Pat Cobe, senior menu editor of Restaurant Business, and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, were both invited to a preview of Starbucks’ spring menu. At the tasting, which took place at the Starbucks Reserve location in NYC’s Empire State Building, they sampled a collection of colorful beverages, including a purple Iced Ube Coconut Latte, pink Iced Cherry Chai and several lavender drinks returning from last spring.
Pat especially liked the cherry chai with its topping of cherry cream foam and crunchy red and pink sugar flakes, while Bret was impressed with the combination of ube, coffee and coconut and voted that as his favorite.
The editors were also impressed with the new food additions—a warm, savory Jalapeño Chicken Pocket and a sweet pistachio-filled pastry. Both made nice accompaniments to Starbucks’ newest blonde roast coffee, Sunsera Blend. It tasted pretty complex for a light roast.
Pat also had a chance to taste Sweetgreen’s new Ripple Fries, which launched on the chain’s menu Tuesday. They are air-fried with avocado oil, then sprinkled with salt and parsley and were surprisingly hot and crisp. She enjoyed both the flavor and texture, especially when the fries were dipped in the two accompanying and pretty unique condiments—pickle ketchup and garlic aioli.
Sayat and Laura Ozyilmaz, chef-owners of Dalida
The two then shared an interview with Sayat and Laura Ozyilmaz, husband-and-wife chef-owners of Dalida in San Francisco. Dalida serves “borderless” Mediterranean food, mixing and matching flavors and dishes from the Turkey, Lebanon, Armenia, Cypress and other countries in the region. Sayat is from that area but Laura is Mexican, and some of her culinary influences come into play on the menu, too.
Listen as they describe how the restaurant’s location in Presidio Park and California-sourced ingredients also impact their menu, and how they foster sustainability and community at Dalida.
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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