (PAGE 7).

But other times, you want to taste what a speci c region or city has to o er, or try an innovative chef’s dish that you can’t nd anywhere but at an independent restaurant. Take Chef Grace Goudie, for example, who began crafting recipes at just 12 years old in home economics class, and is now creating farm-to-table menus at her own restaurant based in the suburbs of Chicago (PAGE 15). en there’s Jeremy Ford, who won the 13th season of Bravo’s “Top Chef” in 2015 and is now winning Michelin Stars and hearts in Miami at his restaurant concept, Stubborn Seed—named after the resilience it takes for plants to grow (illustrating the persistence required to open a restaurant). Ford leads this year’s Top 50 Independent Restaurants, a report which showcases the diverse indie eateries found across the U.S. that are paving the way for the future of foodservice—from intimate family-owned gems to chef-driven destinations across Seattle to New York and everywhere in between (PAGE 30).

Elsewhere across July’s issue, you’ll nd stories of Hawaii’s rst carbonneutral restaurant, where Chef Peter Merriman is partnering with local farmers to create tasty yet sustainable dishes (PAGE 53), and how Knead Hospitality + Design is expanding its upscale concepts like MI VIDA and Bistro Du Jour as well as fast-casual concepts like tuTaco, Kneadza and Lil’ Succotash (PAGE 51). Meanwhile, leaders at Big Whiskey’s and Norms restaurants are debuting fun bites in streamlined after-hours programs in a bid to attract late-night diners (PAGE 20), and distilled spirits are outpacing beer for the rst time, boosting restaurants’ bottom lines while cost-conscious customers sip better value and avor (PAGE 25). As always, this issue contains a plethora of stories from restaurant leaders across the country who are sure to inspire—so let’s dig in.

Callie Evergreen EDITOR

On the Cover

This month’s cover of Chef Jeremy Ford was shot for Fast Foodies on truTV by Anna Maria Lopez, a Brooklyn, New York-based photographer who specializes in environmental portraiture and set photography. Lopez’s work has appeared in CBS, Refinery 29, Cartoon Network, Warner Media, Apple TV, and more. To learn more about her, visit annamariaalopez.com or follow her on Instagram at @annamariaalopez

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First Course

True Food Kitchen's menu revamp in April included 30 new food items, plus an updated beverage program including reimagined scratchmade cocktails, refreshers, and teas.

True Food’s Incredible Evolution

BY CALLIE EVERGREEN

The wellness-focused brand recently debuted a total menu overhaul and the launch of its first quick-service location.

DURING CHRISTINE FERRIS’ FIRST DAY as the new social media coordinator for Smashburger in May 2012, she happened to walk into a True Food Kitchen for lunch. She recalls telling herself, “I want to work for a brand that has such amazing vibrant energy that I felt when

I walked through those doors,” Ferris said on the second episode of FSR ’s new podcast, “The Restaurant Innovator.” Fast forward four years, when Ferris started as the marketing manager for True Food Kitchen, eventually working her way up to director of marketing.

TRUE FOOD KITCHEN

Over the course of seven years, Ferris has witnessed the wellness-forward brand grow from 11 locations to 43 and counting, as well as evolving from culinary, operations, training, supply chain, and marketing perspectives.

“We’re constantly changing and evolving, and we have to, especially in such a busy and crowded restaurant space, and especially in that healthdriven wellness space as well,” she says.

For example: In April, True Food Kitchen unveiled the largest menu revamp in company history. The wellness chain debuted its new spring menu boasting more than 30 new items including burgers, pizzas, bowls, sandwiches, and more. A focus on integrating seasonal and sustainablysourced ingredients was paramount, and the brand also updated its beverage program with reimagined scratchmade cocktails, refreshers, and teas.

Plus, True Food Kitchen recently announced it was launching a quickservice prototype, which will have some of the brand’s classic menu items but also some exclusives, like spiked slushies. Called True Food To Go, the new model will open in Tempe, Arizona, this summer. “The goal at this location is to see if this footprint in this format really works, and we are really wholeheartedly believing that it will,” Ferris says.

Looking forward, Ferris adds True Food Kitchen is launching another new menu on July 12, and in the fall of 2023, the brand will debut new “awesome” partnerships with “some big brands.” In the meantime, the brand will “bulk up on brunch” with more offerings, which it sees as a huge opportunity.

“True Food is one of the brands that pioneered the world of healthy dining, but I think True Food is so much more than that,” Ferris adds. “It's extremely important to fuel your body with nutrient-dense ingredients that make you feel great, and I think you can do that while still enjoying a pizza, or you can do that while still enjoying burrata or a burger. And that's what we want people to know—that you can enjoy us at so many different levels.”

Franchise Frenzy: Franchise Frenzy:

EGGS UP GRILL & CULVER'S

Midwest favorite Culver's is making waves in the South, with visits to the Wisconsinbased burger chain up 13.6 percent yearover-year, and 6.8 percent compared to February 2020, according to Placer.ai Meanwhile, South Carolina-based Eggs Up Grill has seen visits soar by nearly 30 percent since 2020, and has grown from 38 stores in 2019 to 59 locations in 2022. With a growing demand for breakfast spots at an affordable price point, Eggs Up Grill is cracking open opportunities for eager franchisees across the country, and has a 30-unit development deal in Texas already in the works.

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As increasingly price-conscious consumers weigh their options for places to eat out, the promise of bang-for-yourbuck at buffets can’t be beat. Restaurants with all-you-can-eat offerings like Golden Corral, Cicis, and Pizza Ranch are experiencing a meteoric rise in traffic from customers looking to fill their plates with variety. When inflation began to dominate headlines in 2022, buffets’ baseline visit growth started to soar, according to a recent Placer.ai report. Foot-traffic data shows buffets outperforming both the full-service and fast-casual restaurant segments as of early 2023 by 91 percent and 74 percent, respectively. And with the large array of food offerings buffets serve, the “no vote” is eliminated—giving buffet chains the upper hand and opportunity to drive even more traffic from hungry customers.

TURN SAVVY SPENDERS INTO

Buffets are back in a BIG WAY REWARDS LOYAL FOODIES

RESTAURANT REWARDS PROGRAMS have become a tantalizing recipe for financially savvy customers. According to MARIGOLD'S RESTAURANT INDUSTRY FORE CAST, 91 PERCENT OF CONSUMERS WILLINGLY TRADE INFORMATION LIKE A BIRTHDAY OR LOCATION FOR A DISCOUNT, and 42 percent of consumers say they’ll rely more on benefits as they continue seeking more value for their dollars. Consumers also rated rewards programs as the most important aspect (by 67 percent) to building lasting loyalty. Donatos Pizza, for example, added nearly 135,000 new loyalty members in 2022 by making on-demand rewards its key strategy, and increased its program penetration rate to 51.4 percent as of February.

LASAGNA

kitchen staff continues to be a huge challenge, especially when it comes to line execution and complex pan work,” says Chef Michael Slavin, vice president of culinary and menu innovation at Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc. “Lasagna and other baked pastas allow for the intricate work to be performed in the prep kitchen. That makes for a faster line, even with less proficient cooks.”

Barilla Lasagne Chef sheets are an ideal tool for chefs looking to capitalize on the ongoing lasagna trend—they fit perfectly inside a traditional hotel pan and come ready to be popped into the oven, no boiling necessary. Chef Slavin recently usezd the Barilla Lasagne Chef sheets to build a Carbonara Lasagna, uniting two of the biggest pasta trends in a single sumptuous dish.

“The inspiration for my Carbonara Lasagna was my love for both pasta applications,” Slavin says. “And also the realization that I hadn’t really seen a rendition of a lasagna that played off the spirit of the venerable carbonara.”

Why the fan-favorite dish is surging on menus.

NATIONAL LASAGNA DAY will be celebrated on July 29. There is plenty to celebrate: The pasta, and dish, is a fan favorite amongst chefs and diners alike. Datassential reports that lasagna is now the second most popular variety of pasta on menus and the third-mostpopular type of pasta dish.

Diners seem to love the dish for its comforting, traditional blend of pasta, ricotta, and meat sauce—that classic version of the dish is an American adaptation of Lasagna Bolognese, which was a traditional celebratory dish made in winters in Bologna. Even within Italy, however, there are many other takes on lasagna, exhibiting its versatility—that’s something increasingly being unlocked

on American menus, too. Lasagna is a chef favorite because of how simple it can be to prep ahead of time. With 62 percent of operators reporting they do not have enough staff to meet demand, according to the National Restaurant Association, the low-labor nature of lasagna simplifies kitchen operations.

“Finding and retaining qualified

In order to represent the richness of the egg yolk necessary for a true carbonara dish, Slavin brushed Barilla Lasagne Chef sheets with a seasoned egg yolk and cheese mixture, giving it two minutes to bake-to-set, before building in the other traditional carbonara elements: roasted bacon, Romano cheese, salted pasta water, and a touch of cream. Slavin’s Carbonara Lasagna is something just about any diner would love—and something just about any kitchen can execute.

“By skipping the first stage where you boil and shock the pasta, you speed up the process,” Slavin says. “But you also remove all of the variability with under or overcooking. A convection oven is a great tool for finishing the dish, giving the kitchen very stable and predictable results.” BY CHARLIE

POGACAR

“Lasagna and other baked pastas allow for the intricate work to be performed in the prep kitchen.”

BARILLA

CULINARY INSPIRATION AND STORIES FROM INDUSTRY TRAILBLAZERS

Chefs & Ingredients

Inside Illinois’ Female-Led Scratchboard Kitchen

BY CALLIE EVERGREEN

Chef Grace Goudie

champions continual culinary progress in both herself and the male-dominated industry.

GRACE GOUDIE HAD HER FIRST experience cooking a dish with formulated recipes during a home economics class, and it left her craving more. She went home to her parents and told them she was going to become a chef. She was 12 years old at the time, so her parents naturally brushed the idea aside and figured she’d change her mind as she grew older. But at 15, she started working her way through restaurants, start-

CHEFS & INGREDIENTS CHEF PROFILE

ing in the front-of-house. When college came along, Goudie’s interest in food hadn’t faded, but she was also curious about the world of journalism, so she earned a degree from the University of Missouri in communications and food science with a focus in hospitality.

“From there, I was like, ‘I still want to do culinary school, it’s still kind of my calling,’ so I went out to California to Napa Valley and went to the Culinary Institute of America and did kind of a fast-track program,” says Goudie, who completed a 10-month intensive kitchen program where she mastered classic culinary techniques and honed her skills—

which quickly paid o .

In what felt like a dream sequence, Goudie was then hired by Chef omas Keller to work in his restaurants— rst as sous-chef at Ad Hoc and then at the three Michelin-starred French Laundry, which has won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation. Keller is the rst and only American-born chef to hold multiple three-star ratings from the prestigious Michelin Guide, as well as the rst American male chef to be designated a Chevalier of e French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration in France.

“With the full intention to come back to Chicago, which is where I’m from, I kind of took the job on a whim. And it really changed my life and the trajectory of my career,” Goudie says. In 2019, she went on a year-long international culinary expedition to Thailand, Sweden,

and Italy, where she developed her love for di erent cuisines and cultures. While in Italy, Goudie was asked to teach at a cooking school in the famous Umbria region, which was a special experience.

“I take little tidbits from everywhere I go. I’m French-technique trained, which always stays super strong within me,” she notes. “I’d never call myself a fusion chef by any means, but little ingredients, different spices or seasonings nd their way into my food. I more so get inspired by various ingredients I see that are not necessarily common to food here in the U.S.”

Invigorated and “in love” with worldly foods and different culinary cultures, Goudie then had the opportunity to return to Illinois at 27 years old and create her own restaurant—Scratchboard Kitchen, which she opened in April 2020 in Arlington Heights. “Coming from one

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FAVORITE RESTAURANT OUTSIDE OF YOUR OWN: Monteverde Chicago

GO-TO MEAL ORDER: Definitely sushi always

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GO-TO COOKING UTENSIL: Probably the rubber spatula—got to get everything out of the pot

“The most rewarding thing is seeing the effects your creation has on others, and the joy and community it can create. The one universal language we have in the world is food.”

SCRATCHBOARD'S FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH FEATURES PIMENTO CHEESE AND PICKLED ONIONS ON A BRIOCHE BUN, WITH THE OPTION TO MAKE IT SPICY OR 'DANGEROUSLY' SPICY.

of the best restaurants in the world and then going to a suburb of Chicago was not necessarily how I saw my life going,” she admits. “But it was either take a job under someone else in the big city, or go o on my own, and being out in the suburbs was an opportunity to go o on my own.”

Looking back, Goudie now appreciates being able to get her “feet wet” in the suburbs as a young chef, because it a orded her the opportunity to evolve

cha with vanilla and a salted honey chai latte with steamed milk, as well as craft cocktails like a raspberry hazelnut martini with cold brew, a garden margarita with ginger, carrot, and lemon juice, and a chamomile whiskey sour.

“Opening a restaurant, I knew I wanted unique dishes to us, and to drive on nostalgia, evoking feelings and emotions. at has never changed,” Goudie explains. “I always like to tell a story

more that you will be willing to learn and see what you can do to become better.”

“Also, one piece of advice I was always given is never stop learning. e minute you stop learning is when you should quit,” Goudie continues. “It’s an interesting industry where there’s always a new technique to learn, something to learn about yourself or your leadership skills, and you should always be reading and researching, and looking at others for

her own culinary style in a safer environment and community. “Only 7 percent of executive chefs are female; I think that’s something that people say a lot, but I’m really proud of it,” she adds. “I’m only 31, and being so young, and being an executive chef that is female, I’m very proud of that fact, because it’s not very common. You don’t see it a lot.”

Goudie created a farm-to-table menu for Scratchboard Kitchen, featuring rotating seasonal items like cherry co ee cake with brown butter cherry blossom streusel, and a seasonal grain bowl with quinoa, peas, radishes, mushrooms, and smoked honey vinaigrette. The menu focuses on brunch, salads, bowls, toasts, and elevated sandwiches, like the Umeboshi Grilled Cheese with salted blueberries, muenster, and provolone. A robust beverage program o ers seasonal lattes like a rare tea cellar mat-

with my food and make people feel comforted but experience something di erent at the same time.”

In 2022, Goudie joined the Food Network’s competitive cooking show, “Chopped: Casino Royale” as a contestant, and simply hoped to make it past the rst round. Goudie ended up winning all three rounds during the episode and became a Chopped champion.

When asked what wisdom she would pass on to younger chefs just starting out, Goudie says “don’t be so hard on yourself. at’s so cliché, but as a chef, a lot of us are perfectionists and hyperaware of what we’re producing, and how good we’re doing it,” she says. “And I think that you can only get to a certain place by making mistakes; you have to fail in some aspect in order to succeed and progress and learn. And I think that the less hard you are on yourself, the

inspiration to take more knowledge and information in to become a better chef and person in the end.”

As for the future, Goudie is focused on getting Scratchboard “really steady” and launching a dinner program, but she doesn’t rule out potentially growing to more locations or creating di erent restaurant concepts down the road.

“I always went into the restaurant industry for one goal: to make others happy,” Goudie says. “That’s always the most rewarding thing, what you do for others in the industry. It’s not a self-serving career, it’s more a career to impact others, and help make others go to a place to escape.”

“ e most rewarding thing is seeing the e ects your creation has on others, and the joy and community it can create,” she adds. “ e one universal language we have in the world is food.

SMITHFIELD CULINARY (2)

SCRATCHBOARD'S MENU FEATURES BRUNCH, SEASONAL GRAIN BOWLS, TOASTS, AND SANDWICHES.

Save up to of frying oil

Late Night Done Right

BY SAM DANLEY

Streamlined menus are key to winning late-night guests, say leaders at Big Whiskey’s and Norms.

AS THE DAYS GROW LONGER and the sun sets later, consumers begin embracing leisurely evenings and seizing opportunities for socializing and imbibing at bars and eateries. And with college students picking up foodservice jobs during the summer months, restaurants are leveraging boosted staff levels and extended hours with revamped latenight menus, like Big Whiskey’s American Restaurant & Bar.

“After a few years of not meeting up at 10 p.m. during the pandemic, people are

starting to come back to late-night,” says Paul Sundy, co-founder and COO of the Missouri-based franchise which just surpassed 10 locations. “We’ve always used summer to remind people about our program. It’s the perfect time to meet up with friends, especially on the patio.”

With its flagship location in Springfield open until midnight SundayWednesday and until 1 a.m. ThursdaySaturday, late-night is a valuable daypart for Big Whiskey’s, and accounts for around 6-8 percent of the casual-din -

ing chain’s total sales. Sundy says the key to crafting a winning program is focusing on speed and efficiency with a pared down menu that can be executed by a skeleton crew.

“We’ve had to be aware of our kitchen staff and think about what we can accomplish in a quick environment without sacrificing quality,” he says. “You need a late-night menu that cooks can accomplish while they’re still closing up shop. We wanted to go far enough that if a manager wants to get the cooks off

CONSUMERS ARE CRAVING MORE LATE-NIGHT EXPERIENCES POSTCOVID.

the clock for labor purposes, they could still go and whip things up themselves.”

He says the good news for a concept like Big Whiskey’s is late-night customers typically aren’t looking for heavy plates with large portions—which is why the company is leaning into popular appetizers with featured discounts for shareable options. “Old-school staples” like beer cheese pretzels and nachos resonate with late-night guests, Sundy notes. Another standout item on the updated menu is Bu alo Chicken Wonton Nachos, which features crispy wonton chips topped with bu alo chicken dip, melted mozzarella cheese, and gorgonzola cheese crumbles. “Wonton chips are wildly popular at our stores, so we’ve taken those and turned them into nacho appetizers, which is a great nontraditional spin that gives it a little more of a gourmet twist,” he says.

Big Whiskey’s is also leaning into craft cocktails like its Blood Orange Whiskey Sour, which combines bourbon with sweet and sour mix, blood orange fruit puree, and simple syrup, garnished with an orange wheel and a Filthy Black Cherry. “With late-night in the summertime, people are looking for drinks that are a little bit nicer, but still approachable and cost e ective,” Sundy says. “What’s worked really well for us is adding a happy hour price range with discounted beers while still featuring a gourmet cocktail.”

For Norms Restaurants, a new latenight menu is part of a broader strategy to get more stores back to 24/7 service. e diner chain—founded in 1949 in Los Angeles, California, by used-car salesman Norm Roybark—is known for staying open around the clock, but a restrictive labor pool made those hours unfeasible during the pandemic. David Cox, executive chef and director of purchasing at Norms, says stores that o er late-night service outperform those with limited operating hours. Getting more of its 22 restaurants open around the clock has been a key priority for the company. It’s also proved to be a signi cant challenge in the wake of COVID-19. “Coming out of the pandemic, it’s been increasingly di cult to sta our restaurants,

especially for the late-night and graveyard shifts,” Cox says. “As we’ve been catching up on our hiring, we realized we needed to simplify things.”

Typically, with late-night, Norms is down to just one or two cooks. “Instead of three di erent stations on the cook line, we tried to think about ways we can close up one of the stations and execute everything from the remaining two stations, which limits the amount of steps and the amount of movement,” Cox says. e company revamped its late-night menu using a Dog Star report, which segments menu items into stars, workhorses, and dogs. ose insights led to an updated program centered around what Cox calls “the greatest boots.” ere’s classic breakfast items, like omelets, French toast, and waffles, along with the Lumberjack Breakfast, which comes with three hotcakes, three eggs, three strips of bacon, and three sausage links.

“We also included things that we felt would appeal to the late-night customer

base, which includes a lot of people coming out of bars and clubs,” Cox says. “Over the top” menu items like a Jalapeno Bacon Cheeseburger and a Double Bacon Cheeseburger resonate well with those late-night customers, as well as comfort bites like Cajun Tots. “ ere’s a whole lot of fried goodness on that plate, and that seems to be something people crave late at night,” Cox says. “Appetizers have always proved to be popular with this crowd.”

Norms has been returning to 24/7 service on a store-by-store basis, and Cox believes the streamlined menu will help speed up that process. e company has two new restaurants slated to open this year that will o er the late-night menu from the start. “We’ve been around since 1949, and we’re known for being that place that you can go when nobody else is open,” Cox says. “We’re the place you can go in the middle of the night or early in the morning, and we’ve always taken pride in that.”

NORMS RESTAURANTS

“There’s a whole lot of fried goodness on that plate, and that seems to be something people crave late at night... Appetizers have always proved to be popular with this crowd.”

NORMS IS TRYING TO GET ALL ITS STORES BACK TO BEING OPEN 24/7, AND IS USING ITS NEW LATE-NIGHT MENU TO ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS.

Making Better Donuts

an oily donut texture, and glazes will not adhere properly. Selecting frying oils providing a harder fat that sets up quickly on the donut is key for better glaze and topping adherence.

Donuts have grown beyond their traditional role as a breakfast item found in quick-service restaurants. These tasty treats have now established a presence on brunch and dessert menus in full-service restaurants of all sizes. Pastry chefs have been instrumental in expanding the donut category, introducing innovative variations, such as apple cider donuts and beignets.

According to Dan Moats, a certified master baker and national account manager at Stratas Foods, donuts have evolved to the point where they practically constitute their own food group in the United States. “As a society, we consume a considerable amount of donuts, prompting even high-end restaurants to explore incorporating them into their menus,” Moats says.

Creating delicious donuts requires more than just the right ingredients. The process also requires careful selection of the frying oil. While liquid oils are suitable for frying many foods, they are not ideal for donuts. As the donut cools, liquid oils can form

Depending on the intended donut application, there are various donut shortening choices with different oil blends and manufacturing processes to meet a restau-

rant’s needs. Moats emphasizes the importance for restaurant operators to first determine the type of donut they wish to create. For instance, those aiming to showcase a standalone premium donut should opt for a high-stability, premium shortening like Primex ® Golden Flex Donut Fry Shortening. Additionally, effectively managing the shortening is crucial for prolonging its lifespan. In an era where cost management is critical to a restaurant’s profitability, this aspect of the process can determine how successful a donut program will be. Moats and his team concentrate on collaborating

restaurants can elevate their donut offerings to satisfy customers while maximizing profitability. The donut revolution has expanded beyond traditional boundaries, paving the way for an exciting culinary landscape where these beloved pastries are embraced as versatile and indulgent delights.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

For more, visit StratasFoods.com

No longer just a breakfast item, donuts are having their moment.

“As a society, we consume a considerable amount of donuts.”

TRENDS AND CREATIVE APPROACHES TO SPIRITS, WINE, AND BEER.

DISTILLED SPIRITS Soar

BETTER QUALITY AND INVENTIVE SPIRITS AND RTDS HELP INCREASE CHECK AVERAGE AND DINER INCENTIVE TO PURCHASE, AND PROFITS ARE FOLLOWING SUIT FOR FULL-SERVE RESTAURANTS.

BY MANDY ELLIS

High-quality spirits boost bottom lines as costconscious customers sip better value and flavor.

DISTILLED SPIRITS are outpacing beer for the first time, thanks to the category’s significant growth and speed of innovation. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), 16 states (plus

Washington D.C.) have passed laws making cocktails to-go permanent, and 14 states are crafting legislation allowing cocktails to-go until 2025.

“The industry has definitely seen a massive boom,” explains Trevin

Hutchins, bar director at Aphotic in San Francisco, California. “Beer is typically consumed straight, but spirits, you have a whole secondary industry where bartenders elevate and combine them with [fresh ingredients] consumers already know, creating more excitement behind the spirit.”

And distilled spirits are rocketing toward an even greater market share. A DISCUS report showed 83 percent of respondents wanted to purchase spirits-based RTD cocktails at restaurants and bars, and sales of spirits-based RTDs rose by 42 percent to $1.6 billion in 2021. Full-service restaurants are plucking higher-quality and a greater variety of spirits brands, as well as seeing bottom line expansion, while guests are desiring larger bang-for-the-buck over beer.

experience with cocktails, he adds.

“You’re also seeing, ‘My dollar isn’t as strong so I’m going to purchase an expensive cocktail, but I’ll have one or two versus two or three glasses of wine, or three or four beers,’” Raab explains. “Consumers gravitate toward sipping tequila or a top bourbon or whiskey, and choose their cocktails wisely because they’re more dollar conscious and want to get bang-for-their-buck when purchasing a drink for the night.”

Danny Williamson, director of operations at Furious Spoon Ramen Shop in Chicago, Illinois, says restaurants’ beverage creativity has gone beyond just adding simple syrups to cover heavy alcohol notes. No longer tasting chemically manufactured, but fresh with complex profiles, voluminous flavors in high-qual -

Nicolette Teo, co-founder of California’s L.A. Spirits Awards, says spirits growth in full-service restaurants has been trending for a while now. “It’s another source of revenue that builds brand loyalty,” she explains. “The pandemic definitely accelerated innovation, but it’s using fresher ingredients, experimenting with flavor profiles and herbs, and upping the quality of RTD cocktails. If you’re comparing to beer, spirits offer more because they’re not just malt-based and there’s many spirits, many ways to experiment, and demand is there.”

Diners are now asking for products that five or 10 years ago you couldn’t give away, including mezcals and additive-free tequilas, says Brian Raab, partner at Scottsdale, Arizona’s Fat Ox, The Mission, and Zinc Bistro, plus tequila life coach/consultant at Tequila Corrido. Guests’ spirit knowledge grew during lockdowns and they’re seeking unique out-of-the-bottle tastes in their dining

ity distilled spirits, RTDs, and cocktails to-go help. Plus, “pricing has definitely become more advantageous for us to utilize in a program,” he adds.

Meanwhile, the team at Z’Tejas in Austin, Texas, and Scottsdale, Arizona, stirs up innovation with a fresh jalapeno cucumber margarita showing off spicy tequila, agave, and squeezed lime juice, says chief energizing officer Randy Cohen.

Christiaan Rollich, bar director at Scottsdale, Arizona’s Fat Ox, The Mission, and Zinc Bistro, took a salsa on their chef-driven, farm-to-table menu, broke down each ingredient, and used clarified tomato juice, cilantro, and jalapeno in a stunning cocktail to “bridge that gap from kitchen to bar,” Raab says. Rollich also handmade pistachio syrup to combine with cucumber, Corrido Tequila, and a dried chimichurri rim with parsley, cilantro, cumin, caraway, and salt to mirror their menu with a culinary-forward cocktail innovation.

CONSUMERS ARE MORE OPEN TO TRYING MEZCALS AND ADDITIVE-FREE SPIRITS THAN FIVE TO 10 YEARS AGO.

“Consumers gravitate toward sipping tequila or a top bourbon or whiskey, and choose their cocktails wisely because they’re more dollar conscious and want to get bang-for-their-buck when purchasing a drink for the night.”

LOADED TURKEY BURGER

“You have to be willing to fail, and if you’re not, you’ll never create anything cool,” Rollich says, “Every single ingredient is made or juiced in-house; it changes the whole avor pro le of the cocktail.”

Aphotic uses housemade gin and 80 di erent botanical spirits distilled inhouse for their cocktails including their signature martini with ve of their distillates, Dulse, orris root, bitter orange, juniper, green tea, Noilly Prat original dry vermouth, and Bodegas Hidalgo manzanilla sherry.

“One of the reasons beer isn’t growing in restaurants as much as cocktails is when you have one IPA, you’re kinda

full and your palate is shot, then you still have dinner,” explains Rollich. “Cocktails are more in line with appetizers and it’s easier to have a few plus pair with your palate.”

Alongside booming top-notch spirits and RTDs, experts say pro ts follow suit for full-service restaurants. “When we look at spirits from a nancial standpoint, it can be a better bang for the buck in what you get out of a well-crafted cocktail with your meal for that dollar amount versus drinking beer after beer,” explains Williamson, who says better quality and inventive spirits and RTDs help increase check average and diner

incentive to purchase.

For Cohen, their Jug Club for to-go gallons of margaritas peak in summer with a 15 percent increase in sales, and Furious Spoon’s RTD cocktails from Old Smokey and Greenbar Distillery are so huge in o -premises takeout and delivery sales they stopped selling fountain soda for a time. Even the DISCUS report showed 82 percent of consumers preferred RTDs because “they taste better than beer,” and because of spirits’ growth, changes spill into policies like California’s SB277 legislation for fairer treatment of spirits-based RTD cocktails. “ ese lower tax rates make RTDs more a ordable and in turn, stimulate industry growth,” says Teo. “If the policy in your state allows for it, and you’re not trying out [RTDs and cocktails to-go], it’s a missed opportunity as an additional revenue stream.”

Because of diners’ altered sipping preferences, full-service restaurants now also select more diverse and inclusive spirits brands. “We try to be as inclusive as possible and try to nd emerging brands,” Williamson says. “If it’s something we test, taste, and people like it, we want to champion that brand because as we grow ours, we want to grow with people because it’s about relationships.” is lends to the spirit industry’s strength, too, with the widening variety promoting innovation.

“We’re seeing a trend where people are more conscious about what they’re consuming and want to know about the brands, know the story, know where it’s from, and the average consumer doesn’t look the same,” explains Teo, “We have di erent backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and orientations, and with that diversity, consumers are identifying with the stories of these brands.”

And those stories bubble up in restaurants’ bottom lines, says Raab. “When you have that story behind that product that’s special, unique, and di erent, that’s where it’s important for the restaurateur to gain more value out of it.”

Adds Rollich, “I want to know why it’s special, because that story [is] how I sell to the customer.”

LOOKING AT SPIRITS FROM A FINANCIAL STANDPOINT, CONSUMERS ARE PICKING WELLCRAFTED COCKTAILS TO PAIR WITH MEALS ‘VERSUS DRINKING BEER AFTER BEER,’ NOTES DANNY WILLIAMSON, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AT FURIOUS SPOON RAMEN SHOP.

NESTLED IN THE HEART OF MIAMI BEACH, CHEF JEREMY FORD OPENED STUBBORN SEED AS AN HOMAGE TO THE RESILIENT NATURE OF PLANTS, ILLUSTRATING THE PERSISTENCE REQUIRED TO OPEN A NEW RESTAURANT.

TOP50 INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS

JEREMY FORD was just 14 years old when he felt a calling to the culinary world. His first hero was Emeril Lagasse, whose show “Emeril Live” on the Food Network sparked Ford’s imagination. “He was funny, he was creative, his food’s delicious, and I got the bug from watching that show,” Ford says. That bug soon transformed into an experimentation beast, and Ford began “doing weird sh**—I was grilling strawberries on my dad’s grill, just weird stuff that would pop into my head, and some of it tasted horrible, and luckily I stuck with it.”

Little did Ford and his parents know he would one day win the 13th season of Bravo’s popular cooking competition show, “Top Chef,” in 2015, and earn a Michelin Star rating at his restaurant, Stubborn Seed. But before all that, Ford’s journey to becoming a chef started with a harrowing search for his maternal grandparents, since his

From intimate family-owned gems to chef-driven destinations, these 50 indie eateries showcase the diverse talents found across America that are paving an innovative path into the future of foodservice, while still honoring past culinary traditions.

BY FSR STAFF

mother was adopted at a very young age, which brought Ford and his family from Jacksonville, Florida, to the West Coast in Carmel, California.

“We went on this crazy search to find her real mother, and we ended up finding her,” Ford recalls. “She was Italian, [and] barely spoke English. And our first meeting with her, she invited us to her home. It was a very emotional day … She prepared a large lunch for us with all of these garden delights out of her backyard, and we connected over food.”

“I didn’t really understand anything she was saying, and neither did anybody else. But it was a really special moment and I’ll never forget the aroma of being in her living room that first time, and I think from that moment on, I was like, this is what I want—I want to cook,” Ford continues. “Doesn’t that speak volumes about what food can do? Because you talk sometimes through food, and I feel like you have

TOP INDEPENDENTS

moments through food.”

After moving back to Jacksonville and working at a few restaurants as a teenager, Ford ended up dropping out of high school and moving away to Los Angeles to chase his dreams of becoming a chef. He started earning his culinary degree from “the School of Hard Knocks,” he often jokes, by toiling away at multiple restaurants. Ford worked his way from mincing vegetables and frying shrimp at local spots to working at a French restaurant in Los Angeles called L’Orangerie, where he was mentored by executive chef Christophe Eme, as well as under master chef Joachim Splichal at Patina.

“I worked at a two Michelin-star restaurant and really got high, high-end training. I got my ass kicked every day physically, and mentally abused every day, which thank god those days are in

the past,” Ford says, without naming or referencing a speci c restaurant.

A few years later, Ford moved back to Florida to take care of his mother who had become ill, and set up shop in Miami. ere, he worked and learned for about ve years under acclaimed Chef Dean James Max, owner of farm-to-table food and beverage concept DJM Restaurants, before getting the opportunity to serve as executive chef at Matador Room in Miami, run by the world-renowned French chef JeanGeorges Vongerichten. “He was the one who really pushed me to do ‘Top Chef,’ because he’s had a lot of [people] either come in second place or have competed,” Ford says.

Following his victory on the Bravo TV show, the Sunshine State native decided to strike out on his own and create his own restaurant in Miami.

Jeremy Ford

Stubborn Seed

He called it Stubborn Seed, which he named after the resilience it takes for plants to grow—illustrating the persistence required to open a new restaurant, and the dedication and time commitment to ensure it grows and ourishes. Partnering with Ignacio Garcia-Menocal and Francesco Balli of Grove Bay Hospitality, Ford opened his rst restaurant in September 2017 in Miami’s South Beach.

With 74 seats and located on a busy corner in the South of Fifth Neighborhood, Stubborn Seed has become known not only for its rotating seasonal tasting menus, but also for its sleek design, with industrial chic decor

and a glass-fronted display kitchen. In 2022, Stubborn Seed was awarded one Michelin star in the highly-coveted inaugural Florida MICHELIN guide. In May, Stubborn Seed retained its Michelin one-star rating at a ceremony.

Yet, Ford believes Stubborn Seed’s biggest accolade isn’t the Michelin Star, but “the constant evolvement of young talent and turning young kids into great chefs,” he says. “I think that's one of my favorite parts about Stubborn Seed, is that people come in there with very minimal skill, and within two years, they're either a sous-chef or they’re a chef at another restaurant. Just watching that evolution from like, someone who can't cut a potato, to basically being a perfectionist at a high level.”

On Stubborn Seed’s website, Ford describes the concept as “the result of pairing unrelenting passion with an unapologetic approach. It aims to unearth cravings of the palate while constructing a reward in each bite. is philosophy takes honest ingredients and elevates them to be splendidly elegant through rigid and persistent execution.” Ford focuses on crafting his constantly evolving tasting menus in the most sustainable way possible—

and advises his culinary team to do the same.

Though Ford’s culinary style has evolved to be worldly-inspired—like using a Haitian jerk recipe with carrots, or incorporating spice blends like berbere from Ethiopia or garam masala from India—it all began with French technique. “I think it’s one of the best cores that a chef can start with because there’s just this push for perfection,” he says. “Everything you do has a purpose, and everything you do needs to be neatly done. So it teaches you all of this discipline, and I feel like if you don’t have discipline to start, you don’t have as good of a base.”

In addition to Stubborn Seed, Ford also owns Beauty and the Butcher in Coral Gables, Florida—a nod to his eldest daughter, Madelynn (the ‘beauty’)—which was recently added to the MICHELIN Guide. Plus, Ford recently opened e Butcher’s Club in Palm Beach’s PGA National Resort.

The 32-year-old chef also appears on another culinary show called “Fast Foodies” on truTv in the second season, alongside fellow “Top Chef” winner Kristen Kish, and “Iron Chef” winner Justin Sutherland. Food Network re-aired some episodes of the competitive cooking show, and streamers can view the show on HBO Max or Amazon Prime.

When asked how he keeps his creativity owing, Ford replies, “My team, 100 percent. I would be nothing without them. e food that we’ve been so successful in creating is all because of them.”

BY CALLIE EVERGREEN

Red Rabbit

MINNEAPOLIS

Opened: 2016

Cuisine Type: Italian

Owner: Luke Shimp

Copine

SEATTLE

Opened: 2016

Cuisine Type: New American

Owners: Chef Shaun McCrain, Jill Kinney

Oxalis

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

Opened: 2016

Cuisine Type: Contemporary FrenchAmerican

Owner: Chef Nico Russell

Livingston Restaurant + Bar

ATLANTA

Opened: 2009

Cuisine Type: Modern European Southern

Owner: Sotherly Hotels

STUBBORN SEED’S MENU SPANS FROM CHARRED LOCAL FISH AND BELLE & EVANS TRUFFLE CHICKEN TO KOJI WESTHOLME RANCH WAGYU.

TOP INDEPENDENTS

Haywire

UPTOWN DALLAS AND PLANO, TEXAS

Opened: 2017

Cuisine Type: Refined Texan

Owner: Jack Gibbons, Front Burner Society

THE TEXAS-INSPIRED EATERY has created a combination of rustic and refined. The emphasis on locally sourced ingredients is evident in their ranch-to-fork menu from Chef Skyler Gauthier, which showcases a range of classic Texas dishes like the Chicken Fried Steak and Grilled Chipotle Meatloaf, as well as more innovative and upscale dishes like Pork Belly “Burnt Ends,” which showcase the kitchen’s expertise in slow-cooked meats. The Texas Farm-raised Redfish demonstrates how Haywire elevates familiar dishes to new heights.

Bauhaus Biergarten

SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS

Opened: 2022

Cuisine Type: German

Owner: Chef Jennifer Hill Booker

Tujague’s

NEW ORLEANS

Young Joni

MINNEAPOLIS

Opened: 2016

Cuisine Type: AmericanKorean Fusion

Ida Claire

DALLAS, ADDISON, JACKSONVILLE, AND SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Opened: 2015

Cuisine Type: Southern Comfort

Owner: Jack Gibbons, Front Burner Society

Jack Rose

NEW ORLEANS

Opened: 2018

Cuisine Type: Seasonal Creole

Owner: Chef Brian Landry

Heirloom Kitchen

OLD BRIDGE, NEW JERSEY

The Barley Hound

PRESCOTT, ARIZONA

Opened: 2015

Cuisine Type: Gastropub

Owner: Skyler Reeves (Vivili Hospitality Group)

Spoon and Stable

MINNEAPOLIS

Opened: 2014

Cuisine Type: French inspired

Owner: Chef Gavin Kaysen

Opened: 1856

Cuisine Type: Cajun-

Creole

Owner: Mark Latter

Owners: Chef Ann Kim, Conrad Leifur

Opened: 2013

Cuisine Type: New American

Owners: Chef David Viana and Neilly Robinson

Mister Mao

NEW ORLEANS

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Asian Fusion

Owners: Chef Sophina Uong and William “Wildcat” Greenwell

HELMED BY CHEF Sophina Uong in New Orleans, Mister Mao has gained acclaim for its inven-

tive “inauthentic” cuisine that merges Uong’s Cambodian-American heritage with Southern techniques. With playful menu categories like “Foods We Don’t Have to Share” and “Here Comes the Chuck Wagon,” diners can enjoy serious food in a lighthearted atmosphere.

Makoto

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA

Opened: 2011

Cuisine Type: Modern Japanese Owners: Stephen Starr (STARR Restaurants) and Chef Makoto Okuwa

LOCATED IN South Florida’s glitzy Bal Harbour Shops, Makoto is one of the region’s most celebrated Japanese restaurants. Chef Makoto Okuwa, a master of Edomae-style sushi, opened the restaurant in 2011 in partnership with Stephen Starr. The menu is constantly evolving as the famed chef searched for new ways to add modern takes to traditional dishes.

Blue

Canyon Kitchen & Tavern

TWINSBURG, OHIO

Opened: 2004

Cuisine Type: American

Owner: Val Voelker

Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

Opened: 2012

Cuisine Type: SouthernAmericana

Owner: Tony Palombino

Arnaud’s Restaurant

NEW ORLEANS

Opened: 1918

Cuisine Type: Creole

Owners: Archie Casbarian and Katy Casbarian

Duck Sel

CHICAGO

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Contemporary American

Owner: Donald Young

Guard and Grace

DENVER AND HOUSTON

Opened: 2014

Cuisine Type: Contemporary American Steakhouse

Owner: Chef Troy Guard

Stirrups

OCALA, FLORIDA

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Fine Dining

Owner: World Equestrian Center dLeña

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Latin

Owner: Chef Richard Sandoval

Yellow Pony Pub

OCALA, FLORIDA

DUCK SEL, LAUNCHED BY Michelinstarred chef/owner Donald Young (Les Nomades, Temporis, Woodwind, Venteux), offers an immersive experience spotlighting his talent for preparing dry-aged duck. Young showcases culinary curiosity through multi-course menus curated for exclusive pop-up events in mystery locations, private dinners, passed bites at swanky cocktail affairs, and cooking classes. Chef Young’s tasting menu includes 15 courses of contemporary American cuisine, featuring seasonal ingredients and intriguing preservation.

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Global Pub

Fare

Owner: World Equestrian Center

Perini Ranch

Steakhouse

BUFFALO GAP, TEXAS

Opened: 1983

Cuisine Type: American

Owners: Tom Perini

TOP INDEPENDENTS

The Americano

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Opened: February 2020

Cuisine Type: Mediterranean

Steakhouse

Owner: Chef Scott Conant

ELEGANT AND CHIC yet approachable, The Americano is for those who enjoy playful cocktail menus and heartfelt service. At its core, the menu carefully curated by award-winning Chef Scott Conant features fine-aged steaks, house-made pasta, and Mediterranean seafood. The venue features memorable artwork displays, an open kitchen, and a woodfired grill.

Villa Azur

ATLANTA

Opened: 2012

Cuisine Type: FrenchMediterranean

Owners: Jean-Philippe

Bernard, Paul Breuza, Michael Martin

Mora Italian

PHOENIX

Opened: 2017

Cuisine Type: Italian

Owner: Chef Scott Conant

Ray’s at Killer Creek

ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA

Opened: 1998

Cuisine Type: Steakhouse

Owner: Ray Schoenbaum

Yeppa&co

ATLANTA

Opened: 2023

Cuisine Type: Italian

Owners: Pietro Gianni, Stephen Peterson

Hearth and Hill

PARK CITY, UTAH

Avra Miami

SUNNY

Sons & Daughters

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Opened: 2010

Cuisine Type: New Nordic

Owners: Teague Moriarty, Matt McNamara

The Woodall

ATLANTA

Opened: 2022

Cuisine Type: Greek Mediterranean

Owners: Nick Tsoulos, Nick Pashalis, and Marc

Packer

MI VIDA

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Opened: 2018

Opened: 2019

Cuisine Type: New American

Owner: Brooks Kirchheimer

Cuisine Type: Mexican

Owners: Chef Roberto Santibañez, KNEAD Hospitality + Design

Opened: 2022

Cuisine Type: New

American

Owner: John C. Metz

ISLES BEACH, FLORIDA

The Graceful Ordinary

ST. CHARLES, ILLINOIS

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Upscale American

Owners: Chef Chris Curren, Megan Curren

SERVING UP ELEGANT FOOD to a sold out crowd every night since opening in November 2021, this riverfront concept marks the turning of fine-dining tides in suburbia. The Graceful Ordinary was created by Chicago husband-wife duo, Megan and Chris Curren. Chris utilizes his classic finedining expertise to present a menu of elevated, yet approachable tavern fare focused around the restaurant’s wood-burning hearth, like Octopus Carpaccio with lemon puree, chili oil, and pickled mustard seed; and Short Rib Caramelle, featuring stuffed beet pasta, braising jus, pistachio pesto, crispy artichoke.

Pastis

NEW YORK CITY AND MIAMI

Opened: 1999

Cuisine Type: French Owners: Keith McNally, Stephen Starr, STARR Restaurant Group

PASTIS, THE FAMOUS Paris bistro in New York City that was frequented by celebrities in the early 2000s was revitalized by the STARR in 2019 after being closed for five years. They are now expanding the brand with a new location in Miami, adding an outdoor garden and courtyard as well as new menu items.

Mayami

MIAMI

Opened: 2020

Cuisine Type: Mexican

Fusion

Owner: Philippe Kalifa

Gekkō

MIAMI

Opened: 2022

Cuisine Type: Modern Japanese

Owners: David Grutman (Groot Hospitality) and Bad Bunny

Gunshow

ATLANTA

Opened: 2013

Cuisine Type: New

American Owner: Kevin Gillespie

Pizza Serta

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Opened: January 2023

Cuisine Type: Pizza

Owners: Chris Morgan and Ben Farahani

Oregon Grille

HUNT VALLEY, MARYLAND

Opened: 1997

Cuisine Type: American Steakhouse Owners: Alex Smith, Eric Smith, Atlas Restaurant Group

The Mexicano

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Mexican

Owner: Joey Maggiore

Mita’s CINCINNATI

Opened: 2015

Cuisine Type: Spanish and Latin American

Owner: Chef Jose Salazar

Glass & Vine

MIAMI

Opened: 2016

Cuisine Type: Modern American

Owner: Giorgio

Rapicavoli, Grove Bay Hospitality Group

Rosa’s Pizzeria

PRESCOTT, ARIZONA

Opened: 2011

Cuisine Type: Mediterranean

Owner: Skyler Reeves (Vivili Hospitality Group)

Komodo

MIAMI

Ruse

ST. MICHAELS, MARYLAND

Opened: 2021

Cuisine Type: Seasonal American

Owner: The Erkiletian family Lita

ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY

Opened: 2015

Cuisine Type: Southeast Asian

Owner: David Grutman (Groot Hospitality)

Root & Bone

SOUTH MIAMI

Opened: 2018

Cuisine Type: Southerninspired comfort

Owners: Chefs Janine

Booth and Jeff McInnis

Opened: 2023

Cuisine Type: Modern Portuguese

Owner: Chef David Viana

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Elevated Flavor

JULY 2023 // Specialty Cheese

SPECIALTY CHEESES LIKE GORGONZOLA OFFER AN EXPANDED CREATIVE CANVAS TO CHEFS AND AN APPEALING INDULGENCE TO CONSUMERS.

Gorgonzola adds a premium element to recipes.

BY KARA PHELPS

STORY // 42 Beyond Blue

DATA // 48 By the Numbers

Going Beyond Blue

Introducing gorgonzola varieties to elevate a menu from ordinary to extraordinary.

Consumers are expressing desire for the unique experiences restaurants provide that simply can’t be replicated at home. According to the National Restaurant Association, 64 percent of adults say restaurants are essential to their lifestyle, and 78 percent say their favorite restaurants o er tastes and avors they can’t easily duplicate themselves. It’s clear that consumers enjoy the elevated twists that restau-

rants bring to their menus.

“Specialty cheese in general has turned into one of those little indulgences we allow ourselves,” says Frank Alfaro, director of foodservice and export sales at BelGioioso Cheese, Inc.

Blue cheese, one of the most widely menued cheeses, appears on about 43 percent of menus in the U.S., according to Datassential. O ering gorgonzola, a specialty blue-veined cheese, can help

restaurants introduce an elevated experience and generate higher pro ts.

“Gorgonzola has a very distinct avor profile that can set menu applications apart,” Alfaro says. “Aged cheeses are worth paying for to deliver the extra avor and taste that consumers expect at full-service restaurants. Quality expectations at full service are high, so good cheeses should deliver on avor.”

Gorgonzola skews to more Italian

BELGIOIOSO CHEESE

WITH ITS DISTINCT FLAVOR PROFILE, GORGONZOLA IS HELPING RESTAURANTS SET THEIR MENU APPLICATIONS APART.

applications, especially pasta and pizza, and it’s aged longer than standard blue cheese. This allows it to add a deeper, richer avor to dishes. ere’s still plenty of room for chef education around gorgonzola, with menu penetration averaging around 11 percent.

Incorporating more gorgonzola into the menu can help restaurants transcend seasonal norms and di erentiate themselves. Blue cheese is traditionally associated strongly with wings and football season, while gorgonzola sees an uptick in the spring, frequently featured on sal-

ads. Restaurants can switch this up; gorgonzola, for example, can bring more dynamic flavors to dishes that most often feature blue cheese, such as black and blue burgers.

Chefs are using gorgonzola to transform standby recipes into extraordinary new creations that can draw in new customers. Gorgonzola’s presence in trendforward cauli ower dishes, for instance, has skyrocketed in the last four years— according to Datassential, menu penetration for cauliflower with gorgonzola increased by 124 percent. In terms

of other noteworthy creative applications, Alfaro says he’s also seen steak, pork, and gourmet sandwiches served with gorgonzola sauce, as well as seared steak finished with gorgonzola and a quick char.

Well-sourced, high-quality gorgonzola also creates room for higher margins, as consumers typically don’t mind paying more for premium ingredients if they see them as an indulgence. “Operators can di erentiate by the cheeses they o er on their menu, and the perception that it’s more upscale,” Alfaro says. “Don’t be afraid to call it out, and educate your sta on the story behind it. It will add value.”

BelGioioso has perfected gorgonzola cheeses using artisan methods, aging 90 days in special caves, creating a sharper avor than blue and a softer texture. BelGioioso’s three gorgonzola varieties provide a range of options so restaurants can tailor to their own unique applications. e varieties include Crumbly Gorgonzola as well as Cow and Sheep’s Milk Gorgonzola—a blend with a deep earthy aroma and smooth texture—and CreamyGorg ®, a creamier, approachable starter cheese that’s known for its distinctness. “CreamyGorg ® is a gateway to try gorgonzola cheese for people who haven’t before,” says Sofia Auricchio Krans, fth-generation member of the cheesemaking family behind BelGioioso. “It has a soft, creamy, buttery feel; it’s got a little of the earthy aroma of the benecial mold. Once guests taste it, they love the mild and unique avor.”

“Our master cheesemakers are deliberate with the elements of time, temperature, and humidity to create the unique varieties of blue and gorgonzola cheeses that BelGioioso o ers. Each variety should be savored to pick up on delicate details manicured by our traditional artisan methods,” says Auricchio Krans.

Telling the story behind premium ingredients can help restaurants bring their customers an elevated experience— and generate more pro t for the bottom line. BelGioioso’s cheeses help cultivate the sense of indulgence consumers are searching for right now.

BELGIOIOSO CHEESE

CHEFS ARE USING GORGONZOLA TO REINVENT RECIPES, ATTRACT NEW CUSTOMERS, AND INCREASE MARGINS.

“Operators can differentiate by the cheeses they offer on their menu and the perception that it’s more upscale.”

Specialty Cheese Trends

A FEW KEY INSIGHTS FROM DATASSENTIAL ON SPECIALTY CHEESES

• Eighty-one percent of consumers like or love cheese, and 60 percent of restaurant operators believe adding cheese to an item will help it sell better.

• Blue cheese, a widely menued mainstay, appears on nearly half of all U.S. menus and has seen little change in recent years.

• Meat eaters tend to enjoy blue cheese, while flexitarians tend to enjoy gorgonzola.

• Cauliflower with gorgonzola, the fastest growing dish featuring this cheese, has increased menu penetration by 124 percent over the last four years.

• Gorgonzola is becoming more common on menus in sit-down-style formal restaurants.

SPECIALTY CHEESE TRENDS TO WATCH & UNDERSTAND // COURTESY OF DATASSENTIAL

BLUE CHEESE A class of cheese with cultures of Penicillin mold added, resulting in blue marbling. Used most often on menus with wings, salads, and pizza. A classic pairing with buffalo chicken.

CONSUMERS:

MENU EXAMPLE:

Smoked Blue Cheese, D’Anjou Pear, and Spinach Salad: With lavender-walnut vinaigrette, spinach, watercress and frisée, dried cranberries, house-smoked blue cheese, cherry tomatoes, toasted walnuts. The Remington Restaurant at the St. Regis HOUSTON, TX

STILTON An English cheese available in both blue and white varieties, with applications similar to other blue cheese varieties (salads, with steak, burgers, and so on).

CONSUMERS:

Watermelon and Stilton Blue Cheese Salad: Local watermelon, Stilton blue cheese, pistachio-lime vinaigrette. Runyon’s Restaurant // CORAL SPRINGS, FL

GORGONZOLA An Italian blue-veined cow’s milk cheese that is predominantly menued on salads and pizza; can be crumbly or firm.

CONSUMERS:

MENU EXAMPLE:

Prosciutto di Parma and White Fig Pizza: Gorgonzola dolce, sage pesto, arugula. Sonsie // BOSTON, MA

ROQUEFORT A French sheep milk cheese with streaks of blue; tends to appear on menus with salads, steak, and burgers.

CONSUMERS:

MENU EXAMPLE: Salade de Saumon (Salmon Salad): Atlantic salmon, baby greens, spiced pecans, Roquefort, tomatoes, red onions, aged balsamic vinaigrette. Anis

MENU ADOPTION CYCLE: SPECIALTY CHEESES

INCEPTION Trends start here. Found in mostly fine-dining and ethnic independents, inception-stage trends exemplify originality in flavor, preparation, and presentation.

ADOPTION Found at fast-casual and casual independent restaurants, adoption-stage trends grow their base via lower price points and simpler prep methods. Still differentiated, these trends often feature premium and generally authentic ingredients.

PROLIFERATION Proliferation-stage trends show up at casual and quick-service restaurants. They are adjusted for mainstream appeal. Often combined with popular applications (burgers, pastas, etc.), these trends have become familiar to many.

4. UBIQUITY Ubiquity-stage trends are found everywhere—these trends have reached maturity and can be found across all sectors of the food industry. Though often diluted by this point, their inception-stage roots are still recognizable.

1. Grana Padano

2. Stilton

1. Camembert

2. Mascarpone

1. Gorgonzola

2. Brie

1. Parmesan

3. Délice De Bourgogne 4. Époisses

3. Burrata 4. Roquefort

5. Raclette

3. Asiago

4. Romano

2. Blue Cheese 3. Gouda

BURRATA

BRIE

Cafe & Bistro // ATLANTA, GA

On the Rise BY MALINA SEENARINE

Knead Expands and Retains

Knead Hospitality + Design is expanding its upscale concepts while focusing on employee wellness.

BEFORE CREATING Knead Hospitality + Design restaurant group, husband-and-founder duo Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin worked in the restaurant industry for practically their entire careers. In 2015, they decided to open their first restaurant, Succotash, a Southern concept, in National Harbor, Maryland. “You spend a lot of your career learning from other people, learning from other companies and other concepts and eventually, for those of us that have the entrepreneurial bug in common, just want to see if you can do it yourself instead of doing it for other people,” says Berry.

ESTABLISHED: 2015

COFOUNDERS: Jason Berry and Michael Reginbogin HQ: Washington D.C.

CATEGORY: Mexican, French, Tex Mex, Southern LOCATIONS: 21

Now just eight years later, the Washington, D.C-based restaurant group has 21 restaurants under its umbrella. Despite the pandemic, Knead was able to add nine new restaurants in 2021 and more than double its company size from 300 to over 700 employees. This year, Knead has already taken over food and beverage at a second Swingers location in Washington D.C. The international hospitality group has four fast-casual concepts: Kneadza Pizza, tuTaco, Lil’ Succotash, and Mah Ze Dahr.

The restaurant group is also working on expanding its upscale concepts, starting with the opening of its third

MI VIDA location—a Mexican eatery concept that Berry and Reginbogin created in collaboration with celebrity chef Roberto Santibañez. Plus, this summer, the restaurateurs will also open the second location of Bistro Du Jour, serving pastries and simple French dishes such as French onion soup and steak frites.

Prior to co-founding Knead, Berry was the CEO of Rosa Mexicano, a Mexican restaurant based in New York with locations across the East Coast. When Berry was on business trips, he would visit Rosa locations around Washington D.C. with his husband, and both of them fell in love with the city. “The more and more we talked about doing our own thing and opening our own restaurant, we thought that D.C. was a perfect mix of a big little city,” Berry says.

“With Maryland and Virginia and D.C. together, it’s a huge metropolitan area that’s very intertwined. We felt that the restaurant scene here was mature enough that we could be a part of something special, but not so mature like Paris or Chicago or New York, or L.A. that it would be hard to make a name for ourselves. We thought D.C. would be a really good city that we loved, and also one that would welcome us if we were successful. And it worked out,” he adds.

Knead is now looking to expand outside of Washington D.C., and is currently negotiating leases in Northern Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts. “Now that we’re established, we feel a little more comfortable growing in cities that are maybe a little bigger,” Berry explains. “You need that density, and you need that

KNEAD HOSPITALITY’S PORTFOLIO OF RESTAURANTS SPANS MEXICAN, SOUTHERN, FRENCH, AMERICAN, AND STEAK CONCEPTS.

volume in order to survive. So if we’re going to start growing, we’ve got to pick locations that are going to be in highvolume, high-tra c areas.”

Berry also adds that although not a big city, Knead is looking to expand in Virginia Beach due to its demand for upscale concepts. “We don’t have a goal in terms of city size; it really just has to make sense from a deal perspective as well as a demographic perspective. Can this neighborhood [and] can this city support this restaurant so that it’s successful? And that’s sort of the criteria and the standard.”

Having lived near the DuPont area of Washington D.C., Berry had always loved the location and envisioned opening a restaurant there some day. During the pandemic, a space became available and he opened Mi Casa, a Tex-Mex concept. With 10 concepts under the portfolio now, the restaurant group owners prefer to replicate an existing concept when it comes to growth, but Berry says he’s still open to the idea of opening new concepts if the location calls for it.

Last year, Knead also turned its attention to employee wellness and retention. Currently, the team is testing a fourday workweek for its salaried managers and chefs. By implementing this perk, employees who qualify are only required to be in their restaurant for four days a week, and any work they have left over

can be done remotely.

Along with a shorter work week, Knead is implementing a reimbursement program for their employees called Life + Style. e system consists of categories that Berry and Reginbogin believe are bene cial for a balanced lifestyle, including going to the gym, purchasing clothing, dry cleaning, dining at other restaurants, and entertainment like concerts and going to the movie theater. Berry describes it as a “use it or lose it” system, meaning that the amount of money for reimbursement can only be used for the items in that speci c category. Employees receive bene ts based on position and length of employment.

“Hopefully if people use those things and have a little bit more fun and balance outside of their work life, then they’re happier at work,” Berry says. About 100 employees at Knead qualify for these bene ts so far.

When asked what it’s like to work with his husband of 25 years, Berry says he

wishes he had drama to share. To his surprise, they have been successful in creating their business and he says it’s due to their shared interests. Due to their different strengths in the industry, Berry mostly deals with the finances, while Reginbogin focuses on design and aesthetics. at means their conversations are never dull, Berry notes, adding that they respect each other’s responsibilities and come together to make big decisions about Knead. Berry also admits that sometimes it’s hard to draw the line between their work life and personal life, and believes that his success with his partner is not the rule and wouldn’t want to lead anyone astray by recommending it.

“We really live and breathe the restaurant business, so the fact that we’re both running this company together means we have a lot in common,” Berry adds.

“We have a lot to talk about.”

“The more and more we talked about doing our own thing and opening our own restaurant, we thought that D.C. was a perfect mix of a big little city.”

MULTI-CONCEPT KNEAD HOSPITALITY DESIGNS RESTAURANTS AND PARTNERS WITH WELL-KNOWN CHEFS, WHO ALL HAVE EQUITY IN THEIR BUSINESSES.

BY MALINA SEENARINE

Hawaii’s Eco-Eatery

Chef Peter Merriman is creating tasty, sustainable dishes at Merriman’s Waimea by connecting with Hawaiian farmers while becoming the first carbon-neutral restaurant in the state.

WHEN PETER MERRIMAN first arrived in Hawaii in 1983 to work as a chef in a hotel restaurant, he quickly noticed the majority of food offered in the community was made up of continental cuisine. He hoped to open a restaurant that was more reflective of Hawaiian culture and use ingredients grown locally in his dishes, so in 1988, he opened Merriman’s Waimea, an inventive restaurant served in a simple, yet elegant moutainside setting.

A couple years later, Merriman helped launch the Hawaii Regional Cuisine movement with other chefs to make Hawaii a culinary destination. By building relationships with local farmers, the chefs were able to use the resources of Hawaii to create dishes that were reflective of the island, such as Merriman’s Hirabara Farm Earth Grown Lettuce Salad, which uses vegetables grown from its namesake.

Now 30 years after he first stepped foot in Hawaii, Merriman’s Waimea is Hawaii’s first carbon-neutral restaurant, and 90 percent of the ingredients used on the menu are obtained using sustainable practices. By continuously implementing these sustainability practices

and introducing new ones, the restaurant has been able to reduce its carbon footprint and has plans to bring these practices to its other Merriman’s locations in Kauai, Maui, and Oahu.

What sparked your interest in creating a restaurant that was reflective of local Hawaiian cuisine?

It was just a desire to do food in a new way. I was a cook at various places in North America and Europe, then I was just kind of traveling around cooking in

different places. So when I got offered a job in Hawaii, I was like, sure, Hawaii sounds nice. When I got here, I discovered the food wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it would be because it was still a plantation economy. At that time, it was mostly sugar and pineapple, and cattle that were exported from Hawaii, and so not much was grown for local consumption. I was disappointed in the lack of fresh food, but I was like, wait a minute, and I started pursuing locally grown products—not so much to be regional, but I just wanted the best flavors and I knew that fresh was best, right? I just want great-tasting food. In pursuit of great taste, I ended up stumbling upon the whole regional sustainability concept.

HAWAII

MERRIMAN’S FARM-TO-TABLE MENU IS 90% LOCALLY SOURCED AND SHOWCASES HAWAII’S FRESH SEAFOOD AND PRODUCE.

CHEF PETER MERRIMAN

Behind the Scenes

gonna save human life on the planet. So in that part, I just want to do my part. But in terms of the industry, I love our industry and I think it’s a great part of our culture. Going out to eat at restaurants is central to American culture and I want to help perpetuate that in the future. The more we can be sustainable and the more we can do to have a zero carbon input, the more likely we’ll be able to continue as an industry and move forward.

How has the on-site garden at Merriman’s influenced the menu at the restaurant?

What sustainable practices did Merriman’s Waimea implement to reach carbon neutrality in 2022?

The first thing we had to do was measure our carbon footprint, and just that was really difficult. We worked with GreenPlaces (an organization that provides tools to businesses to track its climate compliance) to get that accomplished. That was probably the biggest part of it. We had a lot of practices already in place, such as solar energy. We recycle almost everything; even our food waste goes to pig farmers. We don’t use plastic in our to-go containers or anything like that. So it was just all across the board everywhere we could find the savings and pos-

sibly be sustainable. Then we had to measure it, and we still had to buy offsets to get to zero. (By working with GreenPlaces, Merriman’s was able to offset 516 metric tons of carbon by working on the Klawock Heenya Forestry Project in Alaska and the Pacajai REDD+ Rainforest Project in Northern Brazil. This year, Merriman is also looking to get involved in offset projects closer to Hawaii.)

Why is sustainability important to you, and why did you decide to implement sustainable practices in your restaurants?

It seems pretty obvious nowadays that everybody has to do something if we’re

For our mocktail and cocktail program, Jim Lunchick, our beverage specialist, will see what herbs are coming out of the garden, or if there’s a little bit of fruit out there. They’re usually exotic fruits like Calamansi (a citrus hybrid fruit made by combining a tangerine and a kumquat) or some type of lime. We’ll design a drink according to what’s coming out of our garden at that time. One that’s been really popular and is almost always available is “She’s So Manhattan,” which is made with shiso and the drink is “she is so.” So it’s a pun but it’s a great drink. But that’s what he does with everything. And that’s kind of how we do it. We decide what to cook by what’s available in the market rather than trying to find what you want to cook. As far as the food menu, since it’s more of an herb garden we use other farmers to get our plate items.

What would you say to restaurant operators who want to make their businesses more sustainable?

I really hope more and more people in the industry can get involved and see what they can figure out. The more we learn from each other, the synergy will help drive it forward and make the restaurant industry as a whole carbon zero. That’s when we will have accomplished our goal.

MERRIMAN’S HAWAII

MERRIMAN WAS ABLE TO LIMIT THE RESTAURANT’S METHANE EMISSION LEVELS BY 85 PERCENT BY FEEDING HIS GOATS A SPECIAL TYPE OF SEAWEED.

START ME UP

YOUR STORIES OF OPENING A NEW RESTAURANT, OVERCOMING OBSTACLES, AND BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.

Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ

Five of Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ restaurants in South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia are permanently shifting from counter service to full-serve casual dining. The new service format will provide more opportunities for team members to connect with guests and personalize their experiences, and ultimately “fulfill that meaning of Southern hospitality,” says Rodney Scott. FSR editor Callie Evergreen caught up with the James Beard Award-winning pitmaster to find out why he believes an elevated service model will give guests an experience that matches the “love, tradition, and technique we put into our food,” and what it will take to make the transition.

GUESTS LINGER LONGER

When you think of barbecue, you think of sitting down and lingering a while with friends and family while enjoying great food. is is the best way to serve guests with our food. We want people to feel catered to and feel like it’s a more complete experience. With my business partner Nick Pihaki’s past experience and with me loving the element of catering to guests, it just worked. Right now, we plan to transition all of our restaurants to full service in the near future, with the exception of our original store in Charleston.

TRANSITION PERIOD

e experience of shifting to full-service has just been so much more personal for the team—they love the element of catering to the guests instead

of just bringing food to the table. We brought in a greeter at the door and another bartender, but the majority of the shift relied on training our existing sta . We had to get everyone adapted to the full-service model to make this transition work. We spent a lot of time training our servers with the basics, like which tables they are serving, how to take payments from the table, how to make sure guests that come through the back are seated at a table close to them, et cetera.

In addition to training, we also changed uniforms—we used to require T-shirts, jeans, and short aprons around the waist, but now the uniform is dark jeans with a bib apron, which provides more of a cleaner look. We thought that elevated service called for a more elevated look / uniform.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Guests can now also dine at the to-go counter, and hand-held devices allow servers to take orders at the table and collect payments. While there has been training investment and uniform investment up front, the return on investment (roi) should be high; people appreciate being catered to, so the ROI will be driven by our guests who will go to our restaurants and have their expectations fully exceeded from what you typically expect at a barbecue restaurant.

TRUE HOSPITALITY CULTURE

It all came down to the type of experience we wanted our guests to have, so we wanted to go back to the true culture of hospitality and provide guests with a more personalized experience.

ANGIE MOSIER

RODNEY SCOTT’S WHOLE HOG BBQ / ANGIE MOSIER (2)

Restaurant Equipment & Technology

Old wisdom has noted that the restaurant industry was slow to adapt to certain technologies. The digitization of, well, everything was a slow and steady process playing out during the 2000s and 2010s. New equipment, technology, and digital solutions were rolled out fast and furious, all with the aim of helping restaurants become more efficient.

How Quick-Service Restaurants Can Elevate the Self-Ordering Experience

Today’s convenience-driven culture is propelling significant revenue for interactive kiosks. It is an industry expected to nearly double to $45 billion worldwide by 2028, according to Statista.

Customers are embracing self-service technology and the benefits of a faster, easier journey. Two out of every three of them prefer having a frictionless, self-service dining option. It’s easier and, in an era of an ongoing pandemic, it’s safer.

Not only that, there is real, measurable business value in kiosks and self-service: Restaurants witness a 30 percent increase in average check size when creating a frictionless order option. It’s why restaurants Acrelec works with—from McDonald’s to KFC to Dunkin’ and Burger King—choose to accelerate their business through selfservice technologies.

Acrelec’s deep knowledge of the quick-service and fast-casual industry has allowed it to evolve its expertise to the next level and provide leading-edge kiosk solutions. The company’s fully customizable technological advances, wide range of kiosks, and global support infrastructure make the difference and are why global brands have given Acrelec their trust.

Specifically, here are three ways restaurants can up their game with self-service ordering and help drive growth.

1. SEAMLESS POS INTEGRATION

With Acrelec’s cloud-based deployment tool, restaurants can deploy apps for integration with all major POS providers. They enable hardware and software for both Acrelec and third-party applications and effortlessly manage device fleets remotely with the power of a cloud-based deployment tool called the ACRELEC Transformation Platform ( atp). Acrelec monitors hardware,

peripherals, and software operations so restaurants receive alerts even before they realize there’s an issue.

2. PERSONALIZED DIGITAL ORDERING

Creating a personalized brand-specific digital ordering solution is a great way to build customer loyalty, increase average check size, and reduce order time. Acrelec’s Product Recommendation Engine harnesses AI to drive growth and better performance with personalized product recommendations. The flexible digital ordering engine enables AB-tested content strategies and UI analytics.

3. TABLE SERVICE

Acrelec uses wireless Bluetooth technology to help restaurant crews easily locate and serve customers when their orders are ready. It reduces downtime and increases customer loyalty. With a simple wireless installation, the fully customizable Acrelec Table Service solution can be quickly put to use to meet the unique needs of a restaurant—all with minimal crew training.

Once online, the system uses complex algorithms fine-tuned over thousands of live implementations to easily find guests, whether they are waiting outdoors or inside. The crew member can then click on the highlighted number on the behind-thescenes monitors to visualize and serve the customer a frictionless experience. Advanced table service technology Acrelec provides reduces customer wait time by 20 seconds per order.

As a one-stop solution, Acrelec makes it easy from start to finish to restaurants looking for technology suites that offer a seamless, efficient self-service experience. Instead of working with multiple suppliers, which can cost time and money, Acrelec is the single source for customers, providing the hardware, software, and service to assist throughout the entire journey. RET

Restaurants witness a 30 percent increase in average check size when creating a frictionless order option.

Designed for MORE

MORE revenue. MORE upsell. MORE expertise.

Bring operational efficiencies to your restaurant and elevate your self-ordering experience with ACRELEC’s kiosk solutions, equipped with Glory Cash Payment Systems. The industry leader with over 80,000 installations worldwide, ACRELEC’s innovative technology and personalized AI-driven ordering optimizes your customer journey while increasing the average check by up to 30% more

acrelec.com/kiosk | marketing.KIOSK@acrelec.com

Copyright 2021 Acrelec. All rights reserved.

Why Digital Orders Need a Digital Chain of Custody

End-to-end data improves efficiency, ensures better customer experiences.

her name, and grabs it. When she gets home, she realizes she grabbed a bag for another Kristen. She doesn’t have time to go back, so she eats the other order, although it’s not what she wanted.

When the other Kristen arrives, she can’t find her order. She gets an employee’s attention and asks why her order isn’t there. The manager is called over, and five minutes later he apologizes and hands her a freshly made order.

Both Kristens had bad experiences, but the manager has no idea what actually happened. Was it an honest mistake or theft? Did a thirdparty delivery driver take it? Without data to answer those questions, the restaurant will continue to face unhappy customers, expensive remakes, higher food costs, and lost productivity for employees. These pickup problems often happen three or four times a day, costing operators hundreds of dollars a week.

Smart food lockers provide answers with data

Digital

ordering is here

to

stay. Customers love the speed, convenience, and control it gives them, and when it’s a good experience, they come back often.

Of course, restaurants have invested heavily to improve the digital order journey. They’ve built efficient make lines supported by tech stacks that optimize employee efficiency and provide data for measurement and optimization.

However, the moment a digital order is placed on a pickup shelf, efficiency ends, and the restaurant loses all visibility of that order. It can be picked up by the wrong customer, left sitting for hours, or stolen.

Orders gone wrong, with no clues or proof

Most order pickup problems are accidental. For instance, a customer named Kristen comes to the pickup shelf, sees a bag with

There’s an easy fix. By replacing their pickup shelves with OrderHQ Smart Food Lockers, restaurants eliminate unauthorized order pickups and gain data for order pickup that creates a digital chain of custody for each order. Now they know when the order was placed in the locker, how long it waited there, who picked it up, and at what time.

Employees increase throughput and unauthorized pickups are eliminated, saving hundreds of dollars a week in remakes and chargebacks.

Customers now know pickup will be fast and reliable, so they choose to order from the brand’s app, reducing delivery service provider fees for the operator.

The brand also gets new accountability with an end-to-end digital chain of custody for every order at every store in its portfolio. They can use this to verify delivery service times and negotiate rates based on data, not guesswork.

Find out how OrderHQ Smart Food Lockers complete the tech stack and ensure every customer experience is a great one. RET

To learn more, visit apexorderpickup.com.

Why Restaurants are Switching to Hybrid Drive-Thru Menuboards

They’re the perfect tool for the post-pandemic landscape.

Many Americans and business owners are experiencing inflation due to the pandemic and other external factors. The unpredictability of the cost of goods has driven a series of menu changes across the restaurant industry, forcing brands to consider the hardware that has traditionally displayed pricing.

One effective solution for these challenges is implementing hybrid menuboards. This type of board combines digital and static displays, offering more customizable options for managing content across multiple locations.

Hybrid menuboards provide many advantages for restaurant owners during times of uncertainty. First, they offer the flexibility to quickly change even the most minor of details on a menuboard Secondly, for those brands managing multiple locations, content management systems can simultaneously update multiple digital menuboards at once without any additional labor costs. For example, if a product price increases due to inflation or a seasonal special-needs promotion, digital portions of the board can be changed quickly and easily.

Additionally, hybrid menuboards provide an aesthetically pleasing display that attracts customers while allowing new items or specials to be added without taking up additional space. Restaurant owners also control how they display their products and services when using hybrid menuboards.

Digital components can include custom visuals such as videos or graphics and text descriptions to highlight features or

benefits of certain menu items. By having more control over how items are presented on their boards, restaurants can ensure that their menus accurately reflect their brand identity while drawing attention to various offerings. They also allow restaurant owners to create different designs for each location to have a unique look that resonates with customers in each area.

The transition to hybrid menuboards may seem intimidating to some operators, especially those who worry about durability and weather compatibility. However, partnering with the right provider can equate to weather-tempered options as reliable as traditional, static menuboards.

Equipped with LED screens engineered to withstand extreme temperatures, these monitors can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week without concerns of damage or malfunctions—even in the harshest conditions. This helps reduce maintenance costs and largely eliminates the need for costly repairs originating from extreme environmental exposure.

Hybrid menuboards are effective tools for restaurant owners as they work through periods of inflation by providing flexible and customizable solutions for updating prices and displays across multiple locations quickly and easily. As more restaurants turn toward technology-driven solutions, it’s clear that hybrid systems will play a bigger role in the industry moving forward so that businesses not only remain competitive, but also endure the financial challenges posed by unpredictable external causes. RET

To learn more, visit www.dsasignage.com.

2023 Restaurant Mantra: Operational Efficiency

Tankless water heaters can reduce energy use by 40 percent while saving space.

From the pandemic to labor shortages, inflationary input prices, and a potential recession, it seems that the restaurant industry is under constant attack. While riding the storm out is the only solution for most of these issues, some restauranteurs are finding that operational efficiency is one area they can control and leverage to their advantage.

An often-overlooked cost in the restaurant industry is the inefficiency of standard tank-type water heaters. A mostly unchanged technology over the past half century, these units are not only inefficient from an operational viewpoint, but they also demand valuable floor space and have a relatively short lifespan. Imagine if you could repurpose half the space taken by your current water heaters while saving more than 40 percent of your present energy costs—all without losing any of the hot water capacity of your existing system. These are the benefits experienced by many restaurant systems that specify Intellihot as a preferred vendor.

Intellihot, a leading innovator in the commercial tankless water heater industry, designs and builds equipment specifically for the high demands of restaurants and commercial applications. The company’s water heaters are engineered for a quick “drop-in” replacement of existing systems. Moreover, through an innovative program, Intellihot will guarantee the sizing of its units so they can meet the demands of restaurants. Otherwise, it will upsize the water heater at no additional cost. In fact, five different sizing calculators are provided on the company’s website to assist in selecting

among its 12 heater sizes.

Typically, restaurants size a tanked unit for their needs and then install a duplicate tanked unit as back-up. Intellihot eliminates this need by engineering redundant heat engines within their water heaters. So, if a heat engine has to be taken offline for maintenance, other engines will seamlessly make up the needed capacity with no need for the cost, space, and maintenance of a second system.

Finally, if future-proofing a business with a tankless electric water heater is important to a restaurant, Intellihot released the world’s first tankless heat pump water heater for commercial use. Called the Electron series, this innovative product absorbs energy from ambient air to heat water. For restaurants that install the Electron in or near their kitchen, this can have an additional space-cooling benefit.

The Electron Series presents a compact, tankless option that can meet compliance-related challenges of recent efforts in banning natural gas in commercial buildings. These units can also be monitored remotely over a cellular network to monitor their life and schedule maintenance in advance to avoid downtime. They offer built-in factory monitoring capabilities, which use AI to consume electricity in off-peak hours and save energy costs. They can also make use of solar power using optional attachments. RET

To learn more, visit intellihot.com.

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How Restaurants Can Reap Savings in an Uncertain Market

Automating cash management leads to improved profitability.

As consumers have pulled back on restaurant spending and experts continue to warn of a recession later this year, restaurants must look for ways to tighten operations to help tide them over until markets settle.

One often overlooked process in the search for cost and labor savings is cash management. Restaurant operators frequently underestimate the time and labor commitment they’re making to cash handling. From counting and recounting to depositing, reconciling, and delivering cash to the bank, it adds up quickly.

It may be time for restaurant operators to re-evaluate how they manage cash handling, says Lenny Evansek, senior vice president of SafePoint business development at Loomis.

“On-site store observations comparing what is actually happening in the restaurant versus the standard operating procedure, which can reveal many inefficiencies which can be corrected by implementing an automated and standard way of handling and depositing cash,” Evansek says.

In fact, manual cash management can gobble up more resources than necessary because manual cash counting can lead to increased cash discrepancies, shortages, and errors. Additionally, when cash is openly handled and vulnerable, there is increased security risk. That’s because cash is inherently untraceable, leading to higher internal theft risk, and creating a target for external robbery or burglary, potentially putting customers and employees in harm’s way. Finally, since employees need to arrive early and stay late for manual cash handling tasks, labor costs increase. In addition, supervisors must take time away from other revenue-generating responsibilities to oversee cash handling and visit the bank if needed.

Instead, when a restaurant switches to automation technology and begins a new cash handling process, they reduce the risks, costs, and errors considerably.

“Operators that choose an automated way to handle and deposit cash can count on time and money savings from eliminating or reducing bank trips, deposit prep, drawer reconciliation, and benefits within corporate treasury, accounting, and loss prevention,” Evansek says.

That can add up to a significant portion of operating expenses over time. In fact, a case study conducted by Loomis found that restaurants can save more than 30 hours per month in labor and another $50–$100 in bank depository and change order fees by automating cash management.

So, even as inflation cools and consumer spending bounces back, labor costs and inefficiencies will likely remain ongoing challenges to profitability. A pro-active restaurant operator can build capacity for operational savings by eliminating manual cash handling and installing smart safe and cash recycling solutions instead.

To learn more and download Loomis’s Ultimate Guide to Restaurant Cash Handling, visit loomis.us/restaurant-guide. RET

To learn more, visit loomis.us/restaurant-guide.

cash handling

Cash handling can be a huge time and labor commitment – something restaurant operators don’t have enough of. SafePoint is comprised of smart safe technology, change order management, armored transportation, and our customer reporting platform, and is designed to make your in-store cash handling quick and easy. Leave it to the pros!

download the Ultimate guide for restaurant Cash Handling

Everything you need to know to increase efficiency, mitigate risk, and reduce costs associated with in-store cash handling.

Looking to Improve Kitchen Operations? Start With Labeling

Save time, reduce waste, and improve efficiency with NCCO’s DateCodeGenie®.

The restaurant industry is a fast paced, alwaysmoving, ever-changing piece of the American economy. It takes hard work and dedication to survive, let alone thrive as a restaurant in 2023. While the industry is a volatile one, however, it is also incredibly rewarding – serving people the food they love, and creating something that becomes a part of their daily lives.

The endless question remains: How can a restaurant reach those rewards quickly and efficiently?

One answer: Labels.

Yes, labels. It might not be the answer many people expect, but accurate and efficient labeling saves time and money while streamlining day-to-day and inventory operations so everyone – from the cashiers to the cooks to the managers on the floor – can focus on the things that matter most.

NCCO’s DateCodeGenie is built to do exactly that. Here’s how:

The DateCodeGenie automated labeling system gives restaurants the freedom and flexibility to create labels for everything they need. It prints accurate date and MRD (Made, Ready, Discard) labels, prep ingredients, nutrition information, and consistent, dynamic branding for growing restaurant chains. This makes fulfilling mobile, pickup, and delivery orders that have become increasingly common in a post-Covid restaurant landscape easy and efficient as well.

NCCO has been providing foodservice solutions for over 100 years. The DateCodeGenie is just the latest, innovative technology designed to help restaurants reach their full potential. Imagine a world where restaurants quickly and efficiently label food prep items, to-go orders and more while avoiding pitfalls like incorrect nutrition or allergen information, inaccurate sell-by dates or inventory stock, and other labeling headaches.

Accurate labeling also helps reduce food waste. With inflation squeezing every penny out of food budgets, it is increasingly important to ensure nothing ends up in the trash unnecessarily. Use-by labels printed by DateCodeGenie improve organization and help streamline inventory operations, so restaurants (and inspectors) never have to worry or wonder whether an item is fit to sell.

Whether a kitchen needs a stable device encased in stainless steel or a nimble device that can easily be moved, the DateCodeGenie enterprise of solutions offers several models to suit any kitchen setup and circumstance.

Plus – the DateCodeGenie’s centralized cloud-based software portal allows restaurants to modify existing templates or design from scratch with custom fonts, logos, and branding. The software also allows for flexibility within label design, customizing the look and feel of the brand based on specific location.

The best part: The cloud-based portal allows managers to control menu and label operations across multiple locations, creating, standardizing, and customizing labels from anywhere in the world. The DateCodeGenie’s intuitive software integrates seamlessly with existing APIs, and the drag-and-drop label builder makes the design process a breeze, with personalized startup training and continued tech support to help every step of the way. RET

Why Manual Inventory Counts Are a Thing of the Past

Fast and accurate mobile AI computer vision counts improve efficiency while unlocking supply chain automation.

As a bustling quick-service restaurant hummed with activity from the dinner rush, Sarah, a dedicated worker, was summoned to the backroom for the daily inventory count. Minutes ticked by as she painstakingly tallied items equipped with only a pencil and checklist. She occasionally returned to the front to help customers. Exhausted, Sarah’s mind wandered, double counting and missing items on her list.

After making her way through the entire back-of-house and ensuring to count the make-line, she turned her attention to enter the data into the restaurant’s tracking system. Her shift was ending and counts for ordering were due in just five minutes. There wasn’t time to check for mistakes.

This event plays out across restaurants on a daily basis.

In the fast-paced world of foodservice, managing inventory is a constant challenge. Whether operators are counting inventory for department counts, order placement, make-line checks, prep-

The most obvious is that counts are labor intensive. Often times these counts are performed by high value employees like a shift supervisor. Like Sarah, these resources should be focused on managing teams or engaging with guests. Instead, they’re in the backroom counting inventory.

Counts are also prone to inaccuracies that drive up food costs. By overordering products, operators open themselves to increasing food waste. Worse yet, not ordering enough leads to out-ofstocks and lost sales. Add to this the fact that inventory is the least-like job by employees, causing operators to reduce the frequency of counts.

Recognizing these pain points, Nomad Go, the leader in foodservice AI and computer vision, developed an innovative solution that promises to transform inventory management. Its platform, METAshelf, combines computer vision with augmented reality to automate inventory counts with a scalable hand-held solution.

Using METAshelf is like stepping into a futuristic world where inventory management is fast, accurate, and fun. Instead of manual data input, users quickly scan inventory using a device and instantly see data overlaid on top of the real world as they walk their store. This dramatically reduces the time and effort to complete an inventory job, but also delivers nearly perfect accuracy, which is then passed directly to an IMS or ordering system.

The technology is built to go anywhere. “Foodservice back-of-house environments are notoriously tight and crowded,” says Nomad Go’s CEO, David Greschler. “Whether inventory is stored on shelves in a dark corner or in temperature-controlled refrigerator or walk-in, Nomad Go’s AI can recognize, scan, and capture counts with nothing more than a commodity handheld device.”

list building, or confirming distributor deliveries, the traditional method of counting items is riddled with pain points and operational inefficiencies.

METAshelf doesn’t stop with counts; it empowers operators with a suite of features that drive efficiency and optimize operations. With real-time data, restaurant brands gain unparalleled visibility into their supply chain. This visibility unlocks upstream value, enabling predictive forecasts, automated ordering, and just-intime inventory. RET

Ditch the barcode scanner.

Automate your inventory counts.

Nomad Go’s METAshelf™ combines computer vision and augmented reality to automate stock counts in any foodservice environment, unlocking full supply chain automation. Power automated ordering, drive operational efficiencies and enhance the customer experience.

Computer vision enables st & accurate counts

10X Faster inventory counts

99% Count accuracy

$0 Fixed hardware & installation costs

Inventory management reimagined

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Restaurant Tech: Why Operators Need a Full- Service Technology Partner

The right partner keeps the focus on the customer experience, not technical difficulties.

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BY R.G. COLLINS

operations are significantly impacted. Busy managers today do not have the time to diagnose and troubleshoot systems. To alleviate this burden, full-service solutions providers can be a single point of contact. In addition to providing service and repairs, the right partner can offer complete restaurant systems solutions, including proper installation and staff training. Based in Buffalo Grove, Il, R.F. Technologies is such a full-service partner, allowing the staff to focus on providing quality food and operate efficiently.

Scalability and flexibility are key aspects when evaluating available solutions. R.F. Technologies’ CEO Bob Noorian explains, “Technology needs vary over time, so operators need to predict the unpredictable. This means investing in flexible solutions to expand capacity while incorporating new features and scalable systems which communicate not only with existing systems, but also the next-generation as the market evolves. A full-service partner is not only aware of available technologies, it helps shape the future like we do with our Apex drive-thru headset system.”

The use of technology in restaurants has evolved far beyond point-of-sale, drive-thru communications, and kitchen displays. IT professionals are now responsible for managing a variety of systems, including digital menuboards, drive-thru timers, and surveillance systems. During the pandemic, self-order tools such as kiosks and mobile order apps became essential. Looking ahead, artificial intelligence and geo-notifications for mobile orders are poised to become the next focus in the effort to increase efficiency. Managing all these systems can be overwhelming. Having the right technology partner can lead to a competitive advantage, keeping restaurants’ focus on the customer.

IT professionals are not only responsible for maintaining the hardware, but also managing software upgrades, subscription services, and compatibility. When a system fails during a busy period,

Commonly, restaurant operators think about solving one specific problem when upgrading or replacing a piece of restaurant technology. The better practice is to think holistically about the restaurant and how the specific piece of tech fits into the overall environment. Here, too, is where the right partner adds value. An example is data traveling between systems, from the POS and the menuboard, to video analytics of a transaction and into subsequent reporting. This interoperability is essential to a comprehensive awareness of restaurant performance. It influences the customer experience and, ultimately, profitability. If data is siloed within disparate systems the complete understanding is often unattainable. A full-service technology partner knows how systems communicate and knows how to extract maximum value from the investment.

Technology is now an integral part of quick-service restaurants, and IT professionals have an essential role in managing various systems. The right partner helps ease the burden of maintaining systems and offers comprehensive solutions to keep restaurants running smoothly. RFT President Joseph Gierut concludes, “Technology evolves rapidly so restaurants need a trusted partner vetting available tools and recommending solutions providing the greatest value to the restaurant operator while minimizing risk and expenditures.” RET

How a 20-Unit Franchisee Saved $8,000 Per Store

Facing rising food and labor costs, franchisees are still expected to pay out the same royalties, marketing fees, and other fixed expenses. For these reasons, franchisees—and operators in general— are more focused than ever on finding places where top-line expenditures can be slashed.

One 20-unit franchisee group from a major restaurant chain—which wished to remain anonymous—recently installed an oil management system, Restaurant Technologies Total Oil Management solution, that is saving the brand $8,000 per year, per store in insurance expenses, reducing premiums by more than 20 percent from $769,447 to $612,838.

The system takes much or all of the risk out of handling cooking oil, which, according to a Restaurant Technologies study conducted by a major insurance provider, is responsible for approximately 60 percent of worker compensation claims in the quick-service space. For the franchisee group in question, installing the solution had become necessary. It wasn’t just about saving money—the Experience MOD stemming from worker compensation claims had increased from 1.32 to 1.62. The group knew it had to make a change, so leaders reached out to Restaurant Technologies.

Total Oil Management automates the entire process of handling cooking oil. Restaurant Technologies installs two oil tanks in the back of the restaurant, one for fresh oil and the other for waste oil. The fresh oil feeds directly into deep fryers at the push of a button, traveling through a secure tube to get there. When cooking oil is no longer fresh enough to create the quality fried foods operators and diners expect and exports the oil to the waste tank, a button is pressed, and the oil is seamlessly changed out. Notably, team members never have to lift large jugs of oil or handle oil that

is hot and could cause burns.

“Safety is the number one reason to install Total Oil Management,” says David Eha, director of national accounts at Restaurant Technologies. “It’s just better and safer for you and your people. The fact that it will also help you save money—I mean, 20 percent on insurance goes right to the bottom line and is the cherry on top.”

Eha says the solution is perfect for any restaurant brand of any size that has deep fryers. The company is approved to sell into the stores of franchisees who own some of the top brands in the industry: McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC to name just a few. On top of saving on insurance costs, franchisee groups and other restaurant groups appreciate the fact that Total Oil Management has become an employee retention tool. In other words, not only does it keep employees safer, but it keeps them happier, too. With the backdrop of today’s labor climate, that’s no small thing. RET

To learn more, visit RTI-Inc.com.

With top-line costs rising, practical cost-cutting measures are more pivotal than ever.

REDUCE RISKS, REDUCE PREMIUMS, SAVE MONEY.

LEARN MORE: WWW.RTI-INC.COM/INSURANCE-SAVINGS

Risk is part of any business, especially prevalent in the foodservice industry. Restaurant Technologies’ solutions have reduced risk for our customers by simplifying the most dangerous jobs in commercial kitchens for nearly 25 years. From automating cooking oil handling to keeping your hood and flue protected from hazardous grease buildup, we’ve got you covered. Meanwhile, your employees stay safe, your worker’s comp and fire risk is reduced, and your insurance carrier stays happy.

Save up to 15% on your insurance premiums with Restaurant Technologies solutions.

Leveraging Automation for Mixed SKU Case Palletizing and Route Sequencing

How restaurants can get the right mix of products on every pallet.

Given the ever-increasing array of brands and beverage flavors that cater to consumer preferences today, getting the right product mix to the customer at the right time is getting more and more difficult. This is especially true in manual applications that were originally set up to handle the more traditional fulfillment types, like full pallet and layer quantities. This is where automating an expensive process such as building a mixed SKU order pallet and leveraging a warehouse management software (wms) or warehouse control system (wcs) solution to pull the right product and build the right pallet in the right order comes into play. This saves on labor, operational costs, and helps to boost bottomline profits.

For distribution of beverages, a pallet full of soda can easily be picked and shipped. While this may be true for one or two brands or flavors, this certainly isn’t the case when adding in water, raspberry lemonade, Frappuccinos, and more. Things quickly start to go awry when figuring out the correct mix and sequencing

for these complex orders. This is when using automation to help build the perfect pallet for each storefront makes sense. Since automation saves on labor and eliminates picking errors, it will also increase profits, too.

An automated case picking system can be integrated with a high-bay warehouse system or can be leveraged as a complete standalone solution. Cases of each SKU are de-palletized and loaded into a robotic shuttle system. The software knows which product is needed for the customer order and will retrieve cases from the shuttle system for palletizing. Each case is then picked and palletized robotically. It does this case by case and uses a sophisticated palletization software to build the perfect pallet. It only must know the dimensions, weights, and whether, when, or where to place the exact products on the pallet. It can even handle sensitive products such as glass bottles. Product is also optimized to get the most on each pallet to increase the cube utilization within a trailer. This intelligent solution enables a faster way to build pallets, but it also enables a route sequencing order for distribution.

For distribution routes that are mapped out via distance, traffic routes, and more, the software understands which pallet should be built first so that it is loaded onto the truck for distribution first, second, last, and so on. This helps speed up distribution delivery. The same can also work with any chilled or frozen goods as well depending on the type of truck. RET

Since automation saves on labor and eliminates picking errors, it will also increase profits, too.

Restaurant beverage product orders can be complex, but automation can help manage mixed-product pallets while increasing profits and reducing picking errors.

How Automation in the Coffee Space is Improving Both Operations and the Customer Experience

When the pandemic hit, beverage sales plummeted. With restaurants relying on offpremises sales, not all consumers were adding beverages to their orders the way they had done pre-pandemic. With more diners returning to restaurants in 2021 and 2022, beverage sales have returned for the most part—especially when restaurants offer something that isn’t easily made at home.

Still, operators face a considerable number of challenges in today’s environment, such as inflation and continued labor concerns. As consumers are increasingly turning to foodservice for specialty beverages, operators have bolstered their operations. By introducing automation into their coffee programs, restaurants are offering consumers consistent, top-quality coffee that would be challenging to make at home—all while improving speed of service and cleanliness.

Improving Operations: Speed of Service and Cleanliness

Speed of service has always been important to consumers, but during the past few years the stakes have risen—especially as operators see sustained traffic at the drive-thru window. According to the 2022 Drive Thru Report by Intouch Insight, “Technology and innovation have turned [quick-service] drive thrus into something hardly recognizable, and it has become the industry’s most innovative arena… Customers continue to prefer drive thrus when interacting with brands.”

The new Curtis Genesis Skyline was designed with operational efficiency in mind—especially applicable in the drive thru. This new machine brews fresh coffee from whole beans and is the first of its kind. The Curtis Genesis Skyline has the ability to automate coffee output based on demand. Maximum speed can

serve customers quickly and efficiently— allowing operators to serve the freshest coffee at top speeds. Not only can restaurants improve speed of service, but they also no longer have to worry about whether staff has cleaned the machine, thanks to fully automated cleaning daily via calendar programming.

Improving Customer Experience: Consistency and Top-quality

With growing competition when it comes to coffee, inconsistency from day-to-day can cause consumers to look around and grab their coffee elsewhere. One problem operators face is drinks are made differently from barista-to-barista, or staff forgets to make a new batch of coffee and ends up serving customers out of a stale batch.

When operators introduce automation, consistency is guaranteed whether equipment is set to staff-operated or self-serve configuration. Consumers appreciate knowing exactly what they will receive day-today: a top-quality coffee, ground fresh from whole beans. This type of quality and precision builds customer loyalty.

A Partner for Coffee Programs

While introducing automated coffee equipment will certainly improve a coffee program, it takes more than equipment to take coffee programs to the next level—it requires the right partner.

SEB Professional is three brands in one company—WMF, Schaerer, and Curtis. This allows SEB Professional to be a partner who has the resources and knowledge an operator needs to create a custom, on-demand coffee experience for their customers—no matter the size of an operation. RET

With the simple push of a button, operators can provide consistent, delicious coffee.

COMPLETE AUTOMATION OF YOUR COFFEE PROGRAM

With growing competition across foodservice, operators need new technologies that increase coffee quality and also eliminate operational pain points.

The first machine of its kind, the Curtis Genesis Skyline automates coffee output based on demand so restaurants serve the correct amount of coffee during every daypart.

Battling Labor Shortages and Rising Food Costs with Technology

Kitchens across the U.S. have experienced heightened food costs, labor shortages, and labor costs during 2022. So, what does this all mean for the back-of-house? Increased operational costs, lower customer satisfaction, and new challenges to be solved with by technology.

Food Cost Inflation

In a recent study conducted by the USDA, researchers found that the cost of food in April 2022 was 9.4 percent higher than the previous year. It’s predicted that the cost of food will increase at a higher rate than previous years. One way to combat this is by mitigating food waste.

Over 85 percent of food loss and food waste issues are caused by temperature and time. By using remote temperature sensors, operators can be notified of real-time temperature changes before any food spoils or becomes unusable. This is especially important with cold storage products, such as meat or dairy, where you have a maximum of two hours to remedy an “out-of-range” temperature before that food must be disposed of.

Kitchen staff can also digitize food temp taking by utilizing Bluetooth probes that automatically populate HACCP logs. Solutions like BOHA! Temp connect your iOS devices to industry trusted temp probes for process that eliminates pencil-whipping and illegible handwriting all in one step.

Labor Shortages

Labor shortages were an industry concern long before the pandemic. However, a whopping seven out of 10 food service operators reported difficulty meeting labor demands in a 2022 report released by the National Restaurant Association. Not only is it difficult for operators to find and hire new staff, it’s also difficult to train them efficiently and retain them indefinitely.

One of the ways that operators have had newfound success in training employees is by digitizing recipe cards, instructional videos, how-to sheets, and other important resources. By using cloudbased solutions like BOHA! Media, employees across the globe can instantly access important resources right in the kitchen when they need them most. And another bonus, this also eliminates pricey reprints of recipe cards any time they get damaged or a recipe changes. All changes can be made from the cloud and pushed to dozens of locations in a matter of minutes.

By using back-of-house technology, operators in the foodservice industry have seen a significant reduction in the time it takes for employees to complete necessary tasks. For example, in a case study by BOHA!, implementing back-of-house technology saved retailers three hours a week on task management by digitizing checklists. In addition, when using BOHA! Labeling to automate date code processes, operators saw an average of 4.8 hours saved per week per location. When employees are so hard to come by, every minute counts. RET

How technology is revolutionizing the back-of-house.

TAKE TASK MANAGEMENT OFF YOUR CLIPBOARD

Just one of many ways BOHA! digitizes your back-of-house.

Ditch the masking tape, paper, and pencils for a solution operators, franchisees, and BoH staff love. BOHA! automates and simplifies everything from labeling, to temping, compliance and HCAAP reports, checklists, employee training, and more:

• Slash labor costs

• Improve accountability

• Prevent unnecessary food waste

• Enhance Food Safety & Quality

Across ALL locations — from the cloud

www.transact-tech.com/qsr-mag

Maximizing Drive-Thru Traffic with Outdoor Digital Reader Boards

How to boost drive-thru efficiency and revenue.

Quick-service restaurants rely heavily on drive-thru traffic to generate revenue. According to a recent study, approximately 70 percent of quickservice sales come from drive-thru orders. For this reason, quick-service restaurants are constantly seeking ways to improve the drive-thru experience and increase guest traffic.

One of the most effective ways to do this is through the use of digital reader boards, which can display a variety of information to customers, including menu items, pricing, promotions, and directions. Many quick-service operators are familiar with plastic manual reader boards and find that upgrading to digital saves time and presents a modern, relevant image.

“Because they can be programmed to show real-time updates, digital reader boards are an effective way to promote new products, highlight daily specials, and call attention to products based on the time of day, weather conditions, inventory, and other factors,” says David Watson, Watchfire’s director of corporate programs.

Digital reader boards also are an effective way to increase visibility for drive-thru customers. These boards are often larger and brighter than traditional signage, making them easier to see and read from a distance.

The Taco Bell Defy, launched last year in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, offers an excellent demonstration of effective digital reader board implementation. As the franchise’s first twostory, drive-thru exclusive outlet, it aims to provide a two-minute or less drive-thru encounter for its patrons.

Equipped with four lanes, the eatery features large 2 feet x 5 feet high-definition digital reader boards manufactured from Watchfire, which aid in managing traffic for pre-orders, delivery drivers, and regular drive-thru visitors. The signage and architectural elements were designed and fabricated by Everbrite of Greenfield, Wisconsin.

Digital reader boards are so versatile, it may be difficult to know how to leverage them. Here are some best practices.

Make real-time updates on menu items: With a digital reader board, it’s easy to post last-minute messages to promote items, for instance, based on excess inventory or weather.

Promotion of new products and limited-time menu items: By incorporating photos, restaurants can effectively showcase their offerings, allowing customers to make informed purchasing decisions.

Increase revenue: By upselling meal combinations and encouraging impulse buys, restaurants can boost their revenue. Promote loyalty programs to keep customers coming back.

Improve the customer experience: By displaying wait times or estimated order completion, as well as drive-thru hours, restaurants improve transparency and allow customers to plan visits accordingly.

Provide directional signage: Reduce confusion and improve traffic flow by indicating where customers should enter, stop for ordering, pick up food, and exit.

Maintain consistent branding: Reinforce brand recognition and customer loyalty by incorporating elements, such as the restaurant’s logo, color scheme, and other branding elements.

Overall, effective quick-serivce drive-thru signage is critical to the success of the customer's drive-thru experience. Digital reader boards make messaging clear and easy to read, provide opportunities to drive revenue, and create a positive and memorable overall brand experience. RET

To learn more, visit watchfiresigns.com.

DIGITAL READER BOARDS. DRIVE TRAFFIC. INCREASE SALES.

Increase your QSR’s drive-thru traffic and boost sales by promoting new menu items, menu specials, and rewards program perks. Display eye-catching, dynamic brand-approved messages that uphold your QSR’s brand standards.

Maintain message flexibility with our Ignite OPx content management software. Ignite OPx allows users to program messages months in advance or make last-minute changes and streamline your sign messaging for one location or many.

Our reputation is built on your digital reader board looking and performing great, not just for one day but for its lifetime.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WATCHFIRESIGNS.COM OR CALL US AT 844-805-8880

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW DIGITAL READER BOARDS CAN DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR QSR LOCATION.

The End-to-End Solution that Will Increase Drive-Thru Velocity and Sales

The drive thru has long been the lifeblood of the quick-service industry, but the pandemic helped refocus the attention of consumers and operators alike on the importance of an efficient drive-thru operation. Anything that helps speed up transactions, increase order accuracy, and help brands create a better experience for their customers has mutual benefit to quick-service brands and their loyal followers.

Xenial (pronounced zee-nee-ul) is a single technology platform that offers “end-to-end, enterprise-ready restaurant solutions, customer engagement tools, and global reach,” says Tracy Gallimore, vice president of sales with Xenial.

“While others have been talking about the ‘drive-thru of the future,’ we’ve been building it,” Gallimore says. “Xenial Next-Gen Drive-Thru gives restaurants full visibility into their growing drive-thru channel, along with an integrated set of tools to drive sales. It’s all powered by our patent-pending Next-Gen Drive-Thru Controller, which can give brands a return on investment in as little as nine months.”

According to Gallimore, here’s how Xenial’s Next-Gen DriveThru Controller can help restaurants increase velocity and sales within a drive thru.

The system helps capture speed of service metrics in any facet of an operation’s drive thru with a timer system that is powered by cameras and artificial intelligence (ai). Xenial’s clients reduce drive-thru times by about 12 seconds or more when leveraging the company’s technology.

Additionally, brands can manage rising labor costs and address labor shortages with the system’s voice assistant ( “bot” ) -driven ordering and self-service kiosks, helping replace manual labor once done by employees.

Restaurants enjoy an increase in average check size using AI-driven automated upselling, along with bright, engaging displays that help connect the brand to its consumers. Xenial’s clients report a 2.5 percent boost in overall sales and 2 percent increase in both LTO and combomeal upsells.

The payment process can be simplified and sped up by using QR codes that help drive the customer to an online payment platform.

Xenial’s Next-Gen Drive-Thru Controller helps unite an ecosystem of products under its platform, including AI-enabled voice ordering, a recommendation engine, and camerabased timer, along with ports for drive-thru hardware, such as base station, mic, speaker, and OCU.

“With over 30 years of experience, Xenial has a direct presence in 62 countries, serving 51,000 locations and another 110,000 cloud merchants, including 20 of the top 50 quick-service brands in the U.S.,” Gallimore says. “Our namesake comes from the Greek word for hospitality and that’s a reference to our obsession to power your enterprise’s hospitality success. We would love to connect with your brand and help introduce our solution for the future of the drive thru.” RET

Operators report a return on investment in as little as nine months after installing this solution.

“While others have been talking about the ‘drive-thru of the future,’ we’ve been building it.”

Our Bavarian Pretzel Bites are on track to be one of the most profitable products for menus everywhere. A delightful taste, these bites have the versatility to fit on any menu and be served in every daypart. Oh, and they’re good at making customers smile.