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October 24, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Food-safety professionals shared training and tips on how to respond to incidents in a way that protects guests, employees and the business.
Food-safety professionals, gathered for the Food Safety & Quality Assurance Executive Study Group conference in Orlando, Fla., shared their best food-safety training tips, effective food safety practices in the millennial era, and how to respond to an incident in a way that protects the guests, employees and the business.
At this year's conference, Hal King shared insights on how...
October 24, 2019
Original contect c/o: National Restaurant Association
The tide of new technology may seem overwhelming, but it promises to enhance the hospitality at the heart the restaurant industry.
“Customers today interact with restaurants more and more often outside the four walls of the actual restaurant,” said Focus Brands’ Michael Verdesca, executive vice president and chief information officer, during a panel at FSTEC 2019 in Dallas. It’s imperative that you have a presence everywhere your customers are likely to connect with you, via your app, third-party delivery apps,...
October 16, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
The world and workplace are increasingly multicultural. Enhance your cultural intelligence and embrace diversity to benefit your business.
Do you have the knowledge and skills necessary to engage people from different cultural backgrounds effectively? Do you know what unconscious bias is, or the negative impact it can have on your restaurant’s operations and sales?
Gerry Fernandez, founder and president of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance, an affiliate of the National Restaurant Association,...
September 26, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
The regulation is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020.
The US Department of Labor Sept. 24 released a new federal overtime regulation.
The rule revises the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) test for determining when an employee is exempt from earning overtime pay, also known as the “white collar” overtime exemptions.
The Department estimates that 1.2 million additional workers will be entitled to overtime pay as result of the increase to the standard salary level. The final rule will be published in the Federal Register...
September 24, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Week 4 of National Food Safety Month focuses on reinforcing the importance of food safety with staff members. It will protect your guests and business.
As National Food Safety Month ends, week 4 is focused on ways to keep employees engaged in maintaining their commitment to following and maintaining the highest food-safety standards.
Download all four weeks of National Food Safety Month content free
Each year, the National Restaurant Association uses National Food Safety Month to help operators reinforce the importance of...
September 24, 2019
Pared to Expand Across Major Cities Nationwide
WASHINGTON, DC – September 24, 2019 – Today, Pared, the leading app matching restaurants with skilled workers on demand, announced that it is now live in the Washington D.C. market. Pared services restaurant and hospitality operators in the country’s biggest metropolitan areas - New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and now, Washington D.C. Later this year, Pared will establish itself in additional major cities nationwide, including Philadelphia and Boston, with plans to continue expansion to other regions...
September 23, 2019
Original content c/o: James Beard Foundation
Written by Stacy Carroll
James Beard Foundation director of Impact programs Stacy Carroll explains why prioritizing self-care is an important part of building a strong business, and how we're integrating that philosophy into our Owning It program to help support hundreds of women entrepreneurs across the country.
Photo: Clay Williams
Over the last year, we’ve traveled to Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Phoenix with our Owning It program in support of emerging entrepreneurs, and we...
September 20, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
One-half of baby boomers want to use takeout and delivery more often.
Consumer spending in restaurants has trended generally higher in 2019, despite a downtick in August. Based on new National Restaurant Association research, the positive industry sales trajectory has more room to run.
Forty-two percent of adults say they are not eating on premises at restaurants as often as they would like, according to a telephone survey conducted September 12-16 by Engine for the National Restaurant Association. In addition, 49 percent of...
September 20, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Six in 10 millennials give the economy negative marks.
The national job growth streak is now at 107 consecutive months, and household spending remains solid. Yet many consumers still have a negative assessment of the economy, according to new National Restaurant Association research.
Only 43 percent of adults describe the national economy as ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ according to a telephone survey conducted September 12-16 by Engine for the National Restaurant Association. Fifty-three percent of adults gave...
September 19, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
The latest industry trends — customers, industry segments, workforce, and more.
What's the outlook for restaurants in 2019? The National Restaurant Association's 2019 State of the Restaurant Industry report provides the details. From sales forecasts to projections for food costs, workforce opportunities, food trends, and technology advances, you'll get the overview here. Their State of the Industry report is available for purchase or as a complimentary download for members of the Association.
Download the...
September 19, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
Cities and states are imposing new restrictions or bans on certain types of packaging used in restaurants.
Plastic straws may be the poster child for efforts to reduce plastics use, but legislation is unfolding across the nation to restrict or ban many types of restaurant packaging and single-use cutlery, packaging and other food ware.
State restaurant associations, restaurateurs and suppliers are working with city councils and state legislatures to make sure new restrictions are workable for restaurants and that lawmakers understand...
September 16, 2019
Original content c/o: National Restaurant Association
For week 3 of National Food Safety Month, we're offering free tools on how to improve your restaurant’s Food Safety Management System.
As week three of National Food Safety Month begins, the National Restaurant Association continues to offer free, downloadable tools and information to restaurateurs on the importance of improving your restaurant’s Food Safety Management System (FSMS).
Every September, the Association takes advantage of National Food Safety Month to help operators reinforce the importance of...
September 4, 2019
Original content c/o: Nation's Restaurant News
NRN’s editor-in-chief interviews the CEO on what’s next for the association
Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify or SoundCloud.
National Restaurant Association CEO Dawn Sweeney is getting ready to pass the torch.
After spending 12 years as the lead executive of the National Restaurant Association, Sweeney announced this spring she will be stepping down from her role at the end of 2019.
In an interview with NRN at the association’s DC headquarters, she said...
October 31, 2018
In the restaurant industry, filling shifts⎼and keeping them filled⎼is vital to the success of your business. When you don’t have ample staff to help prep and cook food, bus and wait tables and clean dishes, your customer experience can suffer. So what can businesses do when they have a last-minute callout and the dinner rush starts in less than an hour? Businesses in the D.C. metro area are leaning on Snag Work, an on-demand mobile platform providing front-and-back of house staff to employers in need.
Founded in Richmond, Va., in 2016 and introduced to the D.C. metro area...
August 1, 2018
Most payment processing systems, including point-of-sale terminals, operate through an internet connection. Unfortunately, technology isn’t always the most reliable. It can freeze, glitch or shut down altogether, bringing everything – including processing payments – to a screeching halt. That’s why it’s imperative that your business has equipment in place to keep business transactions up and running in the event of an internet outage.
Many offline terminals use a similar queue system (at Heartland it’s called Store and Forward) that allows you to...
July 5, 2018
National Restaurant Association / July 5, 2018
An E. coli outbreak is a nightmare for everyone: the customers, the community and the restaurant where it happened. For restaurant operators, corrective next steps are crucial to success; they can’t afford to make one mistake.
What should you do in the event of an outbreak? First, pay attention to all information, updates and product recall announcements. Because the food supply chain is complex, sometimes suppliers or manufacturers don’t deliver timely notices of the recall.
Below, Ashley Miller, one of our food safety...
August 15, 2017
Restaurants, especially smaller establishments, need to make the most of their IT budgets to remain profitable and competitive. One way to stretch an IT budget is with Software as a Service (SaaS) for your Point-of-Sale (POS) system.
Instead of buying a high-priced physical copy of a software platform, SaaS lets you keep that cash flow and instead pay a reasonable fixed monthly subscription rate.
Here are three benefits that make SaaS worth considering.
Cost. Buying and maintaining software can carry significant upfront costs and additional unexpected costs...
June 16, 2017
Even though more than 97 percent of all U.S. credit cards are now issued with chips, many restaurant owners continue to struggle to implement and maintain EMV technology due to cost and complexity. In fact, more than 60 percent of U.S. merchants still aren’t ready, even though the “liability shift” went into effect more than two years ago.
Restaurants are a leading target for point-of-sale intrusions – which can be costly – so it’s more important than ever to ensure your business is protected.
Heartland offers out-of-...
May 15, 2017
Beginning June 30, 2017, MasterCard will require all point-of-sale systems to accept credit cards with Bank Identification Numbers that begin with a 2. Currently, all MasterCard cards issued begin with 5. The new 2-series cards will effectively double the number of available MasterCard credit cards worldwide and will be processed in the same manner as current MasterCard cards.
Please note that if you are using a third-party POS system, you should contact your provider to determine if any action is required for your system to accept the new 2-series cards. Not only could you...
May 5, 2017
Veteran restaurateurs will tell you that making great food isn’t the biggest challenge of running a good restaurant. Making food profitably is the real beast.
Despite ever-rising ingredient costs compressing margins to razor-thinness, operators are reluctant to pass those increases on to price-conscious consumers. That makes monitoring every step of the food production process—from the loading dock to the very plates on which food is served—essential if an operation is going to make money.
It's always fun to hear customers’ rave reviews about your food, but...
January 17, 2017
Lending made easy: Secure more dough to get back to your bread and butter
Balancing your everyday operating costs while investing in expenses to grow your business doesn’t have to feel like juggling hot plates. While a small business loan may seem daunting, it’s often the best way to boost your bottom line. Here are a few reasons you may consider a loan:
Expansion – Is business booming out your front door? If you need a bigger space or need to hire more employees or fresh talent to keep up, a loan can help you cover the cost of expanding without...
November 7, 2016
It’s been approximately one year since the EMV liability shift took effect and it’s time for a mid-term report card on EMV’s issuance, acceptance, speed, security and overall impact.
EMV Issuance
In terms of card issuance, I have to give the issuers a “B+” for the pure volume of credit and debit cards they’ve placed in the hands of millions of cardholders, starting even before the liability shift began. As of June 2016, Visa reported that 125 million credit cards were issued, representing 44% of all credit cards. Visa also reported that 126 million...
November 2, 2016 to November 20, 2016
Liability shift lifts veil on small counterfeit charges
By: Georgia Stavrakis, CPP
It’s been a year since the U.S. migrated to EMV technology, and more than 1 million businesses now use EMV chip-embedded credit card readers. Unfortunately, criminals are taking full advantage of businesses that haven’t fully made the switch, leaving even small businesses vulnerable to costly chargebacks.
Restaurants have been plagued for years by counterfeit, stolen and cloned credit card activity, but it’s much more apparent now that liability for these fraudulent charges...
July 6, 2016
Whether you want to reduce operating costs, increase the reliability of your energy supply, upgrade inefficient systems, increase your revenue potential or improve the ambience of your restaurant —Washington Gas is here to help. Our team will help you determine what investments will save the most energy and money. We’ll survey your structure or planned project, assess your energy needs and recommend natural gas solutions that will give you optimal performance at absolutely no cost to you. Our team also has the experience and technical expertise to walk you through each...
June 23, 2016
Have you experienced an increasing number of chargebacks in the wake of last fall's liability shift? Now that the fraud liability shift has moved to merchants, many restaurant operators are seeing an increase in chargebacks in the restaurant space. Many restaurant POS companies do not have a method (EMV) to process these cards which in turn exposes the restaurant to the liability. Join the National Restaurant Assocation (NRA) and Heartland Payment Systems for a webinar on this topic on June 23, 11 a.m. ET.
During this webinar, experts from Heartland and the...
