MARKETING: How to Restart Your Marketing Efforts After a Long Break
It’s completely understandable when marketing falls to the wayside. You’ve got so many duties that it’s easy for things like marketing to become less important. After all, updating your website or posting to social media can always wait till tomorrow, right? But now you are ready to get back into it and restart your restaurant’s marketing. It’s a great decision, but instead of jumping back into what you were previously doing, consider revamping and improving your marketing. Here’s how.
SPORTS: Download the 2018 NCAA March Madness TV Schedule
March Madness is here. We know you’re ready for the influx of sports fans pouring into your bar, so make sure they don’t miss a single second of the action. Download the 2018 March Madness TV schedule here -- for free!
DID YOU KNOWS…
A Homerun for Facebook
Facebook will air 25 MLB games this season in an exclusive deal. The 25 games will be weekday afternoon games where most people are away from their TVs but have access to their computers. The games will be available to Facebook users in the U.S. on Facebook Watch, the company's video feature announced last August, via the MLB Live show page.
What's in A Bob Ross Painting?
Even though American artist Bob Ross passed away in 1995, he has become an enormously popular figure on the Internet today. In 2015, Twitch.tv hosted a 9-day marathon of his TV series on what would have been his 73rd birthday and 5.6 million viewers tuned in to watch it. His relentless positivity transformed him into a cultural icon and instructional quotes like "there are no mistakes, only happy accidents", have endeared him to a whole new generation of fans. Here’s a breakdown of what he loved to put in his paintings.
Ever Want to Drink Wine from an Anus?
Well do we have news for you! In Belgium, wine lovers will be able to drink their fermented grape beverages in CasAnus Hotel, which (as the name implies) is shaped like a giant anus & digestive track. And yes, it was designed that way. Europe, amiright?
EMPLOYEES ARE ONLY FIRST IF THEY’RE FIRST
Why it matters to you: Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group mishandled misconduct allegations for years, current and former staffers allege.
Eric Korsh was appointed as head chef of North End Grill in the spring of 2014 and apparently became an issue around the same time. From lewd comments about female guests and staff to losing his temper at FOH and BOH (we know, it happens), and giving out everyone’s least favorite gift (unwelcome massages), he really turned it on and fast.
North End Grill is a part of the 15 restaurant empire Meyer’s built called Union Square Hospitality Group (or USHG) where apparently his philosophies did not always line up with the employee experience. Korsh was reported to HR multiple times, but his only consequence was regular check-ins with HR. He left the company in 2017.
It is clear the restaurant industry has a large issue in that sexual harassment has historically run rampant, so why do we let it? Chefs like Eric Korsh are nothing new. They use and abuse their positions of power and when they are reported nothing comes of it. Then eventually they step down or leave their company under “mutual agreement,” so as to not publicly sully either party’s names. But why? What do we owe these people? Yes, USHG has been quietly clearing house of repeat offenders (Korsh is just one of at least seven), but is it enough? It is unfortunate to see these companies only do something about it in the wake of a movement, but at this point anything is better than what we are used to. Nothing.
OAKLAND COFFEE AND COPS AREN’T MIXING [CLIP]
Why it matters to you: A cafe in Oakland is refusing to serve police officers for the safety of their employees and customers.
Hasta Muerte in Oakland recently started to refuse service to police officers, starting: “We have a policy of asking police to leave for the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.”
This is a strange and eye opening statement for white America. How could police officers make people feel unsafe? What do they mean the police aren't part of the community? The cafe raises some very interesting points and, for communities like their own (and others), they aren’t necessarily wrong. How can police officers be part of their community if their job is to enforce the same laws that have routinely & systematically terrorized that community? The answer: they cannot be.
That said, there are absolutely better ways to handle this and Oakland is trying (which is more than we can say about most places). The Oakland PD are currently running an initiative that tries to hire more minority police officers from the neighborhoods they police to hopefully cut down on violence against the officers and members of the community. It is hard to say how this will all affect the coffee shop in the long run, but we know historically, taking a stand against police hasn’t exactly helped anyones’ cause...
