Mike Hohnen

Coaching for personal growth, change and development

Mike Hohnen

It is more fun to eat in the bar than to drink in a restaurant

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Seems that what we in the industry have known for year is now… well trendy… i guess

“Drinkers v. Diners. “You can’t be just a great mixologist — you have to provide hospitality,” says Paul Grieco of Hearth, a N.Y.C. bar and restaurant, commenting on a trend toward people having dinner at the bar, as quoted by William L. Hamilton in The New York Times. “You can’t be a bartender anymore … You have to be a top-notch sommelier, a top-notch waiter, a top-notch food runner,” he says. It’s not that Paul Grieco is unhappy about that, though. In fact, Hearth anticipated bar diners in its design, including “stations for plates, napkins and silverware below the bar as well as for barware. And bars, from front to back, are wider, to accommodate table settings.” Indeed: “According to bartenders, managers and owners across New York, bar space at most restaurants has become de facto dining
space.”

Read the article at https://reveries.com/cool_news/2004/august/aug_18b.html

Salads fattier than burger'n'fries:

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Sunday Times reports on an investigation that found a Tesco chicken and bacon salad contained more fat than a PizzaExpress margherita, a Big Mac and a portion of chips combined.

From The Restaurant Game

Canteen Vending Services

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Canteen Vending Services, one of North America’s largest vending machine operators, is planning to install 7,500 vending machines over the next five years across the US that will stock only better-for-you food choices. The nutritious items to be sold include fresh melon and berry fruit cups, healthy salads and wraps, dried fruit and nuts, cereal bars, vitamin-enhanced water and vitamin packs.

https://just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=58069

Taste sensation: Wacky flavours driving innovation

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Garlic candy, bacon and egg ice-cream, chilli chocolate, consumers are getting more daring, and challenging flavour combinations are gaining ground.

Pushing the envelope on exotic flavours can mean big profits for innovative producers.

https://just-food.com/features_detail.asp?art=881&lk=rss

Yotel of London

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Yotel Hotels. It may qualify as a “pod” but Gerard Green, ceo of Yotel hotel in London, says his tiny rooms offer “a first-class travel experience comparable to a luxury yacht or private aircraft,” reports Ernest Beck in The New York Times. Yotel, www.yotel.co.uk, hasn’t yet opened for business, but when it does next year its guests can expect “a fold-out bed and table, a flat-screen television, wi-fi and downloadable movies and audio.” The tiny room rate: $130 per night. Yotel will be competing against EasyHotel, www.easyhotel.com, also in London, operators of EasyJet, the airline. The EasyHotel pod, measuring just 100 square feet, “will offer a double bed on a platform, a sink, a toilet, a mirror and a shower” — done up in a signature orange. Prices will range from a low of $9 (if you book early during low season) to $110 (last-minute during high season).

Read the article https://reveries.com/cool_news/2004/july/jul_22a.html

Green Zebra

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In Chicago, “a city best known for its steak houses and hot dogs,” the loudest buzz right now is for a restaurant called Green Zebra,” whose menu is four-star, but almost entirely based on vegetables, reports Mark Bittman in The New York Times. The restaurant’s chef, Shawn McClain, earlier made a name for himself at an “upscale, ultracrative and well-publicized” Evanston eatery called Trio, says he opened Green Zebra (named after an heirloom tomato), to “cook for my vegetarian friends — both of them.”
Green Zebra is located at 1460 West Chicago Avenue, near downtown Chicago. The web address is: www.greenzebrachicago.com

https://reveries.com/cool_news/2004/august/aug_5b.html

Do you have a good press kit??

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The key to working with the press is the relationships you build. If you’re working in your local area only, and will be approaching the same editors, send a short note of introduction on who you are, with your press kit. Let them know you are available for interviews and to help them out in a pinch. If they need to photograph a dish for an upcoming spread, offer to create that dish for them. The more accessible you are, the more they may call you, giving you on-going publicity and exposure.

https://www.ontherail.com/business/press_kits.html

The drive-in boulangerie

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French tradition and American convenience culture have been united in the concept of a drive-in boulangerie, reports the Times. Baguettes, sandwiches, croissants and pain au chocolat are all passed through open car windows at the drive-in, located on the site of a disused petrol station in Le Port Marly to the west of Paris – the first of its kind in the country.