Food

Fresh food. Fast service. Local sourcing. Craft beer. Juicing. The place where all these trends intersect is the grocerant.

What, exactly, is a grocerant? It can be defined as a grocery store that incorporates a restaurant experience, inviting customers to dine and drink in-store. The grocerant trend turns a grocery store from a destination for errand-running into a “third place” where people gather between home and work. 

Grocerants boost stores’ bottom lines as well. A 2016 study from the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Technomic suggests that 64 percent of stores saw prepared foods category growth of nine percent or higher in 2014. In addition to freshly prepared foods, what does a store need to offer to become an appealing grocerant?

We tend to think of oxygen as a beneficial gas. Plants make it, we breathe it, it’s great — right? The problem is, oxygen is also a powerful agent in the food spoilage process.

When oxygen is the enemy, other gases are your ally in food preservation. Introducing inert gases to food packaging after vacuum sealing can keep food looking better and tasting fresher longer.

Until now, gas flushing has been available only on the most expensive models of commercial grade vacuum sealer. We wanted to put this versatile tool in the hands of more chefs, so we made Gas Flush standard on the PrimaVac™ 406 In-Chamber Vacuum Sealer. 

If you’ve ever used a chamber vacuum sealer, you know the process is dramatic. Place a plastic pouch containing food — a nice filet, we’ll say — inside the chamber. Start the cycle and air is removed from the chamber. At the end of the cycle, when air re-enters the chamber, the sealed pouch shrinks around the filet. The result: it stays fresh and looks good for longer.

But what happens when a chef seals delicate, fragile or sharp-edged foods? Will they be crushed, or puncture the pouch? Not if you have adjustable Soft Air.

One of the coolest components of the new PrimaVac™ commercial vacuum sealer line is the JetAire™ rotary vane pump inside.

But why should you care about what’s inside a chamber sealer? You just want it to work. 

Exactly. We know that in a busy kitchen, there’s only one time the kitchen staff are thinking about the inner workings of their equipment: when something breaks. That’s why we designed the  JetAire™ pump to be incredibly durable, reliably powerful, and easy to maintain.

They always order the tofu curry, but they’re OK with chicken broth in tom kha soup. They say no to spaghetti with meatballs and yes to spaghetti carbonara. They ask for the veggie burger — with bacon.

They’re the flexitarians: people who follow a primarily plant-based diet, but aren’t averse to eating small amounts of meat. And their ranks are growing fast. But how can restaurants capture this hard-to-pin-down diner?

Two years after Panera announced its commitment to "clean" eating, the mega-chain announced in January 2017 that it had reached the finish line. Panera systematically eliminated the 96 ingredients on its No No List, ingredients as varied (and common) as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrolyzed soy protein and FD&C colors. “Panera is the first national restaurant company to make such a comprehensive commitment and, more importantly, to meet it,” the company proclaimed.

It won’t be the last, however. Many of the nation’s largest restaurant chains are working to clear their menus of ingredients that health-conscious consumers find objectionable, and 2017 may be the year that “clean eating” truly goes mainstream in the foodservice industry. Is it worth making the switch? Here’s a closer look at what the big brands are doing.

Menus are going to look a little different on May 5, 2017. That’s the deadline set by the Food and Drug Administration for restaurants with 20-plus locations to provide nutrition information to their customers. Calorie counts must be featured prominently on menus, and detailed nutrition information must be made available in restaurants. Do you operate one of the estimated 278,600 restaurant locations affected by the menu-labeling law? We’ve answered six questions many operators are asking.

Diners want better, healthier, cleaner food — faster. They want it this second, actually.

That’s why delivery-focused restaurants are taking off. Look at Chicago’s Eat Purely, which promises chef-made organic meals delivered in 20 minutes. Sales have doubled each month since Eat Purely opened in March 2016. Millennials especially love when people bring them food; about 20 percent of the restaurant meals they eat are delivered.

The rise in delivery demand promises good things for restaurants: higher order volume, increased sales during off-peak hours, and lower front-of-house costs. It also presents some problems, including quality control challenges and high commissions for delivery partners. We take a closer look at the future of restaurant delivery.

Soups. Shakes. Sauces. Smoothies. Most chefs rely on their blenders to make a few, standard menu items. But a high-performance blender, like the EXPEDITOR Culinary Blender series from Hamilton Beach Commercial, can lend its talents in a few unexpected ways. We found seven recipes for blenders that might surprise you, from pizza crust to lemonade. Why not give them a whirl?

Customer loyalty programs aren’t just for big business. Any size company, from a small café to a regional chain, can employ a cost-effective digital loyalty program to encourage customers to keep coming back. A repeat customer spends 67 percent more on a single purchase than a new customer does, a Manta and BIA/Kelsey report found; and, as Entrepreneur notes, “they should be rewarded for this action, as retaining customers is less costly than acquiring new ones.”

But how can a company ensure its loyalty program investment will pay off? Hamilton Beach Commercial spoke with Jenny Beightol, Director of Words & Reputations for Belly. With more than 12,000 clients and 6 million members, Chicago-based Belly is the leading digital loyalty solution for businesses. Here are six strategies for making your digital loyalty program a success.