Marco Chirico Blogger Reflection

My experience with blogging this term has been very interesting before this class it would have never came to my mind to blog. Posting up an article that interests me and have other people comment on it helps me understand different point of views. I have learned that blogging is another big part of social media because of interactions with different people and opinions on an article.
What I liked about blogging is that if there is an article that I posted up and the topic is hard to understand or if my field is not focused on that topic there are always people who can blog and answer some tough questions you may have. Also if you have a business and post an article or specials on the blog you can see what your customers enjoy or dislike which could help your business out in the future.
What I hated about blogger is that the website setup was a little confusing. It took me a few times to get use too but hopefully they can simplify the website in the future. I can definitely use blogger in my future career because it gives me another way to get personal with my customers. Also customers can keep track of your specials, events, and new trends. Customers can also give you ideas also if your business is not doing to well so overall I will be definitely blogging in my future career.

http://www.nrn.com/breakingNews.aspx?id=379556&menu_id=1368

NPD: Restaurant patrons are dining out less, favoring takeout

(Nov. 03, 2008) Although the writing has been on the wall for a few years, restaurateurs only now are starting to comprehend the message: The way consumers use restaurants is changing in a lasting way, according to The NPD Group’s 23rd annual “Eating Patterns in America” report.

Dunkin’ Donuts Egg White Flatbread sandwich is on the new DDSMART menu.

The popularity of both quick service and breakfast continues to grow, and snacking now occurs more often in midmorning than at night, NPD found. Brown-bag lunches also are on the rise, and supermarkets are entrenched in the foodservice business.

“The current economic condition just exposes what’s been going on for the last [six or seven] years,” said Harry Balzer, vice president of the Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm. “We’re just starting to notice. People are not using restaurants less, they’re using restaurants differently.”

The total number of meals purchased at restaurants has not increased since 2000, but where consumers are eating out has shifted, according to NPD. Seventy-seven percent of all restaurant meals now come from fast-food restaurants, a new high. Visits to full-service restaurants, where servers are relied upon, are on the wane.

Changes in consumers’ eating patterns are impacting all dayparts, but the biggest shift is occurring at dinner, NPD found. According to NPD, the industry’s dinner business, both on- and off-premise, has not grown since 2000. Instead, consumers are buying more ready-to-eat meals from supermarkets.

When consumers do visit a restaurant for dinner, their top choice is quick service. Nonetheless, the segment is not increasing its share of the dinner occasion as it is at breakfast and lunch. The segment’s share of dinner meals has been largely flat since 2002, capturing a 64-percent to 65-percent share. In contrast, quick service’s share of breakfast has been steadily growing since 2002. In the year ended in February, the segment captured an 83-percent share of breakfast, up from 78 percent in 2002. Quick-service lunch has grown just slightly in the past five years, capturing a 77-percent share in the year ended in February, up from 75 percent in 2002.

Big changes are happening during the breakfast daypart, too. Consumers who once skipped breakfast are now eating more in the morning, and what they choose to eat is more healthful, according to NPD. Nearly half of all breakfast items consumed are labeled as better-for-you items, NPD found. In addition, while consumers are still interested in purchasing products with reduced ingredients, such as lower sodium or fat, now they are also buying more products with added nutritional ingredients, such as probiotics and omega-3 fatty acids.

More than 70 percent of breakfasts still are consumed in-home, but those purchased at restaurants increasingly are eaten off-premise. According to NPD, for every breakfast eaten in a restaurant, two are eaten outside of the restaurant. Also, more of those eaten outside of restaurants are being eaten in cars.

“The breakfast market is not growing on sit-down, [it’s] exclusively takeout,” Balzer said. “[Consumers want a] quick, easy-to-consume and inexpensive meal.”

Ready-to-eat cereal remains the most popular in-home breakfast item, but consumers are not eating more of it. Instead, NPD found, consumers are eating more yogurt and nutrition bars for their morning meal. Because these are not filling foods, a growing number of consumers also are purchasing additional items from restaurants later in the morning, NPD found.

That second breakfast is, at least in part, driving a shift in the way Americans snack, Balzer said. While consumers aren’t eating more snacks, they are eating different types of snacks at different times. Morning snacking is on the rise, while evening snacking is decreasing. Popcorn and chips once eaten later in the day are being replaced by more healthful items, such as such as fruit, nuts, seeds, yogurt and nutrition bars.

Restaurants have been capturing more of consumers’ snack occasions and are helping to alter consumers’ definition of snacks, NPD found.

“The word ‘snack’ is expanding,” Balzer said. “Beverages, hamburgers, sandwiches, wraps [are] now called a snack.”

Read more: http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?id=359812#ixzz0fkFiuWVL

Seattle's Best

Seattle's Best to debut canned coffee drinks
By Lisa Jennings


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Seattle's Best has developed a line of branded coffee drinks.
SEATTLE (Jan. 14, 2010) Following in the footsteps of its much-bigger sister brand Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee is set to enter the $1.4 billion ready-to-drink coffee category with a line of branded iced latte coffee drinks.
The drinks, which come in a can, will be available later this month in grocery, convenience and other retail stores in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.
Seattle’s Best has long offered packaged coffee in grocery stores, but the retail coffee drinks are a first for the company. The new products are the result of a joint venture between Starbucks and Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages, which has been dubbed the North American Coffee Partnership. The joint venture was also behind the debut of Starbucks’ bottled Frappuccino drinks in 1994, as well as the coffeehouse giant’s subsequent Doubleshot products.
“We are well-positioned to continue the growth of Seattle’s Best Coffee by broadening our overall portfolio and awareness in new channels, bringing new customers to the brand,” said Michelle Gass, a former Starbucks marketing executive who was recently appointed president of Seattle’s Best. She also holds the position of interim president of Starbucks’ Global Consumer Products and Foodservice division.
“By entering the growing ready-to-drink coffee category, Seattle’s Best Coffee is able to meet the needs of more specialty coffee consumers looking for a high-quality, uncommonly smooth ready-to-drink coffee experience,” she added.
The new products will include Iced Latte, Iced Vanilla Latte and Iced Mocha flavors and have a suggested retail price of $1.49 per can or $4.99 for a four-pack.
Seattle’s Best operates and franchises more than 550 cafes and kiosks. In addition, the company supplies coffee to an estimated 15,000 restaurants, college campuses, hotels, airlines, cruise lines and other foodservice operations. The brand is a division of Seattle-based Starbucks.
Contact Lisa Jennings at ljenning@nrn.com.Read more: http://www.nrn.com/breakingNews.aspx?id=378140&utm_source=MagnetMail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Mjc918@students.jwu.edu&utm_content=NRN-News-Beverage%20Trends%202-9-10%20resend&utm_campaign=Hard%20cider%20makes%20a%20comeback#ixzz0fjSDPDfz

CPK Lower-priced small plates

CPK adds lower-priced small plates
By Lisa Jennings

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CPK's new "Small Cravings" menu includes an asparagus and arugula salad.
LOS ANGELES (Feb. 5, 2010) Following a growing trend in casual dining, California Pizza Kitchen has debuted a new “Small Cravings” menu featuring smaller dishes at a lower price range.
The new small cravings range in price from $4 to $7 and are designed to be smaller portions than the chain’s appetizers, which range in price from $5 to $11.
In addition, the Los Angeles-based CPK is also rolling out a “Wine Cravings” menu, featuring half-glasses of wine from the recently revamp wine list. Most are available for less than $5 and include bottles hand-picked by CPK co-founders and co-chief executives Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax.
“With the new Small Cravings menu, we are offering the innovative and bold flavors we are known for, but in smaller portions,” Rosenfield said. “We are encouraging guests to explore the many tastes of CPK, one small plate at a time.”
The Cheesecake Factory last year also debuted a new Small Plates & Snacks category to its menu, which officials at the Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based chain credited with boosting traffic in the fourth quarter.
Dishes on CPK’s Small Cravings menu include an asparagus and arugula salad with sun-dried tomatoes, toasted almonds and shaved Parmesan in a lemon-herb vinaigrette; Buffalo chicken with celery and blue cheese dressing; and sweet corn tamale ravioli filled with poblano peppers and cheese in a roasted pepper cream sauce with sweet corn and cilantro.
Other dishes include crispy artichoke hearts with Parmesan and a remoulade sauce; a Mediterranean plate with hummus, feta, a Greek salad, olives and pizza-pita bread; an iceberg lettuce wedge salad with blue cheese dressing, bacon, chopped egg and tomatoes; and white corn guacamole made with avocado, sweet white corn, black beans, jicama, green onions, red pepper, cilantro, Serrano peppers and corn tortilla chips.
The smaller plates menu is available for dine in or takeout. CPK operates, franchises or licenses 251 restaurants, including its namesake brand and two locations of LA Food Show Grill & Bar.
Contact Lisa Jennings at ljenning@nrn.comRead more: http://www.nrn.com/breakingNews.aspx?id=379072&utm_source=MagnetMail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Mjc918@students.jwu.edu&utm_content=NRN-News-Casual%20Dining%2002-09-10&utm_campaign=CPK%20adds%20lower-priced%20small%20plates#ixzz0f4SNTmxm

Hard cider makes a comeback

Hard cider makes a comeback

By James Scarpa

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(Jan. 20, 2010) Slaking the thirst for what’s new, a growing number of restaurant operators are touting a drink that until recently was in eclipse — hard cider. Even those whose claim to fame at the bar is beer or spirits may now find a place for a well-chosen bottle or tap of the fruity tipple.

Some restaurateurs found a following for dinners and tastings with ciders from artesian producers in Britain, France, Spain and here at home in the United States. At d.b.a. in Brooklyn, N.Y., a bar with a distinctive collection of craft beers and whiskies, proprietor Ray Deter invites his patrons to choose a beverage for a free tasting each Monday night. Recently, they voted for ciders from around the world rather than the usual brews and distillates.

“The same people who are interested in craft beers and single malts are looking at cider, too, and there are some great ones to try,” said Deter, who carries the British brand Aspinall and Doc’s Draft Hard Apple Cider from New York State.

Cider is underrated, perhaps, but the better ones are serious craft beverages, fermented from select apple or pear varieties and in some cases aged in stainless steel or oak vessels for greater depth and complexity.

At FireLake Grill House and Cocktail Bar, an upscale-casual eatery in Minneapolis, executive chef Paul Lynch said cider has gone from “nonexistent” to “finally on the radar” in America. In his opinion, its selling points are that it is a natural product, goes well with food and has lots of regional interpretations, like wine and beer.

“I think it really has legs,” said Lynch, who suggests Crispin Hard Cider, a locally based brand, with dishes like cherry wood smoked lamb ribs. Lynch also pointed to the growing popularity of Indian and Asian cooking as an opportunity for cider.

“It’s really tough to find wine that matches with the heat and ginger and spices of those foods,” he said. “But cider has the ability to stand up, cleanse the palate and add another dimension to the meal.”

“I think a lot of restaurants are missing the boat on great cider and some other interesting beverages that aren’t wine,” said Michael McAvena, beverage director of The Publican, a restaurant in Chicago with a penchant for rustic pork dishes, oysters and esoteric beers from around the globe. It lists a trio of high-end ciders from Normandy, Etienne Dupont Organic Cidre Bouche Brut on draft, priced at $7 per glass, and two bottled selections from Eric Bordelet, the 2006 Authentique, an organic pear cider priced at $40, and 2005 Sidre Doux, an organic apple cider, $38.

Cider accounts for only a small percentage of overall beverage sales, McAvena said, “but it’s definitely something we want to showcase in its own right.” He was encouraged by a 75 guest turnout for the Publican’s first-ever cider dinner last December, a four-course, $65 per person repast with three ciders from Normandy and one from Spain’s Basque country.

Who is the cider drinker? For a large chunk of American history, it was pretty much everyone.

“Up until Prohibition, an apple grown in America was far less likely to be eaten than to end up in a in a barrel of cider,” wrote Michael Pollan in his book The Botany of Desire. For McAvena, the cider fan is often a craft brew drinker too, “but you also get some people who are ardently anti-beer and those who are only into wine.”

At FireLake, Lynch sees all sorts sipping cider, but especially “the late 20-somethings” who are experimenting with beer but have not yet dabbled with wine. At Castagna, a fine-dining restaurant in Portland, Ore., Basque and Oregon ciders headlined a five-course, $55 per-person, Basque Cider House Holiday Dinner that sold out its 60 seats.

Executive chef Matt Lightner patterned the event after the cider house dinners he attended while working in the Basque country for 18 months. Among the courses, which Castagna served family-style in the typical Basque way, were alubias con chorizo, a bean and sausage stew and bacalao pil-pil, house-cured black cod with traditional olive oil sauce. Accompanying them were the Basque cider Isastegi Sagardo Naturala and Wandering Aengus Dry Cider from Oregon.

While the event was an overall success, the Isastegi received mixed reviews, Lightner said. Traditional Basque ciders tend to be cloudy, tart and barnyard-like in aroma, an acquired taste.

“I think Americans are a bit confused between spiced cider and dry, hard cider,” Lightner explained. “But just as we have evolved as a beer culture in the last ten years, things like that will eventually evolve as well.”

Contact editor Pamela Parseghian at pparsegh@nrn.com.

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Calorie Counts on Food Labeling Often Off

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634698.html

Calorie Counts on Food Labeling Often Off
Restaurant, packaged foods often have more calories than stated, researchers say
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THURSDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Many reduced-calorie restaurant and packaged foods in the United States have more calories than indicated on their nutritional labeling, a new study reports.
Tufts University researchers analyzed 29 quick-serve and sit-down restaurant foods and found they contained an average of 18 percent more calories than the stated values. The team also checked 10 frozen meals bought from supermarkets and found they had an average of 8 percent more calories than what was printed on the label.
Three of the supermarket-purchased meals and seven restaurant foods contained up to twice their stated amount of calories.
An added complication was identified with some restaurant meals. Five restaurants provided side dishes at no extra cost, and the average amount of calories in the side dishes was greater than for the entrees they accompanied, the researchers reported.
The study appears in the January issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
"These findings suggest that stated energy contents of reduced energy meals obtained from restaurants and supermarkets are not consistently accurate and, in this study, average more than measured values, especially when free side dishes were taken into account, which on average contained more energy than the entrees alone," wrote the researchers, led by Susan B. Roberts, director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts' Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging.
They noted that a "positive energy balance of only 5 percent per day for an individual requiring 2,000 kcal/day could lead to a 10-pound weight gain in a single year."
Not only could this hamper people's attempts to control their weight, the researchers wrote, but it also could "reduce the potential benefit of recent policy initiatives to disseminate information on food energy content at the point of purchase."
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians offers healthy eating tips.
-- Robert Preidt
SOURCE: American Dietetic Association, news release, Jan. 5, 2010