The week in ideas, October 26, 2012

Sacramento’s idea for peace between trucks and brick-and-mortar guys. A new charitable idea from a pub in D.C. A great idea for fighting crime in St. Louis. And more.

Idea #1: Collaborate with food trucks. There’s a lot of animosity between brick-and-mortar restaurants and food trucks. But Sacramento has figured out a way for everybody to just get along. The Truck and Mortar Throwdown on December 1 will feature five teams, with one traditional chefs and one food truck chef per. Each team will create one sweet and one savory dish. A whole pig and a gallon of honey are mandatory ingredients. Tickets are $45 and proceeds benefit charities.

Idea #2: The PhilanthroPub. Every three months D.C.’s new “PhilanthroPub” Cause will donate 100 percent of profits to charity.

Idea #3: Fight crime. Oh man this is a great story. A group of St. Louis operators were shooting the breeze the other day and one said he thought he’d been scammed the other day. A guy had called his restaurant complaining about a bad order. He’d been comped. But the guy had said he’d ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. Mike Johnson, the operator, doesn’t have that on the menu. The caller corrected himself: it was the turkey. The other operators chimed in that they’d experienced the same kind of call recently. They compared caller ID info and realized it was the same guy. When the scammer showed up at Johnson’s restaurant to collect his comp, Johnson decided to“f**k with him this guy just for fun.”

Idea #4: Grab-and-go at the metro station. A great location for a breakfast concept. An operator in a Chicago suburb scores a sweet contract.

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