Did you know that in the quick serve segment, Moms and Millennials are the two most important demographic groups?

 

In the case of Millennials (18 to 34 year olds), this group is known to visit restaurants more than any other generation. A recent study conducted by foodservice research group, Technomic, delved further into the expectations of Millennials (beyond their palate preferences) by examining the restaurants they considered more socially responsible (think sustainable, green, local, hormone free and organic food, and community involvement).

 

So who made the list? Technomic’s study revealed that In-N-Out Burger, McAlister’s Deli, Logan’s Roadhouse, and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store were named among the top restaurants that Millennials viewed as socially responsible.

 

Let’s take a quick look at a couple of restaurants that we feel are doing a notable job of creating an emotional connection with their customers. LYFE Kitchen is a fine example of a brand who exemplifies their mission of “Eat good, feel good, do good” through all aspects of the restaurant, from food sourcing best practices (sustainable, local and organic whenever possible) to healthy menu, décor, and participating in community-driven charity partnerships.

 

Five Guys Burgers and Fries, similar to In-N-Out in menu and fan-following, commits to only freshness and quality when it comes to the food. For example, Five Guys only uses fresh, never frozen ground beef (they don’t even have freezers in their locations, only coolers) and allows guests to add unlimited free fresh toppings (free!). Locations also have signs mounted on the wall that proudly display where “today’s potatoes are from.”

 

How do your customers view your restaurant’s brand? It’s often an easily overlooked aspect but significant, nevertheless. There is the element of emotional connection that your brand can share with your patrons, as this study demonstrates.  Are there any values or philosophies that you implement at your restaurant? Do you only use certain ingredients such as grass-fed only beef or free range chicken? Does your restaurant support a particular charity or organization? When someone comes across your restaurant name, what do they think of? What do people associate your brand with? If you need assistance with restaurant branding, contact Synergy today for a free initial consultation.

 

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We want to help those curious chefs who aren’t afraid to step out of their comfort zone, with some inspiring recipes we’ve stumbled upon that utilize these great fruits and veggies that are in season starting in the month of June and lasting throughout summer.

So what’s in season coming these summer months? We found a great comprehensive list from Fruits & Veggies More Matters that include the following  foods:

Apricots
Asian Pear
Barbados Cherries
Beets
Bell Peppers
Black Crowberries
Black Currants
Blackberries
Blueberries
Boysenberries
Breadfruit
Butter Lettuce
Cantaloupe
Casaba Melon
Champagne Grapes
Chayote Squash
Cherries
Cherries, Sour
Chinese Long Beans
Corn
Crenshaw Melon
Crookneck Squash
Cucumbers
Durian
Eggplant
Elderberries
Endive
Figs
Garlic
Grapefruit
Grapes
Green Beans
Green Soybeans (Edamame)
Honeydew Melons
Jackfruit
Jalapeno Peppers
Key Limes
Lima Beans
Limes
Loganberries
Longan
Loquat
Lychee
Manoa Lettuce
Mulberries
Nectarines
Olallieberries
Okra
Passion Fruit
Peaches
Peas
Persian Melon
Plums
Radishes
Raspberries

See the entire list here.

 

Wow, now that’s what we call a great list! We always appreciate a restaurant whose menu shows they’re not afraid to think outside the box in terms of utilizing uncommon ingredients in a delicious way! Given our admiration for unique flavor profiles and fresh ingredients, check out these wonderful recipes we found from great cooks that use summer vegetables and fruits. For full recipes, see the link we provided from the original source. Happy summer!

 

Drinks

• Lychee Margarita: This adult beverage carries a tropical twist using lychess along with lime juice, triple sec and tequila.

• Passion Fruit Mojito: We were definitely spoiled at the W Hotel Bali in Indonesia with a delicious fresh passion fruit mojito. So we are pleased to find great recipes like this one that bring out the unique passion fruit flavor in a classic refreshing drink.

 

Appetizers

• Prawns with Watermelon Rind Dressing: who would have thought to combine watermelon and prawns?  This recipe actually uses the watermelon rind in the dressing since it’s astringent nature pairs well with the prawn’s richness.

• Figs with Blue Cheese and Honey: a simple recipe for a dish that packs on a lot of flavor.

 

Main Dishes

• Braised Eggplant with Tofu in Garlic Sauce: This tasty vegetarian Asian-inspired recipe from seriouseats.com highlights the eggplant and elevates the slightly flavorless tofu with a savory garlic sauce.

• Slow Cooker Blackberry Pulled Pork: When you think of pulled pork sandwiches, barbecue sauce normally comes to mind first. This recipe actually features a savory blackberry sauce!

 

Dessert

• Grilled Necatrines with Maple Creme Fraiche: Nectarines are juicy, sweet, tart and make wonderful desserts in the summer. This awesome no-bake recipe will be sure to satisfy your sweet-tooth.
• Watermelon and Honeydew Sorbets with Lemongrass Sauce: Amp up boring sorbets and use in-season melons and fragrant lemongrass!

D’Cost Seafood Restaurants, Indonesia’s market leader in the highly competitive seafood arena, has chosen Synergy Restaurant Consultants to generate new operating strategies that will keep the chain at the vanguard of its industry in Indonesia.

 

“We are honored to be working with D’Cost whose mission is at once to serve price sensitive hungry people who like to eat freshly prepared seafood. D’Cost provides 5 star quality guest experiences at STREET HAWKER prices. Currently, D’Cost, at its 54 locations, provides a delicious experience to 80% of the middle to lower-middle class diners in the entire country. They have developed a reputation for a highly original, ‘against the grain’ marketing programs that most food executives wouldn’t even consider,” commented Dean Small, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the worldwide consulting collaborative.

 

The courageous marketing initiative that the D’Cost executives pioneered is known as “Up to You” wherein customers pay what they can afford for their meal. “The loyalty and trust their brand inspires is almost unprecedented in restaurant chains. They have successfully and ‘in a huge way’ married quality and caring as their dual offering to their customers. Synergy is being engaged on a number of initiatives,” continued Small. Currently, Synergy is working on streamlining D’Cost’s kitchen operations as well as creating strategies to improve operating efficiencies and put the chain on a fast-track growth mode. Moving forward, Synergy will be working with D’Cost Seafood management team to create two additional brands to support the growing Indonesian market.

 

D’Cost Seafood started operations just 6 brief years ago in South Jakarta and has now expanded in eight major cities throughout Indonesia. Synergy is the nationally recognized multi-disciplinary leader in food consultancies and is headquartered in Orange County, California. For more information, https://www.synergyconsultants.com or call Dean Small at (949) 500-1733.

We’ve written a great deal about hot restaurant concepts, good hospitality management and the latest food trends. In the past few years, we’ve witnessed the green movement popping up in restaurants across the nation. Health, earth, animal and people-conscious initiatives such as local, organic, humane and sustainable foods, fair trade practices, recycling and other green methods have been implemented by mindful restaurant owners looking to demonstrate their values and attract like-minded patrons.

 

While these actions are quite commendable, is it a feat too impractical for a restaurant operator? Can a restaurant juggle these issues without losing sight and attention to what’s truly important in the business? Some may argue otherwise but the bottom line for any restaurant is a direct result of how good is the food – after all, what is the main reason someone decides to come back to a restaurant? The facts have been longstanding and have not changed: people are demanding great, flavorful and tasty food. While recycling, sustainability, hormone free and local are important, if the food doesn’t taste great they are not coming back.  

 

Never lose focus on the quality and taste of the foods you serve. If that means you cannot source your foods locally, then you should not. The opposite may be true as well. Conversely, if sourcing local produce and using them in your menu will create stellar dishes (perhaps you’re located near Chesapeake Bay or Seattle, towns famous for their seafood for example) at a reasonable price for you, then local should be the way to go.

 

LYFE Kitchen is an exemplary model of driving home their environmentally sound practices and delivering nutritious food while maintaining a loyal following. They understand the balance required to maintain their best practices while never sacrificing the taste profile of their dishes. If you take a look at their menu, you’ll see the unique flavor profiles and combination of ingredients that elevate the dining experience.

 

 

By and large, it is important to not place unreasonable limitations on your restaurant – do what you can to give back but be practical, give yourself creative room and remember to put yourself in your guests’ shoes – their palates are your biggest critics!   For more restaurant industry and related news articles like this, sign up for our free informational emails!!

Greetings!

We’ve been travelling a lot lately, and we couldn’t help but notice how exciting the hotel dining scene is getting again. This happens periodically in the business cycle, as hotel-development strategies have shifted back and forth between full-service and limited-service approaches. This time the cycle seems to be very much in support of offering amenities like spas, concierge services, and exciting food-and-beverage facilities—even multiple options. What’s really different this time, however, is the fact that so many of the high-profile hotel openings are among the ranks of the boutique lodging sector, not the well-established chains. And that has made the hotel-dining boom even more high stakes.

While you’re here, be sure to read Karen Brennan’s excellent analysis of how to tell if your advertising approach is really working. The founder and principle of the brand strategy group Brandscapes, LLC , Karen debunks several prevalent myths about how to measure the results of your marketing efforts.

To your success,

Dean and Danny

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The End of Ho-Hum Hotel Dining

By Joan Lang

Every decade or so, there seems to be a renaissance in the quality and innovation of hotel dining—and this one’s a game changer. Positioned to attract gastro-tourists, upscale business travelers and sophisticated food-loving locals alike, this new crop of restaurants (often helmed by famous chefs) are rapidly becoming destinations-within-a-destination. Pack your bags and go.

Shanghai Terrace, The Peninsula, Chicago

Aiming to recreate the ambience and romance of a 1930s Shanghai supper club, this elegant new Chinese restaurant sports dark lacquered wood and dim, moody lighting, plus a Cantonese-style fine dining menu complete with dim sum and a five-course traditional Peking duck feast. There’s bird’s nest soup, abalone and steamed market fish, plus such contemporary reinventions as miso marinated cobia and dry aged prime ribeye with smoked garlic sauce, plus ambitious cocktail and tea programs.

Tamarind and Bellocq, The Hotel Modern, New Orleans

Two high-profile options—a restaurant and a cocktail bar—anchor this new Central Business District boutique hotel. Tamarind showcases French-Vietnamese culinary influences via local star-chef Dominique Macquet and chef de cuisine Quan Tran: Lemongrass Galanga House Cured Salmon, Wagyu beef coulette with Asian ratatouille, Saigon Cinnamon Molten Cake. Bellocq, named for the famed Storyville photographer, touts sophisticated cocktails and naughty live entertainment.

Parallel 37, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

Marketed as a freestanding restaurant, Parallel 37 (named for San Francisco’s geographic latitude) specializes in local ingredients like Sonoma duck and Dungeness crab, as interpreted by Michael Mina acolyte Ron Siegel. A “pairing and sharing” menu and communal tables lend to a neighborhood lounge vibe in the restaurant, aided and abetted by Camber Lay’s one-of-a-kind cocktails (e.g., the Bar Fly, with Bulleit bourbon, Benedictine, poblano pepper, vanilla and fresh lemon juice).

Wit and Wisdom, Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore

Michael Mina leads the team behind this upscale tavern offering seafood-intensive “comfort food with a contemporary twist”: lobster corndogs, roasted Barnegat Lighthouse skate wing griddled in a cast iron skillet, Border Springs Farm braised lamb shank. Frequent promotions like Burgers & Beer and a Preakness Triple Crown menu help bring in locals; comfortable leather couches and generous cocktails encourage them to stay. The hotel is also home to Lamill Coffee for Euro-style café dining, and a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant called PABU.

The Dutch, W South Beach, Miami

The culinary amenity for Miami’s hip hotel and residences is Andrew Carmellini’s second “just an American restaurant” (the first Dutch is wildly successful in Manhattan’s SoHo), featuring high-quality hangout food like oysters, dry-aged beef, and such “supper” entrees as marinated roast chicken and homemade pappardelle with lamb ragout. It’s quickly become a power destination for breakfast and lunch, and a serious bar scene with a huge collection of specialty spirits to wash down the fried-oyster sliders and sheep’s milk ricotta with grilled bread.

Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles

The original celebrity chef continues his domination of the local food scene by lending his name

to the F&B roster at this historic glamor-hostel. The Puck-ish menu focuses on modern California cuisine with luxurious European and Mediterranean influences: red snapper crudo, Dover sole, roast guinea fowl, exemplary bread service. Society and celebrity weddings, breakfast-in-bed, a lavish Sunday brunch and a star-studded outdoor lunch on the legendary terrace complete the return of old-school dining excellence to the expensively (Rockwell Group) refurbished and re-opened hotel.

China Poblano, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas

In a city rife with high-profile chefs and their restaurants, none has gotten more attention lately than this hot new outpost of the José Andrés/ThinkFoodGroup empire. The daring China-meets-Mexico menu connects East to West with Chinese noodles (made fresh daily at a display station), dim sum and soups, served alongside tacos, tableside guacamole, and ceviches in a distinctly casual-hip environment, where Singapore Slings share bar space with Margaritas and aquas frescas.

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Advertising: Which Half is Which?

By Karen A. Brennan, Marketing & Branding Strategy

By now everyone has probably heard the saying, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Most people attribute it to a friend or business associate, but the comment was originally made by retailer John Wanamaker, a marketing pioneer in the early 1900s. I guess the reverse is also true: Half of the money we spend isn’t wasted…it actually generates a return on investment (ROI) that builds sales and builds the brand. The real question is, how do you know which half is which?

• I just visited P.F. Chang’s for the first time in a long time. What made me do it? I saw their “20 Lunch Combos Under $10” TV spot. After seeing it enough times, I just had to go. But I didn’t go for lunch; I went for dinner. In other words, the advertising moved me even though I didn’t go for the deal. The Chang’s spots do a great job of making the case for the brand and the product and use the deal to merely “punctuate” the ad, not as its centerpiece. It’s not about the deal…it’s about the brand, with a big coupon exclamation point at the end of the sentence.

Years ago I read that including a coupon in an ad increases readership by 90% (almost double) even if people don’t redeem the coupon. This makes sense, especially when you consider that redemption rates on coupons average 1-2% and are often redeemed at a rate of less than 10%. People are paying attention to the ad and responding to it, even if their “response” is a non-coupon visit. I recently spoke with P.F. Chang’s president, who confirmed that the restaurants have experienced lift at both dinner and lunch because of this promotion.

Lesson: The law of ‘unintended consequences” can also work in your favor. Be sure to factor that into your ROI.

I recently attended a board meeting where the accountants looked at 5-10% coupon redemption rates as “modest,” and questioned whether it was worth doing. Interestingly enough, there was a positive ROI on the promotion, but the accountants wondered whether they might have gotten an even higher ROI doing something else—the grass is always greener. My take on this is that the ROI is the low end of what the promotion achieved when you consider the overall awareness it produced and the energy level it created in the restaurants during what would have otherwise been a slow time (like P.F. Chang’s). And we all know the best promotion result is a busy restaurant.

Lesson: Don’t be distracted by someone else’s green lawn.

Advertising is like the pill you take to make the symptoms disappear. Once the symptoms have gone away, you might think you are fine and decide you don’t need the pill anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a Cumulative Effect of Advertising: A number of years ago it was found that only 60% of the impact of an advertising initiative is felt in the first year, 25% is felt in year two, 10% in year three, and 5% in year four. If you keep advertising year after year, it will build and build until year four, when you will finally realize 100% of the benefit of the campaign. If you do the same thing the next year, you will get the same 100%. This will make it appear that sales have flattened, but the truth is that the base has moved. A certain level of marketing simply ratchets up the base.

Lesson: Stopping your advertising loses the residual impact and sets you back years in building sales. Ultimately, you need to “up the ante” to get bigger impact. Stops and starts, rather than a consistent year-after-year approach, leaves money on the table because of the lost impact.

• Reach & Frequency, the traditional measures of advertising in a mass media world, are giving way to Impact & Engagement, the watchwords in a social media world. But it’s not an either/or choice. A full marketing approach includes both Reach & Frequency and Impact & Engagement. Anecdotal information that reflects how much more powerfully guests respond to your brand is almost as meaningful now as the ROI.

Lesson: Advertising that doesn’t Reach enough people, doesn’t reach them Frequently enough, doesn’t have Impact or is not Engaging is probably in the half of your advertising that doesn’t work.

• Not spending money enough may cause a promotion to fail, whereas spending a little more would give the program enough to break through and be a success. Years ago, I tested two ad campaigns. One featured a “buy one, get one free” coupon and the other featured “buy one, get one for a dollar.” Our managers thought they would save a lot of money not having such a high coupon cost, when in fact the number of people coming in for the less compelling deal was so much lower, it didn’t even generate enough revenue to pay for the ad. The BOGO with the free offer, on the other hand, actually generated a lot of traffic and made lots of money.

Lesson: Go Big or Stay at Home.

So here are my simple rules:

1. It’s important to measure sales gains not only against last year, but also against a realistic assumption of what sales would be if you had done nothing. Ask, for example how your competition is doing. If you are doing better than they are, your advertising is working.

2. Make it about the brand, not the deal. People will seek out the deal—you’ve got to expose them to the brand on the way. That gives you impact today and tomorrow.

3. About the time you are getting sick of your advertising, your customers are just beginning to pay attention to it—the promotions that are working are working because you stick to them.

4. Continuously evaluating your efforts and eliminating the things that aren’t working, and doing more of the things that are, will build the half that works and eliminate the half that isn’t.

For help with your advertising and marketing strategy contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants.

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Why Blog?

By Joan Lang

 

In the rush to Facebook, Twitter and now Pinterest,  blogging has gotten a little lost in the social media fray. But one of the original ways of “sharing” on the internet can still be a valid outlet for foodservice organizations.

Blogging has been around since the late ‘90s and was first used by politicians and news services to express opinions and begin a dialog with readers. In the business world, the blog has been eclipsed by Facebook for many interactions with followers, but its uses as a “long form” for communicating with employees, customers, and even suppliers and vendors need not be overlooked.

If Facebook and Twitter are a short story, then the blog is a novel, and can be used to explore more in-depth topics in a variety of ways:

•  When used internally, a blog written by a member of the top management team can be used to help establish the culture, mission and communications pipeline within the company. The CEO can provide a roadmap for growth strategies and more, while a human resources executive can post about policies or other issues affecting the team. A blog post carries a degree of weight and permanence that no memo or email can match, since it also becomes part of the company’s archive

•  Externally, a blog can be used to showcase an important project or team member. For example: The corporate executive chef, who often labors in obscurity to the public eye, can blog about the R&D process, with posts about travels and favorite meals or a “diary” of how a new signature dish came about. Linked with demo videos and recipes, this can be extremely effective in putting a face behind the food that’s served, positioning the company’s culinary chops with existing and potential customers

•  A blog that exists on the website serves as a constantly updated source of content, helping to drive traffic to the site. Blogs can also help with SEO (search engine optimization, that all-important vehicle for getting “found” on the internet); by using key search words within blog posts (such as “macaroni and cheese” or “hiring bartenders”) you can help market your restaurant in strategic ways

• Allowing employees to post blog items (under supervised circumstances) helps give key team members a voice and can engender pride, engagement and personal development

• Blog posts can be used to demonstrate expertise. Synergy’s blog highlights the variety of skills and services the company provides, such as menu development, food trend analysis, staff training, kitchen design and more, as well as being a way to bring attention to the team’s activities and projects

If you do decide to move ahead with a blog, here are a few rules and tips for making the most of it.

1. Make sure the person who’s doing the writing can actually write. Designated writers should enjoy writing, understand the mechanics of spelling and grammar, and be willing to post regularly.

2. Have someone else proofread every post before it goes online. Twice.

3. Promote your blog via Facebook and Twitter so followers will know there’s a new post.

4. Make sure readers can navigate easily to the rest of your website from the blog, in order to capture the enhanced traffic opportunities.

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Current Synergy Projects

Maitland, Florida-based Sonny’s BBQ, with over 120 restaurants in 9 states, has named Synergy Restaurant Consultants as its “go-to, think-new” team. Synergy will be working on multiple strategies as it seeks to re-energize the Sonny’s BBQ brand through new menu items, operational efficiencies and equipment upgrades. Read more.

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Tip of the Month

The Restaurant Growth Index

Searching for new locations? Restaurant Business magazine’s annual RGI study is available online to guide you to Towns with Potential. The alphabetical list, prepared in conjunction with Nielsen, ranks all 942 Core Based Statistical Areas (aka metro areas) by such values as population, number of restaurants, and sales per capita. The study helps identify areas that may be underserved, and where restaurant sales are strong compared to the national average

Let’s face it – we love being spoiled by convenience. Technology has enabled us to free up our time and our hands, be it in the office, the home and especially the kitchen. If you were to ask any chef what their most valuable tools are in the kitchen, they’d probably answer with, “my knives and my cookware.”

 

Good pots and pans have been the cornerstone of good cuisine since the very first kitchen. If you think about it, there are many methods of cooking each using a different pot or pan – ones for sautéing, roasting, grilling and even just for stir-frying. How would you like it if you didn’t even have to touch the pan to cook? Cooks rejoice, because your new sous-chef will be doing all of the stir-frying.

 

On a recent Asian eating trip to Singapore I had the opportunity to see a new fast food wok concept in the Singapore airport called Ruyi, and was fascinated with their fast and efficient approach to cooking fried rice and noodles. Are you running an Asian restaurant with stir-fry on the menu? Free up your chefs’ hands and increase productivity; meet the Robotic Wok. They call it a “Robo Chef” or “Robo Wok” but we just like to call it amazing. Being used in the fast-food sector in Singapore and other Asian countries, this revolutionary device aims for efficiency in the kitchen and ultimately savings in labor and increased productivity output.

 

Your really just have to see it for yourself. Check out my video of this amazing innovation that truly takes efficiency to a whole new level. Notice the consistency in the tossing and how the chef pours the sauce directly into the wok, allowing the bot to do the rest:

So what’s the price tag on this bad boy? Japanese company MIK, who sells another similar version to one shown in our video, has their robotic wok at a reported cost of $10,900 according to this Eater.com article.

 

Would you consider implementing this at your restaurant? What innovations are you currently using?

 

By Leslie Miller Beverage Specialist, Synergy Restaurant Consultants

 

There are few items in the restaurant or bar that yield as high a profit as draft beer. When you take into consideration all the positives to draft beer:
• Fresh, high perceived value by guest
• Environmentally efficient packaging
• Low ounce cost
• No continuous stocking required, saves on labor and thief

 

It really makes sense to focus on delivering the very best draft beer possible.

 

When your bartender pours a beer, does it look like any of these? If so, read on for some pointers to tune-up your draft handling systems in time for big summer profits!

90% of Draft Beer problems are temperature related…this should be your first check.
• Ideal temperature range for draft beer coolers is 36 to 38 degrees.
• If stored at over 42 degrees, the beer will be foamy, sacrificing taste and freshness.
• If beer cooler is less than 36 degrees, beer will have little foam, less flavor and aroma.

Use this checklist to ensure you are properly handling your Draft Keg Cooler.

1.   Check beer cooler temperature daily with accurate thermometers and keeping a log.
2.   Always use clear plastic airflow air-curtains at cooler door to keep cold air in the cooler.
3.   Place kegs immediately in cooler upon delivery.
4.   Ensure cooler doors are promptly closed – remind employees and delivery rep’s of this policy.
5.   Ideally, the beer cooler is only for beer, however if shared keep these things in mind:
o Keep warmer items away from kegs.
o Never stack items on kegs.
o Keep kegs away from the cooler wall to allow airflow around the kegs.

Use this checklist to follow up on your Draft Delivery System

1. Confirm the cooler has a constant temperature between 36 to 38degrees and that all of the above items have been addressed.

2. Take the temperature of your beer when it is poured out of the tap… is it between 36 to 38degrees? Too warm = foam, Too cold = flat, over carbonated

o If too warm – what is the glass temperature? An unchilled glass can raise the beer temperature 4 to 6degrees.
o Too warm, the beer line system may not be properly insulated (hot spots) or refrigerated – have a professional check the glycol system
o If too cold – is the glass frozen? This can lower the temperature and deliver a flat taste.
o Dispensing unit can be chilling the lines too much – have a professional check the system.

Most importantly…Are you the first person each day performing a “draft beer line check” and taste a small amount to be sure the quality is the very best? You need to be…your draft beer program depends on it!

Look for future articles on best draft dispensing systems, beer clean glasses, best pouring methods, bartender beer competitions to engage them in perfect draft beer every time.

Are you a foodie? Let’s examine what the word really means. Merriam-Webster defines the term “foodie” as, “a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads.” So, to set the record straight, you technically can’t be a foodie simply because you like to eat a lot. And actually, a recent USA today article, “Foodies enjoy different tastes than the rest of us,” delves further into this citing that foodies actually prefer bitter, sour and umami (savory) flavors over the typical preferences of the general population, which favors sweet and salty tastes.

 

As restaurant owners, what can you learn from your average foodie and how can you use this information to help your business? We already know that foodies like to try new things, and their taste buds seek unusual flavor profiles. And even more importantly, it is also a good assumption that foodies are trendsetters – making efforts to try the new and often unexplored cuisines, proudly announcing to their peers and strangers (blogging, Yelping and Tweeting are a foodie’s best friends) of the daring, exotic, and crazy dishes they’ve so bravely eaten.  So look at your menu. What kind of dishes do you have that are worthy enough to entice this coveted target market?

 

Looking for menu ideas? Check out our list interesting ways you can add some foodie flair to your current dishes.

 

–          Make it hot: add some spice to your menu. If you serve burgers, for example, try dishing out a spicy-style burger by incorporating some habanero or Thai chili peppers into an aioli as a unique spread. Works for sandwiches, too!

 

–          Pucker up: twist up some menu items by adding a sour touch. Have a signature fruit cocktail? Try introducing exotic citrus fruit into it, such as yuzu, kumquats or loquats whose flavors are described as sweet and sour. Refreshing non-alcoholic sour beverages using these ingredients also work well.

 

 

–          Bitter is better. Try creating a kale salad with your chef’s special house-made vinaigrette. Bittermelon soup would be sure to awaken anyone’s tastebuds. And if baking’s your specialty, create an intense bitter dark chocolate cake topped, topped with chocolate covered coffee beans – a real gourmet treat.

 

–          The fifth taste: Umami. These flavors can be achieved by utilizing various ingredients such as soy sauce (don’t forget miso), fish sauce, fermented veggies (think kimchi, pickles, sauerkraut), mushrooms, cheese, seafood, beef, and pork. Check out StarChef.com’s list of top umami-rich ingredients for more ideas. Imagine the multitude of ways in which you can integrate these items into your current dishes.

 

Still stumped? Remember: the key is to think outside of the box! If you’d like to have your menu analyzed, contact Synergy Consultants.

Our very own Danny Bendas was interviewed in the Restaurant Management Article, Restaurant Revivals.

 

For many restaurants in trouble, the first necessary step is often the most difficult: recognizing the need for change.

Though the reasons for a tailspin vary, from pricing and high administrative or operational costs to lost revenue, restaurant turnaround consultant Danny Bendas often cites complacency as the frequent culprit, one magnified as the economy nose-dived in recent years.

“For so many restaurants, they’re rolling along, doing fine, and feel they don’t need to do anything to maintain momentum. That complacency allows the competition to roll over them,” says Bendas, a managing partner with Costa Mesa, California-based Synergy Restaurant Consultants.

 

Read the entire article here: http://www.rmgtmagazine.com/growth/restaurant-revivals-1

Not generally regarded as a sexy ingredient to their other legume counterparts in the culinary world, lentils are often associated with hearty soups and healthy eats. While that is true, there is so much more that the lentil can be used for and in so many delicious and unique ways!

 

If you’re not familiar with the lentil, it is a legume whose pulse (also known as a pod or seed) has been eaten for thousands of years. Very high in nutrition and protein, lentils come in a variety of types and colors: brown, green, black, yellow, and orange. In addition to its ease and speediness of preparation, lentils are also great due to the fact that they easily absorb flavors of other ingredients and seasoning when you cook with them.

 

It doesn’t stop at soups

While we’ll never turn down a fine-cooked lentil soup, it’s important to note that there are many different lentil dishes worth cooking and trying! Lentil salad? Yes. Lentil curry? Delicious. Lentil veggie burgers? You betcha. The versatility of the lentil is quite impressive.

 

Huffington Post has paid tribute to the legume in their article, 17 Lentil Recipes We Love, featuring delicious recipes like French lentils with roasted roots, caramelized onions and thyme, green-lentil curry, lentils with red wine and herbs, lemony lentil salad with salmon, and grilled green bean salad with lentil vinaigrette.

 

It’s no secret that we absolutely love burgers (some may even call it obsessive; tomato, tomahto!) So here’s a great vegetarian lentil burger recipe video that you may enjoy!

What’s your favorite way to prepare lentils?