A new app called Hooked provides college students living on campus with the opportunity to skip the school fare for local food deals near campus, FM Newslinks reports. The app offers real-time food deals and is currently available in Madison, WI, Champaign, IL, Ann Arbor, MI, and Austin, TX. The company plans a nationwide rollout over the next several months. For more information on getting your restaurant involved, follow this link: www//http://www.hookedapp.com/
Millennials Are Tightwads
They may like to party and lend your place a sense of style, but Millennials tend be tight with the tips, Consolidated Foodservice reports. Maybe it is the sluggish economy or their whopping student loans, but your wait staff is paying the price in low tips. According to Consolidated Foodservice, servers are far better off working in a restaurant with more established clientele… who also happen to open their wallets a bit wider.
Beef Prices Get Chefs’ Goat
The high cost of beef has restaurants serving more alternatives, including goat, Reuters reports. Goat meat’s appeal is part ethnic and part rural, based in large part on the rising Middle East population in the U.S., up some 47% in a decade. Goat is also popular with Caribbean and South American diners. According to Reuters, “Imports of goat meat jumped to 19.6 million metric tons in 2014, double a decade earlier, according to agriculture department data, helped also by the strong dollar.”
Predicting The Top Five Ballpark Hot Dogs
What’s baseball without a hot dog? This year, Food-Management.com is making a bold prediction about this year’s favorite franks for baseball fans around the country. Here is a sampling of the Top Five:
1. Fireworks Frank, with red- and blue-colored mustard and mayo and a healthy dose of onions.
2. Pastrami Dog, with shredded pastrami topping a traditional New York frank.
3. Polish Hill Dog, complete with mini-pierogis, coleslaw, and onion straws.
4. Lamb Sausage Dog, topped with onions and peppers and served on a French—style roll.
5. Frito Dog, that’s right, a hot dog topped with salty Fritos and melted cheese.
Restaurants Have Strong January
According to QSRWeb, “The RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 102.7 in January, which represented the fourth consecutive month above the level of 102.” QSRWeb says that a majority of restaurants surveyed say they had strong month-over-month sales and are looking for continued growth as spring approaches.
Preparing For St Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is huge for bar business to the tune of $245 million last year. To get your fair bit of the green takes a little work, Restaurantnews.com reports. First, what is your restaurant’s history with St. Paddy’s Day? Any past problems? Now is the time to fix them. Also make sure you have enough staff on hand and make sure you review your policies about cutting off revelers who may have a bit too many. It is also a good idea to check your bar’s inventory, draw up a new menu, and be sure the band you scheduled is still on board. It doesn’t hurt to see what your competition has planned, either. And it goes without saying; you cannot trust good luck to a successful event. You need to promote the heck out of your event in the papers and on social media – from Twitter to Facebook.
Get Ready For March Madness
Come March 17th, it is not just St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, the elites of college basketball will dominate the airwaves through March into April. That means it is time to work up a championship menu of your own to attract those sports fans into you eatery during the games. A few ideas you might want to consider include:
- Hosting a March Madness Sunday Special
- Launching a bracket party
- Feature game night specials presenting food favorites of the teams’ hometowns
- Sponsor Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight specials
- Leverage any local connections to the games
- Host a Final Four Weekend Special
Higher Wage Earners Count Calories
The more people earn, the more concerned they are about calorie counts, the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reports. According to Reuters, 60% of wealthier diners actually looked at calorie counts. However, only 16% used that information to order dinners with fewer calories. Low as that is, it remains higher than people with less education and less annual income, the report says.
Organic Awareness Is Growing
According to the Organic Trade Association, public awareness of the organic seal has increased from 27% to more than 50% in just six years. Most consumers also now say they buy organic, up 10% since 2009. From a restaurant’s point of view, highlighting your organic menu items could well boost sales.
Quick View Of Commodities
First, remember this: If there wasn’t a lot of volatility in the price of agricultural commodities, there would be no need of a commodities market. That said, never fear, since commodities are among the most briskly traded items on world exchanges. Here is how things stand as of early March according to AGWEB:
- Corn is down 3.4%
- Soybeans are down 0.4%
- Soybean Meal, up 2.6%
- Soybean Oil, down 0.29
- Wheat is up 4.4%
- Live Cattle, are up 1.38%
- Feeder Cattle, up 2.15%
- Lean Hogs, down 0.70%