Foodservice

New soup concepts are emerging in many different forms. My latest discovery is the Swedish concept Souperb. They supply restaurants and cafees whole sales and also have their own outlet in Gallaria ? a mall in the center of Stockholm.

Menu:
– Saffron Seafood Soup
– Green Curry Chicken Soup
– Roasted Tomato Soup
– Tandoori Chicken Soup
– Classic Vegetable Soup
– Creamy Seafood Soup
– Souperb Seasonal Soup
– Sweet Beef Tokyo
– Hot Chicken Bangkok
– Spicy Chicken Bombay
– Creamy Seafood Panang

The concept is well suited for malls, airports railway stations and other travelsumer situations.

Photo and weblink click more [Read more…] about Souperb … is all about great soup of course

Home base: Cedar Falls, Iowa
Units: 40 original; 1 new prototype
Seats: 50 to 70
Check average: $7
Average unit volume: $875,000
Growth plans: 3 more in 2003, then controlled growth through multi-unit operators
Web site: www.pickermans.com
Why watch it?: Innovative dinner offerings and soup focus should bode well for business.

Pickerman?s The Original Soup Cafe?the new, fast-casual incarnation of Pickerman?s Soup and Sandwich Shop?kicks menu and atmosphere up a notch to keep customers coming in both noon and night.

[Read more…] about Pickerman?s The Original Soup Cafe

As away-from-home meal spending continues to intensify, the supermarket industry gears up.

With “quick” and “convenient” the latest bywords, shoppers are increasingly choosing time over money, especially at mealtime. Whether it’s picking up a pizza on the way home from work, ordering takeout from a local eatery, or swinging by the supermarket deli, consumers are eating more meals away from home than ever before.

And if the latest government research proves correct, we ain’t seen nothing yet. According to a U.S. Dept. of Agriculture report, Food Expenditures by U.S. Households: Looking Ahead to 2020, consumer spending on away-from-home meals will increase 8.1 percent over the next two decades, good news indeed for the nation’s existing successful prepared foods leaders.

Source: Progressive Grocer 10/15/2003

This clipping confirms what i have been ‘preaching’ for a while now. The next big competitor for restaurants is not new restaurants but new formats in supermarket. The following clipping from Progressive Grocer; 10/15/2003, Vol. 82 Issue 15, p42, 3p, 2c clearly show that syupermarket are aware of the fact that meals are increasing a moving from food retail to Food service:

“Because takeout continues to be an increasingly important dining option for Americans, supermarket retailers seeking to better connect with customers should pay attention to the latest research by the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

[Read more…] about US Pool poll measures full-service restaurant takeout trends

For one of the most feared men in London these days, the writer A. A. Gill looks incongruously relaxed. Perched at the dining table of his Fulham apartment ? easily found thanks to a Mountain Dew-colored Bentley parked out front ? Mr. Gill, who looks a decade younger than his 50 years, is answering the charge that he is, hands down, London’s most vicious restaurant critic.

“I take issue with `poison pen,’ ” said Mr. Gill, known as Adrian to friends and enemies alike, a devious smile flickering across his face. “I care an enormous amount about restaurants and food, and I get very angry when they’re bad. But I don’t close down restaurants. Bad food closes down restaurants. Rude service closes down restaurants. All I do is notice it.

“Americans got a glimpse of Mr. Gill’s rougher treatment this summer, in the August issue of Vanity Fair, when Mr. Gill eviscerated 66, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s TriBeCa restaurant. In his review, Mr. Gill likened the shrimp and foie gras dumplings at 66 to “fishy, liver-filled condoms” and called them “properly vile, with a savor that lingered like a lovelorn drunk and tasted as if your mouth had been used as the swab bin in an animal hospital.” While many American readers were stunned by Mr. Gill’s dyspeptic prose, to the English, the writing was as ordinary as pot roast for Sunday dinner.

Read the full article in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/fashion/09LOND.html

Have a craving for Le Cochon dOr smoked ham from Cap-de-la-Madelene in Quebec? How about some Yarmouth Island lobster hors d’oeuvres or Mama Africa’s Zulu lemon, garlic, jalepeno relish?

Those and thousands of other regional specialties are now being offered by online bookstore giant Amazon.com in its latest move to diversify from its core business of selling books and music.

Amazon launched its gourmet food store this week, offering more than 30,000 regional food items from about 300 merchants, including foods from most states and ethnic offerings from many countries. There are more than 700 different cheeses alone.

[Read more…] about Amazon.com launches new gourmet foods store

Campbell Soup Co. is targeting active Gen X and Gen Y-ers with a line of energy juices called Invigor8, marking the brand’s first entry into the $1 billion energy-drink segment. The single-serve juices, Invigor8 Energy Boost and Invigor8 Nutrition Boost, will be backed by an estimated $15 million outdoor and radio campaign breaking in the first quarter of 2004. The work will bear the tagline, “Positively charged.” WPP’s Young & Rubicam in New York, handles the account.

“At 7-Eleven’s new “hot beverage stations,” customers will have a choice of more than 1,300 combinations. A minimum of five varieties of coffee, four flavored syrups, seven different tea bags, five toppings, creamers, sweeteners and all types of milk will be available at each station. 7-Eleven’s customers will make the drinks themselves, guided by store suggestions, thus avoiding waiting in line to order. The drinks will cost about $1 per cup instead of the typical coffeehouse prices hovering between $3 and $4.” [Read more…] about Hot beverage stations, with a choice of more than 1,300 combinations