NoGroceries.com ::: Feed that Appetite Report

Just in time to celebrate National Hot Dog Month, SONIC, America’s Drive-In, introduces its new and improved Footlong Quarter Pound Coney, a juicy, plump footlong hot dog topped with warm chili and melty cheese.

“SONIC’s Coney has been a customer favorite for years,” said Dominic Losacco, vice president of marketing for SONIC. “As part of SONIC’s ongoing initiative to improve the quality of our products, we’ve made some significant changes to our signature SONIC entree to make it even tastier.”  

The new and improved Footlong Quarter Pound Coney is a blend of beef and pork and boasts a bigger size than ever before, weighing in at a quarter pound.   The classic coney toppings of chili and cheese round out this entree that is reminiscent of summer picnics, baseball games and family gatherings.

From June 28 to August 29, the new Footlong Quarter Pound Coney is priced for a limited time at $2.99.  It’s the perfect summer food for anyone looking for a satisfying meal, especially if it’s paired with any one of SONIC’s side items such as handmade onion rings, famous tots, fresh mozzarella sticks or super hot Ched ‘R’ Peppers.  Also available this summer, the new Campfire Blast, Real Ice Cream blended with toasted graham crackers and chocolate covered with marshmallows.

Outback Steakhouse concluded its Thanks for Giving program today with a presentation of a $1 million donation to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization providing everyday and emergency support for active troops, veterans and their families.  The check was presented by OSI Restaurant Partners CEO Liz Smith and Outback Steakhouse President Jeff Smith to Jim Knotts, President/CEO and Amy Palmer, COO of Operation Homefront.  

Today’s event began with the Presentation of the Colors by The Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE) Color Guard, MacDill Air Force Base, in the front of the original Outback Steakhouse, established in 1988 in Tampa, Florida.  United States dignitaries on hand included Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin L. Hill, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Ron Pflieger, retired Army Maj. Gen. Richard Griffitts, and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Arthur “Chip” Diehl III.

The Thanks for Giving program was launched in March when diners where invited to assist Outback in its efforts to support the troops by ordering from a special Red, White and Bloomin’menu. The company-wide initiative garnered national attention, including the endorsement of country music legend and fellow military supporter, Tim McGraw; retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks, U.S. Central Command Commander; and retired Army Brig. Gen. John Howard.

“The sacrifices that our troops and their families make so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have in the United States is something Outback employees have recognized and appreciated since we opened our doors 22 years ago,” said Liz Smith. “As we express our sincere appreciation to those serving our country, we would also like to  thank the countless Americans who rallied behind our Thanks for Giving program.”

Today’s donation to Operation Homefront is the most recent in a long history of Outback’s support of the troops.  In June 2002, OSI launched Operation Feeding Freedom, sending a team of 15 Outbackers to Afghanistan to feed American troops stationed there.  Since that trip, over 100 members of the OSI team have made another six trips serving troops in Djibouti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and aboard the USS Nimitz in Bahrain.  Overall, 137,000 troops have been served at numerous bases and forward command locations. 

“Our troops, veterans and their families need support now more than ever,” Knotts said. “Outback’s generous donation will help these dedicated individuals and wounded warriors carry on with life’s essential needs as well as emergency situations.”

Chipotle Mexican Grill, the national chain of burrito restaurants, opened its 1,000^th restaurant today. The 1,000^th restaurant, located in Flower Mound, Tex., is a milestone that, according to Chipotle founder, chairman and co-CEO Steve Ells, was never supposed to happen. Ells’ original plan for Chipotle called for only one restaurant.

Ells, a classically trained chef who studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, before beginning his culinary career at a fine dining restaurant in San Francisco, originally planned to pursue his dream of being a chef and owning his own restaurant. But the success of the first Chipotle gave rise to a new plan and has given Ells a bigger platform to influence how people eat.

“I wanted to have a ‘real’ restaurant, but I didn’t know enough about the business or the economics of running a restaurant,” explains Ells. “My plan was to use Chipotle as a cash cow to help me finance my own restaurant. It was a novel idea: I’d show that food that was fast didn’t have to be a typical fast-food experience. I used great quality ingredients and cooked everything in the restaurant using classical cooking techniques. People loved it so I opened another, and another, and so on.”

Since opening the first restaurant in 1993 and shifting his plan to build more Chipotle locations, Ells and Chipotle have achieved a number of restaurant industry firsts. Chipotle was the first national restaurant company to commit to serving naturally raised meat (from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormone and fed a pure vegetarian diet), the first to commit to local and organically grown produce, and the first to serve dairy (cheese and sour cream) made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Ells calls the vision behind this commitment “Food with Integrity” and it has the company looking for more sustainable sources for all of the ingredients it uses.

“Our focus on making great tasting food with more sustainably raised ingredients available and affordable for everyone is one of the keys to our success,” says Ells. “These better quality ingredients allow us to make better tasting food, and that’s what keeps our customers coming back. While some of our customers don’t know the depths of our commitment to finding such great ingredients, the discipline to focus on making food this way has contributed significantly to our reaching the 1,000 restaurant milestone.”

Through this commitment, Chipotle serves more naturally raised meat than any other national restaurant company, including all of its pork, 85% of its beef, and about 80% of its chicken. In all, that amounts to more than 75 million pounds of naturally raised meat this year alone. In addition to getting meat from more sustainable sources, 40% of all of its beans are organically grown, and the company plans to use at least 50% of at least one produce item from local farms for all of its restaurants (some 5 million pounds of locally grown produce in all).

Recognizing that a great restaurant experience requires more than just great food, Chipotle has a unique internal people culture – a culture that appeals to and rewards its highest performers. Chipotle employees are now a driving force behind the growth to the 1,000 restaurant mark. This remarkable culture is impacting the lives of thousands of Chipotle employees, and improving customer service in its restaurants.

Today, more than 90% of Chipotle managers are promoted from within the ranks of its crew, creating excellent career opportunities for these top performers. Its totally unique Restaurateur Program, a program which rewards the elite managers who are best at developing crew members into future leaders, now has 168 Restaurateurs overseeing about one-third of its restaurants. These Restaurateurs are the foundation of Chipotle’s people culture, serving as an example to all of the company’s 24,000 employees, and helping to develop top performers into powerful leaders within the organization.

The Chipotle culture of high performing employees serving Food with Integrity is paying off with a special dining experience for every customer every day. “Having a culture which attracts and retains top performers allows us to open restaurants with great teams, and the assurance that we are creating a special kind of experience,” said Monty Moran, co-CEO of Chipotle. “By developing our managers internally, we are not only getting the best managers, but we’re creating extraordinary opportunities for our own people. Today, as we open our 1,000^th restaurant, we have a deeper bench of potential managers than ever before, which keeps us well positioned for growth knowing that our future leaders are already within the ranks of our managers and crews.”

Chipotle’s unique vision has attracted praise from a variety of sources. New York Times food writer Amanda Hesser wrote that Chipotle is “a chance to witness – and taste – a shift in American fast food.” Newsweek called Ells “an environmental champion” for his commitment to using ingredients from more sustainable sources. Dana Cowin, editor of Food & Wine magazine says, “I love the fact that Chipotle sources all of its food products from trusted farms and famers, that the food is sustainable, and that the brand manages to bring really fresh food to a really wide public.” And in speaking with Ells about Chipotle’s vision and accomplishments for a segment on food issues on the “Oprah” show, Oprah Winfrey tells Ells, “We need more of you.” Ells simple vision for the first Chipotle has evolved from what he originally planned, and the chain’s impact has become greater than he thought possible in the beginning.

“We are changing the way people think about and eat fast food,” said Ells. “Today, we have 1,000 restaurants and are serving some 750,000 people a day. Between our commitment to making great tasting food with ingredients from more sustainable sources, and a culture that rewards and empowers our people, Chipotle now has much more of an impact on how people eat than I ever would have had if I stuck to my initial plan.”

Jeffers said oysters make up only a small portion of its Red Lobster sales, but he did not provide a percentage.

Capital Grille, Darden's upscale steakhouse chain, uses oysters from outside the Gulf and will continue to serve them, Jeffers said. Seasons 52 does not serve them, he said.

AmeriPure is known for a special method of treating oysters to kill off harmful bacteria. The process includes bathing them in warm water, followed by an ice-cold shock bath to stop the transfer of heat.

Denny’s has introduced several value-priced menu items and is emphasizing budget-friendly promotions in an effort to drive summer sales.

New on the menu at the 1,500-unit family-dining chain are three breakfast skillets priced between $3.99 and $5.99 each, $2 ice cream floats, and $1.99 orders of Red, White & Blueberry Pancake Puppies, Denny's said.

The new skillets include the Ultimate Skillet, featuring fresh spinach, breakfast sausage, fire-roasted peppers and onions, grape tomatoes and seasoned red-skinned potatoes topped with cheese and two eggs cooked to order; the Santa Fe Skillet, with crumbled chorizo sausage, fire-roasted peppers, onions, mushrooms, potatoes, cheese and two eggs; and Bananas Foster French Toast Skillet, featuring two slices of French toast topped with banana slices and caramel sauce.

The $2 ice cream floats include versions made with root beer and cherry cola, as well as a Red, White and Blueberry float made with strawberry ice cream, lemon-lime soda and blueberry and pomegranate flavors.

The chain also rolled out its new, bite-sized Red, White & Blueberry Pancake Puppies, which are made with strawberries, blueberries and white chocolate chips.

Denny's also is continuing to promote its recently introduced $2, $4, $6, $8 value menu and its new discounts for AARP members.

In addition, the chain is offering free meals for kids with the purchase of an adult entrée of $2.50 or more. The offer is available on select days from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Thanks Elissa Elan at NRN

Levi started fielding such questions soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded two months ago today, unleashing a geyser of oil that continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico.

Mara's allegiance to the state that has played host to so much of the destruction is patently obvious: Its menu is filled with dishes featuring Louisiana seafood, from oysters Rockefeller and boiled crawfish to crab cakes and blackened redfish, and framed posters heralding the glories of the Saints, Jazzfest and Louisiana State University athletics hang from its Mardi Gras-colored walls.

FAST-FOOD firms have to be a thick-skinned bunch. Health experts regularly lambast them for peddling food that makes people fat. Critics even complain that McDonald’s, whose golden arches symbolise calorie excess, should not have been allowed to sponsor the World Cup. These are things fast-food firms have learnt to cope with and to deflect. But not perhaps for much longer. The burger business faces more pressure from regulators at a time when it is already adapting strategies in response to shifts in the global economy.

Fast food was once thought to be recession-proof. When consumers need to cut spending, the logic goes, cheap meals like Big Macs and Whoppers become even more attractive. Such “trading down” proved true for much of the latest recession, when fast-food companies picked up customers who could no longer afford to eat at casual restaurants. Traffic was boosted in America, the home of fast food, with discounts and promotions, such as $1 menus and cheap combination meals.

As a result, fast-food chains have weathered the recession better than their pricier competitors. In 2009 sales at full-service restaurants in America fell by more than 6%, but total sales remained about the same at fast-food chains. In some markets, such as Japan, France and Britain, total spending on fast food increased. Same-store sales in America at McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food company, did not decline throughout the downturn. Panera Bread, an American fast-food chain known for its fresh ingredients, performed well, too: its boss, Ron Shaich, claims this is because it offers higher-quality food at lower prices than restaurants.

1. Komi ★★★★  1509 17th St., NW; 202-332-9200

2. Minibar ★★★★ 405 Eighth St., NW (inside Café Atlántico); 202-393-0812

3. The Source ★★★½  575 Pennsylvania Ave., NW; 202-637-6100

4. J&G Steakhouse ★★★½  W Hotel, 515 15th St., NW; 202-661-2440

5. Citronelle ★★★½  Latham Hotel, 3000 M St., NW; 202-625-2150

6. 2941 ★★★½  2941 Fairview Park Dr., Falls Church; 703-270-1500

7. Oval Room ★★★½  800 Connecticut Ave., NW; 202-463-8700

8. Rasika ★★★½  633 D St., NW; 202-637-1222

9. Restaurant Eve ★★★½  110 S. Pitt St., Alexandria; 703-706-0450

10. CityZen ★★★½  Mandarin Oriental, 1330 Maryland Ave., SW; 202-787-6006

11. Inn at Little Washington ★★★½  309 Middle St., Washington, Va.; 540-675-3800

12. Vidalia ★★★½  1990 M St., NW; 202-659-1990

13. Central Michel Richard ★★★  1001 Pennsylvania Ave., NW; 202-626-0015

14. Bistro Bis ★★★  Hotel George, 15 E St., NW; 202-661-2700

15. Sushi Taro ★★★  1503 17th St., NW; 202-462-8999

“Taco Bell’s two dollar value meal is potentially game changing,” says Gary Stibel, Founder and CEO of the Westport, Connecticut based New England Consulting Group. And Stibel should know because he was one of three New England Consulting Group partners who worked with Taco Bell when they were still owned by PepsiCo to create the original version of the modern day value meal (in the late 1980s).  “We were fortunate enough to have worked with Taco Bell on this project along with some of the best and brightest from both the restaurant chain and from PepsiCo corporate.”

Since then, value meals have become a mainstay of the industry, particularly during the recession.  Today, Stibel points out that “many restaurants are hooked on discount ‘heroin’ that is teaching guests very bad habits and restricting profits, particularly as the recession wanes”. “Therefore, the two dollar meal deal could be a transitional game changer for Taco Bell.  One dollar meals drastically limit the quantity a restaurant can offer and often leave consumers wanting.  This is strategic to Taco Bell because the bullseye of their target audience is the young male who doesn’t eat restaurant food, he ‘hoovers’ it. The five dollar footlong is one of several great examples of creative marketing at a very profitable price point that provides real value to the consumer.”

And Stibel goes on to point out that “price is not a number, it’s an equation!  Whether or not consumers could buy the contents of a value meal for the same amount of money has little relevance.  What is relevant is the fact that consumers derive great value from being able to go in, order a ‘bundle’ of products and services quickly and easily, and be satisfied with what they receive for what they pay.  This is true of value meals from Taco Bell, packaged minutes from cell phone providers, triple play options from cable operators, and much more.”

In fact, Stibel attributes analogue modeling from other categories as “the spark that ignited the original Taco Bell value meal.  Ditto the original cable triple play offering over ten years ago”. David Stone, a Managing Partner and Principal at the New England Consulting Group and the original Chief Marketing Officer of Taco Bell, points out that “one of the bases for PepsiCo’s acquisition of Taco Bell was the ability to deliver good tasting, filling foods to young men at prices that were attractive to the guest and profitable to the owner.  It is one of the strengths of Mexican food in a crowded QSR marketplace.”

Stibel goes on to point out that value is not isolated to QSR.  He specifically cites Olive Garden and Applebee’s as examples of chain restaurants who are delivering compelling value propositions at price points approaching double digits and still very profitable to the chains.”

Restaurants are expected to add 428,000 jobs this summer season, a 4.6 percent increase over the March 2010 employment level, according to National Restaurant Association projections released today.  America’s restaurants are the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer and job-creator—with nearly 13 million employees—a number projected to grow by more than one million positions in the next decade.

“In these tough economic times, restaurants are playing an ever more important role in their communities, creating jobs and economic opportunity for our nation,” said National Restaurant Association President & CEO Dawn Sweeney. “Every dollar spent in restaurants generates an additional $2.05 spent in the overall economy,” she added.

“Restaurant industry job growth has been positive for the first five months of 2010, paving the way for additional growth in summer employment,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the research and knowledge group for the Association.

The restaurant industry is usually the nation’s second-largest creator of summer jobs – ranking behind the construction industry only.  Eating and drinking places added 422,100 jobs (a 4.6 percent increase) during the 2009 summer season, and 352,900 jobs (3.7 percent increase) during the 2008 summer season. Last year, however, the construction sector only added 259,300 jobs during the 2009 summer season, well below hiring in the restaurant industry.

The states projected to add the most eating and drinking place jobs during the 2010 summer season are New York (38,300), California (30,400), Texas (28,100), Massachusetts (24,800), New Jersey (24,600), Illinois (19,900), Ohio (19,800) and Michigan (18,600).  

The states projected to register the largest proportional employment increase during the 2010 summer season are Maine (30.9 percent increase) and Alaska (26.0 percent increase). For more information and summer employment projections by state and trends, visitwww.restaurant.org/pressroom.

Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 945,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a work force of nearly 13 million employees. Together with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, the Association works to lead America’s restaurant industry into a new era of prosperity, prominence, and participation, enhancing the quality of life for all we serve.