Peter Romeo

Editor at Large

Articles by
Peter Romeo

Page 380

Some new-concept buzz from the show

If discussions at the NRA show are any indication, concept development is revving up again.

Saluting a save

Several hundred of us watched a life being changed tonight. The change-ee will never forget an evening that started with dire concerns about her family’s financial situation and ended with a fresh start, courtesy of two restaurant luminaries who presumably didn’t know her before today. But I’m pretty sure the rest of us will never let it slip from memory, either.

That criteria applies as much to a whole chain as it does to a single unit, says Richard Fitzgerald, co-CEO of CapitalSpring.

With the NRA show just hours away, certain truths about this year's convention are piling up like used toothpicks at a sliced-pepperoni booth. Here’re some of the insights we've gleaned so far:

The show hasn’t even started, but a theme is already emerging for the National Restaurant Association’s mega-convention in Chicago. If the early hubbub is any indication, this may well be the Year of the Handheld.

Savory flavors are claiming more freezer space as ice cream chains slide into their peak season.

Still not seeing the potential of this whole social media thing? Then consider the buzz blitz Genghis Grill waged—for a song—to position its Mongolian barbecue as a healthy option.

A look at the top mobile users of social media underscores how much they depend on daily dish-ups of 140 characters to make their models work.

Need proof that dominance in social media isn’t (yet) a function of size? Look no further than Restaurant Business’ ranking of casual chains by success in that realm.

Our ranking of restaurant chefs by social media success immediately brings to mind two questions: Who is DenverChefDude, and how does he have anytime left to cook?

Cinnabon, a bakery chain with a number of non-traditional locations, will offer nurses a free cinnamon roll during National Nurses Week, May 6-12.

You’d think that celebrity chefs would make their restaurants the stars of social media. But in our rankings of independent restaurants, the most avid users are hardly household names. Big name chefs, it seems, prefer to tweet and post under their own names, not their restaurants’ or company’s.

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