Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly, and another major American midwinter celebration, the Super Bowl, is just past.
Chain restaurants gear up for both of them, each in their own way. Pizza concepts have long offered heart-shaped pies for Valentine’s Day, but doughnut chains are following that lead and offering their core products in heart shapes too.
Super Bowl Sunday also coincides with National Pizza Day this year, which means plenty of special offers for people who want to supplement their chicken wing orders with pizza.
Pat and Bret discussed how wings are the most popular appetizer ordered with pizza, making them perhaps the most common combination in American foodservice.
They also discussed how invented holidays such as National Pizza Day are, in fact, great sales drivers, giving people a reason, no matter how small, to order something they love.
The co-hosts last saw each other just a couple of days ago at a festive dinner thrown by Subway. It was a fine dining-style banquet showcasing the quality of Subway’s raw materials, including dry-aged salami and olives imported from Morocco and Spain.
Pat reported on the dinner for Restaurant Business.
For the podcast’s interview this week, Bret interviewed Donnie Madia, co-owner of One-Off Hospitality in Chicago. He discussed the restaurant group’s new catering arm, how his restaurants that were featured in the hit FX TV series "The Bear" benefitted from the exposure and his philosophy about the future of fine dining.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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