Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Today's Specials:

SPORTS: Download the NFL 2017 Schedule

As always, the first few weeks of the NFL season are like a breath of fresh air. It’s up to you to leverage that energy into a great year of marketing and traffic for your restaurant. To that end, we offer you our annual NFL pre- and regular season schedules.

And don’t forget to sign-up to watch the Football Marketing Bootcamp on-demand webinar, which will show you how to leverage football for growth during the season and beyond.

DID YOU KNOWS…

Speak German!

One of Germany’s most prominent politicians went on the record to “call for a crackdown” on people speaking English in Berlin restaurants. Many are afraid that German could become a “residual language” because most waiters default to English. Also, increasing immigration and globalization is not helping. Nicht Gut.

Space Delivery

NASA made its first ice cream delivery to the international space station. Six astronauts were shipped vanilla, chocolate and birthday cake ice cream that was launched into space along with 6,400lbs of cargo. Apparently, eating the ice cream is half the battle.

Dining Like a King

It’s that time of year again. The new season of Game of Thrones is back and people are excited. Some die-hard fans are actually eating like GOT characters to channel their inner warriors. Take a look at what goes into dining like a 15th Century king.

CHARLOTTESVILLE RESTAURANT NIGHTMARE

Why it matters to you: A restaurant owner in Charlottesville is receiving threats after kicking out a party of white nationalists.

Charlottesville, VA has made the news this past weekend after white nationalists gathered to protest – which turned violent — plans to remove a Confederate statue. Many of the protesters carried Nazi and Confederate flags while chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. One restaurant owner in Charlottesville was caught in the middle of the chaos and has been receiving threats after turning away many “Unite the Right” marchers. Ace Biscuits & Barbecue initially allowed a group of five men and one woman wearing t-shirts in support of the white nationalist causes to sit and order. After eating, some members of the party used a Nazi salute, which prompted the owner asking them to leave. After they left, a line of customers reportedly applauded.

Owner Brian Ashworth made the executive decision to close down for the rest of the day to avoid any interaction with marchers. In retaliation, the group claimed they had rights to be there upon making additional threats to come back. Some of the reasons behind closing also dealt with concern for the safety of his guests and staff, but also the image of his business. As restaurant operators, we need to keep our guests safe especially in uncertain circumstances. Closing down for the day seemed to be the right choice to protect everyone involved while also taking control of the situation in a cautious way. Overall, this entire situation is extremely unfortunate and was handled by Ashworth in the best way he saw fit.

WING PRICES TAKE FLIGHT

Why it matters to you: Wing prices are rising and you should consider your response.

Have you noticed that your chicken wing prices have been creeping up over the past year? Wing pricing has increased by $0.32 this year, to over $2.07 per pound wholesale. By the way, that price is a record and it’s eating into your profits, even if you aren’t aware of it. Turns out, the big guys are painfully aware and that is why they are scrambling to find strategies to address the increased cost of sales. Both BWW and Wing Stop have turned to making menu emphasis adjustments and highlighting the boneless wing option.

For example, BWW’s has changed their discounted Tuesday wing program to feature the bone-less variety to mitigate the cost growth of wings. Wing Zone has re-engineered their menu to offer three wing size options instead of two and charging the price they previously got for 10 wings, but only including eight on their new menu. Wings are a staple for our industry and a 15% price increase over last year means lower margins and potentially higher pricing for guests. If you respond, what will you do? Let us know so we can find out from the source what happens next with wings.