https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/dining/02PLAY.html?8hpib
Last November, PlayDine opened downstairs at Big City Bar & Grill, 1600 Third Avenue (90th Street). The space is used as a late-night lounge, but Mr. Lowenstein convinced Stephen Ryan, an owner, to try his fledgling operation in the daytime and early evenings. For $10, a child between 18 months and 9 years old may play in the space before and after a meal, for as long as his or her parents are seated in the restaurant. (Two children are $9 each; three children are $8 each, and tipping is encouraged.
Hotels demand results from their restaurants
https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2004/05/31/focus3.html
“At the highest level, food is the soul of the hotel,” said Arnstad from her offices at the Ashland Springs Hotel in Southern Oregon. “Of course, you have to be brilliant on the sleep side. Your guests expect the best,” said Arnstad, a board member of the 160-property Preferred Hotels and Resorts, “but the artistry and individual expression of a hotel is through its food and wine.”
Research also suggests that food can be a source of profit for the lodging industry. Between 1991 and 2001, the largest share of all tourist dollars spent in-state went for food, according to a January 2003 report prepared for the Oregon Tourism Commission by Portland market research firm Dean Runyan Associates. In 2002, the report states, visitors spent $1.4 billion on eating and drinking in Oregon.
How to be different
Mr. Propstra’s Burgerville. When the big, national fast-food chains moved into his neighborhood, George Propstra, founder of a Vancouver, Washington-based restaurant chain called Burgerville, knew he needed to do something different, reports Brian Libby in The New York Times. “We needed to focus on what we do well,” says Jack Graves, Burgerville’s operations chief, “and that’s our relationship with local growers and ranchers and dairies.” And so Burgerville, www.burgerville.com, which has about three dozen locations in Oregon and Southwest Washington, unleashed a parade of local seasonal specialties. [Read more…] about How to be different
View-Master offers 'reel' fun menus
The View-Master — produced by Fisher-Price — is a great way to display kids’ menus and specialty-drink menus, the company says.
May 23, 2004 — A decades-old toy made its debut Saturday at the National Restaurant Association’s 2004 Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.
View-Master, traditionally used to view cartoons or pictures of vacation destinations, has been embraced by foodservice operators for its versatility.
View-Master officials say Burger King uses View-Masters in employee training. Other restaurant companies, like ESPN Zone, use the seven-slide cardboard reels and handheld plastic viewers to display their children’s menus. Health-care institutions such as Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati allow young patients to take their View-Master menus home after their hospital stays. [Read more…] about View-Master offers 'reel' fun menus
Virtual: Restaurant Empire
Starting with nothing except some cash and a passion for food, build a restaurant from the bottom up – hire waiters, decorate, even cook the meals! Buy, build, outsell and underprice your competition.
Will you use your culinary wizardry to out-cook chefs? What tactics and strategies will you employ to buy out the competition? You decide. With a combination of business strategy and role-playing game styles plus a free-form sandbox game mode, three huge cities, and over 30 playable chefs and a host of locations to travel to, Restaurant Empire is an epicurean delight of gastronomic proportions!
https://www.restaurant-empire.com/re_english/
NO-FRILLS CHIC
When it comes to accommodation, 25-Hours Hotel in Hamburg, Germany combines boutique with affordable rates, making it a poster child for German NO-FRILLS CHIC hospitality. In their own words: “Who says you can’t have style on a budget? Why miss out on Living Divani daybeds, Brionvega televisions (you know, those cool table-top TVs with rounded corners that you wouldn’t have been seen dead watching 15 years ago) and first-run, special-edition Sixties-style lamps by Flos? The fun and funky retro theme suits the young media and creative types who frequent this part of Hamburg, to the west of the city center.”
https://www.trendwatching.com/trends/NO-FRILLS_CHIC.htm
Hard Rock Caf builds infrastructure for consistent quality and improved customer loyalty
Given their focus on customer service, it should come as no surprise that developing robust loyalty solutions has been a prime focus at Hard Rock Cafe. Beginning in 2001, Hard Rock began a concerted effort to get to know their most loyal customers. We really didn’t understand who our customer was, where they were coming from and what their preferences were because we didn’t have a way of tracking them …..
se the full article: https://www.htmagazine.com/HT/archive/0504/0504_4.shtml
Cornell Study Shows Most Restaurant Patrons Willing to Dine Off-peak if the Price is Right
More than 75 percent of 367 patrons of a restaurant here said they would be willing to dine during off-peak hours in exchange for discounted prices, according to a research paper produced by Cornell Hotel School Professor Alex Susskind and published in a recent issue of the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly.
Two of every three respondents even said that they would be able and willing to change their dining time to earn such an incentive.
?Study results suggest that restaurant managers who do not take reservations may want to consider using incentives to increase business during off-peak hours,? Susskind said. ?That strategy could result in both increased revenue and a more satisfied customer base, one that no longer must endure long waits for a table.?
Respondents completed questionnaires while queued up for dinner at this popular, casual-dining restaurant, which does not take reservations.
Other key findings:
[Read more…] about Cornell Study Shows Most Restaurant Patrons Willing to Dine Off-peak if the Price is Right