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January 14, 2020
- Dining out has become a staple of Americans' monthly eating habits, with 83% of consumers eating a meal outside the home at least once per month
- Americans now spend an average of $281 on dining out in a typical month
- Discounts and deals influence Americans' out-of-home dining choices more than expected: 77% say a deal would make them more likely to choose to dine out
RetailMeNot today announced the release of the 2020 Restaurant Marketing Insights guide, providing a comprehensive look at consumer behaviors when dining out and the strategies restaurant marketers can...
January 13, 2020
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
From stress-busting foods to special burger blends and rejiggered classic cocktails, this year’s list highlights a combination of comfort mixed with a little bit of edginess.
Wondering what customers are craving at restaurants this year? If you guessed these edgy updates along with plant-based proteins, healthy bowl meals and delivery-friendly menu options in eco-friendly packaging, you’re on trend for 2020.
“These trends reflect Americans’ desire to combine the tried-and-true with the new and different,”...
January 13, 2020
Mayor Releases Study on Supporting Minority- and Women-Owned Small Businesses
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Interim Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio awarded over $2.3 million in Fiscal Year 2020 Great Streets Small Business Grants to 48 local small businesses. The investment continues Mayor Bowser’s effort to support local businesses, create new job opportunities for DC residents, and grow the District’s emerging neighborhoods.
“Small and local businesses are the heart and backbone of DC’s...
January 10, 2020
S&D Coffee & Tea® and Nation's Restaurant News Tap Restaurant Operators to Determine Top Trends
Leading beverage supplier and innovator S&D Coffee & Tea® recently teamed up with Nation's Restaurant News to predict the top beverage trends most likely to appear on restaurant menus in 2020. Drawn from a comprehensive survey* commissioned among restaurant operators nationwide, along with an in-depth audit of market insights and testimonials from influential industry insiders, the report is diverse in its findings. Trends range from the nitrogenation of...
January 9, 2020
Original content: VinePair
By Jennifer Simonson
Chile runs along South America’s western edge from the dry desert in the north to a field of glaciers in the south. Rugged mountains, fertile valleys, never-ending coastline, rumbling volcanoes and scorched sand dunes all clash to provide this long, thin country with a captivating landscape. For winemakers, that landscape is more than captivating, it is a grape grower’s paradise.
The low cost of land, rare interference from vine pests and diseases, dependable dry, warm summers, and nearby mountains providing a regular supply of...
January 9, 2020
Original content: Forbes
By Cathy Huyghe Contributor
If you’re a wine lover, and if you’re heads-up about current events and world news, then the New Year hasn’t been very celebratory so far. The bad news seems overwhelming and far-reaching, between devastating fires in Australia to bureaucrat types in Washington and Europe debating tariffs and deciding the fate of so many wine businesses we love.
It seems overwhelming, partly because it feels so out of our control.
I’d argue that, despite the large-scale ramifications of current events, there are things that...
January 9, 2020
Original content: The New York Times
By David Yaffe-Bellany
Published Jan. 9, 2020; Updated Jan. 10, 2020, 12:58am ET
Responding to criticism that it was cutting into restaurant profits, the food-delivery giant said it was making a change to stop charging fees for calls that do not end with an order.
Facing mounting pressure from regulators and restaurant owners, the food-delivery giant Grubhub said on Thursday that it would revise its widely criticized phone-ordering system to avoid charging restaurants for calls that do not result in orders.
In recent...
January 9, 2020
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Top execs at leading fast-casual concepts say opening too many and too few new stores can jeopardize a brand’s long-term success.
The restaurant industry is full of cautionary tales of buzzy new brands exploding on the scene only to become unwieldy as they grow too quickly. Opening too few new stores is no better. What’s the key to a healthy store-opening rate?
In its Fast Casual Insider podcast series, the National Restaurant Association asked senior execs from successful brands to share their business strategies...
January 9, 2020
Washington, DC (January 9, 2020) — The 38th Annual RAMMY Awards will return to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Sunday, July 26, 2020. Nominations for 20 categories will be accepted online today, January 9, through February 20, 2020, including four categories for which the general public will select a winner. New in 2020, the awards program’s respected judges panel has amended the timeframe in which a restaurant must be open in order to qualify for the restaurant-specific categories, kicking off a full six months of programs and...
January 8, 2020
The National Cherry Blossom Festival, in conjunction with RAMW, is proud to showcase the District's vibrant and diverse restaurant scene to 1.5 million attendees throughout the Festival. Restaurants are encouraged to enroll in the program to highlight items from their seasonal, springtime menus. Please note: the use of cherries as an ingredient is not necessary to participate in this promotion.
Cherry Picks now features THREE distinct weeks to highlight your spring menus. You have the option to participate in any week or all three weeks for the promotion
- March 20 - 29: Delightful...
January 8, 2020
Original content: Eater Las Vegas
by Susan Stapleton Jan 8, 2020, 9:00am PST
A new Las Vegas-based organization plans to bring together female restaurant industry mentors with newcomers to help them navigate the hospitality world. Elizabeth Blau of Blau + Associates and restaurants such as Honey Salt and Buddy V’s Ristorante and Mary Choi Kelly of MCK Leadership Talent Group co-founded the Women’s Hospitality Initiative that kicks off its efforts with a screening of the documentary A Fine Line followed by nibbles and networking with...
January 8, 2020
A new study from the market research team at Zion & Zion, a top-ranked, full-service, national marketing agency, examines the problems and frustrations that consumers experience with multi-restaurant delivery websites/apps like Grubhub and UberEATS.
The findings of Zion & Zion's research have implications for both restaurants and delivery apps:
Non-millennials experience significantly more frustration (61.2%) with these apps than millennials (46.9%).
Consumers experience problems with multi-restaurant delivery websites/apps an average of 24.4% of the time, including...
January 7, 2020
Original content: Forbes
By Jill Barth
Members of the Wine Origins Alliance yesterday submitted a jointly signed letter for the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) public comment period on tariffs in response to aircraft subsidies and France’s Digital Services Tax.
The United States on December 2, 2019 threatened to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on $2.4 billion in French goods in retaliation for a digital services tax it says is discriminatory.
(Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
This action was followed by a second letter sent to...
January 7, 2020
Original content: The New York Times
By Priya Krishna
The nation’s chain restaurants don’t reap much critical praise, but many high-end chefs say they got a priceless, practical education there.
Cassidee Dabney has one of the more coveted jobs in her field: executive chef of the Barn at Blackberry Farm, an award-winning restaurant, both luxurious and deeply connected to the land, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
Before she became the executive chef of the Barn at Blackberry Farm, an award-winning Tennessee restaurant, Cassidee Dabney worked at an...
January 7, 2020
DC Brau to Host the DC Brewers’ Guild’s Sixth Annual Beer Festival Celebrating Hop-Forward Offerings on Saturday, March 14th
Washington, DC -- January 7, 2020 -- All hail the mighty hop! The DC brewing community invites hop-lovers to its sixth annual HopFest on Saturday, March 14th from 1:00 - 5:00pm. HopFest 2020, the only DC beer festival by local brewers, for local brewers, will take place at DC Brau Brewing (3178 Bladensburg Rd NE) in Northeast DC in support of the DC Brewers’ Guild.
“HopFest is our chance each spring to come together as a community and taste...
January 6, 2020
The Washington Auto Show, a world class event designated as one of the nation's top five auto shows by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, returns January 24 - February 2, 2020 to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. With visitors expected in the hundreds of thousands eager to experience cutting-edge exhibits, the latest model cars and displays of historic vehicles (not to mention sure to need fuel before and after walking the show!), our partnership with Events DC allows us to offer you an exclusive complimentary marketing opportunity to easily...
December 20, 2019
Original content c/o: FSR Magazine
Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) announced the roster of restaurants participating in Winter Restaurant Week from Monday, January 13, through Sunday, January 19, 2020. The highly anticipated biannual promotion’s website http://www.rwdmv.com/ is live and will be updated regularly with menus from each of the participating restaurants representing diverse communities around DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia.
Restaurants are the cornerstone of neighborhoods around the DMV and Winter Restaurant Week is a time for...
December 19, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Seattle and Washington, DC lead the major metropolitan areas in restaurant spending per capita.
Consumers in Seattle spent an average of $2,174 per capita on food away from home* during the 2017-2018 period, according to Consumer Expenditure Survey data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This ranked highest among the major metropolitan areas tracked by BLS, and was slightly above the per capita restaurant spending of $2,165 by residents in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
[Note that these figures only represent...
December 19, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Restaurant experts ranked plant-based proteins as the No. 2 food-and-menu trend over the next decade.
Restaurant experts surveyed for the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Industry 2030 report identify the growth in popularity of plant-based protein food products as the No. 2 most likely food-and-menu trend over the next decade.
That’s no surprise: Consumers’ palates have been getting more diverse for a while, and suppliers and operators have been adapting to expand the range of options as a result....
December 19, 2019
Original content c/o: Bruce Adelson, Attorney at Law
Racial slurs, intolerant comments, discriminatory actions often flare up without warning. The businesses where they occur must act swiftly and without hesitation to stamp them out and end the behavior. Otherwise, news of intolerant incidents will go viral, spreading quickly through all corners of social media. Once the viral phenomenon hits, businesses risk much – in lost revenue, negative attention, damaged reputation, and possible lawsuits.
To guard against such events, businesses must be proactive with zero tolerance...
December 18, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
A decade from now, most Gen Zers will be in their 20s and 30s. Are you ready to serve them?
Restaurant guests of the future will be interested in many things, including everything from a restaurant’s sustainability efforts to convenience and value. But it’s a sure bet that healthful menu options will be at the top of their list.
Restaurant experts surveyed for the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Industry 2030 report identified “more healthy options on menus” as one of the Top 25...
December 17, 2019
Original content: DCist
By Jacob Fenston
What would it take to keep most of the waste produced in DC out of landfills and incinerators? It would require wide-ranging changes to how residents and businesses deal with what they toss out — from batteries to glass bottles — according to new legislation making its way through the DC Council.
Sequoia Ireland works the compost drop off site in Columbia Heights. The city is trying to increase its rate of composting.
Photo Credit: Jacob Fenston / WAMU
What would it take to keep most of the waste produced in DC out of...
December 17, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Restaurants in 2030 may be offering meals that provide specific health benefits, on an increasingly personalized level.
Like most other businesses, restaurants are gearing up to serve an older demographic in the future. An estimated one in five Americans (21%, or 73.1 million people) will be age 65 and older in 2030, compared with 13% (40.3 million) in 2010, according to Census projections.
As older adults claim a bigger slice of the demographic pie, restaurants are focused on the trends and disruptors that come with an aging...
December 16, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Get your staff up to speed on safe alcohol service.
Holiday celebrations can bring in a lot of business for restaurants and bars. According to market research firm Technomic, alcohol sales during the fourth quarter of the year can account for up to 30% of alcohol sales overall (retail and restaurant).
As operations get busy, staff members need to stay focused on serving alcohol responsibly, says Jay Lerdal, program manager for the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe Alcohol training program.
During holiday...
December 12, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Over the next decade, expect to excel at turning intel into management magic.
You’ve heard it, and you’ve probably said it: “How did we ever survive without a smartphone?”
A little over a decade after the iPhone’s 2007 debut, the smartphone has embedded itself into every aspect of our lives. It likely won’t take 10 years for today’s technologies to become our new normal, even those that sound “sci-fi” today.
Real-time-data feedback is one technology likely to become a common part...
