Friday, April 14, 2017

Today's Specials:

HACK: Know How to Pair Your Wings with Beer [Sponsored Hack]

The love affair between buffalo wings & sports fans is a well-established paradigm at sports bars. Make sure your sports bar knows how to pair your wings with the right beer.

DID YOU KNOWs…

Not Lovin’ It

In case you didn’t think Ronald McDonald was super creepy, Thrillist recently collected some vintage McDonald’s commercials some dating back to the 60s, which are…. Super creepy. Take a look at how Ronald McDonald evolved over the years.

Drunk Sugar-High

Our friends at VinePair recommended a list of wines to match your favorited childhood Easter candies. This way you’ll never need to question what to wash down that entire package of peeps. Here is your boozy guide to holiday candy paring.

Are Bats Organic?

An organic salad mix sold at Walmart is being recalled in eight states after multiple people found a dead bat inside the package. Both people received cautionary post-exposure rabies vaccines but report to be fine. Walmart is currently investigating the case.

2017 RESTAURANT LEADER OF THE YEAR

Why it matters to you: here’s what you can learn from the CEO of Arby’s.

Paul Brown was named Restaurant Leader of the Year at the Restaurant Leadership Conference last Tuesday. Brown is the current CEO of Arby’s and has been awarded the title for the successful turnaround of the Arby’s brand since he joined the team in 2013. Upon accepting his award, he suggested his leadership team, franchisees, suppliers and others are actually responsible for the successful path Arby’s has been on in recent years. While Brown credits his team, many have noticed his unique leadership style which involves talking less and listening more.

According to Restaurant Business Online, Same-store sales for Arby’s Q3 2016 rose 2.4%, compared to the 1.4% rise in comps of Wendy’s (which still owns about 18.5% of Arby’s) and 1.3% comps for the overall LSR market. Some of Brown’s strategies refer to monitoring what worked for Arby’s in the past and returning to the brand’s roots. Through his experience he has found every time Arby’s moved too far toward quick service or fast-casual, it was not successful. He found that some of the industry trends were simply not in the brand’s history and were too fast for a change for their customers.

SHAME CAKE

Why it matters to you: Sexual harassment is a vast concern in the restaurant industry.

The manager of a popular Chili’s restaurant in Pennsylvania, as well as several other staff members, were fired after sending a “shaming” cake to a former employee who made sexual harassment allegations. The employee, an 18 year old female working as a waitress at Chili’s two years ago when she began getting “harassed, stalked and abused” by her 26-year-old manager. After she filed complaints to the corporate headquarters, the manager along with other coworkers threw a party with a profanity-ridden cake encrypted with her name.

The entire event was documented on social media to further shame the employee. A statement sent to Buzzfeed News confirms the manager and the involved employees have been removed from the company. Sexual harassment is very common in the restaurant industry in a staff-guest interaction but also within the employee-employee interaction. We need to be especially vigilant with monitoring they dynamic of your team and to stop any potential harassment immediately. As operators, it is our job to ensure our staff’s safety as well as their well-being.