April, 2023

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Learn from the greats: 10 extraordinary restaurants that every owner should study

Open for Business

No one knows better than hospitality pros that restaurants give cities and towns their local flavor. OpenTable wants diners to appreciate this, too. That’s why we tapped local experts in 17+ cities across North America to write up their authoritative and opinionated guides to the restaurants that infuse their hometowns with a vibrant sense of place.

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YOU THINK YOU KNOW HOW TO BE A CHEF

Culinary Cues

It is the classic diatribe – “I can do that better that the chef. I’ve been cooking for 15years now; I should be the chef.” Fine, that may be the case but let’s just see. If it’s your time and you’re ready then make it happen, find your spot, push for the job, step up and show them what you’ve got. But, for a moment, let’s take inventory: [] CHECK YOUR REPERTOIRE: You need not remember every ingredient, in every dish, but you must understand the methods and the result.

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Wage Inequity is Plaguing the Restaurant Industry. Here’s How Four Restaurants are Fighting It.

7 Shifts

The restaurant industry has a wage problem. It's one of the only industries where workers can legally be paid under the already low Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Restaurants can operate while paying staff a sub-minimum wage of just $2.13 an hour, leaving the rest of an employee's compensation up to the good will of customers in the form of tips.

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THE RETURN OF RESTAURANT EXPERIENCES

Sante

Over the past three years, something interesting occurred that was not predicted.

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2024 Restaurant Spending Trends to Stay Ahead of the Curve

How do you stay on top of what your customers are expecting when they step through your doors? Do you know what’s on their mind? How are you going to account for what they’re planning on doing months from now? As we head into 2024, price-related issues are still top-of-mind for restaurant customers after the inflation boom earlier this year. In this new report, we give you the latest insights on consumer spending trends, attitudes on tipping, and how you can respond.

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The Secrets to Successful Catering

Modern Restaurant Management

A strong catering business can be a restaurant’s biggest moneymaker. You know exactly how many people you’re going to serve, how many portions will be provided, what the cost is, what you’re going to charge and what your net profit will be. Most of the year, catering can comprise 10 to 15 percent of your total sales, but during December, if 20 percent of sales are not coming from catering, you’re missing an opportunity.

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How 3 Top Restaurant Brands Are Helping the Environment

Crunchtime

From fast-casual to full-service, restaurant guests across all formats are paying closer attention to how their favorite brands are offsetting the environmental impact of their operations. According to Forbes, 88% of consumers are more loyal to brands that support social or environmental issues. As a result, sustainability has become more than just a buzzword; it’s a driving factor for purchasing decisions and consumer loyalty.

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6 Operational Learnings from Burger King, Culver’s, and Chipotle

Crunchtime

With the speed of change in the industry, restaurants face a range of new challenges that make it more difficult than ever to control profitability and deliver great guest experiences. In Cruchtime’s recent webinar , our prestigious panel of operations experts from Burger King, Culver’s, and Chipotle shared the best practices on how to compete consistently and profitably in every location, from ensuring quality team execution and training to managing the two most impactful costs to the business

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What is Tip Credit? Pros and Cons for Owners and Employees

The Eat Restaurant

In the United States, the federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour and believe it or not, this amount has not been increased since 1991. The difference between the tipped minimum wage and the standard federal minimum cash wage is known as a tip credit.

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Spring clean: 10 tips to help ensure your ice machine meets top hygiene standards

Clean Ice

Ice safety is just as important as food safety, so we are sharing a few top tips to help you maintain your ice machine and the quality or of your ice. Clean Ice handling tips 1. Wash hands – The person dispensing ice from the machine or the storage bin should wash and dry their hands thoroughly before starting the task. 2. Clean utensils – The ice should always be removed from the machine using a clean utensil such as a scoop (hands should never be used). 3.

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THE 100 HOUR RULE – SEEKING TO BE GREAT

Culinary Cues

I’m not sure where I heard it first – maybe it was a seminar, a TED Talk, or an excerpt from one of Malcolm Gladwell’s thought-provoking books like the “Outliers”, but the premise stuck with me. The rule is simple: “If you want to be great – you can.” Okay, so that will strike many as naïve, but then think about it. What does it take to be great? Of course, talent helps, but as I have pointed out many times before, talent without the commitment to feed that talent is a promise without delivery.

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2024 Payroll Calendar Templates

These calendars provide pay period dates and paydays for biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly payroll in 2024. Use them as a reminder or share with employees so they can celebrate payday.

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How can specialty coffee roasters use blends to drive brand identity?

Perfect Daily Grind

There’s no denying the fact that specialty coffee blends are becoming more and more popular. Alongside offering a range of single origin coffees, developing blends allows roasters to create new but consistent products which cater to a range of taste preferences. There is plenty of opportunity for coffee roasters to capitalise on the opportunity that blends present.

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Top-Effective Tech Solutions to Improve Profits

Modern Restaurant Management

Most restaurants (76 percent) are currently using automation in three or more areas of operation and agree that certain roles are more automatable than others, according to Capterra research The survey also found that more than half of restaurant leaders say front-of-house restaurant workers can easily be automated with today’s technology, and nearly all restaurants today (96 percent) use automation tools in their back-of-house operations.

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Summer HVAC and Refrigeration Tips for Restaurants

Goliath Consulting

Summer is just around the corner. It’s time to break out the patio furniture and put the heaters away in storage. With the warmer temperatures approaching, every savvy restaurateur knows to retrieve their end of spring checklist to guarantee this season is as smooth as it can be. Preventative maintenance is key to protecting your bottom line. From refrigeration to HVAC, there are multiple things you can do to ensure your restaurant operates free of preventable mechanical woes that stand in your

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Advantages of Integrating Online Ordering with POS for Pizza Delivery

Thrive POS

In the fast-paced world of pizza delivery, providing a seamless and efficient ordering experience for customers is crucial. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by integrating online ordering with point-of-sale (POS) systems, like Thrive POS. In this article, we'll explore the advantages of integrating online ordering with POS for pizza delivery, with a focus on how Thrive POS can help businesses optimize their operations and provide exceptional service to their customers.

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2024 Payroll Calendar Templates

These calendars provide pay period dates and paydays for biweekly, semi-monthly, and monthly payroll in 2024. Use them as a reminder or share with employees so they can celebrate payday.

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How to Find, Train, and Maintain Top-Performing GMs

Crunchtime

Multi-unit restaurant operators know that general managers (GMs) are the heartbeat of each store. Without a strong GM, restaurants can face issues like reduced employee morale and retention, less profitable operations, and ultimately, a more negative customer experience.

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DON’T PAINT THE BUSINESS WITH THE SAME BRUSH

Culinary Cues

The past year has been quite disconcerting for those of us who have dedicated our careers to the kitchen. To some it may simply seem like the squeaky wheel syndrome (a handful of people with loud voices) as dialogue about exodus from the restaurant business continues to raise eyebrows. I hear enough comments from cooks (new and well-seasoned) who say they had enough, the business is horrible, lacking in any form of empathy, poorly managed, uncaring abusers of hard workers, proponents of sadistic

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What is Maragogipe & how big is the market for it in specialty coffee?

Perfect Daily Grind

Within the specialty coffee market, there are a growing number of more exclusive and highly-prized coffee species and varieties. One of the most notable is Gesha – a unique variety which was “rediscovered” at the 2004 Best of Panama auction, and is now commonly used in competitions like the World Barista Championship. Rare coffee species and varieties can become more revered for a number of reasons, including their high cup quality and desirable sensory profiles.

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What’s the Restaurant Investment Forecast?

Modern Restaurant Management

To learn more about the current state of restaurant investing, Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine spoke with Uday Ahuja, Chief Investment Officer at RSE Ventures, who played a key role in investing and identifying/growing scalable consumer brands restaurant concepts including Momofuku, Milk Bar, Fuku, Bluestone Lane, and Magnolia Bakery. During the pandemic he helped advise Milk Bar CEO Christina Tosi’s shift from retail to ecomm—resulting in the launch of Milk Bar’s r

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Win More in 2024: Your Guide to Restaurant Marketing Success

Your Guide to Restaurant Marketing Success Start maximizing ROI and doing more with less with Olo’s ultimate guide to restaurant marketing. In this guide: Strategies to level up in 4 key areas: data, audiences, content distribution, and loyalty Interactive checklists to help you track your progress throughout the year Tips for leveraging guest data across your entire business What you’ll learn: Level 1 | Beginner: Learn how to collect guest data, build a healthy subscriber list, launch personali

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Is it Time to Take the Plunge and Renovate Your Restaurant?

The Rail

By Indiana Lee, Contributor Restaurant owners must adjust to the times and find new ways to create the best place in town. While you may have had a good run for a while, you might see business decline as fewer patrons come through the doors. And there are a myriad of reasons why you might be seeing a slowdown in business, each with their own unique solution, including it may be time to renovate.

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The Future of Pizza Delivery: Predictions and Innovations in Pizza POS

Thrive POS

Pizza delivery has come a long way since the days of hand-written orders and phone calls. With the advent of online ordering and delivery apps, the industry has seen significant growth and change in recent years. In this article, we'll take a look at some of the latest trends and innovations in pizza delivery and what the future might hold for this ever-evolving sector, including the role of pizza point of sale (POS) systems.

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Summer Cocktail Trends 2023

Goliath Consulting

The summer heat calls for fun in the sun. Whether traveling to the beach on a relaxing vacation or chilling out by the pool, cocktails and interactive drinks are what people will gravitate toward this summer. A fun way to cool off is to take a sip of some refreshing, cold cocktails that will help with the heat and add to the fun of summer. People might look to TikTok for inspiration, so be ready to share some of your restaurant’s drinks there!

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A CULTURE OF QUALITY

Culinary Cues

Like many of you, I sat and watched, with great anticipation, the days of the NFL Draft. Who will my team be able to lasso and pull into the organization? What will they contribute? Will they help us drive all the way this year? I know that if they make it to the final roster, they will be positioned to make millions of dollars in pay and bonuses and if they live up to the hype – much, much more.

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Unlock Restaurant Success: Mastering 7 Vital Employment Laws

As a restaurant leader, your plate is full with responsibilities, from staff management to serving up delicious dishes. But amidst the hustle, there's a crucial area you can't afford to overlook – employment laws. In this comprehensive eBook, we'll unveil the seven essential employment laws every restaurant leader must master. We'll break down the intricacies of each law, showing you how it directly impacts your business.

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Coffee roasters: Where do you go after being a head roaster?

Perfect Daily Grind

Career progression is important for any working professional, and the same goes for those in the specialty coffee sector. For many in the industry, opportunities to develop their skills are invaluable. This includes head roasters, who often spend years honing their craft. However, after years of running a roasting team, there also comes a time when head roasters want to look for new career pathways in the coffee sector.

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Need to Reach New Customers? Step Outside the Box

Modern Restaurant Management

As restaurants work overtime to deal with soaring costs, ongoing labor shortages and growing economic uncertainty, many are pushing the limits of what used to be their competitive space to extend their brand and get in front of new potential customers. Who among us hasn’t ordered food through a convenient mobile application, with menu choices ranging from not just quick-serve or fast-casual restaurants, but convenience stores as well?

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What Restaurants Need to Know About Social Media Videos

The Rail

By Torrey Tayenaka, Contributor Video marketing for restaurants is an essential type of marketing campaign to inspire patrons to visit or order. This is how you show them the colors and textures of your food. Let them see the heat spilling off your freshly cooked dishes and the bubbles in your drinks, so they can practically taste it for themselves.

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Costa Rica’s Iconic Caldosas Combine Ceviche and Barbecue Chips

EATER

The caldosa at Fory Fay, the home of the original recipe. Ceviche piled into a bag of Picaritas barbecue-flavored chips has become a standard snack across the country since the recipe was invented by a kid in the ’90s Some recipes make a restaurant famous. Others become representative of a city or a region. Only a few have the ability to shift the axis of a country’s gastronomic culture, becoming not only ubiquitous across menus but galvanizing diners in the process.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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Guide to Connected Commerce

MadMobile

Connected commerce is a rapidly growing trend in the retail and restaurant industries, and it is changing the way businesses interact with their customers. By seamlessly integrating online and offline channels, this strategy is creating a more personalized and convenient experience for consumers. Connected commerce makes it easier for customers to access products and services at any time or place.

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THEY JUST DON’T GET IT

Culinary Cues

My town leaders, bless their hearts, try to figure out ways to strum up cash flow for small businesses. A tip of the chef’s toque for the good old college try. It’s early spring, mud season as it is commonly called, and they are putting in a Yeoman’s effort at organizing another restaurant week. All good intentions – they want to create full or partially full dining rooms for restaurants in need.

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Will consumers keep paying higher prices for specialty coffee?

Perfect Daily Grind

Over the past year or so, rising food prices and energy costs have been affecting many people around the world. In fact, in March 2023, the BBC reported that food prices had reached a 45-year high in the UK , with many other major coffee consuming countries also going through similar price increases. This is a major issue for both coffee businesses and consumers.

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Utilizing Automation to Maximize Your Restaurant’s Labor Efficiency in 2023

Modern Restaurant Management

The labor shortage that began in 2020 has not slowed, with restaurants continuing to struggle to fill open positions and keep employees long-term. As a result, they are looking for ways to better optimize their labor operations while also maximizing business opportunities. This typically includes creating staff schedules based on sales forecasts, trimming labor during slow times, and providing managers with more control – and accountability.

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Preventing Employee Burnout in Restaurants & Hospitality: An Integrated Approach

Speaker: Lissa Bowen - Chief People + Culture Officer, Full Course Executive Director, Full Course Foundation

Employee burnout is a pervasive issue in the fast-paced and demanding restaurant industry, resulting in decreased productivity, high turnover rates, and compromised mental well-being. Effectively addressing this challenge requires a comprehensive approach that combines conventional management techniques, insights from neuroscience, and stress management strategies.