50 Great Ideas

A penny for your calories

Who doesn’t need help sticking to their New Year’s resolutions—especially when it comes to losing a few pounds? This year, four Portland, Maine, restaurants did their part to help kickstart diners’ diets. They banded together to price their menus according to calorie counts.

On January 3, Sebago Brewing Co., DiMillo’s On The Water, El Rayo Taqueria and Spartan Grill ran a Calories Count Lunch in partnership with Portland’s obesity prevention initiative. Patrons were charged a penny per calorie, cutting some menu items by more than half. A cup of white chicken chili at Sebago Brewing Co., normally $4.79, for example, weighed in at $1.55 to match its 155 calories; a pollo rice and bean bowl at El Rayo has 556 calories, pricing it at $5.56 instead of $7.50.

The promotion not only generated good publicity and long lines of lunchtime customers, it built awareness for the city’s menu revamp and labeling program that’s now underway.

#50 | Using your noodle

#49 | Eat a pita, feed a kid

#48 | Ask the staff chaplain

#47 | I’ll be calling you

#46 | Rolling in dough

#45 | Fried chicken flies the coop

#44 | A penny for your calories

#43 | Better than a lobster bib

#42 | Bending the bento

#41 | Billboard redux

#40 | Dining at the fountain of youth

#39 | Building a better box

#38 | Roll out the barrel

#37 | Mochi Madness

#36 | A toast to Belgium

#35 | Screening employees on the screen

#34 | An Olive Garden customer sat here

#33 | Setting the e-table

#32 | The buck strolls here

#31 | Gin game

#30 | Childhood revisited

#29 | Moveable feast

#28 | Certified gluten free

#27 | Buy a car, eat a meal

#26 | Locating the best Happy Hour

#25 | Local broadcast

#24 | Tabletop taps

#23 | Double the pleasure

#22 | The three Bs

#21 | Cocktails to amuse

#20 | Fans of the grape

#19 | Whole animal accessorizing

#18 | Translucent menus

#17 | Have oven will cater

#16 | Allergic interaction

#15 | Greener produce

#14 | Competing to win at weight loss

#13 | Space saver

#12 | Test kitchen=test market

#11 | Be my guest

#10 | Plug in and eat up

#9 | Rx for pilferers

#8 | Hands free—and clean

#7 | Some like it too hot

#6 | Chicken fried steak gets its day

#5 | The staff that reads together…

#4 | Twinkle toast

#3 | Stick with this

#2 | Stamp of approval

#1 | From seed to fork

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A penny for your calories

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