Starters
Restaurant-management professor Chris Muller offers his takes on key issues and the latest news concerning the foodservice industry.
Undercover Restaurant Boss: Is ‘Scrooge’ Really Redeemed?
Sunday night was the first of two restaurant related “Undercover Boss” reality shows on CBS. Coby Brooks shaved off his mustache and beard, put on some nerdy glasses, joined a professional film crew and took off for Dallas to see what goes on in his Hooters restaurants. It strikes me that there is a bit of Scrooge from the Christmas Carol in the creation of this concept. Boss is out ...... Read More
Comments (2)Why Uno's Went Bankrupt
The first restaurant company bankruptcy of the year was announced today: Uno Chicago Grill has filed for Chapter 11 protection. I had my first individual Chicago deep-dish pizza at the new Pizzeria Uno (the concept’s original name) on Boston’s Boyleston Street in the spring of 1979. It became a semi-regular favorite of my waiter buddies and me, primarily because the pizza was packed ...... Read More
Comments (2)Acting on Healthcare and The National Restaurant Association
I think I might have been too subtle in my previous postings about the National Restaurant Association and healthcare. Here is what I think the discussion should be. It is perfectly reasonable for a business organization, such as the NRA, to be opposed to government mandated programs such as employer-based healthcare. But, it then becomes that organization’s mandate to off ...... Read More
Comments (1)Support Dawn Sweeney and the National Restaurant Association in Health Care Reform
Every member of the restaurant industry, from the entry-level dish-machine operator to the CEO of the billion-dollar chain should call or send a note of support to Dawn Sweeney of the National Restaurant Association (address and phone number below) for their efforts to take a positive role in the national healthcare debate. Here’s why. I wrote a personal piece about the healthcare discussio ...... Read More
Comments (5)Hospitality, Prices and Restaurant Success
Restaurants are the largest part of the hospitality business, and you know what’s missing from the hospitality business today? I think it’s a sense of hospitality. We have plenty of business sense. In fact, over the past 50 years we’ve become really good at thinking from this perspective. But, as I referenced in my last posting, for the restaurant side ...... Read More
Comments (5)Can't Blame the Economy for These Restaurant Trends
A number of really revealing news articles hit the listserv system last Thursday and Friday. I imagine many of you read them after seeing the teaser headlines in your email updates. I was struck by two in particular. One, with a by-line from the Oct. 21 Sacramento Bee, reported on a new Zagat Survey of 145,000 “local restaurant-goers” across the United States. There were 11 ...... Read More
Comments (6)Health Care, Labor Day and Restaurant Risk
It’s Labor Day Weekend, there is a raging debate about Health Care in the nation, and my thoughts are consumed with the people who I used to employ and what health insurance meant to them. I’ve owned, with partners, two restaurants over the past 30 years. In 1980 my friend, Brian, and I took a lease on a small full-service restaurant on Cape Cod. ...... Read More
Comments (4)Restaurants Aren't For Amateurs, Renee
You know what? I’m getting really cranky in my old age. I just read a story about actress Renee Zellweger opening a Mexican diner, Blue Parrot, in East Hampton, N.Y. Here’s the part of the story that I find so disturbing: "It’s awesome and has great margaritas and tacos… How fun is that? I just go and sit on a bar stool and it’s fun, like, ‘Oh, I’m ...... Read More
Comments (17)Restaurant Brand Contraction
What makes a restaurant concept a brand? First and foremost, it’s the customers. A restaurant brand’s value is resident in the customer’s mind, never in the Board Room. What a company does to create consumer brand value is, of course, highly important in forging this image. Service, quality, experience, all help to create a connection to each ...... Read More
Comments (2)My Lunches With Julia
On the eve of the upcoming release of the new movie, Julie and Julia, I thought I might post a different kind of blog, and tell a story about my encounters with the legendary Julia Child. During the late spring of 1978 I was a waiter in the new Thompson’s Chowder House restaurant in Boston’s Quincy Market. This restaurant was part of the Landmark Inn complex (Thomp ...... Read More
Comments (5)For Restaurants Twitter = Local, Facebook = Mass Market
Remember the idea that all restaurant marketing should be local marketing? And all local marketing should reinforce your two main consumer goals—frequency and loyalty? Well, if you are not living in a time warp or in total denial, you have noticed that today, every second article in the national and trade press is about Twitter, the currently “on fire” socia ...... Read More
Comments (10)This Week The Marketing of Restaurants Changed Forever
By now you will have heard about Domino’s, the “disgusting employee” viral video and the way that Twitter played a crucial part in the rapid spread of the message. If not visit R & I’s story at http://www.chainleader.com/article/CA6652042.html?nid=3458&rid=13554328. One initial reaction you might have would be to ask “what were they (t ...... Read More
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