Tag: instagram for restaurants
Using Social Media to Optimize Your Restaurant Profitability
Thanks to technology, we have a lot more avenues to pursue when it comes to marketing restaurants and connecting with the guests we serve. While conducting extensive research on your restaurant through traditional means, Synergy Restaurant Consultants also uses social media marketing and branding to help bring about a positive rating among consumers.
Name recognition and branding are all part of this though some other key things must take place first before you can tweet your way to success. Beyond Twitter, restaurants that utilize Facebook and Instagram are seeing incredible results by making a tangible connection with the very people they are trying to reach.
Exploring new territory in this regard is crucial to success. Millennials are driving the market when it comes to both flavors and marketing. For example, we’re seeing a surge in offerings that straddle the lines of cuisine. In our global world, tacos are just fine but Korean tacos are much more interesting to consumers. A burger is always welcome but with feisty toppings like wasabi flakes and salmon roe, it becomes something altogether new and divine.
By perfecting your menu and making sure you’re not wasting money on items that don’t sell, you can reach that achievable market and stand out from the other restaurants in your area. By the same token, offering too many choices can make it too confusing for your clientele. Focus is the key here.
Once you’ve aligned your operating systems, menu, undergone simplified training and have systems for testing in place, you can start pushing out on social media to drive more consumer interest in your brand. Getting followers, likes and all that goes with social media gives you all the tools you need to make a connection. Existing customers are most reachable, and when you post on your restaurant’s social media page, you can entice them with incentives to make more frequent purchases as well as spend more with each purchase.
Email marketing is also bigger than ever now. Most consumers know they can sign up for coupons and exclusive deals by joining a free mailing list. These marketing tools have proven effective for bringing customers back again and again. It’s also a great way to introduce a new menu offering or a special seasonal item.
Providing content for your social media adds more perceived value to what you serve up to your customers so keep that in mind with every post you make. Get help with your social media campaigns and let Synergy Restaurant Consultants show you how to turn social media into your best tool.
April 2015 Newsletter
Greetings!
It wasn’t so long ago that a number of operators banned “foodstagramming” in their restaurants (of course, some still encourage guests to turn off their cell phones when they’re dining).
Now, of course, most have either embraced Instagram or given in to the fact that certain people will take pictures of their food no matter what. But there’s no denying that the food porn trend goes beyond simple photography—in fact, it could be argued that Instagram and all the other social media are accelerating what is already the crazy-fast adoption of new food trends. And there’s also the ever-present danger of chefs and customers alike focusing (get it?) so much on picture-taking that they forget about how it tastes, or even tasting their food at all. Read the article on restaurateuring in the age of Instagram for additional perspective.
It could also be argued that the whole Bone Broth thing is also a function of social media and its tendency to make this a business of food fetishists. If you want to get on board, our culinary development associate Justin Braly shares a recipe for simple chicken (bone) broth.
And speaking of trends, there’s one that simply shows no sign of being over: better burgers, always and ever. We’ve got 15 different ways to tap it.
To your success,
In the Age of Instagram
By Joan Lang, Editorial Director
If it seems like one minute a restaurant has a certain thing on the menu and two weeks later everyone else has the exact same thing, you’re not imagining it. And it’s not just the foodie press and bloggers and the Food Network. It’s Instagram.
A picture is worth 1,000 words, and food pictures on Instagram say it all: what’s in a dish, what the diner thinks of it, and exactly what it looks like. And that makes this business more competitive than ever.
Or call it the age of food fetishes, and the Cronut was just the start. Thanks to social media—in particular the picture power of Instagram—food trends are now spreading, fully formed, with lightning speed. They’re being hatched, and then they’re being replaced almost as quickly.
Another cheese and meat board—really? More roasted Brussels sprouts with fish sauce replaced by more kale Caesar salads supplanted by more seared cauliflower steaks and now it’s Avocado Toast? Yes, indeed.
There are lots of other implications, besides menus becoming increasingly similar.
As far as Instagram goes, restaurateurs need to decide whether they’re “fer it or agin it” (a policymaking conundrum that not surprisingly tends to split along Millennial lines). As of now, more operators appear to be agin it, or at least not on board, as a recent Smart Brief poll showed the great majority of respondents either not using Instagram or not knowing how to leverage it.
A nice-looking plate is now called “Instagram-worthy” by both guests and reviewers. Can you say “focus on presentation”?
Instagrammers have become the new bloggers, reaping fame and contracts from their posts. And we all know how influential the blogosphere became to the restaurant industry.
Everyone wants to know how to take better Instagram photos, now that they have that fancy iPhone. (We may need to consider changing the lighting to facilitate picture-taking—or anticipate more early-bird specials or growth in the breakfast daypart, just because natural daylight is almost always better.)
Last but certainly not least, savvy marketers are turning to the medium to get their message across.
• Applebee’s has, among other things, turned its Instagram account over to its fans for a year in order to gather user-generated content aimed at helping the aging brand establish its standing as the go-to hangout spot
• Chefs and independents who use Instagram often end up on Must Follow lists that invite more followers (and potential customers) by the hundreds
• Taco Bell uses Instagram very effectively to promote new menu-item launches and LTOs
• Frank Prisinzano, the outspoken chef-owner behind a number of popular New York restaurants, has used his account to critique his own restaurants—getting lots of attention in the process
• Domino’s old sign/new sign “scavenger hunt” has helped draw attention to the chain’s rebranding efforts
• Zoe Nathan Loeb is using her proximity to beautiful food to promote both her restaurants and her new cookbook
Using Instagram needn’t be a big involved campaign. Even something as simple as posting photos of the days specials or inviting fans to post selfies taken in your restaurant can reap beautiful rewards.
The Bone Broth Boom
By Justin Braly, Culinary Development
Whether you call it stock, consommé, brodo or broth, there is no mistaking that the bone broth craze is upon us. Bone broth is heralded for its beneficial nutrients such as collagen (good for hair and nails), glucosamine (great for joint health) and glycine (which is great for removing toxins), but what exactly is it this delicious yet simple elixir?
Bone broth, in theory, is as simple as it gets. Broth by definition is soup consisting of meat or vegetable chunks, and often rice, cooked in stock, and bone broth is even simpler. Bones, with little bits of meat still attached, are cooked with any assortment of vegetables and aromatics for upwards of 24 hours—much longer than most recipes call for—in simmering water until the bones release their collagen and nutrients. This mixture is skimmed of fat regularly as it cooks and strained through a fine mesh sieve when it’s finished… voila! You have bone broth, which has become a cornerstone of the Paleo diet.
The amount of blog posts and websites dedicated to bone broth is astonishing, and small towns even seem to boast at least one person at the farmers market peddling this magical elixir, noting that their broth will change your health for the better. But in major cities, the craze is even bigger. In New York, chef Marco Canora may have started the craze with Brodo: A walk-up window that sells piping hot cups of broth (in three different sizes) to hungry customers in the morning, daring them to “rethink their hot beverage.” In San Francisco, there are at least six places selling “liquid gold.” Will bone broth rival Starbucks one day? Probably not, but maybe instead of a morning juice or afternoon cuppa, people will gravitate towards broth for their nutrients and vitamins.
Like all trends, bone broth has many different iterations. Restaurateurs, chefs and bartenders are taking advantage of the bone broth trend, because if it’s hip consumers will buy it, even in a cocktail format. At Los Angeles’ Pistola you can get “From the Kitchen With Love,” a $22 bone broth cocktail consisting of six ounces of lamb consommé plus two ounces of Glenlivet 15. Consider it a play on French Onion Soup.
While I don’t see the broth cocktail scene taking off, bone broth for kitchen use will stick around, so why not make your own? This recipe for Chicken Bone Broth is a great place to start.
Chicken Bone Broth:
5 lb. chicken bones
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 gal. cold water (enough to cover the ingredients)
2 medium yellow onions, roots cut off and halved
4-5 carrots, washed and cut in half
6-8 celery stalks, washed and cut into thirds
6-8 cloves of garlic
1 bundle thyme (fresh)
3 bay leaves (fresh)
1 tsp. salt
1. Place chicken bones in a large stock pot. Add apple cider vinegar and water to cover the bones.
2. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to keep a low simmer for 24 hours. Stir once or twice in the first few hours, and then a few times for the duration of your simmer, adding additional water as needed.
3. After 24 hours add the vegetables, garlic, salt, thyme and bay leaves to the pot. Increase heat to bring back up to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to maintain a simmer.
4. Cook for 8 hours longer, stirring every hour or so. Let simmer with lid off for the last 2 hours.
5. Strain all ingredients by pouring bone broth from one pot to another through a colander or strainer.
15 Shades of Burger
By Joan Lang, Editorial Director
Quick: What’s one of the most successful and enduringly popular menu items in all the restaurant universe, from mainstream fast food chains to destination dining? What can guests never seem to get enough of? What inspires cult followings and seemingly endless creativity? And what has nearly every revered chef in this country tried a hand at?
Although its exact origins are shrouded in late 19th century obscurity, the hamburger has emerged as one of the iconic pleasures of American dining, and a bulwark of the restaurant menu. From circa-1921 White Castle “belly bombers” to db Bistro Moderne, with its game-changing Original db Burger (a $35 sirloin burger filled with braised short ribs, foie gras and black truffle Parmesan bun, first introduced in 2001), there’s almost nothing that can’t be done to and with a burger.
No wonder sales of burgers keep growing—in 2014, according to NPD, the number of hamburgers sold increased 3%, in part because rising beef prices incented more restaurants to add them and more customers to order them.
Stuffed
Packing a tasty bite of something in the middle of an otherwise traditional patty adds not only flavor and juiciness, but it’s also a surprise for the guest and an operational advantage for the house because it keeps messy, melty ingredients like cheese or foie gras off the griddle. And you can stuff a burger with everything from blue cheese or Brie, to caramelized onions, chutney, salsa, olives, chili, sausage or even a fried egg.
Old-School
Although there’s a great deal of debate about what constitutes a “classic” hamburger—that’s the whole point of this article, after all—after several years of burger one-upsmanship there seems to be a move back to a style of burger that’s traditional, but elevated. That means juicy, well-seasoned meat, traditional condiments and toppings like tomato and mayonnaise, old-school American cheese, and a fresh, slightly squishy bun that soaks up all the juices. No elk meat, no kimchi, no lavash flatbread: just best-in-class technique and ingredients.
Mini
Ah, the slider. These fun little mini-burgers made it possible to put the popular overstuffed sandwich on a small plates menu, and spawned dozens of different variations from pulled pork to fried chicken. The Slider House, in Nashville, has one of everything, and guests can mix and match two or three choices with a side for $8.99 or $11.99 respectively. Sliders have also become increasingly popular as bar snacks, as in the two different formulations of Cheeseburger Sliders tucked among the wings and quesadillas on the Snacktime menu at TGI Friday’s.
Blended
Short rib and sirloin. Brisket and filet. Seeking the perfect ratio of fat to lean, flavor to tenderness, burgermeisters are writing special specs for burgers—half of them, it seems, from butcher-to-the-stars Pat LaFrieda. That and sobriquets like “never frozen,” “handcrafted” and “ground in house” are the earmarks of the quality meat trend that’s sweeping the better burger movement. The famous cheeseburger at Husk takes much of its savor from Benton’s bacon ground in with the chuck and flank
Smashed
Differing schools of thought abound on how to cook a burger, and along with grilled vs. griddled and thick vs. thin, there’s the ongoing controversy of minimal compressing on the grill vs. smashing that puppy down with the spatula til the juices sizzle. We’re talking Smashburger, among others, which promises burgers that are “Smashed Fresh. Served Delicious.” Proponents claim the technique of smashing a meatball-thick patty down on the griddle creates plenty of surface and thin edges that pick up a tasty, crisp char. Shake Shack also smashes its burgers, on a Miraclean griddle, which not only builds flavor but allows the meat to cook more quickly.
Other Meats
Though the great majority of hamburgers are probably made with ground beef, there are all kinds of other meats that can be used to make a signature burger, including turkey, pork and lamb, as well as bison, buffalo and more unusual meats. The Breslin Bar & Dining Room, in New York City, has quickly become famous for its chargrilled lamb burger, which picks up additional Greek accents from the addition of feta cheese and cumin mayonnaise. A menu favorite at Tavern in Los Angeles is the Pork Pork Pork Burger, made with ground pork, bacon and chorizo finished with Manchego cheese and romesco sauce on a brioche bun. And Islands Fine Burgers & Drinks, based in Southern California, invites guests to substitute a turkey patty for any of its burgers.
Fish
Here’s a category that tells you how far the “burger” definition has traveled, with patties made from crab meat, ground tuna or salmon, and shrimp. Fishburgers are great for operations because they can be made with non-premium product, including trim, the thin ends of a salmon filet, or broken shrimp, allowing guests to enjoy a luxury ingredient at an affordable price point. Burgers made with seafood have a low-fat, high-protein nutritional profile that appeals to health-conscious diners who still want the indulgence of a “burger.” The neutral flavor and soft texture of fish also take well to ingredients that wouldn’t work with beef—like the Asian Ahi Tuna Burger served rare with Asian slaw and wasabi dressing at Lazy Dog, which has 16 locations in ahi-crazy Southern California.
Ethnic
The hamburger may not actually exist in Korea, but the kimchi burger has certainly caught on here. Fusion mashup
BopNGrill, in Chicago, has other signature burgers that call to mind other ethnic specialties, including the Pizza Burger (topped with mozzarella sticks, marinara, American, Parmesan, and caramelized onions), Bavarian (pretzel bun, sharp cheddar, caramelized onions, bacon, Dusseldorf mustard) and Hawaiian-esque Loco (fried egg, short-rib gravy, caramelized onions, bacon, sharp cheddar).
Top-of-the-Line
The Original db Burger notwithstanding, restaurateurs and chefs have been trying to outdo each other with the most expensive or most luxurious burgers for years, using ingredients like Wagyu beef, truffles (even Smashburger has a truffled menu entry), lobster, wild mushrooms and even a bottle of Chateau Petrus (served on the side). Not surprisingly, many of these burgers can be had in Las Vegas, but a clutch of upscale restaurants in San Francisco are serving more-ish versions of sliders, like the escargot patties topped with foie gras on the menu at Bisou Bistronomy.
Over the Top
Size and variety also make an impression with burger fans. Chomp Kitchen and Drinks in Warren, RI, has amassed a cult following for its over-the-top Stack Burger 3.0, a towering assemblage consisting of a beef patty with American cheese, spicy fried chicken with smoked gouda, smoked BBQ beef, bacon, ranch dressing, and onion jam with lettuce and tomato. And three-location Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar features an extensive menu that includes 19 different burgers plus additions and substitutions ranging from six different breads to sake-marinated sauerkraut.
Regional
There are regional sandwiches, and regional sodas, so no surprise that burgers come in regional styles, too. In Northeastern Mississippi, for instance, the ground beef is mixed with flour and soy meal and fried, to create something called a Slugburger, while the Deep South is home the Pimento Cheeseburger, a tasty conglomeration that has recently gone trendy outside of its native habitat, as at the new ABV in the Mission District of San Francisco.
Vegetarian
There are veggie burgers and there are veggie burgers, and lately restaurants are catering to guests who avoid meat but crave burgers with versions made from soy, nuts, grains, ground vegetables, and other tasty concoctions. Oshi Burger Bar, part of the Jeff Johnson Restaurant Group in Memphis calls its organic veggie burger the Conscientious Objector, topping it with tomato, crushed avocado, red onion, Swiss, lettuce and burger sauce. Michael Mina makes a Fava Bean Falafel Burger with Gamble Creek Farms organic cucumber yogurt, tomato confit and tahini at Locale Market in St. Petersburg, FL. Even White Castle has a Veggie Slider.
Grass-Fed
Socially conscious sourcing is big in the burger segment, with antibiotic-free and grass-free meat a centerpiece of many business plans. For higher-end independents, many with chain aspirations, grass-fed and local beef is the way to go. Crave Real Burgers, with three locations in Colorado, works with local ranchers for its beef. Breakaway Café, in Sonoma, CA, sources its organic pastured beef from SunFed Ranch. The Burger Lounge chain has been selling grass-fed burgers, local produce and a green lifestyle since 2007. But now even Carl’s Jr. has jumped on the bandwagon with an all-natural, grass-fed offering.
DIY
The Counter was arguably at the forefront of the customizable menu item trend—burger or otherwise—back in 2003 and it’s still going strong, with locations all over nine states plus Ireland, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. With a mix-and-match selection of patty meats and sizes, breads, cheese, toppings and sauces, the concept touts a possible 312,120+ different burger combinations, “unique to each customer,” plus dozens of already-designed options. Of course, it’s easy for just about any restaurant to offer a DIY options: just look at Friendly’s.
Patty Melt
Thanks to the unending popularity of classic American comfort food, it stands to reason that the patty melt would also get the better burger treatment—and the trending success of both grilled cheese sandwiches and artisanal toast hasn’t hurt. Hardee’s Bacon Velveeta Patty Meltdown is in-your-face retro, but the new Snappy Pattys, in Medford, MA, delivers “upscale contemporary American food” including a sixsome of signature patty melt sliders made with grass-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef with scratch-made sauces on house-baked olive oil brioche.
Tip of the Month
Want more advice and ideas for using Instagram? Check out these articles from the National Restaurant Association, F&B Kibbutz, and Pizza magazine.
January 2013 Newsletter
Greetings!
Happy 2013—many people we know are glad that the difficult past year is over and are looking forward to fresh opportunities in the months ahead with renewed optimism. And of course, there will also be fresh challenges.
An article in USA Today in December about America’s disappearing restaurant chains. It’s a tale of success for many first-to-the-market concepts (TCBY, Blimpie, Bennigan’s), followed by increasing competition on the part of newer, flashier players, and then the long painful decline into irrelevance and worse.
With the market heating up again and an incredibly robust number of truly innovative new restaurant concepts coming online—particularly in the booming fast casual segment—we can expect to see a lot of older and more established chains struggling in the coming year.
But a decline is not inevitable in these situations. Established brands can and do undergo evolution and growth, through menu changes, décor refreshes, new services and other forms of adaptation. And Synergy Restaurant Consultants will continue to do its part in helping to make those things happen.
To your success,
Dean and Danny
Game Changers: Trends That Will be Shaping Our Industry in 2013
By Joan Lang
This past year was one of galvanic changes—and 2012’s got nothing on 2013. In the following paragraphs, we detail a few of the game-changing developments we’re following for the coming year.
Shareable Menus
In today’s foodservice market, it seems there’s no such thing as oversharing. Culinary adventuring and the desire to taste more launched the trend to sharing and sampling; the recession and the need to cut back on spending cemented it in place.
Now we are seeing menu after menu selection deliberately positioned for sharing and participating, including meat and cheese plates, appetizer combos, fondue, chips-and-dips, pizza and more. And like most menu items these days, the more customizable these shareable specialties are, the better.
Even as critics start to grouse about value, mainstream chains are getting on-board, like burger specialist Red Robin with its Garden Fresh Hummus Plate and mix-and-matchable Jump Starters; and Yard House with its extensive selection of snacks. (Not coincidentally, can you say “enhanced beverage sales”?)
Pan-ethnic “Taquerias”
You can thank Roy Choi and his iconic Kogi Korean-style tacos for the newest wave of cross-cultural tacos—itself the second salvo in a boomlet of authentic Mexican taquerias that took place half-a-dozen years ago.
Tacos are the perfect vehicle for fillings and flavors of all kinds, endlessly customizable and affordably priced, even when they’re filled with artisanal ingredients like heirloom pork belly and housemade pickles.
The new Salvation Taco in New York City, brainchild of the Spotted Pig’s April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman, is a case in point, with its housemade “tortillas” (including chickpea and naan) as a delivery system for such bi-cultural fillings as roasted cauliflower, sweetbreads and braised lamb breast.
The new Antique Taco, in Chicago, has the same M.O. with its “market Mexican fare,: including tacos filled with the upgraded likes of tempura fish and sriracha tartar sauce, plus baskets of snacks, masa flat bread and horchata milkshakes.
Classic American, with a Twist
Fried chicken, mac-and-cheese, burger-burgers-and-more-burgers. These favorite American comfort foods just keep getting more popular, especially in the hands of audacious young chefs who are putting their own twist on these classics.
Partly it’s due to younger diners, who are just learning about the pleasures of dining out. And partly it’s due—yet again—to the economy, which has put a high price on taking a risk. For an operator, putting your stamp on a familiar classic makes it that much easier to sell.
Boke Bowl, a hipster-friendly ramen restaurant in Portland, OR, is home to the incredibly popular Thursday-night Boke Bird, featuring brined, par-smoked and fried Korean-style chicken served family-style. Los Angeles is having a bit of a mac-and-cheese moment with options ranging for down-and-dirty bbq sides to the four cheese-roasted shallot-and-jalapeno version served at The Hudson.
And in the meantime, the burger trend just keeps on rolling, from Subway’s Angus Melts to the obligatory elevated burger (often made with custom-blend beef, lamb, pork or portabello mushrooms) on every chef-driven menu.
Super-Sandwiches
Speaking of familiar with a twist, here’s a category that will never be the same again. Chef-driven, sandwich-specializing concepts have elevated this once-prosaic lunch food to the stratosphere, with high-impact ingredients from the fillings to the breads, condiments and accompaniments.
Michael Voltaggio’s Ink.Sack brings sophisticated sandwiches like Spicy Tuna with Miso-Cured Albacore, sriracha, and mayo to the city of Los Angeles. Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi of Torrisi Italian Specialties and Carbone have opened a paean to the iconic club sandwich with the aptly named Lobster Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Four-unit Bruxie Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches has put a neat twist on the sandwich by basing all of its selections on an authentic Belgium waffle instead of bread, from savory smoked salmon with dill cream cheese to sweet Nutella and bananas. As the fledgling chain claims, it’s “street food that’s perfect for breakfast, lunch, midday snack or dinner as well as a dessert or late night treat.”
Competition from All Sides
Anyone who thinks competition is only coming from their own sector isn’t looking at the big picture. To the retail industry in particular, foodservice looks like a high-margin, high-demand business. According to Technomic, for instance, the c-store segment has its eyes on the foodservice prize, which should give QSR operators plenty of pause. And quality-oriented supermarket players like Bristol Farms and Whole Foods have long provided restaurant-competitive ready-to-eat options to time-strained consumers.
A new 49,000-sq.-ft. Publix in Longboat Key, FL, offers an array of specialty and prepared foods, as well as indoor and outdoor dining areas, and serves as a prototype for future development and remodeling efforts for the grocery chain.
Wawa, a c-store chain based in the South, has gone heavily into fresh food, with a comprehensive selection offering both made-to-order and grab-and-go items, from breakfast burritos to a rotation of soups (including family-size). And regional player Sheetz has a menu that rivals that of any fast food restaurant’s.
Quick Casual Goes Ethnic
Call it the Chipotle Effect—many entrepreneurial hopefuls do, as they double down on fast-casual concepts that support global menu concepts and an all-American focus on freshness, convenience, and healthy customizable food options.
• Sataza bills itself as a “unique take on Indian” that features fresh, grilled-to-order bowls, wraps and plates that customers can build from a selection of different bases, proteins, chutneys and sides
• Foumami, in Boston, is a fast-casual Asian sandwich bar that features signature freshly baked Beijing-style “bing” bread with a variety of different fillings (braised brisket, seared-steamed chicken), salads and soups.
• San Francisco’s U-Sushi is all about making this iconic Japanese specialty more approachable with a “you design, we roll” concept that’s brought up to speed with sushi-making “robots”
• Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill is positioned as a fresh alternative to burgers and fries, with freshly made pita and build-your-own shwarma-style sandwiches, plates and salads
Chains Launch New Prototypes
With so many new competitors opening up, older well-established brands are placing their bets on dynamic new building prototypes—and sometimes on new concepts altogether, as in the case of Shoney’s On the Go, a fast-casual version of one of the country’s oldest family-style restaurant chain.
• Taco Cabana has unveiled a more contemporary version of its design, incorporating colorful pink walls, street-life photos, hanging metal lamps and outdoor patio seating
• California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship in Sunrise, FL, emphasizes the 28-year-old chain’s casual California roots, with lots of earth tones, reclaimed wood and a firepit-equipped terrace
• Domino’s new “Pizza Theatre” proto puts pizza making front and center, allowing guests to watch dough being tossed and pizzas being assembled and cooked
• Mall standby Sbarro is moving upscale, with a new logo, cooking method and recipes, and a new prototype scheduled to be unveiled early this year
• White Castle’s new Laughing Noodle touts, of all things, a menu of multicultural noodles like Taco Mac & Cheese and a Spicy Thai-Style Chicken noodle bowl
Fried Food Flies Back onto Menus
Despite all the talk of healthy cooking techniques and more nutritious menu items—and certainly, those trends are here to stay—there’s a growing recognition that restaurants are particular good at one thing few home cooks will even attempt: deep-fat frying.
That’s part of the reason for the big fried-chicken boom that’s occurring, and for the growing popularity of fried potato specialties like housemade truffled tater tots and duck fat French fries. On the guest’s part, the thinking goes: “If I’m going to indulge I might as well indulge.”
Other signs that these are frying times:
• Donuts are the new cupcakes, as Krispy Kreme’s accelerating fortunes and the success of Federal Donuts in Philadelphia attest
• Bar menus are rife with thirst-inducing items like fried olives, pork nuggets, fried cheese curds, deep-fried deviled eggs, and even Southern fried bacon
• New-wave clam shacks are turning out old-fashioned standards like fried clams, hush puppies, fritters, onion rings and more
• Ethnic fried foods like arepas, empanadas, and croquettes are being given the star treatment
Recipe for Success: Don’t Forget the Food
By Mark Ladisky, Senior Operations Associate
In 2012 I would estimate that Synergy spent time with more than 50 different clients in the restaurant business, performing a variety of tasks ranging from recipe development to planning and branding sessions and operations assessments for concepts both small and large. The one question that I am asked more than any other is simply some variation of “What is the secret to a successful operation?”
My answer to that question may seem simple, never forget the food. It’s the reason many brands ultimately decide that they need the services of a company like Synergy to help correct the situation—over time and without malice or intent, they have simply lost focus.
It may seem like a silly answer to such a critical question, but in today’s market of highly competitive and agile companies, attention can be drawn away from the whole core business of selling a good product. If you don’t believe that is possible then kudos to you, but it is a fact that there can sometimes be so much attention put on streamlining an operation or a sales metric that a company can unconsciously and in very small increments lose focus on providing a quality food and beverage experience with the necessary hospitality required for that exchange.
The process of forgetting the food is not uncommon by any means; we have identified it in many an assessment report this year alone. We as groups can become so fixated on penny profit improvements and millisecond ticket time changes that we can often forget there is a customer at the end of the process, and they really only care about whether the food and the service were to their expectations.
The cause is hard to identify, because it typically happens over time in a process one of our partners calls “death by a million cuts,” and it usually starts as a part of a cost-cutting measure or expansion effort. If you are currently with a company that has not introduced a new menu item in recent memory, or where there is no current food costing or no proven recipes, then you are potentially on that path.
If you have had discussions about how important it is to use Product X over Product Y in a recipe for streamlining the supply chain because it’s a penny cheaper although it of lesser quality, then you are at risk of losing your way. And it’s time to call a time-out if your company is evaluating the elimination of the culinary department to save on payroll with no plan for alternative development.
We recently had great success with clients who can identify that they have “jumped the shark” in this area of the business, and when they contact us it is often because they don’t realize how far they have evolved from the original standard set however long ago. Making one food change often has a string of attached consequences that may not have been originally anticipated but impact the business in more than one way.
For example, we worked with a barbecue restaurant that for consistency purposes decided to have some of the barbecue produced offsite in a plant. The initial intent of the change was actually to improve and standardize the product, but the unanticipated fallout was that the units no longer had the smell of barbecue because they weren’t producing it onsite when guests were on the premises. Customers noticed—it often came up in reports that the food was “not as good as it used to be.”
Rewinding the clock to the point that the particular decision was made was the solution, and instead of going offsite with the product we suggested they improve store-level training and prepare everything onsite. Initial testing brought food scores up a measurable degree, and the company saved money in the process by buying a raw product rather than a fully cooked one. This also served to lower the carbon footprint of the finished items.
In today’s restaurant landscape it is rarely the case that a restaurant in the casual segment needs a full-time executive chef onsite, and if outsourcing a product is the right solution it is definitely something we will recommend. It’s important, however, to always keep an internal standard for quality and to keep working on an item until it meets those standards. Synergy can help to clearly define those standards and find solutions to overcome any challenges that may present themselves as part of that effort.
One of the best pieces of advice I can offer clients who ask about simple, quick solutions is to suggest an internal quality panel made up of a few key players from objective departments who develop a set of parameters for quality and quality alone, with the ability to send a product or menu item back down the line for reworking if needed.
It’s a lot easier and far less expensive in the long run to keep your standards clearly in sight than it is to come back years or decades later trying to find out where things may have gone wrong and try to correct the situation. Saving money is what we all want to do, and shortening ticket times is a definite benefit to any concept. But if you can keep chanting “don’t forget the food” during the process, you and your guests will be happier in the end.
Instagram Gratification
The business world had barely heard of Instagram prior to April 2012, when Facebook shelled out a billion dollars to acquire the cult-favorite photo-sharing site; now it’s one of the fastest-growing social media applications in the world. Instagram is viral, it’s visual, it’s inclusive and interactive, it’s food porn: What’s not to like?
We mentioned Instagram briefly last year in the article “New Tools for Your Social Media Arsenal,” but if you haven’t climbed on board yet, this may be the time. QSR Web recently gave a shout-out to visual content as the top marketing trend for 2013, and Instagram represents one of the easiest and most engaging ways to get visual with your brand. And, of course, food and beverages are one of the top subjects for Instagramming—about 60% of them, according to one source.
Now the company has rolled out a Web browser-based interface to complement its mobile platforms, making it easier to leverage the possibilities. Not surprisingly, especially given the Facebook connection, there is also a growing roster of available services and ancillary resources to support the app, including Statigram, Venueseen, and Simply Measured. (For more information on how to use such resources, click here.)
Starbucks is an early-to-the-party example of how to put the Instagram platform to work in a sophisticated, integrated fashion. Here are some other ways that Instagram is being used in the restaurant world:
• Dude-food website foodrepublic.com has let several high-profile chefs, like Tom Colicchio and Marc Vetri, take over its Instagram, allowing them to spend some time snapping and commenting away in and out of their restaurants. The site also publishes its favorite photos from readers. How about that for “great exposure”?
• Comodo, a Latin American restaurant in New York City, may be the first restaurant with an Instagram menu. Owners Felipe Felipe Donnelly and Tamy Rofe couldn’t help noticing that patrons were snapping away in their new restaurant anyway, so they asked them to upload the photos to Instagram, using the hashtag #comodomenu. A virtual “menu” of pictures is created, and customers are able to easily search the app for a quick glance of the restaurant’s offerings. And anyone who contributed a photo gets instant buy-in, as in “Hey, I took that photo!”
• Report your company news via Instagram by using it as a public relations tool to announce the news visually, including daily specials, profiles of staff members or regular customers, recaps of events, or to take your customers behind-the-scenes into the kitchen. Spy House Coffee, in Minneapolis, uses the app to showcase its baristas, events and contests.
• Reward your Instagrammers. Host preview menus or other special events for loyal Instagram followers, or treat them to a free drink, dessert or appetizer. You can also use Instagram to run a contest, promoted via other social media accounts. For instance, you can encourage patrons to share images from their meal, including a #hashtag so that you can track entries.
• Or do what Ben & Jerry’s did, using Instagram as the platform for a multilayered campaign that asks fans to “Capture Euphoria.” Users snap pictures of what joy looks like; tagged photos are posted to the gallery, and 20 of them will be selected for use in local advertising around the world. The genius of this campaign, created by Silver + Partners, is that it simultaneously engages and rewards ice cream lovers.
• Use multiple hashtags to help your business get found. Instagram lets you tag your photos with hashtags (i.e., #1234, #abcd) so that each photo will automatically be added to a search base. For example, if you post a picture of your popular Cobb Salad and label it with your restaurant’s Instagram hashtag as well as #CobbSalad, people who are in the mood for a salad or even looking for a recipe at home are more likely to find you.
If you’re new to Instagram and want to boost your own photo-taking skills, this article from The Boston Globe is a great starting point.
Tip of the Month
Food Republic is one of our favorite new(ish) sites. Ostensibly designed for a male audience, the site and its associated weekly newsletter are loaded with recipes, drink information, chef interviews, food trends, culinary-travel information, kitchen product information and more—ideal for the restaurant professional of any gender
August 2012 Newsletter
Greetings!
The completion of Synergy’s project to redesign the kitchen and bar of a T.G.I. Friday’s in Nashville has the whole team celebrating-and thinking about how important it is for any operation to keep things fresh for long-term success.
The switch to an open kitchen and a bar designed for socializing will help launch the 47-year-old chain into its next era, with new cooking platforms-pizza and combi ovens, a plancha grill, wood-enhanced broiler and a high-speed panini machine-that can support a variety of contemporary new menu items.
Speaking of menus, our senior operations associate Mark Ladisky reminds everyone this month about how important it is to keep the offerings moving forward. As he points out in his article, even operations that are only a year old can start boring their customers if they’re not in constant menu-development mode.
We also take a look at some new, visually oriented social media platforms you should consider embracing, and -last but not least-examine the all-important industry trend toward menu customization.
To your success,
Dean and Danny
Menu Development—The Elephant in the Room
By Mark Ladisky, Senior Operations Associate
One theme that we see consistently while working with clients is the desire to save, save, save on costs, and to float those savings to the bottom line. While we always support those interests, there can be an elephant in the room. When operators spend all their time worrying about saving money by installing motion-sensor lighting or buying cheaper hand soap, they may lose sight of more impactful and longer-term financial results. Yes, these changes will bring a few dollars to the bottom line, but if your menu isn’t changing fast enough to keep your customers interested—if even your fans are getting bored—then you’ve got yourself an elephant that needs to be addressed.
“There’s a way to do it better—find it.” -Thomas Edison”
In this constantly growing and increasingly competitive dining landscape, we are often so preoccupied with trying to reduce operating expenses that we can lose focus on growing our sales to ease the financial stress. This problem is found in concepts of all shapes and sizes, and can happen as early as one year into operation depending on how frequently your guests use you for their dining needs.
The solution to this issue is easy to explain but the execution can be a bit trickier without the proper research. There are restaurants and brands in the market that have a mechanism in place for constant menu innovation and ongoing new product development. As industry consultants, we are often part of that effort by bringing new ideas to teams that may operate in a vacuum where ideas aren’t allowed to develop.
Innovative companies have one ear listening to consumer feedback and the other ear listening to trend reports and other industry metrics, all the time. This constant supply of new ideas is the easiest way to bring new attention to your brand, while keeping your current user base at the same or better frequency of use. Your market may be competitive on pricing, your market may be competitive on speed of service, but while the demands on those factors are dynamic and changing, the public’s desire for new items is always growing.
“Burger King and its franchisees have introduced a vastly changed menu with a record 10 new items in 2012, and according to Steve Wiborg, executive vice president and president of North American operations: “It’s the chain’s largest investment ($750 million) in a one-year time frame… This is the biggest change in scope in the history of the brand.” USA TODAY
In today’s landscape, menu innovation isn’t just limited to new ingredients. Starbucks has launched a cold-pressed juice bar concept called Evolution Fresh and Popeyes rolled out a co-branded Zatarain’s butterfly shrimp item, while Whataburger introduced a low-calorie menu this summer which includes new menu categories as well as new items under 550 calories.
If you want to think outside of the four walls for innovation, then look at Chipotle’s new food truck to see how they define innovation. Burger King and McDonald’s have invested major resources in recent years to enter meal periods that they had only lightly treaded on in the past. They now sell plenty of smoothies, frappes, coffees and other snacks during what was once a slow time of day for their offerings.
Concepts like Dunkin’ Donuts are continuing to innovate their menus so much that the donuts are no longer the first thing people think of when visiting the brand—by introducing a line of breakfast sandwiches and all-day snack items like tuna salad on a croissant. When did DD become a place to go for anything after breakfast, you may ask? When they had to.
For help with menu innovation when you need it most, contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants.
New Tools for Your Social Media Arsenal
Talk about game changers: Social media and interactive websites mean consumers are using the internet—increasingly through their smartphones and other mobile devices—to do everything from choosing a restaurant and making reservations to ordering and paying for their meals ahead of time.
Facebook and Twitter are pretty much household names at this point, with their number of worldwide users tracking toward 1 billion and 500 million, respectively, in 2012, according to the latest data. Fast food chains, in particular, have been particularly adept at marketing themselves via these well-established social media venues, especially when it comes to promotions.
The real news however, is that the visual side of social media is growing by leaps and bounds—photos and videos are the engagement tool of 2012, through established sites like Facebook as well as newcomers like Pinterest and Instagram. Consider adding any or all of the following to your arsenal.
This new online “pinboard” has seemingly come out of nowhere, and may actually be growing in influence, to the detriment of other platforms.
Designed to share passions and ideas in a fun, rapid-fire, highly visual way, Pinterest offers a number of avenues for marketing businesses, including restaurants.
Pinterest can be used both as an internal research tool by management (for instance, to “collect” images of interiors in anticipation of a planned redesign and share them with other stakeholders), and to engage customers on various subjects such as menu categories, recipes, favorite foods and more. Chicago’s Chopping Block, for instance, promotes its cooking classes, retail offerings and other activities through a variety of different Pinterest boards, while A&W Restaurants’ Pinterest account prominently features its Facebook and Twitter links, as well as establishing an emotional connection with historical shots and other memorabilia.
As with any form of social media, robust use of Pinterest can also enhance your SEO status, making it easier for internet users to find you.
Launched in late 2010—and purchased by Facebook for a cool billion dollars in April 2012)—Instagram is a free photo-sharing program that allows users to take a photo with their mobile phone, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it on a variety of social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. The photo can also be used to check in on Foursquare.
In addition to turning mediocre cell-phone-quality pix into higher-quality images, Instagram converts photos to a square shape (similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images), instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras.
Instagram makes uploading and sharing photos easier and more attractive on other social media sites, but it’s also becoming more popular as an engagement tool in its own right, particularly when synched with other sites. Many chefs and restaurants use Instagram to make their food look more appetizing or “artsy,” or to promote a special event space—anywhere a picture is worth 1,000 words. And because it’s based on visual images (their or yours), connecting with customers via Instagram is one of the most emotionally engaging things you can do.
Foodspotting
This fast-growing new food-specific site allows prospective customers to find you by your food, not just your restaurant listing. Foodspotting users snap pictures of food and menu items they’re enjoying, and then post them to their account with a brief description of what and where they’ve “spotted” it. Other users can follow, comment, and share their findings.
For restaurants, Foodspotting acts like a database for menu items that people in the area might want. Anyone with a craving for, say, chicken and waffles in Chicago can search the Explore section of the site and find places near them where they can indulge. And Foodspotting represents a great way for operators to see what competitors in their marketplace are doing with presentation and other areas that aren’t immediately apparent from looking at a website or menu.
Foodspotting is also a great vehicle for “spot-to-win” contests, where players compete to spot the most meals and dishes—a kind of internet-age scavenger hunt, if you will.
One of the most intriguing features of Foodspotting is the special guides, which might cover anything from best starter salads to the gustatory wanderings of such heavy users as Anthony Bourdain.
The Custom Connection
The average American may not be able to afford bespoke suits and custom-made furniture, but one area where they can have it their way is food.
In fact, menu customization has emerged as one of the top overarching trends of the year, according to research firm Mintel, along with local food and healthful menu items.
The NPD Group, moreover, posits that consumer desire for customized experiences is behind the recent decrease in the sale of combo meals in QSR restaurants.
Here are a few examples of restaurants that are doing the customization thing right:
• At Old Point Tavern in Indianapolis, customers can choose an item called Stuffed Stuff that consists of their choice of a tomato, cantaloupe or pineapple stuffed with a choice of tuna or chicken salad—standard fare to be sure, but the mix-and-match format makes it special
• The new three-unit Stacked full-service restaurant in Southern California touts “food well-built” by the customer, who chooses from a list of different ingredients from which to design a completely unique salad, burger, pizza, mac-and-cheese and more. The selection of sauce options alone numbers more than a dozen, from Dijon Horseradish Dill to Creamy Barbecue?
• How does it work at Roti Mediterranean Grill? Pick your base (sandwich, salad or plate), “meat” (chicken kebab or roti, steak, falafel, roasted veggies), and toppings and sauces (including everything from olives and hummus to Red Pepper Aioli), or choose one of three popular combinations proposed by this now-15-unit fast casual chainlet
• At chef Waldy Malouf’s new High Heat Pizza Burgers & Tap in New York City, you can order from the standard menu or build your own burger or thin-crust pie with various cheeses, vegetables and proteins (including such unusual options as roasted lemon and handmade pepperoni, respectively), and enjoy custom Tossed Fries seasoned with the likes of cheddar-and-bacon mayo, 13 spices, Parmesan & Tomato Oil)
• 4 Food, also located in New York, has created an entire interactive world where customers can develop their own salads, rice bowls, and burgers (which feature donut-shaped patties into which fans can stuff a “scoop” of their chosen ingredient—such as carrot slaw or mofongo). Patrons then promote their “builds” through social media in order to appear on 4 Food’s Build board Charts and qualify for 4food$ off future purchases
• The premise of the menu at The Salty Pig, in Boston, is a build-your-own board of cured meats and charcuterie, artisanal cheeses, and items like Marconi almonds and Fig Jam to round out the experience. Each component is priced a la carte, and customers can and do order as few or as many items as they want for sharing or a light meal to accompany drinks. At lunch, there’s also a Pick Your Pig concept that provides a well-rounded tasting of Osaka, Tamworth, or assorted salumi specialties
Granted, each of these restaurants feature suggested menu items for those customers who don’t want to experiment, but the basic premise is all about the DIY menu.
For help with making your menu more customizable, contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants.