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Warming weather is affecting key food items

Rising temperatures in the years ahead could have a direct impact on a wide range of food items. Here’s a look at six that play a significant role in many restaurant menus—and have already seen the impact of climate change.

Morning beverage service

One of the bright spots in the restaurant industry is the morning daypart. Breakfast generates $42 billion in annual sales or 12 percent of the industry total, estimates Chicago market consultancy, Technomic. Significantly, coffee is playing an increasingly important role in consumers’ breakfast purchasing decisions, according to the consultancy. Good coffee service can bump up a.m. traffic. One-third of consumers who drink coffee at breakfast say they are loyal to a brand or restaurant that serves their preferred coffee.

Fritter fans

Long a staple of Southern kitchens, fritters have been around in both savory and sweet versions. Corn, seafood, sweet potatoes and apples are the best-known of these deep-fried morsels. But chefs are now shaking up tradition, and fritters crafted from more unusual ingredients—like chickpeas, sunchokes and quinoa—are showing up on menus.

Winter plates pop with color

Tossing up a salad in the dead of winter may take a bit of legwork. Sourcing the variety of produce necessary to create a colorful mix with complex, fresh flavors can be challenging. But that doesn’t stop David Bazirgan (a.k.a Baz), chef at Fifth Floor at the Hotel Palomar in San Francisco. He’s a regular at the Farmer’s Market in San Francisco’s Ferry Building, and it’s packed with produce.

Fresh catch at Friday’s

Casual-dining pioneer T.G.I. Friday’s has invested in elevating its menu ingredients. On the protein side, two recent upgrades include Norwegian salmon and Black Angus Rib-Eye—both of which are featured in LTOs this winter.

The morning daypart continues to rise and shine

Restaurant dinner checks may be shrinking along with patrons’ wallets, but morning people are putting their money where their mouths are.

Positive signs on the commodities front

There would seem no way possible 2012 could be as withering a year in commodity prices as 2011, and the New Year kicked off with positive news: Congress allowed its 30-year-old subsidies for corn-based ethanol to expire. Ethanol will still be produced, but commodity forecasters expect that in the long run, corn-based fuel production will take up less and less of the corn crop, meaning less competition and better prices for food uses.

Draft notice: Tapping the latest libations

More than beer is being drafted these days at restaurants and bars. Sparkling wine, liquor, cocktails, cider and kombucha are all flowing from taps. The tactic is both a point of differentiation and a margin booster.

A new take on steak

The rib eye is one of the most popular steakhouse cuts and most fans like it served up simple—well seasoned and broiled or grilled. At the nine-location Smith & Wollensky, the menu offers a prime, dry-aged 28-oz. rib eye steak just that way. But executive chef Matt King wanted to do something more for customers looking for a bit of adventure and variety. The deconstruction process A rib eye has two clearly defined muscles. King starts out by removing the outer cap muscle and the bone, leaving the well-marbled 9-ounce eye.

A nation of nibblers

Remember when dinner at a restaurant always meant sitting down to a multi-course meal of appetizer, entrée and dessert? Not any longer. More and more Americans are patronizing restaurants differently these days, opting to make a meal of shareable appetizers, small plates, inventive bar food or coffee and a snack. According to Chicago-based market research company Technomic, only 5 percent of consumers are now eating three square meals a day. The shift can be attributed to several trends:

2012 drinks new product preview

No hard sell

Bertucci’s customer favorites spark 30th birthday specials

The Northborough, Massachusetts-based Bertucci’s, founded in 1981, is currently celebrating its 30th birthday with a limited-time menu that revisits comfort food classics. “We polled our most passionate guests in an email survey and 22,000 responded,” says vice president/executive chef, Jeff Tenner. “They generated the idea of commemorating our birthday by bringing back some of our classics.”

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