This is part of NRN's special coverage of the 2012 Food & Wine Classic held in Aspen, Colo., June 15-17. Follow all of our coverage at NRN's 'Aspen Food & Wine Classic' section.

The Food & Wine Classic in Aspen takes place over Father’s Day weekend, so we decided to ask some of our favorite chefs and restaurant operators about the best or worst advice their fathers game them.

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Clik here to view.Michel Nischan, founder, CEO and president of Wholesome Wave, which works to make fruits and vegetables more accessible to lower income families

My father was a tool salesman and a really great one; a simple, wonderful man. The best advice he ever gave me was that you’re going to have to sell yourself in life but you’d better first be able to make sure the product is worth selling. You’ve got to be able to stand behind yourself.

The worst advice he ever gave me was to get a job in industry, put in your 25 years and get your pension. Obviously I didn’t pay attention.

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Clik here to view.Rick Bayless, chef/owner of three Latin restaurants in Chicago

My father taught me how to run a restaurant by teaching me to walk through it. Every day before he opened his restaurant [Hickory House in Oklahoma City], he’d walk through and check every nook and cranny. He tasted everything that was on the line to make sure that the guest experience would be the same every time they came in. To this day, I do that before we open our doors.

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Clik here to view.Rob Wilder, co-owner of Think Food Group in Washington, D.C., with José Andrés

Even though we worked together in his steel forging business, and as much as he enjoyed me supporting him and working side-by-side with him, his advice was for me to follow my passion and dream and do my own thing. His company made steel, so I like that we both cook things, but his ovens are at a much higher temperature.

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Clik here to view.Andrew Carmellini, chef/owner of The Dutch in New York City and Miami Beach

My dad is a man of few words, so his best advice was more a demonstration of work ethic. He’s a very honest guy who worked with marble and terrazzo, and he loved his job. So, I was inspired by the way he did things and I use his example to live my life the same way.

He did give me bad advice once and I joke with him about it. I moved to the East Coast to go to cooking school and he told me before I left, “And don’t go to New York City!” He may have had a bad experience or a preconceived notion about New York, but for me it’s the most amazing city and I’ve lived there for 22 years. It’s home.

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Clik here to view.Drew Nieporent, restaurateur and owner of Myriad Restaurant Group

My father’s advice was that ultimately you’d be able to count your friends on one hand. But at the time when I was younger I had so many friends I didn’t quite believe what he was saying. But as got older, I realize it was sage advice.

A version of this article appears at NRN.com sister site Restaurant-Hospitality.com.

Follow Michael Sanson on Twitter: @MikeSansonRH
 

Restaurant industry same-store sales were up in May, with quick-service chains continuing to outperform the full-service segment, according to the latest NRN-MillerPulse survey.

MillerPulse, an operator survey exclusive to Nation’s Restaurant News, included respondents from 53 restaurant operators in June regarding May sales, profit trends, performance and outlooks. Respondents included operators from all regions of the country that represent the quick-service, casual-dining, fine-dining and fast-casual segments. Those surveyed in June represented restaurants that booked about 14 percent of industry sales.

Industry same-store sales rose 3.1 percent in May compared with a 2.3-percent increase in April, the survey found. Quick-service restaurants, which include both fast-food and fast-casual brands, had another strong month, with a sales increase of 4.5 percent in May, compared with a 3.7-percent increase the month prior. Full-service restaurants, which include both casual-dining and fine-dining brands, saw a modest increase of 1.7 percent in May compared with a 1.3-percent gain in April. Casual-dining brands continued to struggle, with same-store sales rising 1 percent and guest traffic falling 0.9 percent, the survey found.

However, full-service restaurants’ unremarkable month is not necessarily indicative of the health of the industry as a whole.

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“There's a misconception that the industry is slowing. It's not. Only parts of it are — casual dining,” said Larry Miller, restaurant securities analyst at RBC Capital Markets and creator of the monthly MillerPulse surveys. “Sales trends for fast-food and fast-casual companies are holding up very well. So it's not surprising to me that the sales outlook for QSR companies is much better than casual dining.”

Miller referred to the net 27 percent of quick-service operators who say sales will improve in June, as opposed to only a net 22 percent of full-service operators that feel the same way. Those figures were calculated by subtracting the percentage of operators who felt sales would get worse in June from the percentage that felt they would get better.

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The six-month outlook was less optimistic, the survey found. Operator outlook across all four segments — fast food, fast casual, fine dining and casual dining — worsened in May compared with April, with the majority of them citing the economy as their chief concern, as opposed to weather and commodity pressures, which had been the case in months prior.

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“They [operators] are now citing the economy as the No. 1 business concern,” Miller said. “I agree with them that a weaker economy would be the biggest threat as it mean weaker sales trends going forward, and that's likely the driving force behind the souring sales outlook.”

And as the economy continues to present a problem, Miller expects the trend of quick service outperforming other segments to continue. He partly attributes this to an improvement in quality at restaurants in that segment.

“There is a structural shift as the quality of the total offering — food and ambiance — at QSR is similar if not better than low-end casual dining, and the price is advantageous.”

Register for MillerPulse at www.nrn.com/industry-insight.

Contact Charlie Duerr at charles.duerr@penton.com.

Burger King’s celebrity-driven commercials for new menu items recently broke through with several key demographics, according to new consumer research from YouGov BrandIndex.

Starting in May, when new ads starring soccer star David Beckham and Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler began running, Burger King experienced a lift among men and women in its “buzz score,” which BrandIndex uses to measure word-of-mouth traction every day, said Ted Marzilli, senior vice president of the consumer perception research firm.

“You want everybody you can get coming into your stores, and the best way of attracting all these different groups is through different media or different celebrities,” Marzilli said. “Here, Burger King seems to be targeting its top three or four groups and investing the money to get them. The approach makes sense, and the data suggest it’s making an impact.”

New York-based BrandIndex calculates the buzz score for hundreds of brands by surveying more than 5,000 adult consumers each weekday. Respondents are asked, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word-of-mouth, was it positive or negative?” Negative responses are subtracted from positive ones, and a moving average is calculated ranging from negative 100 to positive 100, with a rating of zero denoting completely neutral perceptions for a brand.

At the beginning of May, female survey respondents had a more positive perception of Burger King, based on the brand’s buzz score with that demographic of 64, compared with an average buzz score among all consumers for all quick-service brands of 57. Male consumers yielded an average buzz score of only 34 for Burger King at that time.

However, BrandIndex noted, Burger King’s scores among men climbed throughout the first half of May as the brand’s commercial with Tyler aired, reaching a peak of 60 on May 16. Men’s buzz score for Burger King ended June 8 at 50 — still below the overall average buzz score for all quick-service chains at 61 but well above its starting point from May 1.

Right about the time the men’s buzz score hit its peak in mid-May, buzz scores for Burger King among female consumer respondents began climbing, hitting an apex of 76 on May 29, BrandIndex found. Those results seemed to track with the debut of Burger King’s second commercial with Beckham, in which one of Burger King’s new smoothies gets spilled on his shirt and female customers and employees implore him to take his shirt off.

Burger King’s buzz score among women ended June 8 at 69, eight points above the industry average for all consumers.

Marzilli noted that while it can be an expensive, high-risk-high-reward tactic for a restaurant to use celebrity endorsers, Burger King’s approach with Beckham, Tyler, and others like Salma Hayek and Jay Leno, appears to be working.

“It’s not inexpensive to get talent like that, but it’s like portfolio theory, where different folks will appeal to different consumer segments,” he said. “It makes sense to target specific customer groups with niche content or celebrities and is better than a one-size-fits-all strategy. … If you’re going to spend the money, you might as well target everybody you can.”

Marzilli added that sustaining this kind of a pop in buzz scores would be difficult for Burger King because refreshing the campaign could be very expensive. He also noted that Burger King’s largest rival, McDonald’s, spends far more in advertising — something incoming McDonald’s chief executive Don Thompson acknowledged when told investors the chain “looked forward to taking competitors’ business when they pulled back from promotions.”

“It’s very hard to win that battle on a consistent basis,” Marzilli said. “The best Burger King can do is to pick its battles and try a few different things to get pick-up for free in social media and the press and fight guerilla warfare with a guy like McDonald’s. Also, it’s one thing to raise buzz and drive people into the stores to give Burger King another chance, but the real key is execution.”

For its March 31-ended first quarter, Burger King Holdings Inc. reported its strongest gain in same-store sales in two years, with a 4.2-percent increase in the United States and Canada.

Miami-based Burger King operates or franchises 12,534 restaurants worldwide.

Contact Mark Brandau at mark.brandau@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN

This is part of NRN's special coverage of the 2012 Food & Wine Classic held in Aspen, Colo., June 15-17. Follow all of our coverage at NRN's 'Aspen Food & Wine Classic' section.

Below are key takeaways from the first panel of the American Express Trade Program: “Tech Talk: Marketing to Today’s Diner,” featuring Washington, D.C.-based chef-restaurateur José Andrés of the Think Food Group; Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago; Danny Meyer of Union Square Hospitality Group in New York; and Bernardo Hernandez, director of product management of Zagat, now owned by Google.

On the importance of newspapers:

“It’s still important to be mentioned in local newspapers, but what matters more is that people from whom your customers get their news — such as their Facebook friends and who they follow on Twitter — mention you,” Meyer said.

Andrés said small neighborhood newspapers can be crucial sources for customers.

Bayless said: “It’s important to be in the newspapers, partly because if you’re ignored by the local newspapers there’s this group of people who won’t know what you’re doing,” namely those not involved in social media.

However, Bayless said he gets a lot more comments if he’s mentioned on Eater.com than if he’s mentioned in a newspaper.

On Twitter (which they named their key social media outlet):

Twitter’s immediacy has a lot of power, the restaurateurs said, allowing them to respond to customer feedback in real time.

“It’s a wonderful way to take down the walls of the restaurant and do what you’d do if you were tableside, in a broader sense,” Meyer said. He added, however, “High tech ain’t never going to trump high-touch.”

Bayless said expressing his personality on Twitter enhances his customers’ experiences by making them feel more connected to the restaurant.

On technological priorities:

Hernandez noted that last year, for the first time, more mobile devices were shipped than desktop PCs and laptops. While restaurants remain focused on their websites, he indicated that they should focus more on their mobile presence.

This article also appears on NRN's sister site Restaurant-Hospitality.com.

Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Benihana Inc. on Friday reported a 73-percent decline in profits for the fourth quarter despite continued same-store sales and traffic growth for the company’s teppanyaki brand.

For the fourth quarter ended April 1, the Miami-based operator of the Benihana Teppanyaki chain reported net income of $81,000, or nil per share, compared with $289,000, or 2 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding a $2.6 million impairment charge related to the closure of an underperforming restaurant during the fourth quarter, however, net income was $2.5 million, or 14 cents per share.

Systemwide same-store sales rose 4.8 percent for the fourth quarter, lead by the namesake teppanyaki brand, which reported comparable sales growth of 6.1 percent that included a 5.7-percent increase in traffic, the company said.

The quarter was the company’s ninth consecutive quarter of company-wide same-store sales growth.

Among secondary brands, same-store sales were up 2.1 percent at RA Sushi during the quarter and up 2.2 percent at Haru.

Revenues increased 12.8 percent to $92.3 million, including the benefit of an extra week during the quarter.

In May, Benihana Inc. entered into an agreement to go private in a $296 million deal with Angelo, Gordon & Co. Private Equity Group, operating under the name Safflower Holdings Corp. and Safflower Acquisition Corp. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the calendar year.

Richard Stockinger, Benihana’s chair, president and chief executive, said he was extremely pleased with the results, especially given commodity cost pressures.

“Maintaining our comparable sales momentum in the midst of a very difficult economic and consumer environment is a significant achievement for our team,” he said in a statement. “The Benihana Teppanyaki brand has especially excelled during this time frame, as evidenced by its No. 1 ranking in the Knapp-Track sales survey for calendar year 2011.”

For the full year, net income was $3.6 million, or 21 cents per share, compared with $251,000, or 2 cents per share, the prior year. Excluding the impairment charge, net income for the year was $5.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share.

Revenues for the 53-week year were up 7.5 percent to $352.1 million.

Systemwide same-store sales were up 6 percent for the year, including increases of 7.7 percent for Benihana Teppanyaki, 3.5 percent at RA Sushi and 0.8 percent for Haru.

Based in Miami, Benihana Inc. operates 95 restaurants nationwide, including 62 Benihana Teppanyaki locations, 25 RA Sushi and eight Haru units. Another 16 Benihana locations are franchised and operated in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.

Contact Lisa Jennings at lisa.jennings@penton.com.
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout

How restaurants are successfully tapping into and using social media remained one of the main themes during the recent People Report Summer Brand Camp conference in Dallas.

Representatives of restaurant brands as varied as Applebee’s, Boloco, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chili’s Grill & Bar, Firehouse Subs and Taco Bell shared their social media knowledge at the conference, sponsored June 5-8 by the Dallas-based People Report and Black Box Intelligence consultancies.

Sally Smith, chief executive of Buffalo Wild Wings, told the 325 attendees, “Everything we do is about making personal connections, and social media is just one of the tools we use to facilitate this process.”

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Clik here to view.The Minneapolis-based company, which has more than 830 units in the United States and Canada, has found Facebook to be a good platform for social media efforts, according to Smith. “ Luckily, Facebook happens to be a natural fit for us,” she said, pointing out that many of the younger Buffalo Wild Wings guests have Facebook pages.

Buffalo Wild Wings has more than 7.5 million Facebook Fans, “which is as much a testament to the dedication of our fans as it is to our efforts to attract them,” Smith said. And of those fans, 88,726 are “talking about” the brand.

“Our large fan base has a passionate interest in connecting with others, be it in the restaurant or online,” Smith said.

Simplicity plays a key role in those social media efforts, Smith indicated. The chain’s top post of all-time was two words — “Mmmmmm. Beer.” — and a photograph of a glass of brew. Smith noted that the post was “pretty simple, but it sparked some really great conversation. One guest even wrote: ‘Beer is the best beverage ever invented.’”

“Generally, we view Facebook as a guest page and we really try not to control the conversations,” Smith added. “We find our guests are quick to respond to negative posts, and that helps keep our page authentic.”

In addition, Smith said Buffalo Wild Wings sees Facebook as an extension of restaurant experience, using it more as a social interaction and less as a sales pitch. “But once in a while, we share news about our products," he said. "Last week, we posted a picture of one of our salads, an Asian chicken salad, and we said, ‘Just because you want a salad doesn’t mean you don’t want flavor. Our Asian chicken salad has the best of both worlds.’ Almost 600,000 people had something to say about that.”

The sports-oriented brand also finds game-day postings on Facebook pages can spur intense conversation, she said, and Buffalo Wild Wings remains the top checked-in restaurant on Facebook.

The company also maintains dual presence on Twitter, one for marketing (@BWWings) and one for recruitment (@BWWcareers), Smith said.

“Our guests really do feel a connection to our brand,” she said, which was exhibited earlier this year when fans created and uploaded a six-minute documentary to YouTube that chronicled the opening of a new unit in London, Ontario.

The unsolicited video exemplifies fans' loyalty to the brand, Smith said, as it provides a look at those waiting days in sub-freezing temperatures to be among the first 100 at an opening and to be awarded with free wings every week for a year. And it humorously picked up on current events with the #OccupyBuffaloWildWings hashtag popularized in social media.

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Take a look at some more social media best practices gleaned from other People Report Summer Brand Camp panels:

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Clik here to view.Be selective with social media channels. “What's important is that you do what makes sense for your brand,” said Avery Block, social engagement and brand champion for Taco Bell Corp. She said brands have to decide which social channels the target market is involved in and work within those platforms.

Integrate social media into other marketing. Matt Olsen, digital marketing manager for 509-unit Firehouse Subs, said, “When we look at digital, what is important to us is integration."

On Labor Day in 2011, for example, Firehouse Subs offered a rare giveaway for a free sub sandwich when a customer ordered a combo. “We promoted this through email, Facebook, Twitter, PR to bloggers and traditional media,” he said. “We had a 17-percent sales lift vs. 2010 and a 20-percent transaction lift. That is the power of integration. Nothing works in a vacuum.”

Build a business case. Krista Gibson, senior vice president of brand strategy for Chili’s Grill & Bar, said measuring return on investment, or ROI, in social media has remained a challenge. “It does have a very low ‘I’,” she said. “Compared to TV, it’s like the deal of the century. We do marketing-mix modeling. We are able to put in variables to see how it’s working for us.”

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Clik here to view.When the platforms start showing results and success, Gibson added, it creates momentum for increasing the scale. “We do use data to help the organization be with us,” she said.

Use social media to connect with consumers. Jill McFarland, who works in social media for Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, said the brand tries to bring a connection in the digital space in the heavily franchised chain. “Each of our restaurants has its own Facebook page so the personality can come through, bringing the neighborhood to the digital space,” she said. The brand tracks the effectiveness of Facebook ads with Nielsen ratings, she added.

Respond to consumers. Cassidy Q. Brettler, who works in social media for the 18-unit Boloco burrito brand, said, “Our big thing is every customer, or every guest, deserves a response, whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook or videos.”

Compare results. Restaurants can monitor how they compare with peers through the Restaurant Social Media Index, which was created by DigitalCoCo in partnership with Nation’s Restaurant News. Founder Paul Barron said the index measures influence, engagement and sentiment and looks at food, service and brand experience.

Overcome fears. “There still is a lot of fear out there,” said Jason Seiden, chief executive of Ajax Social Media. “I lost a client because I told a social marketing director/digital strategist, ‘You’ve got your voice; imagine what you could do with 10 percent of your workforce amplifying your message, 600 of your 6,000 people taking your message out there.’ And she fired us on the spot because she was petrified she would lose her job. She couldn’t picture her future.”

Look for the opportunities. “I still visit with a lot of operators out there who frankly don’t get it and haven’t embraced a lot of opportunities that social media and technology can bring to their brand,” said Nate DaPore, president and chief executive of PeopleMatter.

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless

This is part of NRN's special coverage of the 2012 Food & Wine Classic held in Aspen, Colo., June 15-17. Follow all of our coverage at NRN's 'Aspen Food & Wine Classic' section.

I accidentally crashed a really nice party yesterday.

I’m in Aspen for the Food & Wine Classic, a festival with which I have a love-hate relationship. It's fun because I get to hang out with a bunch of really great industry people and go to a lot of different parties with delicious food and terrific alcohol.

But it’s also really annoying. That's because food in the United States has been transformed from a necessity of life, and a subject of some interest to a certain group of connoisseurs, to a national obsession and sometimes kind of a gross fetish, the Food & Wine Classic has an added, lurid component of celebrity chef groupies, and they kind of wear me out.

But yesterday, I guess I kind of was a celebrity chef groupie.

I was invited to a Ferrer Wine Estates party at Jimmy’s, a restaurant and bar in Aspen that is the host of many parties during the Classic.

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I wandered in and New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent, head of the Myriad Restaurant Group and always a strong presence at the Food & Wine Classic, greeted me warmly from his spot on the restaurant’s balcony.

I got a drink — a nice gin-based thing with Cava and some sort of bitter Italian liqueur — and joined Drew on the balcony, where he was hanging out with Bobby Flay, Flay’s wife Stephanie March (you might know her as the stunningly beautiful assistant district attorney Alexandra Cabot from the Law & Order franchise), his business partner Lawrence Kretchmer, Nilou Motamed of Travel & Leisure (and now quite a well-established TV personality), her husband Peter Lindberg (a very well respected journalist in his own right) and others.

Drew grabbed me and had me pose for a picture with the group, and then I took a picture of him and everyone else.

I hadn’t met Stephanie, so I introduced myself and she graciously pretended to know who I was and made small talk about food. I was catching up with everyone else, when Jimmy, the owner of Jimmy’s, introduced himself, shook my hand, and just as nicely as could be ushered me off of the balcony and back into his restaurant telling me that Lawrence’s wife (presumably Lawrence Kretchmer’s, but I guess I can’t say for sure) had organized that balcony as a private, intimate gathering.

Oops.

But hey, I got a nice picture out of it, which Drew was nice enough to e-mail to me this morning. And I managed to soldier on to the Food & Wine Classic’s opening reception at the Ritz-Carlton and then to the annual Wines from Spain party with my ego reasonably intact.

Also, I totally met Stephanie March!

Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

This is part of NRN's special coverage of the 2012 Food & Wine Classic held in Aspen, Colo., June 15-17. Follow all of our coverage at NRN's 'Aspen Food & Wine Classic' section.

Chefs have always enjoyed a level of celebrity, but when the Food Network was created in 1993, chefs and other foodservice personalities began to enjoy a level of fame that rivals Hollywood stars. Four chefs who know more than a little bit about the fame game sat down at the American Express Restaurant Trade Program in Aspen at the Food & Wine Classic to discuss the influence television has had on culinary celebrity.

The panelists were Tim Love of Texas; Spike Mendelsohn of Washington, D.C.; Ming Tsai of Boston; and legendary French chef Jacques Pépin. The panel was moderated by Chicago television personality Steve Dolinsky. Here are some of the highlights.

View full discussions

To get on television as a chef, do you need a shtick?

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Clik here to view.Mendelsohn, chef/owner of burger-centric Good Stuff Eatery and We, The Pizza, said when he first appeared on Bravo’s Top Chef he wasn’t known at all. “I needed to stand out, so I wore a fedora and played this character.”

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Clik here to view.Pépin, whose culinary career spans six decades and includes serving as a personal chef to Charles De Gaulle, joked that his shtick was to take on a French accent. But he pointed out that his friend Emeril Lagasse is a very quiet, unassuming guy. But when he got on television to cook he had to reinvent himself as something larger than life. Hence, his famous Bam! was born.

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Clik here to view.Tsai, chef/owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass., and host and executive of the Emmy-nominated Simply Ming cooking show, agreed that one has to stand out on television to become a star, but at the end of the day you have to have the skills and technique of a cook.

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Clik here to view.Love, chef/owner of three Texas restaurant concepts, said what’s happening today on many shows has nothing to do with cooking. It’s all about entertainment. He regularly appears on television shows, including Top Chef Masters and Today, and said that, too, has very little to do with cooking. Nevertheless, the exposure brings customers to restaurants.

All of the panelists agreed that there are far too many kids entering the hospitality field whose goal is to become a celebrity chef. But most don’t have the training to succeed in the restaurant business, much less the media business.

If someone does want to have their own network cooking show, how they go about it?

Tsai suggested that trained cooks do a lot of cooking on local shows to build a reel that they can use to demonstrate they are right for television.

Mendelsohn suggested that chefs do a lot of cooking gigs with their local community to increase their exposure.

Tsai added that charity work also gets you exposure, but if you have a p.r. person he or she can go out and help you find opportunities.

Of course, those who do go on television have their critics. “We are often asked if we sold out,” Tsai said, pointing out that he has done some products for Target. “As long as you do best of class in any category you’re working in, I’m okay with it.”

A version of this article appears at NRN.com sister site Restaurant-Hospitality.com
 

Tossed, the fast-casual salad chain, has promoted its chief development officer A. Michael Toroyan to the additional position of chief operating officer, the company said Wednesday.

Toroyan, who joined Tossed Franchise Corp. just over a year ago, will also join the company’s board of directors, shaping both daily and overall strategic direction for the brand, the company said.

The all-franchise chain is expected to double its unit count over the next 12 months. Roughly 68 locations are in development. Toroyan said his priority is to work closely with franchisees to build revenue by giving franchise units an even more efficient platform from which to work.

Catering is one area Toroyan said he will focus on. “We just embarked on a national search for a marketing catering director with fast-casual experience,” he noted.

Tossed is also looking into developing locations with a more environmentally friendly design, or possibly Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification.

Prior to joining Tossed, Toroyan was a consultant who worked with brands such as Pei Wei Asian Diner, Outback Steakhouse, Sweet Tomatoes, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Wendy’s. He has also served as a managing partner in a number of restaurants, and was vice president of leasing and director of legal for a Florida retail developer.

Based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Tossed has seven locations. In addition to made-to-order salads, Tossed is known for whole-wheat crepe wraps, grilled paninis and other sandwiches, soups, and breakfast.

Contact Lisa Jennings at lisa.jennings@penton.com.
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout

Earlier this month, Subway Restaurants and the American Heart Association teamed up on a two-year pilot program to see if the AHA’s Heart-Check certification mark, a label indicating that packaged goods meet the association’s nutrition requirements, could also work in restaurants.

Subway submitted several of its sandwiches to the AHA for nutritional analysis, and the Fresh Fit line of six-inch subs, served with apple slices and water, met its standards for number of calories and levels of sodium, cholesterol, saturated fat and trans fats in a meal. Now customers will see a new Heart-Check Meal Certification logo by those items on Subway’s menu boards.

During the test period, the AHA will perform spot checks, analyzing items with their logo.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for people to get the healthiest food they can consume,” said AHA spokeswoman Alice Lichtenstein, who is also a professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. “We have very strict criteria that Subway was able to meet because they’re so standardized,” she added.

Nation’s Restaurant News recently spoke with Subway chief marketing officer Tony Pace to discuss the new certification and the 37,000-unit chain’s summer plans.

How did this program with the AHA come about?

We’ve worked with the AHA on a number of programs for about 12 years now. We’ve been having discussions with them about this kind of possibility for a number of years. We’ve done research online to see if consumers would notice the Heart-Check symbol and if it would have meaning for them.

We submitted several of our sandwiches, and you can see the ones that passed muster and got the Heart-Check certification on the menu.

It makes things simpler when it comes to ordering healthy menu options, which we think in the long term is a good thing.

Is it too early to tell how the logo has affected sales?

I would surmise that the real help there is not the initial news that you have the Heart-Check logo, but that seeing it over and over again might increase awareness, and the frequency at which [health-conscious customers] come to Subway.

We’re a pretty simple place — a pretty simple way of letting people eat better — and the Heart-Check just brings that to the fore.

Are many of your customers particularly health-conscious?

It can go back and forth a little bit. We have a very broad offering of healthy products. It’s roughly half of our business.

What’s really grown is the stuff that is on the healthy side, but not on the lowest level of calories — like a veggie melt, which is just melted cheese and vegetables. It’s a darn good sandwich and the nutrition profile is pretty darn good. It’s not going to get the health check, but it’s something that people are going to enjoy eating.

Our customers might put a flourish on something to give it some taste, but it’s still close to the lower sodium/cholesterol/fat numbers [of a Heart-Check item], and in the grand scheme of things it’s pretty darn good [health wise]. The notion that we constantly have to push back against is that if it tastes good it has to be bad for you.

What’s on Subway’s horizon?

On July 1 we’re launching a new Heart-Check sandwich. It’s a spinach, turkey and avocado sandwich. A six-inch [version of the] sandwich without cheese has seven grams of fat. After that, we’re doing an ultimate veggie, which is going to have avocado.

Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Pinkberry wants to become the destination for yogurt.

Not just the frozen yogurt the chain has been known for, but a new Greek yogurt — both sweet and savory — that is not frozen. It will also available for new breakfast hours, as well as throughout the day.

After testing a new Greek yogurt platform since late May, the Los Angeles-based frozen yogurt chain is rolling out the new addition to select stores in Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, D.C. this week.

The Greek yogurt is currently available in about 17 units, and more locations are expected to add the platform along with earlier opening hours that begin at 8 a.m.

The goal, said Pinkberry chief executive Ron Graves, is to tap into the growing interest in Greek yogurt, a product that now accounts for about 35 percent of yogurt sales across retail channels.

A growing number of frozen yogurt chains are adding Greek yogurt to their menus, responding to the growing popularity of the higher-protein product as a meal replacement. TCBY, 16 Handles, and Ben and Jerry’s have introduced new frozen Greek yogurt flavors this summer, but generally as a sweet and later-daypart snack.

“Our challenge is that we’re offering an authentic Greek yogurt, not a frozen version,” said Graves. “We’re still learning and getting feedback from customers about what they like. But the response so far has been great.”

Graves said the nearly 200-unit Pinkberry has always stayed true to its more tangy frozen yogurt and “edgy” culinary offerings, “so offering a 100-percent natural Greek yogurt was a natural fit.”

Adding the breakfast daypart also made sense, given how many customers would order frozen yogurt when stores first open at 11 a.m., said Graves.

A growing number of American consumers eat Greek yogurt for breakfast, said Graves, but the goal is to market the new platform as a meal replacement or snack later in the day as well.

The Greek yogurt is available in a four-ounce “snack” size for a recommended $4.25, and a six-ounce “meal” for a recommended $5.95.

The yogurt is nonfat and low in sugar. A six-ounce serving has about 18 grams of protein and about 100 calories, said Laura Jakobsen, Pinkberry’s senior vice president of marketing and design.

At Pinkberry, guests can select any of the same toppings available for frozen yogurt for the Greek version, including fruit, nuts, granola or natural sweeteners like fruit purees, infused honey or agave nectar.

Signature offerings will include Chocolate Berry, featuring Greek yogurt topped with blueberries, raspberries, chocolate granola, honey and shaved milk chocolate; and Strawberry, with toppings that include freshly cut strawberries, mangos, sliced almonds, shaved coconut and strawberry puree.

In addition, Pinkberry is offering a line of savory Greek yogurt toppings, with signature options such as the combination of fresh cucumbers, sesame nuggets, red and yellow diced peppers and a drizzle of honey and chili powder; or almond pesto with sliced almonds, tomatoes, olives and a pinch of sea salt.

The rollout also includes the addition of brewed coffee and espresso. The chain is using a proprietary medium roast brew, available hot and iced, with flavored options such as a mint iced coffee available.

Pinkberry is partly owned by venture capital firm Maveron LLC, which was co-founded by Starbucks’ president and chair Howard Schultz.

Graves, however, said the coffee is not affiliated with Starbucks. It’s a blend of coffee beans from Sumatra and Colombia with a sweeter taste profile, he said.

Pinkberry’s coffee prices start at a recommended $1.50 for a regular cup and $2.50 for a latte.

Contact Lisa Jennings at lisa.jennings@penton.com.

Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout

This video post is part of Sullivision on NRN.com, a resource center for restaurants looking for service, leadership and sales-building techniques from industry expert and NRN columnist Jim Sullivan.

There’s nothing worse than “Teflon” training, or training that won’t stick. Yet operators spend hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars every year on training programs that don’t connect with their teams. The reasons are varied, but often the program was not designed from a learner-centric point of view.

This short video (at left) from the DVD 60 Second Lessons in Leadership discusses how to get to the most from your training program design and delivery. You’ll learn about the two common enemies of training — both in the classroom and outside of it — that cause most training programs to sputter or fail.

Once you know what the obstacles are to connecting with your trainees you can design and deliver more effective programs every single time.

Jim Sullivan is chief executive and founder of Sullivision.com, which designs leadership, service and sales-building products, programs and services for the Top 200 restaurant and retail brands worldwide. Clients include McDonald’s, American Express and Walt Disney Company. More information on Sullivision and its products and services can be found at Sullivision.com.

Follow Jim Sullivan on Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn: @Sullivision

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Clik here to view.If new TV commercials from Little Caesars, Wendy’s and Sonic feel familiar, then those restaurant chains have succeeded in leveraging either nostalgia or more recent equity from effective ads to create marketing campaigns that stand out, experts said.

Each of the brands has chosen to reprise different elements from previous campaigns: Little Caesars this week brought back its “Pizza! Pizza!” tagline and cartoon character; Wendy’s reused its “Where’s the Beef?” slogan and called upon Wendy Thomas to put her family back in focus; and Sonic rehired its two “spokesdudes,” T.J. and Pete, for a new round of humorous commercials.

The chains are hoping to spur a second round of sales success with these campaigns. Restaurant marketing expert Dan Dahlen said the correct adage for this trend is not necessarily “what’s old is new again,” but rather, “what’s worked before will work again.”

“What many brands are doing now is taking a look at their historical performance, seeing the peaks and valleys in sales, and asking, ‘When sales spiked here, what did we have on the air?’” said Dahlen, former marketing executive at Wendy’s and Shoney’s, and founder of Columbus, Ohio-based Dahlen Communications.

He added that many successful ad campaigns end their run too soon because of “boardroom wear-out,” when chain executives and franchisees get tired of the creative long before customers do. “There’s a perception, driven internally or by the ad agency, that we need to get fresh copy on the air — but what’s running still has plenty of firepower," explained Dahlen. "You need patience for success in the restaurant industry, and QSR just doesn’t have any of it.”

Dahlen and other marketing experts analyze the nostalgic ad campaigns from Little Caesars, Wendy’s and Sonic.

First: Little Caesars

Little Caesars: Second helping of “Pizza! Pizza!”

Little Caesars announced its first national television campaign in 15 years this week, going to market with two new commercials to advertise its $5 Hot-N-Ready and $8 3 Meat Treat pizzas. The ads end with a cartoon Caesar character saying the brand’s famous tagline, “Pizza! Pizza!” which used to advertise a two-pizza deal for one low price.

New York-based ad agency BFG 9000 won the Little Caesars account in May and developed the spots, which repurpose “Pizza! Pizza!” to be a branding tagline rather than a call to attention for a specific deal. Dahlen said the new marketing team at the brand and the agency were wise to try bringing back something that worked for Little Caesars years ago.

“The one thing that keeps popping up is an asset that you don’t want to turn your back on,” Dahlen said. “It’s associated with the brand and is a moniker they can own and leverage. It’s smart to attach it to the end of all their work to create consistency and rekindle what people thought of Little Caesars in their heyday, when they were really rocking and rolling.”

Tim Nelson, president of Chicago-based ad agency Tris3ct, noted that Little Caesars’ spots, while humorous and sure to hit the value focus, currently do not promote what could be the chain’s biggest competitive advantage: convenience. “The idea that you could just drive to a Little Caesars and pick the pizza up [with no waiting] is a completely different proposition,” he said. “In the spots right now, it’s not quite clear why Little Caesars is the right choice, other than its price.”

Next: Wendy's

Wendy’s: A familiar face and tagline

Wendy’s reunion with the chain’s founding family began last year when Wendy Thomas, the brand’s namesake and daughter of founder Dave Thomas, starred in commercials to promote its new signature burger, Dave’s Hot ‘N Juicy.

Currently, she remains a brand spokeswoman for a two-pronged marketing strategy in which she touts the chain’s commitment to food quality and service in ads that talk about the “Wendy’s Way.”

For promoting specific items and limited-time offers, the chain also has different commercials featuring a redheaded character who uses a different tagline, “Now that’s better.” In late 2011, the chain used a different character, played by Reid Ewing from ABC’s “Modern Family,” but dusted off its famous slogan from a 1984 commercial: “Where’s the Beef?”

Dahlen was a marketing executive at Wendy’s in the 1980s when agency Cliff Freeman & Partners developed the chain’s “Where’s the Beef?” ads. (Coincidentally, he noted, Cliff Freeman also ran Little Caesars’ marketing account during the height of the “Pizza! Pizza!” campaign’s popularity.) The “Where’s the Beef?” redux seemed a little misdirected, he said, but the branding commercials with Wendy Thomas were spot-on.

“Of all of Wendy’s work the Wendy Thomas stuff is really well done,” he said. “When you spend that kind of money it would be nice to be able to say something nobody else can say. If it’s delivered by Wendy Thomas then only Wendy’s can do that. That’s smart and strategic.”

Next: Sonic
Previous: Little Caesars

Sonic: Reviving the dynamic duo

Earlier this year, Sonic rehired comedians T.J. Jagodowski and Peter Grosz to film their deadpan commercials sitting in their car at a Sonic drive-in, and if their first commercial since being reinstated is to be believed, they were a mess during their hiatus.

The two “spokesdudes,” as well as another pair of comedians playing a married couple, had starred in Sonic commercials from 2002 to 2010, but were put on the back burner following some changes in Sonic’s marketing department and ad agency.

After 17 years with independent ad agency Barkley, Sonic took its account in February 2011 to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. The chief marketing officer for Sonic at that time was Danielle Vona, who came aboard in July 2010 but left the company by Jan. 2012.

James O’Reilly, former chief concept officer for Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, was hired to replace her Feb. 3, and the new campaign with Jagodowski and Grosz kicked off Feb. 21.

Dahlen noted that advertising commonly takes a different direction when a brand changes out top-level marketers and new executives fall prey to “not-created-here syndrome” and scrap effective campaigns in favor of something bearing their personal stamp.

“[O’Reilly] came in there and did his homework and analysis,” Dahlen said. “They figured, let’s go back over the past five years with our sales, and then let’s overlay our creative calendar, and let’s see what ads ran during these successful sales cycles. That clears things up big-time.”

Contact Mark Brandau at mark.brandau@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN

Chef-owner Gerard Craft celebrates the humble carrot with this $12 dish.

He vacuum-packs large carrots with a mixture of orange juice, carrot juice and cumin and cooks them sous-vide until they’re tender.

Separately, he roasts baby carrots and makes a slightly sweet carrot cake that he dehydrates until it’s crispy. He crumbles the crispy cake and mixes it with dehydrated espelette pepper.

Craft then plates the sous-vide carrots and roasted carrots with pickled Thumbelina carrots and crumbles the cake-pepper mixture on top. He garnishes the plate with yogurt, dill and fennel pollen along with some of the tops from the baby carrots — “for a little bitterness” — that are tossed in lemon vinaigrette.

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Contact Bret Thorn at bret.thorn@penton.com
Follow him on twitter: @foodwriterdiary

Beer brewer Anheuser-Busch is licensing its brand for a restaurant for the first time.

The eatery will be located in the new Ballpark Village development next to Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Mo.

The licensing and sponsorship agreement with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cordish Companies, a Baltimore-based development company, will include a 25,000-square-foot restaurant with German-inspired cuisine, more than 100 global beers on tap, and an outdoor beer garden, developers said.

In addition to providing a strong brand identity, the concept fits well into the growing “brewhouse” segment, said Ron Watermon, director of public relations and civic affairs for the St. Louis Cardinals LLC.

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“Our investment in Ballpark Village is the next chapter in a long and storied history between Anheuser-Busch, the Cardinals and the city of St. Louis,” Luiz Edmond, North American president, Anheuser-Busch InBev, said in a statement. “Not only will Ballpark Village enhance the way St. Louisans enjoy their city, but it will be the first impression many visitors get of downtown. We’re proud to help bring this vision to life.”

The Anheuser-Bush restaurant is one of three anchors in the $100 million first phase of Ballpark Village, revealed this week. The new development will also include Cardinals Nation, which is open year-round and covers more than 30,000 square feet and three levels with a restaurant, museum and seating overlooking the stadium, and the St. Louis Live Entertainment Plaza.

“Anheuser-Busch and the Cardinals are not only two of the most recognizable brands in the world; they are also both St. Louis institutions,” said David S. Cordish, chairman of the Cordish Companies.

The construction on Ballpark Village, which will span seven city blocks and about 10 acres, is expected to begin later this year, company officials said. The privately financed Busch Stadium opened in 2006.

Cordish Companies’ entertainment and mixed-use projects include the Kansas City Power & Light District in Missouri, the Louisville Fourth Street Live in Kentucky, and The Power Plant & Pier IV in Baltimore.

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless

Restaurant operators reported softer customer traffic in May, but same-store sales figures were up for the month and their outlook remains optimistic, according to the National Restaurant Association’s monthly Restaurant Performance Index (RPI).

The RPI, a monthly composite that tracks the health and outlook of the U.S. restaurant industry, was at 101.4 in May, down 0.2 percent from April’s number of 101.6. Despite the recent decline occurring since a strong March, May marked the seventh consecutive month that the index was above 100 — signifying an expansion of key industry indicators.

“Despite a soft patch in the overall economy, restaurant operators reported positive same-store sales for the 12th consecutive month," said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the NRA. “Looking forward, restaurant operators remain generally optimistic about sales growth in the months ahead, though they are somewhat less bullish about direction of the economy.”

The RPI consists of two components — the Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures; and the Expectations Index, which measures operators’ six-month outlook for same-store sales, employees, capital expenditures and business conditions.

The Current Situation Index stood at 100.8 in May, down 0.2 percent from April’s level of 101.0, but above 100 for the seventh consecutive month. Similarly, the Expectations Index was at 102.0 in May, down slightly from April’s level of 102.2, but still more than 100 for the ninth consecutive month.

Read the full report

The NRA also said that restaurant operators reported positive same-store sales for the twelfth consecutive month. The Index found that 61 percent of operators reported a same-store sales gain between May 2011 and May 2012, up from 57 percent in April. The increase in the number of operators reporting same-store sales gains in May came despite the fact that a greater number of operators reported weaker customer traffic in May than in April, the NRA said.

Finally, the RPI said that restaurant operators are generally optimistic that their sales will improve in the coming months. Forty-eight percent of operators said they expect to have higher sales levels in six months, compared to the same period last year, while only eight percent expect sales to decline over the next six months.

The RPI is based on the responses to the NRA’s monthly tracking survey.

Contact Charlie Duerr at charles.duerr@penton.com.

The Wendy’s Co. estimated that North American same-store sales would rebound to a 3-percent increase in the second quarter, and brand officials shared a full slate of menu, marketing and remodeling moves for the back half of 2012 aimed at accelerating sales and earnings growth.

While hosting securities analysts to a second Investor Day conference in its Dublin, Ohio, headquarters, Wendy’s officials said the brand was back on track to hitting targets in 2012 of 2-percent to 3-percent same-store sales growth and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $320 million to $335 million.

The expected 3-percent gain in second-quarter same-store sales is a marked acceleration from the 0.8-percent increase from the first quarter, when an unfavorable sales mix resulting from the $2.99 W cheeseburger and higher-than-expected commodity inflation pressured sales and margins.

Executives from the chain of more than 6,500 restaurants in the United States and 27 foreign markets offered the following look ahead to what is in store for the second half of 2012.

Menu pipeline remains robust

Chief marketing officer Craig Bahner said Wendy’s would keep up its prolific output of new menu items but would aim for more consistent and reliable results.

“We’ve had some wins in our product pipeline in recent years and some not-so-wins,” Bahner said. “We need to be much more consistent with the product pipeline and how we bring innovation to market.”

He said future products for Wendy’s would have to be “compelling, distinctive and ownable.” The brand’s culinary team came forward with several menu items in test or soon to be tested, and much of the innovation centered on new applications of bread and buns.

Wendy’s has begun testing Grilled Chicken Flatbread Sandwiches, including a banh mi version and a Hawaiian teriyaki version. In addition, the chain said it would make a Pub Club sandwich on a pretzel roll.

The Black Label burger line, also in test, includes a cheddar-jalapeno bun for a Spicy Santa Fe sandwich. Other premium ingredients for the Black Label burgers include Portobello mushrooms, Muenster cheese, guacamole, habanero-Jack cheese and cilantro-lime dressing.

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To further leverage the fresh fruit that has made its seasonal salads popular, Wendy’s will test roasted peaches in a new salad that will also include red onion and blue cheese. Salads may get a more portable look at Wendy’s as well, either in the form of a Curry Chicken Salad Wrap or in to-go packaging that's more convenient for the drive-thru.

The chain will also continue innovating around its line of fresh lemonades and its Redhead Roaster coffee program, added Bahner. “We’re not capturing our fair share of beverages, and we know that beverages drive visits outside of the main mealtime occasions,” he said. “We’re lagging in incidence on teas, coffees, and specialty and frozen coffees, but we have a strength on lemonade.”

Value menu to be rebranded

Bahner also noted that Wendy’s would expand digital and social-media marketing, as well as its outreach to Hispanic consumers. But changes to the chain’s value focus, specifically the My 99-cent Value Menu, would be among the most important Wendy’s will make in the near term.

The chain plans to alter its 99-cent menu and rebrand it later on after current test marketing has completed, Bahner said.

“Price-value is a critical, important area for Wendy’s because the value customer is so important to our business, and we’ve lost a lot of those transactions in this space,” he said. “As commodity pressure has come into the marketplace it has pushed us off 99 cents, so we don’t have that compelling, consistent 99-cent offering. As a result of that, the customer is coming in and not getting a predictable, reliable experience. Third, we find it difficult to find a national message that’s credible and compelling around our value.”

In its test, Wendy’s removed a few complicated, low-margin items from the 99-cent value menu but retained a core of six items, Bahner said. A second tier of value items will be priced between $1 and $2. Bahner stressed that a full meal could be made from the 99-cent items, inferring that the six items include at least one protein, side and drink.

In the test’s first phase, Wendy’s grew sales and margins, with minimal impact on transactions, Bahner said. The brand will fine-tune that new menu in the second phase and test the marketing and advertising needed to rebrand it.

“We’re serious about attacking this opportunity and getting it right for our customers,” Bahner said. “It will enable us to engage the consumer with compelling value messaging.”

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Remodels to ramp up

Wendy’s “image activation” program for remodeling stores to new prototype designs developed in 2011 would accelerate in 2012 and 2013, officials said. So far, the 10 remodeled restaurants in its system are showing average sales lifts of more than 25 percent.

“When you elevate your restaurant facilities, it helps make everything else in your restaurant work harder for you,” said Abigail Pringle, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and planning. “This is about creating a lasting impression with the customer that will build their return visits over and over again.”

At eight domestic remodeled Wendy’s restaurants that have been open between four and 11 months, sales have increased across all lines of the business, the company disclosed. Dine-in sales, which tend to carry a higher check average, are up 43 percent, while carryout sales have risen 14 percent and pick-up window sales are up 44 percent.

The majority of the remodels and new builds scheduled for 2012 will carry the “urban” design from Phoenix and the “ultra modern” design from Columbus, Ohio, the company said.

Wendy’s has managed to cut about 35 percent of the $1.2 million cost of the “ultramodern” prototype design as it readies it for adoption across the system, Pringle said. The package should cost between $650,000 to $700,000.

Chief financial officer Steve Hare commented that analysts have asked Wendy’s why they wouldn’t remodel at a lower cost seen elsewhere in the quick-service segment — around $250,000.

“Well we’ve done that in the past,” Hare said. “We’ve spent $200,000 on restaurants and done some upgrades … and the result you get from spending that amount of money is a defensive outcome. You end up stabilizing falling sales and giving the restaurant a better look, but you didn’t change the customers’ perceptions of you.”

The chain will present three different remodeling options to franchisees in order to reimage according to their unit volumes and trade areas. Tier 1 investment packages will include everything for the $650,000 to $700,000 price tag, and Wendy’s estimates a more than 25-percent lift in sales for those locations. Tier 2 remodels would cost $500,000, to produce an estimated 15-percent increase in sales, while Tier 3 remodels would run only about $300,000, for a 5-percent sales lift.

Tier 1 remodeling packages will become available to franchisees in the fourth quarter of 2012, Pringle said, while Tier 2 and Tier 3 packages should become available next year.

Wendy’s plans to remodel 50 company-owned units in 2012 and another 100 locations in 2013, in addition to 17 new builds for 2012 and 20 new builds next year.

Contact Mark Brandau at mark.brandau@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @Mark_from_NRN
 

A California state law banning the sale of foie gras goes into effect on Sunday but it remains unclear whether restaurant goers will be able to find the fattened liver of duck or geese on menus next week.

Sales of foie gras have been booming for weeks leading up to the ban, with restaurants across the state serving pricey multicourse foie gras dinners.

Earlier in the week, reports indicated that enforcement of the ban might be somewhat lax. Some chefs said they were planning to look for loopholes to continue to serve the product, such as offering foie gras for free — along with high-priced accoutrements.

Signed in 2004, the law — which has won the support of chefs like Wolfgang Puck — will make it illegal to sell or produce products in California made from force-fed ducks or geese, but it will not be illegal to consume, possess or transport foie gras.

At issue is whether foie gras can be produced humanely, a debate that continues to rage throughout the food world.

On Friday, however, suppliers elsewhere across the country were giving mixed predictions about what might happen after July 1, saying it may take someone getting cited with the $1,000-per-day fine to know exactly how the law will be enforced.

“The law is very confusing. We’ve spoken to a number of attorneys and we get a different answer every time,” said Marcus Henley, operations manager for Hudson Valley Foie Gras, a Ferndale, N.Y.-based producer.

Henley said the company plans to hold off on any sales to California residents or restaurants on Sunday and Monday. "After that, we’ll see what happens,” he said.

Henley said it is not clear whether a California buyer can legally order the product online from the New York producer.

“We’re being very cautious at first because I think that’s a question that could be answered either way, and we want to see how it’s enforced,” said Henley. “I expect it to be quite a chaotic week.”

Ariane Daguin, founder of foie gras purveyor D’Artagnan, based in Newark, N.J., said her lawyers believe it will be legal for customers to order foie gras from her company online. “It’s business as usual for us,” she said.

Whether or not loopholes exist for California restaurants to serve the product remains to be seen.

“We’re going to see right away,” said Daguin. “It really depends which lawyer you talk to.”

Foie gras was briefly banned in Chicago in 2006, and later the ban was lifted. During that period, however, restaurants “found creative ways to serve foie gras without selling it,” Daguin said.

Restaurateur Mark Pastore of Incanto in San Francisco, however, said he plans to remove foie gras from the menu after June 30. “It will be off the menu for now,” he said. “We’ll wait and see how it’s enforced.”

Pastore had been quoted in some reports as being open to allowing guests to bring their own foie gras, and charging a “foie-kage,” akin to a wine corkage. On Friday, however, Pastore said, “I have no plans to do that.”

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Pastore predicted that the battle is not over, and that supporters of foie gras will continue to pursue legislative and legal remedies to get clarity about what might constitute humane practices for producing the high-end ingredient. Meanwhile, he added, restaurants may be subject to the “vigilante” enforcement by activists.

Ken Takayama, chef de cuisine at Mélisse in Santa Monica, Calif., said his staff has already received threatening phone calls and emails. The high-end restaurant has played host to a number of foie gras dinners and events over the past few months, some of which have attracted protesters outside. “These people are pretty extreme,” the chef said.

Meanwhile, consumers have clamored for foie gras the same way Michael Jackson fans might have scrambled for tickets to his last concert, he said. Next week, however, Takayama said Mélisse’s menu would be foie gras-free — for now.

“I’m sure other people will find a way to serve it,” he said. “For me, personally, if you have to go that far to serve foie gras to save your restaurant, what does that say about the rest of your menu? Is foie gras really that important?”

David Féau, executive chef at The Royce in the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., said foie gras dishes and specialty dinners have done very well this year.

For the last days leading up to the ban, The Royce has offered foie gras 30 different ways over three days. Popular dishes have included seared foie gras with torched leek ash and rhubarb gelée; foie gras croquembouche puff pastries; and foie gras fondue with tarragon-printed pasta and crimini mushrooms in a dry-aged beef bouillon. The dishes started at $20.

Next week, however, Féau said foie gras would be off the menu – along with the rest of the duck.

“The whole point of the ‘foie gras battle’ is to support sustainable farming practices and ‘the whole duck,’” he wrote in an email. “If we can’t serve the liver then we can’t serve duck. I will serve calf liver and animals that are not corn-fed.”

California’s only foie gras producer, Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras, is reportedly closing up shop, leaving about 35 people without jobs or with greatly reduced hours.

Laurel Pine, owner of foie gras retailer Mirepoix USA, moved her business out of California to Nevada in anticipation of the ban. Pine said Friday her company’s foie gras sales were nearly six times what is typical for June and the highest in her eight years in business. On Friday, California buyers were paying a hefty $55 shipping fee to ensure it arrived before the ban goes into effect on Sunday.

Mirepoix is looking into opening a retail location near the California border in Reno, Nev., and in Las Vegas, where she said Californians can buy the product legally — though she said it’s not clear whether restaurant operators could take advantage of such retail locations. “Nobody really knows what’s going to be okay until the violations start happening,” she said.

Daguin of D’Artagnan said she hoped the ban would light a fire under restaurant operators who want to serve foie gras. “I hope they will show strong interest and motivation to get rid of that ban,” she said.

Contact Lisa Jennings at lisa.jennings@penton.com.
Follow her on Twitter @livetodineout
 

Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc. has named Lynn Schweinfurth vice president and chief financial officer, effective July 16, the company said Monday.

Schweinfurth has more than 20 years of senior-level financial management experience at such companies as Brinker International Inc., Yum! Brands Inc., and PepsiCo Inc. Since 2010, she had served as vice president of finance and treasurer at Winn-Dixie Stores Inc.

"Lynn is an extraordinary talent who has broad-based financial leadership experience with major restaurant and retail brands, including global, franchise and company-owned restaurant portfolio companies," said Tim Taft, chief executive and president of Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc. "In addition to her technical and leadership skills, we believe she will be a great cultural fit for Fiesta. We are confident that she can add significant value as we execute on our strategic plans.”

“I am thrilled to join Fiesta at this early stage in its corporate history as an independent publicly traded company and believe the company is poised for significant, long-term, profitable growth," Schweinfurth said. "I look forward to working alongside the management team and the board of directors to leverage our two exceptional brands and drive industry leading performance within the fast-casual industry, creating long-term value for our shareholders.”

Last May, Burger King franchisee Carrols Restaurant Group Inc. finalized the spin-off of Fiesta through a tax-free dividend of common stock of Fiesta to Carrols’ shareholders.

Fiesta Restaurant Group owns, operates and franchises the Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana fast-casual chains, which have a total of 247 corporate and 40 franchised units globally. 

Contact Marcella Veneziale at marcella.veneziale@penton.com.

Whataburger debuted Monday new menus and redesigned menu boards with a section that corrals “550 Calories or Less” items into their own section.

San Antonio, Texas-based Whataburger Restaurants LLC said the menu has been rearranged and simplified into the categories of Burgers, Chicken and Breakfast. The company has been foreshadowing the menu changes with in-store tri-fold, heavy cardstock menus that customers can take with them.

The menu retains its “All-Time Favorites” burgers, including the A-1 Thick & Hearty Burger and Chop House Cheddar Burger, and adds some new chicken items.

Rich Scheffler, Whataburger’s director of marketing and innovation, said in a statement: “We think our customers will be extremely pleased with the new menu items we’ve added, and we redesigned our menu boards to accommodate these additions.

“The new menu is easier to navigate and provides more variety for our customers,” Scheffler added.

New items include two salads: an Apple & Cranberry Chicken Salad with romaine lettuce, dried cranberries, fresh apples and shredded Cheddar cheese, topped with grilled chicken or a Whatachick’n Filet; and a classic Garden Salad. The regional burger chain is adding two lower-fat dressings as well: Low-Fat Honey Pepper Vinaigrette and Low-Fat Herb Vinaigrette.

Another new item is the Grilled Chicken Melt with grilled onions, poblano and red bell peppers, and Monterey Jack cheese, which at 460 calories will occupy space in the lower-calorie section of the menu.

“We understand many of our customers want to make lighter choices when they eat out, and we strive to provide the highest quality, freshest ingredients to make their selection easy,” Sheffler said.

The chain is also adding as a kid’s meal option a new Grilled Cheese on Texas Toast.

Whataburger has more than 700 restaurants in 10 states.

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless