Restaurant and Food Service Blog

Todd Graves, multimillionaire founder of Raising Cane’s Chicken, with wife Gwen was on the new Fox reality show “Secret Millionaire.” The show puts millionaires in the middle of very poor areas where the millionaires pose as regular “joes”. They befriend unknowing, down-and-out people who are in need. At the end of the show, the millionaires reveal their true background and present their new friends with checks up to $100,000 to help them out.

In this particular show, Todd and his wife meet three different Katrina victims who are looking to put their live back together after the disaster from 2005. They are all trying to rebuild their homes and lives back in the Louisiana area.

Although the show was very well done and a great plug for Todd and his company, is seemed to be very canned. Todd and his wife simply show out of the blue and start talking to strangers about their past. All the time, this is being taped? Did all of these unsuspecting people just think that this couple to claim to be from Virginia and drive up in a big SUV with Louisiana plates with a film crew following them, just decided to come to one of the most devastated areas in Louisiana just for the fun of it? C’mon.

More revealing was when Todd and his wife went grocery shopping. They were only allowed to have $107 (the same amount that is considered at the poverty line) for spending during the week. So they had to go get food at the local grocery store. Somehow, the CEO of a multi-million dollar chain doesn’t know the price of food and grocery items? They have to return food back upon check out because they will not have enough money for the week. How is it that Todd and his wife, who also was a McDonald’s franchisee, doesn’t know how to buy their own groceries on a budget?

In the end, the show was touching. But definitely a made for TV 1 hour special.

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In this era of globalization, restaurant menus from New York to San Francisco boast fresh fish with distant origins: blackfin tuna from Tobago, mahi-mahi from Hawaii and black grouper from the Bahamas. But a group of chefs and food service vendors (aware that such jet-setting comes at a heavy cost – not to just the pocket but with green house gases.

The term “Fresh frozen” really is not a new one at all. Some sushi catchers have been doing this for years and many sushi chef prize this meat more because the fish is being “preserved” in a state closer to when it came out of the sea.

As we look to other alternatives to lowering our greenhouse gas emissions and become more green in our purchases, supply chain leaders need to think more about how our food is being transported from all over the world.

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Here is an intersting interview that I found with Ben Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s

How did you and Ben start?

Ben and I met in gym class when we were 13 years old. We were the two slowest, fattest kids in the class, running around the track together. We went through school together, and we failed at everything we tried to do. We wanted to do something together that was fun. We had always liked to eat, so we picked ice-cream. We opened a homemade ice-cream parlour in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978 and we learned how to make ice-cream from a $5 correspondence course. We had a happily chaotic experience.

Do you miss those early homespun days?

I do. When we began we had no idea what we were doing – every day was a complete and total adventure, and it was really fun.

The brand has a hippyish image. Were you really hippies?

If you think of hippies as people who professed peace, love and nderstanding, yes. If you think of them as people who sat around all day doing nothing but smoking drugs and thinking up funny ideas, no. We were a little more productive than that.

What is your favourite flavour?

Vanilla toffee crunch.

You sold the company to Unilever in 2000. Has Unilever changed Ben & Jerry’s or has Ben & Jerry’s changed Unilever?

It is some of both. For Ben & Jerry’s, changing Unilever is a little like the tail wagging the dog. The best thing that has happened is that Ben & Jerry’s has continued to perform well, so Unilever has a company that has operated with a social mission as part of its central reason for being and has seen that it is a success.

You were criticised for having sold out. Is that fair?

Yes. It is fair. I can certainly say that if I had not been part of Ben & Jerry’s, if I had been a person on the street who was a Ben & Jerry’s eater and followed Ben & Jerry’s values, I would have been concerned. We did not want to sell the business; it was a very difficult time. But we were a public company, and the board of directors’ primary responsibility is the interest of the shareholders. So that is what the decision came down to. It was extremely difficult, heart-wrenching. It was a horrible experience for me and I can probably say it was horrible for Ben too.

Once you had banked the cheque, did you regret selling?

It is not as if we sold it feeling great about the situation and ended up regretting it – we didn’t feel great about it from the start and throughout. It was nothing about Unilever; we didn’t want to get bought by anybody.

Isn’t there a danger that you have become Unilever’s social conscience, that you make it look good – ie, socially responsible?

I guess that I hope Unilever and other companies will see that the way Ben & Jerry’s has operated has been very successful for the company.

But people are buying into the brand because they think it is just you and Ben when, really, you are owned by a multinational.

If you happen to believe what Ben & Jerry’s is supporting and involved in, then you should support the company. If you don’t believe in what we are supporting, don’t support it. The reality is that most companies are not about any values at all – they are about making money. It is extremely rare for a business to stand for anything because most businesses don’t want to alienate potential customers, and if you believe in anything you are going to alienate someone.

As Ben says to me all the time, it’s better to stand for something. Some people will agree, some people won’t agree, but you’re going to connect with the people who agree with you on a much deeper level than, “Hey this is some great-tasting ice-cream with some interesting names.”

You’re an ice-cream company, but you have a social conscience. How does that work when it comes to public health?

Ben & Jerry’s is an indulgent dessert that should be eaten in moderation. You should not be replacing more than one meal a day with ice-cream. We do not consider a pint or a tub of ice-cream to be a single serving.

Are you responsible for the obesity epidemic?

No, we are clearly not responsible for the obesity epidemic. I believe I am personally responsible for my own consumption, which I could cut back on a little.

Do you still eat ice-cream?

I eat plenty of it. I do still maintain the basic human form, but I could be a little trimmer.

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More than a quarter of all Americans are now obese, the latest U.S. government figures show. The percentage of U.S. adults who are obese grew by nearly 2 percent between 2005 and 2007, from just under 24 percent to 25.6 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

This problem is getting worse here in America. With so few Americans exercising, you wonder why we seem to be running into so many overweight people. This has been an issue that the chain restaurant industry has been trying to attack with pressure from local municipalities. But in my opinion, this transcends what the government should bear. More importantly, there needs to be a public outcry for everyone to get back into shape.

I live in a very suburban area in North Carolina. When my wife and I moved here from Washington, DC, I think we gained 10 pounds because we did not walk anymore. Instead of walking to the grocery store and post office, we drove. But we made changes to our life style to get back into shape and make up for the lack of walking that we did living in a city.

Everyone’s got to find the time.

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Mr. Aoki founded the theatrical Benihana chain of steakhouses, where Japanese chefs with flashing knives double as performers. His restaurants were key to bringing Japanese restaurants and acceptance to America. His restaurants were ahead of its time. The “theatre” of cooking food in front of the guests and making them feel a part of the action was sheer brilliance. Before Aoki opened up Benihana, most of the Japanese restaurants in America were tailor towards the Japanese population. Aoki changed all of that.

This larger than life figure loved to “cheat death.” From racing on power boats and sailing in hot air ballon races, Rocky was a man who loved living life.

Aoki is a true American success story. He came to the United States from Japan when he was 19, and several years later he opened the first restaurant with $10,000 he had earned selling ice cream out of a truck. Within seven years, he had expanded his empire to 15 restaurants.

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Max & Erma’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ/Capital Market: MAXE) announced Friday the signing of a definitive agreement with G&R Acquisition, Inc. (G&R), an entity formed by Gary Reinert, Sr. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This will probably be a great move for the struggling casual dining chain. They will have more breathing room in a segment that is really taking it on the chin over the past couple of years.

The regional brand has been a stronghold in the Ohio and Indiana regions. But it hasn’t been able to break out. I love the food and the concept. We will see if this acquisition will bring more to the brand.

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The Habit Burger Grill, a 23-unit chain with a cult following and restaurant-savvy private-equity backers, is ramping up for regional growth while eyeing In-N-Out Burger’s market share and the expansion aims of several other burger brands with formidable pedigrees.

Typically when Southern Californians refer to a burger chain with a cult following, they mean Irvine, Calif.-based In-N-Out, which has grown from a single drive-thru in 1948 to 218 branches in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

For its part, The Habit Burger Grill has a 35-year history in Santa Barbara, where founder Brent Reichard began working at a burger stand in 1976 at age 16 then bought it four years later with his brother Bruce.

Russ Bendel, inset, was hired away from The Cheesecake Factory in May to lead 23-unit The Habit Burger Grill as president and chief executive.
Just like In-N-Out, The Habit, as it’s called, has a simple menu based on select ingredients, including never-frozen meat and real ice cream shakes.

In August 2007, private-equity firm KarpReilly LLC, based in Greenwich, Conn., bought majority ownership of The Habit. Last month the investment firm hired Russ Bendel to head the chain, luring him away from the post he’d held for only eight months as president of The Cheesecake Factory Inc.’s restaurant division.

That was the second such hiring of Bendel by KarpReilly, which recruited him away from Outback Steakhouse eight years ago to head Mimi’s Cafe before the investment firm sold that growth chain to Bob Evans Farms Inc.

Under Bendel’s leadership as president and chief executive, The Habit is now targeting an expansion by 100 to 120 units over the next five to seven years in California, Arizona and Nevada.

However, competition is heating up in California among other burger chains with reputations for high-quality ingredients and avid customer followings.

Lorton, Va.-based Five Guys Burgers and Fries, the 286-unit chain known mostly on the East Coast but sometimes compared to In-N-Out Burger, opened its first West Coast location in Carson, Calif., in May. That branch is operated by franchisee Phil Ratner, a former president of the Marie Callender’s chain, who plans to open 30 Five Guys outlets in Los Angeles and Orange counties over the next five years.

Smashburger, a Denver-based fast-casual concept created by Quiznos founder Rich Schaden, also has its sights set on the West Coast, though it probably won’t pull the trigger on development there for a few more years, officials said. Smashburger, which boasts such hallmarks as Black Angus steak patties, hand-sliced tomatoes and butter-toasted egg buns, has four units open in Denver and another two under construction.

Also, a new concept called Best-O-Burger debuted in San Francisco in May featuring high-end mini burgers in a walk-up-stand format. Created by Stephen Weber, owner of the fine-dining restaurant Mecca there, Best-O-Burger was created as a potential growth vehicle, but company officials have yet to disclose expansion plans.

Bendel concedes that what might be called the better-burger category is very competitive, but he feels The Habit is uniquely positioned because its streamlined menu also features chicken, freshly prepared salads and sandwiches with unique ingredients, such as roast beef tri-tip and char-broiled albacore tuna steak.

The Habit’s broader menu “eliminates the veto vote,” Bendel said, noting that the variety appeals to women, unlike most burger chains that focus on young men.

Unlike In-N-Out Burger, which is known for its drive-thrus, The Habit offers only walk-up ordering. Units range in size from 900 to 2,000 square feet with patio dining. Bendel said sales are “north of ” $700 per square foot with slightly more than half of sales generated at lunch and the rest at dinner. The chain has recorded a consecutive string of same-store sales growth for the past five years, he added, noting that transactions are in the $8 range.

The Habit’s signature “double charburger” is about $3.85, in the same range as the $3.99 price of In-N-Out’s signature burger or the $4.39 charged by Five Guys.

Like In-N-Out Burger, The Habit doesn’t spend much on advertising, preferring word-of-mouth buzz. Another similarity is that The Habit’s officials have no plans to franchise the brand.

Bendel said the company would continue to fill in the markets between Sacramento, Calif., where The Habit has five units, and the Greater Los Angeles area, where the company recently opened a unit in Torrance, its eighth in Los Angeles County. There are seven branches in Ventura County and three in Santa Barbara.

However, The Habit has agreed not to open in West Los Angeles within a certain radius of an unrelated restaurant called Hamburger Habit, which was the original name of Reichard’s concept. He renamed it in 1998 after learning that the Los Angeles operator owned the trademark in the state.

So far this year, The Habit has opened four units and plans to add another two. It expects six to eight more to open in 2009. Currently the company is focusing on building up its infrastructure for growth, following the owners’ incorporation of Habit Restaurants Inc. last year.

KarpReilly principals Chris Reilly and Allan Karp recruited Bendel. They also had made him president and chief executive of Mimi’s Cafe, whose multiregional growth Bendel directed for seven years before he joined The Cheesecake Factory last September.

The private-equity partners also have investment interests in the Southwestern-theme Z’Tejas upscale-casual chain, created by concept impresario Paul Fleming, and the casual-dining Elephant Bar restaurants.

Despite his background in casual dining, Bendel was attracted to The Habit as an entrepreneurial opportunity and by the company’s commitment to growth and “great culture,” he said. However, Cheesecake Factory, with its 141-unit namesake chain and 13 Grand Lux Cafes, books more sales in four days than The Habit may see in a year, he noted.

Regardless, The Habit “has a lot of blue sky in front of it,” said Bendel, who, as chief executive, replaced Reichard, who remains chairman. Dave Nordahl, an early partner of Reichard’s, is turning over the title of president to Bendel and remaining on the Habit’s board. The partners retained a 19.9-percent ownership stake after KarpReilly’s acquisition.

The Reichard brothers also retained ownership of The Habit’s three Santa Barbara branches, which evolved from the original chili burger outlet in suburban Goleta. That was the brand’s lone unit until the mid-1990s, when Fleming—creator of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Fleming’s Prime Steak-house & Wine Bar, among other concepts—was an initial backer of The Habit’s expansion, along with Jim Magglos, founder of the Baja Fresh Mexican Grill chain.

The Habit’s original restaurant, with outdoor seating only and fresh flowers adorning its ordering counter, will do close to $1.5 million in sales this year, Reichard said. He added that Bendel’s agreement to join the chain “really validates the concept” and its growth prospects. “I think it could be at least as big as In-N-Out Burger.”

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Austin-based Fired Up Inc. is going global, with a new licensing agreement to expand its Carino’s Italian Grill concept in the Persian Gulf region, Africa and parts of Asia.

Norman Abdallah, a co-founder of Fired Up, will move to Cairo to become senior vice chairman and president of the licensee, the Amer Group. What this shows is that the US economy is NOT the place to be for American concepts and future development. The real places to be are going to be Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

We have already seen 600 Starbucks being closed and there will probably be more to close soon enough. The Big Green Coffee giant has already stated that Asia is their prime market right now for development.

This global push comes right as the Olympics are about to start in China and is a real wake up call for the United States that we do not live in a US centric world anymore.

Some of the bigger concerns here will probably lead to sustainability and high standards of crop/agriculture growing techniques. The US is already mired in a tomato/jalapeno/cilantro/salmonella mess. Can you imagine what the food production landscape will look like in the near future?

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One coffee drinker’s bad news is another coffee drinker’s good news, it seems.

Financial woes at Starbucks Corp., which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.

“I’m so happy. I’m so not a Starbucks person,” said Melinda Vigliotti, sipping iced coffee at the Irving Farm Coffee House in New York. “I believe in supporting small businesses. Starbucks, bye-bye.”

“Amen,” chimed in Keith DiLauro, a local caterer. “They went too big, too fast.”

Seattle-based Starbucks burst onto the national scene in the 1990s and grew to more than 6,000 locations around the world. But with cups of coffee that can cost several dollars, it faces a slowing economy and slowed consumer spending.

“Starbucks has really created a coffee culture, raising awareness of good coffee, which is good for independents,” said Carol Watson, owner of the Milk and Honey coffee shop in Chicago. “But on the other hand, they’re on practically every corner, and that makes it tough on the little guy too.”

In Birmingham, Alabama, retiree Peggy Bonfield, drinking coffee at the Crestwood Coffee Shop, said: “When a Starbucks closes, it makes room for a local business to start.

The schadenfreude of coffee drinkers drawing satisfaction from another’s misfortune is part of the popular culture that enjoys the downfall of companies or celebrities, said Jim Carroll, a Canadian-based trends and innovation expert.

“There are a lot of people out there who take delight in seeing an icon torn down by the masses,” he said.

Starbucks fell victim to a rapid change in attitude, fueled by Internet bloggers complaining endlessly about everything from layoffs to its breakfast sandwiches, he said.

“Starbucks was a cool brand, and then all of a sudden it’s not a cool brand,” he said. “There’s this new global consciousness that is out there that can suddenly shift.”

CAFE CULTURE

Indeed, said Pye Parson, who hails from Seattle and works at Birmingham’s Crestwood, “Once it went corporate, it wasn’t Starbucks anymore.”

New York Web designer Zachary Thacher, who favors Greenwich Village’s cafes, said he avoids Starbucks. “They’ve commoditized cafe culture, which is why I don’t go,” he said.

The environmental movement toward buying and appreciating locally grown products has helped neighborhood cafes and hurt the myriad look-a-like Starbucks stores, said Judy Ramberg, a consumer strategist at Iconoculture, a Minneapolis-based trend research company.

The company that began as innovative is now known for consistency and convenience, she said. “To me, that’s a huge step down,” she said. “You’ve built your franchise on people who are coming in because they know exactly what they want.”
Precisely, said Justin Sergi, explaining why he preferred Lux, a cafe in Phoenix serving lattes with a fern-like pattern teased from steamed milk in ceramic cups, over Starbucks.

“The people that work there are very pleasant, but the stores are devoid of any kind of real charm or personality,” he said. “They push a button, and a machine does everything from grinding the beans to brewing the drink.”

It’s not as though Starbucks doesn’t have defenders,

“It’s convenient,” said Anthony Castro, sitting in a Starbucks near his job at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “I know what to expect.”

In Birmingham, Crestwood regular Gary Adkins said he felt Starbucks gave employees good salaries and benefits. But now Starbucks’ plans call for cutting up to 12,000 full- and part-time positions.

Not everyone felt strongly. “It’s just coffee,” said Marc Poulin, a systems administrator at Zibetto Espresso Bar in New York. “If I was an investor, I’d care.”


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Starbucks Corp. has announced it’s closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States.

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