All posts by Dana Williams

If you owned a restaurant or managed a take-out service over the past few years, and survived, chances are that you rose to the challenge by turning obstacles into opportunities. One recipe for success was creating a niche menu that appeals to your most frequent diners, giving them many flavorful and favor-filled reasons to come back for more.
Continue reading about cashing in on niche restaurant menus →

If you manage or own a restaurant, it’s time to update your menu with some immune-boosting ingredients. Today more than ever, diners are interested in their physical health and will pay top dollar for foods and beverages that help fight infection and strengthen their resistance to disease. Once these items are integrated into your menu, diners may not even realize the enormous benefits they will be getting from dining out in your restaurant.

Restaurants around the world have taken advantage of the pandemic to open their doors to outdoor dining, maybe permanently, with the permission of state and local laws. The sidewalk, owned by the city, was graciously turned over to restauranteurs during the pandemic so they could try to turn a profit and stay afloat. Over the years, allowing outdoor dining has certainly saved many a restaurant from caving in under the woes of the pandemic. Looking ahead, especially in larger cites such as NYC and LA, restaurant owners are in talks with city officials and neighborhood groups to allow this trend to continue, maybe forever.

If you work in foodservice, you have been impacted, for better or worse, by the coronavirus (COVID-19). Fortunately, some of you have managed to survive the pandemic and are operating or perhaps even thriving despite the restrictions on restaurant operations and social gatherings. However, one constant unites you all: Whether you are offering takeout for the first time, operating out of a pre-existing ghost kitchen, or have transformed your brick-and-mortar eatery into a remote restaurant, the name of the new game in the industry is: Safe food delivery.

If you are wondering what the most popular foods are during quarantine and which takeout menu items customers are craving in the wake of the coronavirus, you have come to the right place. In this guide, we will reveal the key ingredients to restaurant menu success during COVID-19 and provide specific tips, strategies, and recipe ideas that will help your food-and-beverage operation not only stay afloat but rise above the competitive pack and even thrive and grow.

From cakes, puddings, and parfaits to salads, entrées, and main courses, mason jar desserts and meals (aka food-in-a-jar) have become some of the hottest-selling items in the restaurant and catering service businesses. Taking the concept of canning jars to new and highly imaginative heights, professional chefs and bakers are jumping aboard the mason jar bandwagon, creating single-serving, portable, convenient, and highly Instagrammable servings of their customers’ favorite recipes.

Oatmeal, anyone?
The battle for breakfast is on, and if you work in foodservice, prepare to update your restaurant and catering service menus with the latest rising star in the food industry: Hot oatmeal. That’s right! Not only have all-day breakfast menus and brunch become a financial boon for eateries that rise to the occasion, but hot cereals, especially oats, are proliferating and claiming the unlikely top spot.

In this guide for foodservice professionals, you will get the full 411 on all things ‘champagne,’ including types of the world’s favorite bubbly, champagne styles, grapes, regions, sweetness levels, temperature, age, how to pour the perfect glass of champagne, the best champagne glassware, and more.
Continue reading about restaurant champagne and wine-pouring etiquette →

Every year, the food industry, along with myriads of other business entities, hungrily await the grand announcement from the trend-setters at the Pantone Color Institute: The Pantone Color of the Year. Setting the tone for and influencing product development, packaging, design, and purchasing decisions for a wide range of merchandise, the color experts have declared that Classic Blue will be the Pantone Color of the Year for 2020.

The global oats and oatmeal markets are booming, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Boasting a plethora of delicious and nutritious benefits, hot oatmeal for breakfast is one of the hottest ticket items in today’s food industry, with all the major suppliers reporting unprecedented sales growth.