Tag Archives: Food

May 26, 2017 · 12:23 pm

It’s Time For Brunch!

It’s Foodie Friday and the topic this week is brunch. You might not have noticed, but having breakfast late is a thing. In fact, many restaurants are adding a specific brunch menu while all-day breakfast has contributed mightily to McDonald’s improved financial results. Consumer research shows the growth of brunch service in restaurants around the country as customers enjoy breakfast foods all day and night long.

Mid-City New Orleans: Brunch at the Ruby Slipp...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to its 2017 MenuTrends report, Datassential reveals brunch was available at 4.9 percent of all chain and independent restaurants in the United States in 2016, compared to 2.0 percent of restaurants ten years prior. Over the past four years (2012-2016), brunch service in U.S. restaurants increased by 43.5 percent.

In other words, restaurants are catering (pun intended) to the desires of their customers for breakfast foods around the clock. I’m willing to bet your local diner has always served breakfast all day so this isn’t exactly a surprise or huge innovation. What is an interesting development is how many places have responded and added a brunch or all day breakfast menu.

Contrast this with a place I know that opened as a casual lunch business, got great reviews, but not enough business. The owner didn’t want to change his business hours to include early supper to take advantage of the increased foot traffic in the neighborhood after 5. He wasn’t able to make a go of it. The flaw wasn’t the food or the service or even the location. It was in not responding to the realities of the market and the opportunities those realities presented.

Your business might be making similar mistakes. What are your customers telling you? What are market trends showing? It may be overly simplistic, but if customers are enjoying breakfast foods all day long, your job, if you’re in the breakfast business at least part of the day, is to serve them all day as well. You can fight your competitors but you can’t fight your customers’ tastes! Make sense?

Leave a comment

Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 19, 2017 · 10:22 am

Disasters

Foodie Friday, and the topic is disasters. Like anyone who does a fair amount of cooking, I’ve had my share of disasters in the kitchen over the years. No, I’m not talking about the time I dropped a full pot of soup on the way to the fridge. I mean those times when the best-laid plans of the cook, as Robert Burns said, gang aft agley – often go awry.

In my case, there is a seafood sausage that has become the stuff of legend amongst those who were (un)fortunate enough to have seen it made and attempted to eat it. There was also the time that egg rolls refused to stay rolled and sent the cook (that would have been me) into a utensil throwing rage since I was cooking for my new bride and my parents and was pretty embarrassed.

There is a business point within my true confessions today. First, each of these things was a learning experience. Second, each has become a story that’s been retold over the years. While our main goal in business shouldn’t be to avoid being a bore at cocktail parties, having a few self-effacing tales in your repertoire isn’t a bad thing. The bigger takeaway is the first point.

Disasters are often the result of pushing the envelope. Hopefully, they don’t originate in sloppiness or willful ignorance or haste but rather is boldly going where you’ve never gone before, whether in the office or in the kitchen. When we fail in the latter venue, there is always some take out food we can get to serve. When we fail in the office, we can use the experience to rethink how we plan, how we prepare, and how we execute so that it becomes a teachable moment and not a complete waste. Besides – you just got another great story to tell at the party where you’re celebrating your company’s latest success!

Leave a comment

Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,

May 12, 2017 · 12:09 pm

It’s A Secret

This Foodie Friday, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. OK, so maybe it’s not really that far under the radar, but our topic today is the hidden menu many places have. Some places call it the secret menu, and you’ve probably heard of some of them. In-N-Out Burger‘s is fairly famous in burger-eating circles, so much so that I’m not sure one can call it secret any longer. Arby‘s has one (let’s go climb Meat Mountain!), as does Starbucks, highlighted recently by the Unicorn Frappuccino (yes, but they’re a healthy 56 grams of sugar!). I could list a dozen more chains that have them but the real secret menu is at your local favorite.

English: The menu of a typical kebab shop in L...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I frequent a restaurant that changes the menu seasonally. They’re happy, however, to make me one of my favorite burgers that hasn’t been offered for six months. Its availability is a secret of sorts, and I feel special when they oblige my request for it. That’s really the point of these hidden menus. Putting aside that the more outrageous items become fodder for social media amplification, it’s really about “knowing.” It’s the feeling like you’re a special member of the family and that’s the point for any business.

Turning customers into loyal customers is about care and feeding. It’s about making them feel like Norm from Cheers: everyone knows your name and welcomes you with open arms. Being in the know about the secret menu – getting something about which others know nothing – is something that any business can do. Maybe it’s a simple as a secret sale, maybe it’s a special item of food or clothing or merchandise that’s available only upon requests. No matter what it is, it represents wrapping the customer in your business and fostering community.

I don’t know if you have a special place with a secret menu that you frequent but you might think about making your business that sort of destination for your fans. You with me?

Leave a comment

Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , ,