R&I Insider
By The Editors -- Restaurants & Institutions, 6/15/2006
Fuel Sells
High gasoline prices pose a threat to all restaurants, so some chains are trying to show solidarity with gas-guzzled consumers. Warren, Mich.-based Big Boy’s “Pump It Up” promotion invites customers to pick up a mail-in sweepstakes entry at its restaurants. One winner will nab a $1,000 gas card; 70 others will each receive a $75 card.
The “Top Off” promotion ends this month at Mary’s Pizza Shack, a 15-unit casual-Italian chain based in Sonoma, Calif. The company gives customers one free pizza topping for each gasoline receipt they bring in.
Other chains are lowering prices to make dining out more economical. DeSoto, Kan.-based Mr. Goodcents Subs & Pastas has introduced a “Lifestyle Value Menu” with four items—a veggie sandwich, a single-meat sandwich, a pasta and a salad—priced at $2.15 each. A sub sandwich with multiple meats and cheeses is offered for $2.59, says Bob Moreno, the chain’s vice president of operations and marketing. “We figure that if we lower our prices everybody can eat at Mr. Goodcents for under $5 with a drink, chips and a sandwich,” he adds.
As gas prices hover around $3 per gallon, consumers are curbing discretionary spending, which has hurt customer traffic and check averages throughout the restaurant industry, according to a survey by New York City-based Standard & Poor’s Equity Research. Mid-price family dining has felt the biggest pinch; many of the segment’s units are located near highways, and its customers—which trend toward lower- and middle-income demographics—have been disproportionately affected by gas-price increases.
The Devil’s in the Details
Amy Tornquist’s first connection with Duke University came when she and her Sage & Swift Gourmet Catering were asked to upgrade and operate food services for Duke’s Faculty Commons dining room. Last year, Tornquist was awarded the contract for a cafe in Duke’s new Nasher Museum. Her third campus operation is set to open this fall: El Diablo, a Mexican taqueria on a plaza under construction near the school’s student center in Durham, N.C.
El Diablo will operate as a profit-sharing partnership between Tornquist (above) and members of the Martinez and Hernandez families, who work at her operations and who have provided recipes and culinary expertise. As at Faculty Commons and Nasher Museum Café, the menu will emphasize locally sourced and, where possible, organic foods. An area dairy is creating queso fresco for the taqueria; Durham’s growing Hispanic population means that high-quality masa and tortillas are available locally.
El Diablo “allows Duke to bridge the gap between traditional grab-and-go fast foods and healthful eating,” Tornquist says.
In a novel twist, she eventually would like to open a second El Diablo location in downtown Durham; it’s rare that a concept’s first unit springs up in a noncommercial setting.
Bocuse Blessings
The first day of the National Restaurant Association Restaurant Hotel-Motel Show began inauspiciously for Gavin Kaysen (r.), a finalist in the Bocuse d’Or United States National Selection. A light bulb, which fell from the ceiling of Chicago’s McCormick Place, shattered in his kitchen, leaving him and assistant Brandon Rogers scrambling to clean up before competition began. But that wouldn’t knock Kaysen out of the spotlight. The chef de cuisine at San Diego’s El Bizcocho and Rogers turned in top-notch platters (which included halibut pithiviers and braised chicken legs wrapped in zucchini baskets) that earned them the opportunity to represent the United States in the January 2007 Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France.
While the competitors face months of training, Kaysen hasn’t lost momentum. Instead, he has the powerful support of the competition’s founder, Chef Paul Bocuse, who hopes to see an American on the victor’s podium for the first time in the event’s history. With that to buoy his spirits, “We have no option but to win this,” Kaysen says.
Tipping Points
When Thomas Keller scrapped tipping at pricey Per Se in New York City and instituted a flat 20% service charge, it reignited debate over how best to compensate restaurant employees. In “Tipping and Its Alternatives,” published by The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Michael Lynn considers pros and cons to conventional tipping, service charges and service-inclusive menu pricing.
Lynn’s research finds 44% of respondents say they would prefer higher wages for servers to tipping, although 69% also say they do not dislike tipping servers. Other research he cites finds negatives in separating bill payment and tipping because “people feel more pain over two small losses than over one large loss that is comparable in size to the combined small losses.”
His research finds “only a tiny correlation” between tip size and customer evaluation of service or dining experience, and he points to several potential negative consequences of tipping. These include servers’ giving less attention to persons stereotyped as poor tippers (including African Americans, the elderly, foreigners, teens and others); servers’ inclination to provide free food or services in expectation of higher tips; and servers’ inclinations to focus only on guests at their tables.
Although tipping often results in server compensation higher than does set service charges, Lynn also posits that flat fees or service-inclusive pricing may attract more-professional staff by lowering uncertainty about income. The full article can be accessed at www.chr.cornell.edu.
Table Turns
Denny’s Corp. elected Debra Smithart-Ogelsby (r.) to chair its board of directors, succeeding Robert Marks. Smithart-Ogelsby is president of an investment-capital and consulting-services company. ...
Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group LLC President Michael Depatie becomes CEO on July 1, 2006. He succeeds Tom LaTour, who is retiring after 23 years with the company. ...
Bill Van Epps (r.) was promoted to the new post of president-USA at Papa John’s International. He has been the company’s COO since 2004. ...
IHOP Corp. President-CEO Julia Stewart has been given the additional role of chair of the board of directors. Former Chair Larry Alan Kay remains on the board as lead director. ...
Lackmann Culinary Services appointed Christian Fischer its corporate executive chef. Fischer previously was corporate executive chef for Nestlé USA. ...
Tom Douglas this summer plans to open a 40-seat pizzeria, Serious Pie, adjacent to his Dahlia Lounge in Seattle. ...
Joe Roman, who has spent 51 years as a server/ambassador at Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, Fla., received the Bern Laxer Spirit of Excellence Award from the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. ...
Sam Mason, pastry chef at Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50 in New York City, will leave to open his own as-yet-unnamed restaurant. ...
Tim Love, chef-owner of The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in Fort Worth, Texas, opened duce, his second restaurant in the city; duce is described as a “modern European food lounge.” ...
Neal Fraser, chef-owner of Los Angeles’ acclaimed Grace, will open BLD (for “breakfast, lunch, dinner”) in L.A. this summer. ...
Michael Karloutsos this month opens The Water Works Restaurant and Lounge in Philadelphia beside the Schuylkill River. The opening caps a 2 1/2-year conversion of the city’s Fairmount Water Works pumping station, built in 1812. Adan Trinidad, former chef de cuisine at Philadelphia’s El Vez, is chef at the new restaurant. ...
Joel Nickson’s Chicago restaurant Wishbone will open a 55-seat location in suburban Berwyn, Ill., adjacent to FitzGerald’s music club, for which Wishbone has been handling catering.
Lights, Camera, Ad Hoc
Restaurants are notorious for short shelf lives. But with Chef Thomas Keller’s latest venture, a short life is as deliberate as a theater run.
Keller and his lauded staff are preparing for a July launch of Ad Hoc, a temporary restaurant set to run through an undetermined date this winter. Located a couple of blocks south of Keller’s The French Laundry and Bouchon restaurants and Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, Calif., the limited-time-only operation will be market-driven with a daily four-course, prix-fixe chalkboard menu. The restaurant will be a revenue-generating testing ground for a permanent concept for the space, formerly Wine Garden Restaurant. Ideas under consideration include sushi bar, steakhouse and burger joint. Meanwhile, a Keller-run butcher shop, previously planned to open in Yountville this summer, has been placed on hold.
One Quick Question
Dallas-based Food, Friends and Co., parent to Cozymel’s Mexican Grill chain, is developing two new concepts: pan-Latin-themed Wapango and white-tablecloth seafood spot Red Sail. That led Insider to ask Food, Friends and Co. President Jack Baum:
Q. Why grow with new brands instead of your existing chain concept?
A. We think chain restaurants are going to go on the decline, and we think people are going to look for independents. I don’t know if we’re right or wrong on this, but that’s my theory. We think people feel more comfortable dining in independent restaurants rather than at chains, so we are trying to create little groups of restaurants in each city where we open and give an equity stake to local partners who might open six restaurants there, but they’ll be six different concepts.
Menu Focus
At their juicy perfection this month, cherries provide ideal counterpoints for savory dishes as well as highlights in breads and desserts.
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Mirabelle Restaurant: House-smoked pork with dried-cherry chutney, Mexican oregano-infused pork jus, ancho chile and queso fresco- CHICAGO
Café Selmarie: Watercress and endive salad with dried cherries, toasted almonds, Brie cheese and champagne vinaigrette - MILWAUKEE
Sauce Restaurant: Flourless chocolate cake, cherry coulis and almond ice cream - MULTIPLE LOCATIONS
Fresh Choice: Aegean Cherry-Almond Empanadas - NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Yale University Dining Services: Couscous with cherries and almonds - SEATTLE
Fireside Room at the Sorrento Hotel: Freshly baked cherry scones with Devonshire cream and preserves - SISSETON, S.D.
Sisseton School District 54-2: Barbecued pork on a bun, spaghetti rings, broccoli and cherry tart - WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J.
La Casa Bianca: Veal loin medallions with dried cherries and shiitake mushrooms in red-currant-port-wine reduction
Staying Connected
Attendees at this year’s National Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management (HFM) National Conference at Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Fla., aren’t going to get “training for the sake of training,” according to Mary Angela Miller, chair and administrative director of the event. They’re getting much more. The “Power of HFM: Connect to It” theme encompasses a host of speakers and educational sessions on topics ranging from cash management to food safety from Aug. 21 to Aug. 25. New this year are breakfast round tables and more time between speakers to increase networking opportunities.
“We’re doing a speaker in the mornings whom everyone can benefit from, and in the afternoons we’ll have focused practical breakout sessions,” says Miller, who also is director of nutrition services at The Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus. Hyrum Smith, time-management expert and vice chairman of a training and consulting firm based in Salt Lake City, will kick off the event. General session speakers including Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and associate director of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense; and former White House Executive Chef Walter S. Scheib III.
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