Industry Insights
Best Spring Cocktails from Coast to Coast
Spring is cherished by many people because it represents rebirth and renewal. This time of new beginnings is a fabulous reason to raise our glasses with extraordinary seasonal cocktails from coast to coast! We’ve rounded up the best spring cocktails created by professional mixologists and...
Let’s Grow! Experts Share Plant Based Cooking Tips
It’s a privilege to contribute this new column that will highlight tips and insights from experts who can enlighten and inspire foodservice and restaurant professionals about plant based cooking. With the ever-growing interest in the category, it makes sense to keep pace with current practices...
Hospitality Educator Blends Practical With Theoretical to Prepare Tomorrow’s Leaders
Karen Goodlad, CSW, is an Associate Professor at New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York where she was recently named the Interim Chair of the Department of Hospitality Management. Specializing in beverage management, she teaches an array of courses...
How To Get Customers To Order Directly From Your Restaurant
Third Party Delivery Service Providers are a great way to find new guests. Hungry consumers use these marketplaces as a way to find new restaurants that will deliver to them. They’re easy to use and have all kinds of options. Unfortunately the DSPs control your customer and charge a...
Why Inventory Is So Important for Restaurants and Food Cost
Does the thought of weekly inventory send shivers down your spine? Can you already hear your managers complaining and resisting? Do you picture yourself buried in the walk-in for hours on end? These fears keep a lot of restaurant owners from staying on top of their inventory...
Voluntary Benefits: The Missing Ingredient in Hospitality Talent Attraction & Retention
Employee retention is a serious issue that employers in the hospitality and food service industry are facing today and as businesses recover from impacts of the pandemic, labor shortages still threaten the progress. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industry has an annual...
Bringing Website Accessibility Claims: Federal Court Decision Establishes Heightened Burden for...
Last year there was an explosion of over 2,000 website disability accessibility lawsuits filed in New York federal courts, which sounded the alarm for many New York employers. These lawsuits allege that businesses’ websites violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), which prohibits...
Relief To-Go
In a development that has been hailed by local businessowners and customers alike as a boon to the state, to-go cocktail legislation has been approved as part of New York State’s 2023 budget. It will be the law of the land for the next three years...
How Restaurant Operators Can Plan A Food Safety Audit of Potential Suppliers
In the restaurant business, raw materials are of great importance. They are inextricably linked to the quality and safety of the food served, and hence to the customer's well-being. Therefore, it is necessary to audit potential food suppliers before approving them...
Chefs Share Sustainability Tips for Earth Day
As we celebrate Earth Day (April 22), several of the nation's premier chefs have shared sustainability tips straight from their acclaimed restaurants and their home kitchens. The insider sustainability tips and resources come from...
Tips for Starting a Food Business in 2022
Food stands at the center of social life and cultural identity. Take a moment to imagine Japan without sushi, Mexico without tacos, and Italy without pizza. These societies have unique dishes, and they wouldn't be the same without them. One thing anyone starting a food business focuses their time...
Make Challenges Opportunities and Lead Your Restaurant
If you’re looking in certain corners of the Internet these days, there is a lot of information about mindset, specifically a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset. In my world, a restaurant owner with a growth mindset is more successful, better able to lead in their restaurant. Unfortunately...
Restaurant Owners & Operators: Use Key Item Inventory To Lower Your Food Cost
Are you familiar with the 80-20 rule? Also known as the Pareto Principle, it’s a theory that 20% of your efforts should yield 80% of your results. In business, the 80-20 rule helps identify inputs that have the potential to be the most productive and make them the priority. Once these factors...
Spring Signals More Changes Ahead for the Beverage Industry
Change is underway. Can you feel it? It’s in more than just the cold-then-warm-then-cold-again days. It's in more than just the blossoms budding on trees as hail briefly falls on a sunny afternoon. Mother Nature’s dichotomy is likely reflective of what your own business is facing at this time.
Hospitality Delivery Service: Trends, Opportunities & Challenges
After seeing a substantial uptick in new delivery and carry-out services since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this has been a lifeline for many restaurants to continue serving customers, keep employees working, and perpetuate a revenue stream. As such, the introduction of third-party delivery services...
Food Truck Foodservice: The High-Speed Route to Success
Have you dreamt of owning a food truck, but assumed it was something that would always be out of reach? Make your dream a reality. All the decision making that comes with a new business venture can be stressful. But when it comes to the foodservice equipment for your food truck...
Why Floor Maintenance is an Integral Part of a Restaurant’s Next Normal Strategy
As we continue to welcome back dining guests to our restaurants, it is necessary to create priorities to maximize resources. It’s challenging to pick what projects should be at the top of that list. One often overlooked process is the care of a restaurant’s floors, both in the front and back of the house.
New York City Passes Legislation Providing Delivery App Workers With Legal Protection and Additional Rights
The food delivery business has served as a lifeline for many restaurants throughout the pandemic as government mandated closures restricted on-premises dining. If it was not clear before, it is clear now that delivery workers play an increasingly important role in a restaurant’s operations...
Virtual Breakfast Sessions Discuss Staffing Shortfall Solutions on April 13th
Join Total Food Service and L. Sashin & Associates on April 13th at 9:00 for Virtual Breakfast Session #16: Staffing Shortfalls-Changing the Work Environment & Tapping Tomorrow’s Talent Today! The restaurant, bar and hospitality business has always hard, but with work...
Make Restaurant Accounting Work for You
Many restaurant owners fall into the trap of trying to do everything themselves, including bookkeeping and payroll. But what if I told you, while you might be saving hundreds of dollars each month not paying for those services, that you’re probably losing thousands of dollars each month...
From Silo to Solutions: Activating Your Restaurant’s First-Party Data
Access to first-party data has grown significantly for restaurants in the past few years. Driven by a shift to digital ordering that has been amplified by the pandemic, restaurants are gathering first-party data from customers through apps, websites, and loyalty programs...
TikTok For Restaurants: What You Need To Know
While major restaurant chains have already started to create content on the TikTok network, smaller and independent restaurants who have embraced the format are finding that it’s a lot easier to drive business than Facebook or Instagram. Stories are happening all over the place how just one video caused a major shift...
Women’s History Month Is the Perfect Time To Re-Evaluate How We Fund Women In Beverage Alcohol
When I sat down to write this month’s column the world was not in the topsy turvy position we find ourselves in now. Bartenders weren’t dumping out bottles of Russian Standard (yes, made in Russia and owned by Russian oligarch Roustam Tariko, who also owns Bank Russian Standard) and...
Coffee Shop Foodservice: Made Easy with MTI
Some, mostly New Englanders, may think the first coffee shop was Dunkin' Donuts in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1948. But really, coffee shops have been around since The Ottoman Empire. Coffee shops began as an alternative to establishments only serving liquor, and quickly increased in popularity. Today, coffee shops can be found just about anywhere, and do so much more than just beverages.
Greensafe Leads Charge For Green and Safe To Execute Post Pandemic Vision
As restaurant and foodservice operators move towards how they will define their “next normal”, there are still a number of questions to be answered. Close to the top of the list is how to continue an on-going agenda of green and sustainable without taking their foot off...
New Changes to New York State and New York City Labor Laws
New York employers in the hospitality industry are no strangers to the constant proliferation of labor laws they must keep up with in order to avoid substantial penalties and expensive lawsuits. Now, just as the hustle to comply with COVID-related labor laws calms down, employers should be aware...
NYC Hospitality Alliance Host Diversity Event with Tao Group and Garden of Dreams
With a goal of spotlighting perspectives on resilience, serving the community, and strengthening inclusion, the New York City Hospitality Alliance was thrilled to team with the Tao Group and MSG’s Garden of Dreams last month on a very special event. The 60-minute in-person event...
Restaurant Misfits Podcast: Josh Morgan
In this episode of the Restaurant Misfits podcast, Brett interviews Josh Morgan. Josh is the CEO and co-founder of Sesame, a new restaurant marketplace created by restaurants, for restaurants. Born out of the need to create a more sustainable way for restaurants to manage...
Preventing Food Allergy Risks & Liability Exposures
Severe allergic reactions of all kinds happen quickly and can be life-threatening and with an estimated one in ten adults with a food allergy in the United States, food allergy related negligence can be a dangerous and costly mistake for hospitality businesses...
3 Recent Trend Surveys Highlight Industry Changes
Three recent surveys hit my desk, I’m sharing the trends you need to know about that may impact your business for what you buy, sell and serve in 2022. Gen-Zs, adults ages 18- 24, are driven to purchase specialty foods from diverse suppliers, small or local companies, and those that are...
Restaurant Owners & Operators: Commit to Making Commitments
It’s hard to believe we’re already through February. How are your new year’s resolutions coming along? Are you still as committed to reaching your goals now as you were two months ago? Many people have already dropped their goals and resolved to tackle them later or even next year...
Rules for Food Store Ice Machine Safety
Food store customers and employees are aligned on one thing: they want to know stores are taking every safety precaution to limit the spread of germs. Many store policies now reflect more frequent and thorough sanitation procedures and efforts to prevent bacteria transfer...
The New Year Brings Big Opportunities with Foodservice
As we settle into the new year, businesses are faced with possibilities of growth and opportunity. Another trip around the sun means exploring avenues that will ultimately increase their profits and help protect their bottom line. Adding a foodservice program to your existing business is a great way to do just that.
How Your Restaurant Can Be More Like Amazon and Uber
Consumers, your guests, and even you – we are all online, all day long. Reviews.org reports that the average American picks up their mobile phone 262 times a day! According to research from RescueTime (an app created to monitor mobile phone use) people average over 3 hours on their phone EVERY DAY...
Safeguarding Your Restaurant From Common Cyber Security Attacks
The hospitality industry, like others, have had to reinvent themselves since the start of the pandemic. Pushing businesses towards a model where an essential point of contact with consumers is online, these changes have resulted in the development of new websites, mobile apps...
Working Towards The “End-Demic”
As we bob and weave through the opening act of 2022, there is a seemingly endless agenda on a restaurateur’s proverbial plate. I’ve created a new goal/vision: “The End-Demic”. As many restaurants continue hiring and bringing back their staff, the emphasis needs to be on the paperwork...
L. Sashin and TFS Virtual Breakfast Session on Feb 23rd Explores Latest Restaurant & Hospitality Trends
L Sashin and Associates and Total Food Service (TFS) are set to host a series of virtual breakfast sessions on the web. “Our goal is to help the restaurant and foodservice industry take advantage of the perspective that we have been able to gain in working with clients in a wide...
5 Biggest Restaurant Business Predictions for 2022
2020 was like a raging wildfire. Then 2021 came, with some good and some hard stuff. For example, customers came back, but you also saw rising wages, rising food prices and some of those customers were mean as hell. Now that 2022 is here, I want to share to my five biggest predictions for the restaurant industry.
It’s Time To Clean Your Grease Trap!
Restaurants that have built in grease traps or interceptors need to make sure they are maintained properly on a recurring schedule to prevent back-up and overflow into their restaurants. As the weather here in the Northeast gets colder, the grease in the lines becomes more solid due to...
Hitting the Reset Button and Getting it Right
Within the first month of 2022, businesses in the foodservice industry continued to navigate through the many adjustments that the Pandemic has brought them. These adjustments will become the foundation of each restaurant’s new normal as owners/managers and chefs meet their dining patron’s needs.
Website Accessibility Claims Still Accessible for Disabled Plaintiffs
With the new year officially underway, hospitality employers should be aware that website accessibility lawsuits still loom large. The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) prohibits discrimination against disabled members of the public in the “full and equal enjoyment” of the goods and services...
Foam Packaging? I Thought They Banned That Years Ago
With so many changes on our minds throughout the pandemic, there is no shortage of misconceptions that frustrate our industry. One myth at the top of that list, as we talk to our Imperial Dade customers across the country, is that foam packaging is banned everywhere. That is simply not true.
HUB International and TFS Host Insightful Webinar About Swirling Hospitality Changes
From outdoor dining legislation to the latest in “vax-policing”, HUB Insurance and Total Food Service (TFS) hosted what has become a must view event last week. The quarterly Hospitality Webinar Series: “Where Do We Go From Here?: 6.0” Looking Ahead - Top Hospitality Trends, Concerns & FAQs...
Restaurant Misfits Podcast: Sean Brennan
In this episode of the Restaurant Misfits podcast, Brett interviews Sean Brennan, the founder of the international multi-unit quick-serve pie and coffee concept “The Pie Hole” based in Los Angeles, CA. He has plus or minus 20 years experience in hospitality and organizational development.