March 10
Not to harp on the doggie bag thing but restaurants are under fire as luxuries easily dispensed with.
CNN.Com’s “Quick Vote” right now asks the question: “What would you give up first to save money?”
And the choices are: car, cable service, dining out, cell phone and nothing.
Well, of course if you ask it like that, people are going to say they’ll give up dining out (as I write this, that’s what 70 percent of the respondents said).
But it’s not like a person must choose between dining out and not. There are lots of ways to dine out, lots of ways to economize in restaurants, lots of ways to slip out for a bite without blowing your budget, and restaurants are responding to customers’ needs for that in all sorts of ways. There are new prix-fixe menus (or combo deals, depending on the the fanciness of the restaurant or lack thereof), happy hour specials, cut-rate appetizers and entrées. It’s not like it‘s an either/or proposition.
I mentioned recently our upcoming April 20 report on restaurateurs reworking operations and pricing to fit customers’ current demands.
But there are signs that things aren’t all that bad in the restaurant world — at least not in the grand scheme of things. My colleague, NRN executive financial editor Sara Lockyer reports today on one analyst’s expectations for relative stability in the restaurant sector, because they fulfill the basic needs of eating and socializing.
Sara has more to say on the matter, too, which of course you would know if you’d just click on the link.
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5 comments:
It’s a Fact, Chef Tom Colicchio, despises and has total disdain towards Chef Grant Achatz and everything he has worked so hard to build, namely his restaurant Alinea and his original style of Molecular Gastronomy.
Moving forward, what is even more distaining is the fact that by virtue of his actions, he also has now shown disrespect and loathing toward other great Chef’s namely: Juan Roca, Feran Adrian, Heston Blumenthal, Anthony Flinn, Willie Dufresne, Thomas Keller, but also to these resuarants and all their hard working staff El Bulli, Mugaritz, Moto, WD-50, The Fat Duck, Pierre Gagnaire, Arzak, Alkimia, Martin Berasategui, Akelarre to name a few.
So what are these factual actions I speak of???
When someone does a TV commercial and generates income from their involvement as a spokesperson and as a person of so called deemed authority in which millions of Americans will watch and offers negativity… they should be responsible for their actions. I believe Americans of late have had enough of this “all care but no responsibility” attitude (look at the banks and CEO’s).
And before Tom’s PR Peeps try to gloss over this as a mere fun campaign for Diet Coke…. Too late … The damage has been done. And you have overstepped your mark !!!
View this situation here:
http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/02/tom-colicchios-diet-coke-commercial-video/
A full apology from you “Chef Tom Colocchio” and Coca Cola is eagerly awaited by the worldwide chef community.
take_the_responsibility@yahoo.com
Really, take_the_responsibility? Really? Thanks for the link to the commercial, which I hadn’t seen, but what Mr. Colicchio says in it is no different from what many chefs and food writers are saying these days. Some chefs are becoming more experimental, some are becoming more basic. Both camps, it could be argued, sometimes err on the side of being too extreme.
I think it's a cute commercial.
Also, what does that have to do with this blog entry?
"Take the Responsibility" also left this comment on blog for a post this had nothing to do with. I deleted it. I'm still trying to track this DB down.
See if you can track down this Wille Dufresne guy, too. I've never heard of him.
Or Ferran Adrian. But you know, Mark, not everyone’s a copy editor, and some people just can’t spell.
On the other hand, if you ask me, misspelling someone’s name is a grave sign of disrespect, so maybe Mr. (or Ms.) take_the_responsibility ought to apologize to Wylie Dufresne and Ferran Adrià.
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