Ivy's New Growth

By Patricia Dailey, Editor-in-Chief -- Restaurants & Institutions, 5/15/2003

In a time-honored tradition that—much like spring itself—is cherished, esteemed, spirited and celebratory, Restaurants and Institutions each May confers its Ivy Awards on a handful of foodservice success stories. With the input of all past Ivy winners and the due process of votes cast by the magazine’s entire readership, new honorees—a select group of accomplished operators from an industry known for cultivating over-achievers—is elected to join Ivy’s hallowed halls.

The list of past winners is long and illustrious, abundant with names known as exemplars and icons, style setters and standard bearers; Daniel, Valentino, Frontera Grill, Charlie Trotter’s, The French Laundry, Spago, Jean Georges, Emeril’s and The Inn at Little Washington are among the more than 250 operations that have earned the Ivy Award.

Recognizing and embracing the level of achievement so often reached by colleges, healthcare settings and corporate foodservice, the Ivys, throughout their long history, also have paid homage to such places as the University of Georgia, Harvard University, Bon Appétit Management Co. and New York University Medical Center’s Food and Nutrition Services.

Although the settings of these operations are different and their business models vary substantially from the four-star approach taken by commercial restaurants, core similarities are obvious and compelling. The long, unrelenting reach for excellence, the drive for continual improvement and the endless striving for the highest food quality and service standards do not differ markedly from those traits that motivate and drive all winners, whether in a restaurant or an institution.

This year, in the belief that new growth sustains, invigorates and strengthens, and in recognition of an evolving and always improving industry, Ivy has extended its roots a little farther. Starting with the inauguration of Smith & Wollensky and Levy Restaurants Sports & Entertainment Group into the Ivy Society, the awards now recognize and salute chain and multiconcept operations as well.

Although such inclusions may have been unthinkable in 1971, when Ivy Awards first unfolded, it should now come as no surprise. Foodservice, in its many levels and permutations, encourages and cultivates greatness. As an industry, it is completely democratic and unbiased, able to judge all operations on their own merits.

It is unavoidably and undeniably clear that chain restaurants accomplish many things for foodservice, innovating, pushing and redefining the norm. Working on a broader plane, they reach consumers in a more immediate way than do the most celebrated white-tablecloth spots. Their corporate chefs work diligently and determinedly, crafting recipes and formulas that marry broad appeal with flourishes of excellence and the vision and finesse of culinary genius. Corporate trainers map grand plans to teach not a roomful but an entire system-wide staff the most exacting and consistent standards of warmth, hospitality and graciousness.

It is with honor and great delight that R&I recognizes chains, saluting them for serving millions of guests with professionalism, dedication and the highest levels of Ivy excellence.