Monthly Archives: June 2010

Taking the bar to the table

Many restaurants, especially those with limited bar space, are turning to tableside cocktail service to provide more customers with the hand-crafted drink experience. Toby Maloney of Alchemy Consulting turned to an old-fashioned solution as he developed the bar program at New York's Bar Seven Five, which does not have a standard bar setup. Inspired by the cocktail service on the historical Pullman Company trains, in which bartenders created drinks and had them finished tableside, Maloney ordered custom-made cocktail caddies for Bar Seven Five. "When you don't have a bar itself, so much of the show and experience is the sound…

McDonalds Global Sales Rise in May

patrice

McDonald’s Corp. cited new products and value offerings for a 4.8-percent increase in global same-store sales for the month of May. In the United States, where same-store sales rose 3.4 percent in May, McDonald's pointed to the success of a $1 beverage program in some markets and the Frappe, the newest addition to the McCafe line now in most U.S. stores. The operator or franchisor of more than 14,000 restaurants in the United States also cited its ongoing efforts to reimage several hundred units this year. In addition, McDonald’s touted a promotion tied to “Shrek Forever After” that was selling…

Arbys may make the move into retail

patrice

Arby's, which has struggled to drive sales in its restaurants, may extend its reach by offering branded products in grocery stores. The 3,700-unit chain said Friday that it had signed a deal with Nancy Bailey & Associates Inc., an Atlanta licensing firm, to begin fielding offers to sell packaged Arby's items on supermarket shelves. Arby's spokeswoman Kathy Seifert confirmed the chain would seek to sell its products in retail settings, but she declined to offer details on what would be sold. She noted that the brand previously had licensed its sauces for retail. The leveraging of restaurant brands in the…

Supermarkets Mimic Restaurants

patrice

This article was released by the Associated Press and is so much on-target. I personally have seen this type of concept popping up in the Baltimore/Washington area. This is another case in point of what I have always said - food is here to stay! In America people will always eat out. They may not get on an airplane and stay in a 5-star hotel, but they will go out eat. There may be more items on the $1 menu or more on the Happy Hour menu - but this industry will always rebound. Adults don't pack their lunch to go…