Tag Archives: Food industry

What We Can Learn From A Blimpie

We’ll end the week with a Foodie Friday thought from the good folks at Blimpie.  Actually, the sandwich that prompted the thought is from them:  the thought itself comes from me.  The sandwich in question is the Blimpie Special Vegetarian 12 inch sub, which began as an off the menu item but is now part of their culinary repertoire.  I’ll say upfront that I have no particular beef (no pun intended) with Blimpie.  I used to eat their sandwiches all the time and one of the great joys of my youth was grabbing the biggest Blimpie combo I could buy and going to watch a basketball game.

Blimpie

Image by mokolabs via Flickr

I bring them up because that which I’m about to tell you is an example business thinking that’s off the mark in my opinion.  Let’s see what you think. Continue reading

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Filed under food, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

How To Be A Celebrity Chef

Photograph of chef Jacques Pépin at Aspen Food...

Image via Wikipedia

The end of a long week so a business thought related to food.  Actually, it’s related to the food business, and it comes from Jacques Pepin.  Chef Pepin is one of my culinary heroes, and his TV work, both solo and the series he did with Julia Child, ranks in my mind as some of the best cooking programming ever done.  He was one of the first “celebrity chefs” – after he had put in 30 years in the kitchen.  He kind of built the mold – successful restaurant career, TV, books – that many of the folks you see on The Food Network are trying to follow but he actually paid his dues.

Jacques Pepin is very different from many of them and not just because he was a pioneer.  Want to know why?  It’s a great business point for us all. Continue reading

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Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Reaping What We Sow

Finally Friday, and that means something food-related.  This week, you might have passed over the article on NYC’s Monkey Bar in the NY Times.  You can read it if you click through here.  In any event, it provided a pretty good business lesson for today’s screed.

This joint has been around for 75 years.  Luminaries such as Tennessee Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Helen Hayes and others helped to build its reputation.  It was taken over in 2009 by an ownership group that was focused on glitz and exclusivity and were quite successful taking that route.  For a time.  Now, not so much. Continue reading

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Filed under food, Reality checks