Make Your Menu Work as Hard as You Do
Tyson Food Service is devoted to making your menu work as hard as you do. The Ideas @ the Heart™ program is inspired and driven by consumer insights to deliver products, recipes, and merchandising support to help tap into the very heart of customers’ needs, wants, and taste preferences.
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Ideas
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Fuel alternatives save money
While the rest of the world cries at the gas pump, Jonathan Pratt, a restaurant owner in Westchester County, New York, is singing the praises of a cheap new alternative fuel: "It saves me money, it improves the lifespan of the motor, its lubricity is better than diesel's, it doesn't pollute—and it smells good." Good, that is, if you like the smell of fried food, because Pratt is fueling his vehicle on spent vegetable oil. And he's not the only one. Operators are finding alternative fuel in an unlikely place.
20 beverage service tips
So, you figure that your beverage menu is plenty profitable. The bar is full of coworkers sipping after-work cocktails, folks in the dining room are ordering wine, and specialty coffee sales, well, they’re way up. Your beverage program’s doing just great, right? Not so fast. According to the experts we tracked down, there are plenty of money-saving—and moneymaking—ideas that you might have missed. “A lot of operators are naive,” says consultant George Delgado of PROmixology.com. “Because they’re making money at the bar, they’re not paying attention.”
Local sourcing, on a large scale
How chains are managing to make local sourcing work.
Bocce courts are chic
Bocce is enjoying a surge. It’s a real yuppie thing to do.” So says Mario Pagnoni, author of The Joy of Bocce and proponent of siting bocce courts in bars and restaurants. But even he admits that the traditional Italian game has an image problem. “Say ‘bocce’ and people still think old guys bowling with a cigar in their mouth and a glass of wine in hand.” That’s precisely what Jim Carden likes about bocce, and why his two Brooklyn restaurant/bars feature indoor courts. “It’s a great bar game,” he says.
Rabbit Three Ways
This place sources rabbits from a farm down the road and plates the leg, a small rack and a roulade as an entree. It was tender and succulent, created with a light hand that showcased the different flavors and textures of the meat. There’s nothing more elevated than brilliant, rustic food. Selected by: Clark Wolf Check out the entire list of Clean Plate Award winners. |
Farm House Restaurant, Healdsburg, California
Hot beans
Xoco, slang for “little sister,” was inspired by the chocolate y churros served at El Moro in Mexico City’s historic district, according to Lash. “We took that experience and put our own spin on it.” The cacao beans are sourced from Tabasco state in Mexico and retain highly acidic cherry and berry notes,” says Lash, “almost like wine.” Per order, chocolate is frothed with a steamer and poured tableside by Xoco’s baristas. Customer response has been incredibly positive, notes Lash. “It’s the most unique hot chocolate experience available, period.” |
If the sight of cacao beans being roasted and ground into chocolate in Xoco’s front window in Chicago doesn’t entice passersby, the sweet aroma of scratchmade hot cocoa certainly will. “Bean-to-cup chocolate contributes to the unique experience,” says Xoco chef Shaw Lash.