Hive to Honey

Remember when “health” and “diet” were considered dirty words in restaurants? When good-for-you foods were a few items hidden on a remote corner of the menu that consumers rarely ordered? Those days, it seems, are over.
Today, health, or at least the current definition of it, is all the rage. According to new data from [...]

Amid signs of thawing consumer spending, US restaurants are starting to walk a fine line between turning diners on with new lower-calorie dishes and tapas-style small plates and turning them off with creeping price increases.
The course change comes as cost-cutting opportunities dwindle and restaurants try to wean still-skittish diners off discounts and special offers.
“2009 was [...]

AT Bistro 55, an upscale restaurant in Rochelle Park, the staff is accustomed not only to customers talking on cellphones, but also to people using phones to take pictures of the food, according to Lorenzo Catlett, the general manager.
“People come in with iPhones, and it might have seemed strange at first, but now we’re [...]

Historically, supper is the meal that leads the restaurant industry out of recessions, but that won’t be the case this time, according to a new study by The NPD Group, a leading market research company. Supper is the restaurant industry’s largest sales generator but has been the weakest performing meal period for the past decade, [...]

Food Writer’s Diary readers are mostly chefs and others involved in the foodservice industry, as well as food writers, food-studies scholars and amateur food enthusiasts. About 20 percent are based in the metropolitan New York City area and most of the rest are from elsewhere in North America.
The poll was conducted for the first two [...]

According to a study from research firm Technomic, consumers consider breakfast foods comforting and many wish they could eat it at any time of the day. In further research, Technomic concluded that a growing trend for 2010 is that many eateries will start serving breakfast dishes at any time of the day to meet the [...]

Restaurants and foodservice establishments serving up convenience are poised to do well in this post-recession economy, according to a release by research company Mintel. Its new report suggests that although value has become the mantra of many contemporary diners, convenience –including delivery options — still resonates with the out-to-eat crowd, especially for those under age [...]

According to the NPD report, “The Many Facets of Convenience,” convenience consumers, who attitudinally place a premium on convenience, tend to fall into one or more of the following groups: younger adults, males, singles who have never been married, single-member households, working parents, parents with a young child (age five or younger) or lower-income households. [...]

“The reality is that the convenience retail channel does continue to capture share from more traditional fast-food outlets,” David Portalatin, an NPD analyst, tells Marketing Daily. “People aren’t just picking up a hot dog off the roller grill because it’s there. They are choosing the convenience store they shop at because of the kinds of [...]

Tasting menus were once a bastion for special-occasion diners who really wanted to shell out for something sumptuous. Its down-market counterpart, the prix-fixe menu, was typically a budget offering with mostly low-food-cost items that has long been an important feature in bistros in France.
Here in the United States, as the economic mood remains glum, the [...]