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How to target moms as their family role changes
She’s not your mother’s kind of mother anymore. And he’s not your father’s kind of father. Moms and dads have always been core customers for restaurants. But today, say market researchers, their roles are changing. A quiet demographic revolution is reshaping the American family, with big implications for marketing.
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The Week in Ideas, March 22, 2013
This week: retail in restaurants, a sky-high concept, a Sioux Falls operator with a unique aesthetic, and an idea somebody needs to take advantage of. Idea #1: Sell more than food. It’s not a new idea, but it’s getting some new blood: combining restaurants with retail. St. Paul’s restaurant scene is seeing new takes on the idea.
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Meet the chef: Mike Barbera
This year more than ever, winter-weary chefs and diners have high hopes that spring’s asparagus, strawberries and tender greens will soon appear on menus. To get out of the root-vegetable rut, Mike Barbera, director of food and beverage for ’wichcraft, the 16-unit artisan sandwich concept founded by Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and partners, puts out spring teasers with ingredient-driven daily specials.
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The Week in Ideas, March 18, 2013
It’s always a good idea to double check your bathroom before closing. An idea we still can’t quite get our heads around: not everybody likes bacon. What? Plus, a shipping container restaurant and a new server for the Big 12.
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The Week in Ideas, March 11, 2013
This week, parents set up a restaurant-based trust for their disabled son, a baseball player gets involved in a mini bowling concept, the truck vs. store wars heat up in Houston, unexpected late-night disasters, and a terrible, no good, awful idea is backed by a very stubborn Canadian.
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The Week in Ideas, March 4, 2013
Charging for bathroom use. Bacon isn’t done yet. Hiring hard workers. And a good use for restaurant-violation fees.
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The Week in Ideas, February 25, 2013
Fake fish. Minimum-wage outlaws. Picking on Guy Fieri. And video-chat ordering at Starbucks. Idea #1: Double check that fish. Even more evidence that mislabeled seafood has turned into a really big problem.
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Meet the chef: Tyler Betzhold
  After honing his skills in fine-dining restaurants, country clubs and a stint in Milan, Italy, Tyler Betzhold, CEC, has found his niche as senior catering chef at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
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The Week in Ideas, February 15, 2013
And on the seventh day, Taco Bell created Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos. A robot restaurant. A way to get kids to behave in your restaurant. And the bang for the low-cal buck. Idea #1: The inevitable idea of the year. Taco Bell’s Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco slowly inches to total domination of our taste buds.
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The Week in Ideas, February 8, 2013
Quizno's uses behavior and location to run a successful mobile campaign, the USDA is following their own advice, a restaurant rewards well-behaved kiddos and gets a spot on the Today show, snatching delivery guys' tips to cover fees is a no-no, and McD's is upping the service level down under.
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The Week in Ideas, February 4, 2013
This week: fighting the flu, naming your restaurant after a skinny doll, putting Rush on a diet and bouncing back from your closed restaurant. Idea #1: Fight flu. Pro-labor restaurant organizers ROC make the case for crimping the flu epidemic by giving restaurant workers paid sick leave.
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Clyde's hand washing competition
The mouth is the dirtiest part of the body—and not just the angry chef’s mouth. A close second: the hands. And while the ubiquitous “Employees must wash hands before returning to work” bathroom signs are great, the 12-unit Washington, D.C.-based Clyde’s wanted to step up their sanitation game. And so was born Clyde’s annual hand washing competition.
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