Food

In April 2016, Tampa Bay Times food critic Laura Reiley rocked the culinary world with an investigation into restaurants’ local sourcing claims. In the piece, titled “Farm to Fable,” Reiley found that dozens of local restaurants — many of which she had lavishly praised in past reviews — were misleading customers about the provenance of food. “Florida quail” was from Wyoming. “Florida shrimp” came from India. Local Zellwood corn… wasn’t.  

It’s not that every restaurateur was actively practicing deception. Many said they had neglected to update the menu, or that they simply couldn’t source everything locally all the time. Seasons change, prices go up, farms go out of business, and it gets complicated.

Does everything really have to be local? And how can restaurants can prioritize farm-to-table sourcing while also managing costs?

Topics: Locavores, Featured, Restaurants, Farm to Table

Got a surly server? That’s all right; customers won’t care once they taste their food. That’s what many restaurateurs believe, anyway. Here’s the cold truth: great food can’t make up for less-than-stellar service. Customers complain more about personal service than food quality, Jay Baer found in his research for “Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers.”

“There seems to be an under-emphasis in employee training and employee skills in comparison to the emphasis on product quality,” Baer tells Nation’s Restaurant News.

How can restaurateurs fix this? Look to the best. Here are seven secrets of customer service all-stars. 

Topics: Featured, Customers, Customer Service, Foodservice

Even giants stumble. The past few years have brought huge shakeups in the foodservice industry, as fast-casual dining and technology innovations have dramatically altered customers’ expectations for eating out. As a result, big chains like Pizza Hut, Applebee’s and McDonald’s have had to change their game plans to regain the popularity they once took for granted.  

Here’s a look at what can smaller chains and independent operators can learn from the turnaround efforts of America’s biggest restaurant companies.

Topics: Featured, Foodservice, Chain Restaurants

We're not quite ready to trade our morning mug of coffee for a hot cup of bone broth, or our blueberry muffin for a gluten-free scone. But your customers might be.

The paleo diet has grown to become "one of the most influential dietary trends in the country, with as many as three million followers and a disproportionate cultural influence," reports Salon. And as many as one in five Americans include gluten-free foods in their diets, Gallup found.

Considering altering your menu so you can join the ranks of paleo restaurants or gluten-free restaurants? Here's a look at the dos and don'ts for restaurateurs.

Topics: Gluten-free, Restaurant management, Featured, Menu, Paleo

While individual diners may claim Yelp doesn't influence their decisions, the data shows that reviews play a huge role in where people eat. A 2011 study by Harvard Business School assistant professor Michael Luca found that a one-star increase in a restaurant's Yelp rating leads to a 5-9 percent increase in revenue. This effect held true for independent restaurants but not chains, Luca found. Yet it's tricky for restaurant owners to encourage positive reviews without openly asking for them. And what should they do about the inevitable bad review on Yelp and other sites? Here are a few pointers.

Topics: Restaurant Reviews, Social media, Yelp, Featured, Feature, Marketing, Retaurant business

Topics: Featured, Feature, Food, Emulsions, Immersion Blender, Culinary blenders

Food, service, and atmosphere are the three main components in any dining experience, but which matters most and how is “good” defined? Coyle Hospitality studied data from nearly 2,500 diners worldwide and found that diners’ views varied according to how much they were spending.

Topics: Waitstaff, Dining environment, Atmosphere, Restaurant management, Research, Featured, Food, Restaurants

When Jessica and Josh Bufford opened Estilo in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, the most common question they heard from guests was, “Is this just fancy Mexican food?”

The restaurant opened in August 2013, and in January 2014 it won the “Best New Restaurant” award from Richmond Magazine. Now the mesa Latina is packed for lunch and dinner nearly every day of the week. Clearly the Buffords are doing more than a few things right, including riding the waves of two key trends—Latin American food and gluten-free kitchens—and managing the restaurant with the perfect balance of art and science.

Estilo's signature dish, Duck Confit Pozole (right).

Topics: Gluten-free, Latin America, Peru, Restaurant management, Brazil, Featured, Feature, Food, Restaurants

 A return to classics such as seafood paella is just one of four trends sweeping through Spanish restaurants

At the end of 2012, the New York Times noted the surge of Spanish modernism as a global cuisine. As critics celebrated the technical, flavorful feats of mad food scientist Ferran Adría and his disciples, there seemed to be only one problem with the hot new trend—everyone wanting to know “what's next?”

Topics: Featured, Food, Tapas, Spain, Gastrobotanics, Basque cuisine, Spanish Modernism, Pinxtos, Spanish restaurant trends

Gone are the days of quiet dining rooms. Noise is in, and restaurants are pumping up their sound systems, embracing sound-reflecting hard surfaces and enlarging their bars. As food critic Adam Platt writes, "ask any weary gastronaut about the single most disruptive restaurant trend over the past decade or so... they’ll give you a succinct, one-sentence answer. It’s the noise, stupid.”

Topics: Dining environment, Atmosphere, Noise, Restaurant management, Featured, Food, feat