Restaurant and Food Service Blog

Lobster roll at Legal Seafoods

I just got back from a trip to Boston and the first thing I needed was a good lunch. I was hungry and when in Boston you need to go for seafood. Legal Seafoods was just across from my hotel. As I was enjoying my lobster roll and Sam Adams, it made me think more about the regionality of food and the carbon footprint that we are creating.

With so much of our food being trucked and shipped across the country, I can find strawberries just about any time of year at my local megamart. Sometimes they are very good and most times they are aweful. It is to the point where my kids expect to have any fruits during the course of the year. They simply don’t understand the seasonality of foods or comprehend it.

But there is also a regionality of food that we in the US seem to not have like in the past. Smokey Bones had a blueprint to produce barbecue joints across the country. On some levels, it seems to make some sense as the menu offers a wide array of different barbecues. But overall, the reason why Smokey Bones never really took off like many anticipated was that barbecue is provincal. In the Carolinas, where I live, there is a debate on even how Eastern Carolina barbecue is to me cut, chopped or shredded. And the barbecue can change from county to county.

The lobster roll and Sam Adams for lunch was awesome. I am not sure if it was because I was really hungry. But I think because it was fresh. My waiter was pushing a special that day which was a fish from New Zeland. I am glad that I stuck with the lobster roll instead.

“Restaurants offer escape from economic woes” from the Nation’s Restaurant News.  According to Bob Derrington, a securities analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co, he sees a silver lining for the terrible economic downturn. In addition The Nation’s Restaurant News reported that many trends in QSR and casual dining are showing positive growth indications from the last quarter. Maybe not is all so bad after all.

Regardless what analysts may be predicting, there are a huge number of top executives and professionals out on the market or really great ones who are taking a serious look at what the market is like. I still suspect that will a Dow that is taking a beating and looking like it may hit 6000, we still have a long haul to go before any of this is going to get better

With all the talk from the past couple of weeks at the Republican and Democratic conventions, all I have heard is how each of the candidates will be an agent of change and bring a different perspective.  With Obama as the first Black to be nominated on a major party ticket and Sarah Pallin nominated as only the second female to be on a presidential ticket, something new and great will be coming about in November regardless of whether or not you are a Democrat or Republican.

Unfortunately, I am not sure if I can say the same of the current state of some restaurant chains these days. Just the other day in the Sunday paper, I came across a coupon for Macaroni Grill’s frozen dinner. With slumping sales at the restaurants, I was dumbfounded to see that maybe Macaroni Grill was trying to capture consumers at home. Maybe the thought is that since many consumers are staying away from dining out, maybe they should try to get them at home instead.

Just last month, Brinker sold off a majority stake of Macaroni Grill to Golden Gate Capital.  But what I think Golden Gate Capital and others have a chance here is to make some bold changes to very tired brands. Ruby Tuesday’s is a prime example to shedding away an image that made them famous, but was no longer relevant in 2008. I love the recent television ad where the waiter says to the tiffany lamp, “The 70’s called and they want their lamp back.” Or better where the one waiter yanks off the referee jersey from off the other waiter’s back!

Desperate times means desperate measures. And it will take real vision from our leaders to take many of the brands to new levels.

Let me know your thoughts.

Which kids’ menus are most likely to make your children fat? A year-long study of children’s meals has revealed vast dietary differences among America’s favorite fast-food and sit-down chain restaurants, according to the authors of the new book EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids. Co-authors David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding calculated calories, fat (trans- and saturated), and sodium, as well as the average number of calories per children’s entree, and discovered that many of America’s most popular chain restaurants are nutritional nightmares for America’s children.

The authors compared children’s entrees, credited restaurants for having healthy adult options that would appeal to the young palate, evaluated healthy vegetable and fruit sides and drink options that go beyond sugar-laden soda, and docked points for restaurants still dishing out unhealthy trans fats or for refusing to release any nutrition information to their customers.

The result is a Restaurant Report Card that holds each food chain accountable for the fare they’re serving up — to moms, dads, kids, teens, and everybody else — along with a survival strategy for making it through any meal unscathed.
Did your favorite restaurant make the grade?

A

Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A excels in every category we tested for. With a slew of low-calorie sandwiches, the country’s “healthiest” chicken nugget, a variety of solid sides like fresh fruit and soup that can be substituted into any meal, and nutritional brochures readily available for perusing at each location, Chick-fil-A earns the award for America’s Healthiest Chain Restaurant (for kids, for the adults who drive them there, plus anybody else wise enough to make it their fast food choice).

Your Survival Strategy: Even the smartest kid in the class can still fail a test, so be on your toes at all times, even at Chik-fil-A. Limit salads with ranch or Caesar dressings, any sandwich with bacon, and make milkshakes a special treat, not an everyday beverage.

A-

Subway

A menu based on lean protein and vegetables is always going to score well in our book. With more than half a dozen sandwiches under 300 calories, plus a slew of soups and healthy sides to boot, Subway can satisfy even the pickiest eater without breaking the caloric bank.

But, despite what Jared may want you to believe, Subway is not nutritionally infallible: Those rosy calorie counts posted on the menu boards include neither cheese nor mayo (add 160 calories per 6-inch sub) and some of the toasted subs, like the Meatball Marinara, contain hefty doses of calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

Your Survival Strategy: Cornell researchers have discovered a “health halo” at Subway, which refers to the tendency to reward yourself or your kid with chips, cookies, and large soft drinks because the entree is healthy. Avoid the halo, and all will be well.

B+

Boston Market

With more than a dozen healthy vegetable sides and lean meats like turkey and roast sirloin on the menu, the low-cal, high-nutrient possibilities at Boston Market are endless. But with nearly a dozen calorie-packed sides and fatty meats like dark meat chicken and meat loaf (which contains an unfathomable 55 ingredients!), it’s almost as easy to construct a lousy meal.

Your Survival Strategy: There are three simple steps to nutritional salvation: 1) Start with turkey, sirloin, or rotisserie chicken. 2) Add two noncreamy, nonstarchy vegetable sides. 3) Ignore all special items, such as pot pie and nearly all of the sandwiches.

B

McDonald’s

Though not blessed with an abundance of healthy options, Mickey D’s isn’t burdened with any major calorie bombs, either. Kid standards like McNuggets and cheeseburgers are both in the acceptable 300-calorie range.

Your Survival Strategy: Apple Dippers and 2% milk with a small entree makes for a pretty decent meal-on-the-go. McDonald’s quintessential Happy Meal(R) makes this possible — just beware the usual French fries and soda pitfalls. Adults should go for a Quarter Pounder without cheese.

C+

Domino’s

Domino’s suffers the same pitfalls of any other pizza purveyor: too much cheese, bread, and greasy toppings. If you don’t order carefully, your child’s pizza might come laden with more than 350 calories per slice. To its credit, Domino’s does keep the trans fat out of the pizza, and it also offers the lowest-calorie thin crust option out there.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick with the Crunchy Thin Crust pizzas sans sausage and pepperoni. If your must order meat, ask for ham. And whenever possible, try to sneak on a vegetable or two per pie.

C

Burger King

BK has only four legitimate kids’ entrees on the menu, and none of them — French Toast Sticks, hamburger, mac and cheese, chicken tenders — are particularly healthy. And while the recent addition of Apple Fries provides a much-needed healthy side alternative for kids, the menu is still sullied with trans fats. BK pledged to follow in the wake of nearly every other chain restaurant and remove trans fats from the menu by the end of 2008, but so far, we’ve seen little action. In fact, a large order of Hash Browns has an outrageous 13 grams of the heart-threatening fat, and even an order of Cini-minis will add 4.5 grams of trans fats to your kid’s breakfast.

Your Survival Strategy: Adults can sign on for the Whopper Junior and a Garden Salad, and escape with only 365 calories. The best kids’ meal? A 4-piece Chicken Tenders(R), applesauce or Apple Fries, and water or milk. Beyond that, there is little hope of escaping unscathed.

D

Chipotle

We applaud Chipotle’s commitment to high-quality produce and fresh meats, but even the most pristine ingredients can’t limit the damage wrought by the massive portion sizes the chain serves up. The lack of options for kids means young eaters are forced to tussle with one of Chipotle’s behemoth burritos or taco platters, which can easily top 1,000 calories. Don’t think you’ll escape by ordering up a salad, either — even a leafy bowl at Chipotle can knock out more than half a day’s worth of calories.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick to the crispy tacos or burrito bowls, or saw a burrito in thirds.

F

Applebee’s, IHOP, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Friday’s

These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national chains that don’t provide nutritional information on their dishes. Even after years of communication with their representatives, we still hear the same old excuses: it’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it’s impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh. Our response is simple: If every other chain restaurant in the country can do it, then why can’t they? Recent New York legislation requiring these restaurants to run calorie counts on their menus gave diners a glimpse of what these establishments are hiding: At Friday’s, no fewer than nine sandwiches and ten appetizers topple the 1000-calorie barrier, at IHOP, the “healthiest” entree-size salad has a staggering 1050 calories, and at Outback, even a simple order of salmon will wipe out 75% of your day’s caloric allotment.

Your Survival Strategy: Write letters, make phone calls, beg, scream, and plead for these restaurants to provide nutritional information on all of their products. Ask them why they refuse to tell us the truth!

For a comprehensive A-to-F breakdown on 30 other chain restaurants — plus the best and worst meals at each — see the complete EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids Restaurant Report Card at eatthis.com/restaurants.

EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids is available nationwide on August 19th.

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Brinker Restaurant v. Superior Court of San Diego County, et al.
Case No.D049331 (Cal. Sup. Ct. 7/22/08)

The One Sentence Summary: On July 22, 2008, the California Court of Appeal issued a ruling on meal breaks and rest periods that may make it easier for California employers to comply with meal and rest break requirements. Because it is likely that the case will be appealed, however, employers should be cautious in relying on the opinion until all appeals are finally concluded, which may take several years.

What They Were Fighting About:
In Brinker Restaurant v. Superior Court of San Diego County, et al., plaintiffs brought a class action complaint against Brinker Restaurants (operator of 137 restaurants in California including Chili’s, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, and Maggiano’s Little Italy) for various alleged violations of California meal and rest break requirements. In vacating the Superior Court’s order granting class certification, the Court of Appeal made several significant rulings concerning employers’ responsibility for meal periods and rest breaks:

(1) Providing Meal and Rest Breaks: The Court held that while employers cannot “impede, discourage or dissuade employees from taking” meal periods or rest breaks, employers need only provide employees the opportunity to take meal periods and rest breaks, not ensure that employees actually take them.

(2) Scheduling Meal Breaks: The Court overturned the trial court’s conclusion that the employer was required to provide meal breaks on a “rolling” five hour schedule-that is, providing a thirty minute break for each five hours worked. Because Brinker allowed its food servers to take meal breaks in the first hour of an eight hour shift (so they could work and earn tips during the busiest part of the shift), plaintiffs had argued that Brinker was required to provide a second meal period within five hours of the first meal break. The Court held that employers need provide only one meal break for employees who work between five and ten hours during a shift, regardless of when the meal period is taken. A second meal break is only required if an employee works more than ten hours.

(3) Scheduling Rest Breaks: The Court also rejected the argument that employees need to take their rest breaks in the middle of each four hour period. The Court found that Brinker did not violate the rest break requirement by allowing employees to take their meal period in the first hour of an eight hour shift and then to take their two rest breaks later in the shift.

What Brinker May Mean to You:

If this case is not overturned on appeal (which we may not know for months or even years), then employers will have more flexibility in scheduling meal periods and will not have the burden of ensuring (and proving) that employees actually take the full meal periods provided. In addition, employers will not have to pay the one hour of premium pay to employees who take an “early lunch,” a break at the wrong time, or a break of less than 30 minutes, as long as the employer provided a meal period and the employee did not work more than ten hours total.

In light of the likelihood that this case will be appealed, many recommend that employers do not make changes to meal and rest break policies without consulting legal counsel.
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Celebrity chef-restaurateur Bobby Flay and business partner Laurence Kretchmer are moving downscale with the launch of what is expected to be the first of a chain of fast-casual burger joints. It seems as though the “better burger” segment may be the “it girl” today. With the current news on other better burgers such as Five Guys and The Habit, it seems as though every one wants some skin in the game.

But with the scare du jour, ie, salmonella, mad cow, etc, how are we so sure that this latest craze will not get snuffed out by something so random? Peter Romeo in his latest blog posting, Bugging Out, talks about how something such as the current salmonella breakout can turn into something very different once in the hands of the public perception.

But as the US economy continues to look bleak there is still a ray of hope for the restaurant industry as smaller concepts continue to grow and show that they have legs. These smaller concepts, although very risky, are probably where we are going to see the greatest grow potential in the next year.

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A monthlong standoff came to an end Tuesday when stockholders of OSI Restaurant Partners just barely approved selling it to two buyout firms. Now industry experts and perhaps employees, too, wonder whether a sale of OSI’s brands is on the horizon.

Finally, the sale of OSI looks like it will finally be complete. What does this mean for the casual dining behemoth?
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David Farkas of Chain Leader in his blog had an interesting take on the loyalty of the gay community when it comes to certain brands. 

What do Cracker Barrel, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts have in common with Wal-Mart, Levi’s and American Airlines?

Answer: Gay people either like or despise these companies. A recent Prime Access/PlanetOut.com survey shows that gays, lesbian and transgendered consumers put Starbucks at the top of their list of “gay-friendly” businesses while Cracker Barrel and Dunkin Donuts (along with Wal-Mart) are at the very bottom. 

Interesting to find out that the gay community finds Dunkin Donuts at the bottom of being “gay-friendly”. Not sure what it is about the Canton based company that makes them not “gay-friendly” and Starbucks a place were gay and lesbians can hang out.

By the way, I am not gay…not that there is anything wrong with that!!!!

Consumers will use much of their tax rebate money to pay for increasingly expensive gas and groceries, rather than spend it on electronics or clothes, said the most recent survey by the National Retail Federation. This according to a recent Reuters news feed.

I believe now that we have yet to really see what this economic slowdown will really look like and I feel that the worse is still yet to come. How much higher will gas get? I certainly don’t see any slowdown in food costs. You have got to believe that all of this will adversely effect the restaurant industry. With many households feeling the pinch, we can expect that the hardest hit segment will be casual dining and the fine dining segments. I wouldn’t be surprised if the “recession-proof” QSR segment feels a bit of a squeeze as well. Yes, QSR has the advantage of lower price points and day part -lunch – that is one that most of those working will go for that fast food fix. But I would gather that many more folks will consider brown bagging it a couple more times a week to help save a few bucks.

I mentioned a lot of this in my 2008 predictions for the restaurant industry -(Read the entire 2008 Restaurant Predictions).

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Darden just disclosed 3rd quarter earnings (See press release on RestaurantNewsResource.com)  With a lot of positive comp sales growth in almost all of their brands, I wonder if the restaurant behemoth is looking to make a turn for the better. As most of the causal dining sector has been going over the past couple of years, the segment is due for a better run.  However, with transportation and commodity costs still running high, I question if this is only temporary.In addition, much of the positive earnings that Darden is showing can probably be attributed to the sale of Smokey Bones in December of last year.  The the looming economic slow down and financial crisis on Wall Street makes for great fodder for the restaurant industry.