GUESTS: Frozen Drinks Not Just for Adults [Sponsored by f’real]
While operators & their teams should look at making fun alcoholic summer frozen drink options for adults, don’t forget non-alcoholic versions for the kids! Children-driven frozen drinks are great drink menu additions to boost sales during the summer months.
DID YOU KNOWS….
Alton Brown’s Pop Song Music Vid
What can’t Alton do? From Good Eatsto torturing chefs, he does a lot. Now he can add musical artist to his resume. His first music video called Pop Songdebuted over the weekend. And, of course, it’s food-related. Check it here.
A Truly Magical Kingdom
Disney World now serves alcohol at every sit-down restaurant inside the Magic Kingdom. Great news for parents who need a social lubricant while dealing with their kids wanting their 500thphoto with Cinderella. The Magic Kingdom served zero alcohol until 2012 where it was only available at their fine-dining restaurant until 2016.
eSports Closer to the Olympics
We’ve been saying for years that you need to start adding eSports tournamentsto your regular schedule TV content. It’s a relatively untapped marketing among bars & restaurants. And while it’s still some years away from possibly being a thing, eSports is one step closer to becoming an Olympic sport. eSports will be part of this year’s Asian Games– which is like a smaller Olympics but also includes 3x3 basketball, BMX free style, and now eSports.
Vegas is Golden
The Vegas Golden Knights have made the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season. This is the only the second time it’s happened in the NHL, last done by the St, Louis Blues in ’67-’68!
Courtesy of the NHL on NBC
BATALI UNDER INVESTIGATION
Why it matters to you: The NYPD is investigating Mario Batali in regard to sexual misconduct allegations.
Celeb-chef Mario Batali is currently under an ongoing investigation by the NYPD in regards to his sexual misconduct in his restaurants. A recent 60 Minutes feature took an in-depth look at his allegations. Anderson Cooper interviewed several women who worked at his restaurant, The Spotted Pig, whom were groped when they served him as a diner there. Another employee from Babbo alleges Batali assaulted her in 2005, claiming that she woke up after a party at The Spotted Pig with a “very deeply wounded” leg and something that looked like semen on her skirt. She called a crisis hotline and was examined at the hospital but filed no report. Batali naturally denied the incident.
The more that his sexual harassment allegations are made public the more we are shocked and appalled. It really is disturbing the things that men can get away with when they abuse their positions of power. We for one are glad to see these types of behavior become more public and hope the quantity of incidents become less prevalent as people take a stand. Maybe this way the restaurant industry’s sexual harassment epidemic will finally end.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
Why it matters to you: Starbucks no longer requires a purchase to hang out inside their cafes.
Starbucks no longer is requiring visitors to their cafes to purchase anything in exchange to for guests sit inside and use their services. This stems from the racism controversy a month ago. Since then, they’ve been pushing hard to save face, make smart changes, and regain some ground.
Opening their restrooms to anyone without purchase definitely goes against the industry tide. While the change makes sense considering the heat they’ve gotten since the incident, we worry what this might mean for the industry as a whole. Mainly we worry it’ll make the smaller, independent shops follow suit or risk more business to Starbucks. At the same time, the move makes lot more sense if you’re working off the logic that the longer someone hangs around surrounded by delicious smelling food and drinks the odds are they will end up buying something. The risk is someone sitting around for hours while working and then leaving without purchasing anything. Everyone in our industry will have to weigh the risk/reward of what Starbucks is doing and decide if they want to follow suit. But we’re not expecting most to run in the same direction.
