MENU: “Give Me All the Toppings!” [Presented by Lamb Weston]
78% of guests are interested in topped fries, so get creative with your fry offerings by adding ingredients that are already in your restaurant. Put a topped & loaded shareable on your menu, or try out a topped & loaded LTO. For more menu tips visit LambWeston.com/Recipe.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Bartender Arrested for Serving Mass Shooter
A Texas bartender has been arrested for allegedly serving alcohol to a man before he went on a mass shooting spree in Plano, TX. The bartender is charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly violating the “Sale to Certain Person” code that states that “a person commits an offense if the person with criminal negligence sells an alcoholic beverage to an habitual drunkard or an intoxicated or insane person.”
1 Million Species at Risk
A quarter of all species are now threatened with extinction. This rises to 40% for amphibians and 33% for marine mammals. The horrific impact on amphibian populations is no coincidence given that 85% of wetlands that were present in 1700 had been lost by 2000. 75% of the terrestrial environment has now been "severely altered" by human actions.
Logged Off
10% of Americans are offline, but who are they? Disconnected Americans tend to be older, have less education, a smaller annual income, and live in rural areas, according to a new report from Pew. About 27% of Americans who are 65 and older are not online, while about three in 10 Americans who did not finish high school are offline.
PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE
Why it matters to you: Don’t preclude yourself from success with your own unconscious biases.
The word diversity engenders lots of different reactions from people. Many in our industry would assert we are home to an incredibly diverse array of people and cultures and they would be right. However, many times diversity happens in our organizations differently than in our industry as a whole. As our country’s demographics shift, understanding how our unconscious biases can preclude us from success in attracting guests and recruiting employees is something every responsible operator should explore. That is why this joint effort by the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) and ServeSafe from the National Restaurant Association (NRA) is a smart opportunity to consider your own challenges as pertains to bias in delivering service and managing your employees.
To be clear, we have NO relationship with either the NRA or MFHA, but we do with our subscribers. That’s why we aren’t shying away from a difficult discussion. The whole problem with unconscious bias is that it’s, well, unconscious. The training system offered by MFHA and the NRA via their ServSafe training platform will help you assess your own attitudes and thinking to ensure you aren’t getting in your own way. You can ignore this possibility, but you aren’t only hurting yourself if you do. Your staff, vendors, and community count on you for leadership. Understanding and addressing your own opportunities to improve is the responsible thing to do.
[Source: National Restaurant Association]
BEING CATERED TOO
Why it matters to you: Building a catering business is the next logical step in any off-premise growth initiative.
Delivery, delivery, delivery is that all people in our industry talk about today? Well, yes, because it’s been driving growth where traffic has dropped in the full-service segment and the industry as a whole. It’s also why catering is the logical progression from simple delivery.
Just like delivery implementation, catering has some pitfalls to watch for. That’s why this post, 6 Easy Ways to Jumpstart a Catering Program, is a perfect place to begin your planning. The blog emphasizes the role that delivery plays as a base to your catering program, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get going without delivery. Catering is such that even with little notice -- which is how a lot of catering today is ordered -- it’s worth it to deliver it yourself. A little pre-planning can ensure that won’t have any legal or logistical obstacles in your way.
And just like delivery, ordering for catering clients should be available on your website. If nothing else, you want to market that you have catering at first; then, eventually, as a method of collecting orders from your regular catering clients.
Speaking of regular catering guests, the post also astutely suggests you seek out your local pharmaceutical representatives as a rich market to leverage for your catering. Those folks have budgets, do mostly lunch catering offsite, and they also host live events at restaurants and bars. Where do you think they’ll go for those highly profitable events once they trust you to deliver on their off-premise orders? To be direct, we simply can no longer ignore any revenue opportunities, especially ones as profitable as catering.
[Source: Restaurant Business Online]