Family Dining

The week’s 5 head-spinning moments: Fighting back, round 2

A flash of defiance that led to a special edition two weeks ago has surged into an out-and-out trend of restaurants telling their adversaries, "No more of that." Here's the fight card for Round Two.

Consumer Trends

Stat of the month: women & alcohol

Thirty percent of women spent more on alcohol in bars and restaurants last year, compared to 19 percent of the general population. And many are looking to operators for guidance, a prime marketing opportunity.

Nate Weir, director of culinary operations at Denver-based Modmarket, was on a mission: to create a better pizza—not just better than the growing number of customizable fast-casual concepts, he says, but better than the Neapolitan pies tossed at high-end pizzerias.

Chains that landed a top spot consistently deliver on all aspects of the dining experience—from providing a welcoming environment to offering time-saving takeout.

Classic Super Bowl accompaniments may be losing their cachet among younger female patrons.

Asked to name the restaurant trend of 2015 by Tasting Table, chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns of Bar Tartine in San Francisco predicted a move away from tipping. But instead of pointing out unfairness or discrimination as the catalyst, they cited a different motivation: restaurateurs’ desire to find alternative methods of compensation.

The talk of the WFF this year was dealing with millennial employees, a generation raised on cell phones. But you may want to rethink that method of communicating.

As a consumer, and more specifically as a busy working mom, I don’t dislike the idea of being able to order food ahead, run in, grab it and be on my way.

Over four days and almost three dozen general and breakout sessions, attendees of the Restaurant Leadership Conference were treated to experiences and insights that extended far beyond business.

Consumers want restaurants to dig deeper on health, “natural” and local sourcing. Here’s how the industry is responding.

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