December, 2023

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Beyond the Plate: The Future of Restaurants in a Tech-Driven 2024

Modern Restaurant Management

As the calendar turns towards 2024, the restaurant industry stands at a crossroads, with innovation and adaptation at the heart of its ongoing evolution. This vibrant sector, a cornerstone of the global economy that tantalizes taste buds and fuels job markets, is bracing for transformation that will redefine its future. However, persistent labor shortages are pushing restaurants to explore automation and artificial intelligence to streamline operations – from kitchen management to customer

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APPRECIATING HOSPITALITY WORKERS

Culinary Cues

This is a festive, happy, family-oriented time of the year when we all try to think about everything that we are grateful for. Some of us are fortunate to have the time and the resources to enjoy the best of the season. Gifts, special meals, travel, and most importantly – family time consumes the next few weeks. Those of us who fit this description should take the time to think about those who are not so fortunate.

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3 Tips for Creating Holiday Schedules for Your Restaurant

Crunchtime

Follow these tips for smooth scheduling at your restaurant this holiday season. Holidays and special events can wreak havoc on restaurant schedules. Managers must account for spikes in demand that can be unpredictable, and employees often request time off during the holidays. A smaller pool of available team members, paired with more customers coming through the door is a recipe for a scheduling dilemma.

Events 166
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The Top Ten Questions Restaurant CEOs Are Asking

Aaron Allen & Associates

Restaurant CEOs find themselves under immense pressure to enhance sales and sustain margins. On top of that, boards of directors, rightfully so, are asking questions that require agility and muscle flex. For public companies, activist investors are calling out for answers to sluggish responses to emerging challenges that characterize the modern foodservice era.

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Reduce Bias in Hiring: Structured Interview Questions for Employers

Structured interview questions are a valuable tool for reducing bias in hiring. They help: Ensure all candidates are asked the same questions in the same way Level the playing field so all candidates have a fair chance of being successful Improve credibility, reliability, and validity Download the guide to get the most out of your interview questions!

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How to Maintain and Monitor a Restaurant Inventory Spreadsheet

Sculpture Hospitality

Managing inventory is a crucial aspect of running a successful restaurant business. An efficient and well-organized inventory strategy can help you control costs, reduce waste, and ensure that you have the right ingredients on hand to meet customer demand.

Inventory 156
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No One Has What It Takes to Lead Margaritaville

EATER

The exterior of the Margaritaville Resort Times Square. | Clay Williams/Eater Who among us can “work in a constant state of alertness”? Ah, Margaritaville Times Square , a land of contrasts. A beacon of beach chill in the middle of New York’s most upsettingly busy neighborhood. A place with terrible food and surprisingly good cocktails. A place that has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice in an attempt to refinance $309 million in debt , raising the question, “If Margaritaville is foreclosed,

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Two Top COOs Share How They Overcome Challenges in their Restaurants

Crunchtime

Running, and growing, a multi-unit operation is tough, and only becomes more difficult across dozens, hundreds, or thousands of locations, especially as brands open new stores and try to hire (and retain) more staff. Ensuring efficient operations across every location has always been a priority for multi-unit operators, but now more than ever requires key processes and tools to stay competitive and scale for future success.

Hiring 158
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Transforming Customer Experiences: Four Ways to Embrace Innovation in the Restaurant Industry

Modern Restaurant Management

In the dynamic and ever-evolving restaurant industry, culinary experiences are shaping customer preferences. After all, this business is all about people with customers at the forefront of decisions being made. In order to achieve long-term success and build essential brand credibility, restaurants must cultivate meaningful experiences and relationships to help drive growth and expansion.

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Webinar: Buzztime Live Trivia

Buzztime Business

Buzztime Live Trivia is evolving and is now easier than ever to get into your bar or restaurant. Join us for our webinar on Thursday, January 4th at 1 pm ET/10 am PT. We will discuss what this new live trivia solution is, how easy it is to run a weekly trivia night and make it affordable for your location. Sign up above to join us for a live demonstration and learn more about Buzztime Live Trivia with our Senior Account Manager Travis Bates.

Webinar 172
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How Ben’s Friends combats addiction in the hospitality industry

Open for Business

OpenTable is proud to announce a new partnership with Ben’s Friends, a nationwide food and beverage industry support group offering community, hope, and a path forward to those who struggle with substance abuse and addiction. One of the things that makes Ben’s Friends so effective is that they provide all services free of charge to chefs, line cooks, bartenders, servers, back-of-house team members, and so many more.

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Food & Beverage Industry Report 2024

Driven by a diverse and exciting ecosystem of passionate, ambitious, and often young entrepreneurs, the Food & Beverage (F&B) sector is a highly competitive environment full of immense challenges and exciting opportunities. Expert Market’s 2024 industry report, sponsored by Toast, is informed by a survey of 522 U.S. food and beverage professionals, from restaurant owners to food service managers, providing insights into the real-time challenges and opportunities within the industry.

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The Many Causes and Effects of Keith Lee

EATER

Lille Allen | Eater Known to 15 million TikTok followers for his candid restaurant reviews and multi-thousand-dollar tips, here’s how the MMA-fighter-turned-social-media-phenomenon became the voice of a generation of diners There is no shortage of food opinions online. (Hi, you’re on Eater.) But over the past year, Keith Lee has emerged as the voice millions of people turn to for their restaurant recommendations.

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Jay Pandya, who owns Boston Market, files for personal bankruptcy

Restaurant Business

The operator of the struggling rotisserie chicken restaurant chain is also accusing US Foods of overcharging for food and keeping supplies low, leading to substitutions and closures.

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Crunchtime Customer Spotlight: How Tupelo Honey Cafe Reduced Food Costs by 2% Across 25+ Locations

Crunchtime

For more than two decades, Tupelo Honey Cafe has stuck (pun intended) firm to its roots—simply crafted recipes made from scratch with responsibly sourced ingredients. Few high-growth, successful restaurant brands can commit to cooking fresh, farm-to-fork meals every day in every location. But Tupelo Honey is breaking the mold.

Food 158
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Exploring the Factors Behind the Surge in Restaurant Automation

Modern Restaurant Management

If you've been paying attention to the tech scene, you have surely noticed a significant upswing in interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. It seems almost everyone, from social media influencers to evening news anchors, is extolling the capabilities of this emerging tech. From softwares like ChatGPT to self-driving cars like the Tesla Model 3, AI and automation are making remarkable strides In the restaurant industry, these solutions are streamlining various aspects, includ

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Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide

Managing HR tasks like payroll, compliance, and employee data can overwhelm small businesses. That’s where a Human Capital Management (HCM) solution comes in. Our eBook, Why Every Small Business Needs an HCM Solution: A Comprehensive Guide , shows how an HCM system automates tedious processes, ensuring your business stays compliant and efficient. You’ll learn how to simplify payroll, eliminate costly errors, and empower your employees with self-service tools.

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How Can I Help You Today? 7 ChatGPT Prompts for Hospitality and Retail Businesses.

Bizimply

Today's article explores how AI-powered ChatGPT prompts can benefit your hospitality business. Keep reading to find out more! The post </b>How Can I Help You Today? </b> 7 ChatGPT Prompts for Hospitality and Retail Businesses. appeared first on Bizimply.

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ANOTHER YEAR – A CHEF’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Culinary Cues

I know, I know – New Year’s Resolutions seem to be a waste of time. We all make them and rarely stick to the plan. But lack of execution should never get in the way of planning, dreaming, and setting goals. As Lewis Carroll proclaimed in Alice in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” So rather than stepping into 2024 without a roadmap and wandering aimlessly for 12 months – it only makes sense to establish a plan, some goals (a few of them lofty) and m

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The Kikkoman Soy Sauce Bottle Is Priceless

EATER

The Kikkoman soy sauce bottle in its many iterations. | Photos by Nippon & Co, lottaocean , modemedia , and irokk. Photo illustration by Lille Allen Special releases of the iconic soy sauce bottle can fetch hundreds of dollars online, especially among Americans, who have formed a deep relationship with the Japanese brand It’s a shape so ubiquitous it’s become nearly invisible: an easy-to-grip, pear-shaped glass bodice planted on a sturdy base, a tapered neck swooping up to a red cap, and mos

Design 138
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Former Eataly exec named CEO of Creative Culinary Management

Restaurant Business

A subsidiary of Jean-Georges Restaurant Holding Co., the group manages the restaurant portfolio of New York City's South Street Seaport neighborhood.

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Maximize Restaurant Profitability: 5 Key Strategies to Control Costs Effectively

Running a profitable restaurant requires more than great food and service. Our guide breaks down five actionable strategies to help you control costs and maximize profitability. Learn how to track and reduce food waste, optimize labor costs with smart scheduling, make data-driven decisions with regular P&L reviews, and manage fixed and variable costs efficiently.

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Predictive Scheduling Deep Dive: What Restaurant Operators Should Know

Crunchtime

In A History and Overview of Fair Workweek Laws for Restaurants , we provided a brief history of Fair Workweek laws and their implications for restaurants in different jurisdictions. We also shared the most common Fair Workweek requirements that impact restaurants in The Restaurant Operator’s Guide to Fair Workweek in 2023. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into a type of Fair Workweek law known as predictive scheduling, and we'll discuss in more detail the associated penalty pay that restauran

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Why Setting Wait Time Expectations Is Key to a Good Customer Experience

Modern Restaurant Management

Not much sours a customer’s perception of a restaurant as fast as unwieldy lines and long waits. Especially for fast-paced establishments, managing wait time expectations is a significant challenge and can cause patrons to leave — or, worse, never return. Although management can’t always eliminate the wait for service entirely, they can use modern technology to set reliable wait time expectations from the start.

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CONSISTENT CREATIVITY OR CREATIVE CONSISTENCY

Sante

Two words seem to be in conflict: consistency and creativity. In business both words are essential ingredients for long-term success; Continue Reading The post CONSISTENT CREATIVITY OR CREATIVE CONSISTENCY appeared first on Santé Magazine.

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CHOOSE YOUR STAGE – TELL YOUR STORY

Culinary Cues

I was enjoying my morning power walk on Christmas Eve, taking in the views ever-present in the town I have called my home for more than 40 years. There’s a light dusting of snow on the ground and the crunch under foot of a thin layer of ice crust, the temperature is a balmy 30 degrees – unheard of, this time of year. There is a heavy fog that sits on the ice-covered lake and the scene is a bit surreal.

Café 376
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Best Practices to Streamline Compensation Management: A Foundation for Growth

Speaker: Joe Sharpe and James Carlson

Payroll optimization can be one of the most time-consuming and complex factors of small business management. Yet, organizations that crack the code on streamlining employee compensation often discover innovative avenues for growth. With the right strategies in place, outsourcing and streamlining payroll processes can result in substantial time and resource savings.

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These Are the 2023 Eater Award Winners

EATER

Drum roll! | Lille Allen/Eater Raise a glass to the year’s best bars, restaurants, pop-ups, and roving trucks across 21 Eater cities The Eater Awards is the culmination of a year of intensive dining and drinking research led by intrepid editors in 21 U.S. cities. It’s the moment when Eater editors select those places that served the finest meals, the most noteworthy desserts, and impeccable vibes.

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Beef prices are soaring. It won't get better anytime soon

Restaurant Business

With beef inflation expected to stick around for the next few years, steakhouses and meat-focused concepts are creating strategies to manage sourcing and the menu. It's all about being flexible.

Pricing 124
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The Shift: How My Distrust in Restaurant Systems Launched My Tech Career

Crunchtime

Justin Conant is a product manager at Crunchtime; he has nearly 20 years of experience in the restaurant industry in a variety of roles and concepts, from dishwasher to general manager to executive chef, from full service to cafes to commissary facilities. He has a degree in hotel/restaurant management from Johnson & Wales University.

Hotels 155
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2024 Emergency Planning for Restaurants

Modern Restaurant Management

Picture this – it’s 5 a.m. and you receive a frantic call about the state of your restaurant. In the hospitality industry, the last thing you want is a phone call from the alarm company at an early morning hour about a fire, break-in or other disaster at your business. Taking proactive measures and having plans in place will allow your business to react quickly to help minimize the impact of an emergency.

2024 189
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Pricing for Profit: How to Set, Negotiate, and Succeed

Speaker: Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader

In today’s competitive market, pricing is more than just a number — it’s the cornerstone of profitability. The right pricing strategy ensures that you capture the true value of your offering, paving the way for sustainable growth and long-term success. Join Igli Laci, Strategic Finance Leader, in this exclusive session where he will explore how a well-crafted pricing approach balances customer perception with business objectives, creating a powerful tool for securing both competitive advantage a

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What is the Most Sustainable Alcohol Choice – and Why?

Sante

In the world of beverages, alcohol often takes center stage, whether it’s a refreshing beer after a long day or Continue Reading The post What is the Most Sustainable Alcohol Choice – and Why? appeared first on Santé Magazine.

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14 Restaurant Management Tools to Make your Business More Efficient

7 Shifts

The role of a restaurant manager is always in motion. There’s always something else to get done, a new fire to put out, and broken things to fix. All of that on top of the everyday tasks from scheduling to payroll to reporting can catch up to you. But there are several different tools to help you manage your restaurant—from single shifts and tasks to top-level overviews showing your business's health.

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Near, Far, Caviar

EATER

Illustration by Bea Hayward Once a luxury reserved for posh dinners, fish roe has become the snack du jour at restaurants across the country — and it’s blurring the lines between casual and formal dining Caviar has gone on a journey over the past few years. It’s the TikTok snack du jour , something to be eaten by the bump instead of the spoonful, paired perfectly with potato chips in place of blini.

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McDonald's wants 50,000 restaurants by 2027

Restaurant Business

The burger giant plans to rapidly speed its unit growth in the coming years while it uses Google Cloud technology to connect restaurants and improve operations.

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The HR Leader’s Survival Guide

HR leaders drowning in paperwork struggle to meet C-suite's strategic expectations. Burnout and high turnover plague the field, with 95% feeling overwhelmed. This guide explores how the right tools can free HR from admin tasks and empower them to become the strategic leaders they’re meant to be.