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OpenTable.com, a San Francisco-based Web site offers free reservations at more than 1,800 restaurants in roughly 50 American cities.
The service is one of many online destinations for those who want to find good food while on the road or at home. And like restaurants themselves, the Web sites with the greatest ambitions frequently fall short, while those content to serve a niche succeed nicely. [Read more…] about Click and Eat On the Road
https://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63732,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2
From fancy hotels to fast-food joints, the number of venues offering high-speed wireless Internet access is expected to grow at a heady clip this year. But industry analysts aren’t expecting laptop users and their credit cards to follow.
In the wake of the demise of several large builders of Wi-Fi networks, including last month’s closure of Intel-backed Cometa Networks, analysts say one lesson the industry has learned the hard way is that laptop owners remain reluctant to pay by the hour for online access.
London-based Thomson Holidays, one of the U.K.’s biggest tour operators, hosted the “Future Holiday Forum,” with leaders in travel, technology and design. The most surprising part of its report, “2024: A Holiday Odyssey,” predicted that the hotel of the future will be a foldable pod on stilts, which can be plunked down in remote locations. The pods will be self-sustainable, and guests can choose the images they want to be projected on the walls. When a destination falls out of fashion, whether due to demand or terrorism, the pod can simply be folded up and moved.
[Read more…] about Hotels of the future
Making a “simple, mainstream beer was more of a challenge than” Kelly Taylor, director of brewing operations at Greenpoint Beer Works in Brooklyn U.S.A., had anticipated, reports Robin Finn in The New York Times. [Read more…] about Simple Beer
Sheetz, operator of a chain of approximately 300 convenience stores, unveiled its first restaurant here Thursday.
The 10,000 square-foot concept combines a convenience store with a fast-casual restaurant that features digital menu boards and touch-screen order points. Sheetz is testing the new concept for six to 12 months before adding additional locations, according to Colleen Devorris, Sheetz’s director of brand development. The restaurant has 62 seats inside and 46 seats outside as well as a drive-thru. Some of the concept’s menu items include brick oven pizzas, salads, paninis, subs, gelato and an espresso bar.
https://www.nrn.com/story.cfm?ID=3159904162&SEC=Daily Specials
Restaurant visionary Richard Melman has something new in his sights: upscale grocery stores.
In a first for his Lettuce Entertain You chain, Melman is partnering with Minneapolis grocery chain Lund Food Holdings to open a new, in-store Asian food counter in its Lunds and Byerly’s grocery chains.
The deal stretches Lettuce into new territory once again as it tries to capture consumers outside traditional restaurants.
“Lettuce isn’t afraid to look at other ideas,” said Kevin Brown, president and chief executive of Lettuce, whose varied restaurants include Scoozi, Wildfire and Mon Ami Gabi.
[Read more…] about Lettuce to offer in-store takeout at grocery chain
In Italy, as you may have heard, there’s a new law that doubles as “a marketing tool to brand Naples forever as the cradle of pizza,” reports Al Baker in The New York Times. The law was passed in May, “at the behest of the Association of Real Neapolitan Pizza, a group with 2,500 members worldwide,” with the support of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi himself. [Read more…] about Legal Pizza…
Quick table turns may be the way to high revenues in some restaurant-and-foodservice-industry segments, but certain venues are expanding their in-house entertainment options to get customers to stick around longer.
[Read more…] about Come for the food, stay for the entertainment