Cheese is the new
bacon. It’s far from the only ingredient to be hailed as the next palate obsession.
Restaurant sages have predicted a passing of the mantle to all sorts of flavorful
treats, from higher-end chocolate to srirachi to other parts of a pig (ears and
cracklings, among others.) But you can’t help noticing how much is happening
right now with cheese, the tangy foundation for a number of oddball restaurant
concepts (mac and cheese joints, grilled-cheese sandwich shoppes, and, if you
stretch the notion a bit, a slew of better pizzerias and pies.) Clearly it’s a
major component of the artisanal and local shifts. Good work, cows, goats and
sheep.
Menus may be the next
area of personalization. Any number of online shopping services now automatically
present a list of choices that fit your consumption patterns. Why couldn’t the
same be done with the new generation of restaurant menus? Technomic’s Darren
Tristano predicts a day when menu boards will scramble and reform for each
customer so patrons won’t have to scour the whole listing for what they like to
eat.
Forgoing parking lots
could gain traction as a green gesture. If you build one, they’ll
definitely come, most likely in their carbon-spewing cars. So what happens if
you don’t? Will that encourage the use of bikes, sidewalks, public
transportation, or, at the very worst, municipal lots that spare more planted
downtown spaces from being turned into macadam and concrete lots? LYFE Kitchen,
a concept that could become the next Chipotle, is already pursuing a no-lot
policy.
Ice, ice baby.
Design kitchens, once arguably the old bacon, are being rivaled as a must-have
cool feature by the ice bar, a drink counter or common table made of frozen
water. Once, they were the sort of
decadent design element you saw in Las Vegas, along with waitresses in skimpy
outfits and feathered headdresses. Now you can spot them at airports and
business hotels. Can ice castles on Main Street be far behind?
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