A terrible end to the mystery

A colleague heard the news from some Charleston, S.C., locals and passed along the word: The body of Tom Sponseller, the restaurant-industry leader who’s been missing for 11 days, had been found in a garage.

More details have emerged since that midday flash. Authorities say Sponseller died of what is almost certainly a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. He was discovered in a room within the garage where local workers would sometimes steal a smoke. The details suggest the Citadel graduate locked himself inside. The garage itself had been searched three times since Sponseller’s Feb. 18 disappearance, but the key to his location wasn’t available until today.

The police also revealed they’d found a note today in the deceased’s Columbia office that mentioned a federal investigation into the disappearance of a six-figure sum from coffers of the organization Sponseller headed, the South Carolina Hospitality Association. No details were disclosed, but you have to wonder how the authorities could have missed such a key clue in the last place where Sponseller was known to be alive.

Many of us from the parent company of Restaurant Business have been in Charleston for the last few days for a foodservice conference. The mystery of what happened to Sponseller has been a frequent topic of conversation. No one speculated that it could end this way. But, as several remarked, you just never know what secrets a person might be harboring.

All I know is that I interviewed Sponseller a few months ago for a freelanced story that ran on the National Restaurant Association’s website. He’d taken a group of Hospitality Association members to Atlanta to learn how restaurateurs there were reducing their contributions to landfills.

He surprised me by voicing a contrarian view of an industry initiative that has been widely praised by the business. Because he was a lobbyist, having spent 22 years leading the South Carolina group, I expected him to be politically correct, even if he had a dissenting view of something related to the industry. Instead, he said point-blank that he disagreed with a tack the trade was taking.

The developments suggest that unflattering details about Sponseller are likely to emerge soon. But anyone who met him is almost certainly wishing right now that the situation, no matter how bad, had ended much, much differently.

Better forecast

With all the post-holiday hubbub, I didn't have a chance to air my forecast for 2012. It's a shame because the task is outrageously easy this year. Every major trend boils down to "better."

Not "better" in terms of business conditions, though the National Restaurant Association yesterday forecast a slightly easier time for the industry in 2012 (apparently I wasn't the only laggard in presenting year-ahead predictions. Until a few years ago, the issued its annual economic preview during December of the preceding year. Now the data isn't released until we've torn the first page off the New Year calendar.)

The byword is "better" because it's the G-string that gets the consumer's dollar these days. Palms get all sweaty when shoppers spy something of truly superior quality at a can-do price. It's as unavoidable as admiring Mitt Romney's hair.

The industry has been jabbering for years about redefining value as affordable quality. This year, talk has given way to unprecedented action. Much of the chain-related restaurant news to date has centered on better food, better service, better environment and better business practices.

Wendy's is upgrading its burgers--again. Taco Bell is "reinventing" the taco and striving to match the quality of Chipotle. Jack in the Box is installing fireplaces as part of a design overhaul. Domino's is hawking artisan pizza and a better signature side.

McDonald's is crowing about a personal connection with the farmers who grow its food. Chipotle's spin-off Asian concept features high-end small-batch beers. Panera Bread is currently promoting salmon.

On the full-service front, Ruby Tuesday is providing fresh bread and tossing its Caesar salads tableside.

The whole gourmet-burger craze is built on the concept of providing what's better. It, in turn, is part of a larger movement by high-end chefs into fast-food, where they hope to make a name (and a bagful of loot) by providing white-tablecloth-quality fare. Late last year the NRA cited that emerging fast-fine segment as one to watch.

The problem is, "better" is relative. What's a notch above the usual today becomes tomorrow's norm. So what will be the new manifestations of better?

--Better sodas. Everyone is infatuated with the fast-casual market, where several of the standouts have spec'd small-batch artisan colas and flavored soft drinks. Skinny Pizza, for instance, offers a fountain version of Boylan Diet Black Cherry soda, a favorite that I've never seen in fountain form before. Expect to see more of those high-craft drinks populating the coolers of limited-service brands, including some of the big names.

--Better condiments. There have been fits and starts in that direction, and the foodservice supplier community is certainly anticipating the process, with better mayo, catchup and salsas already in distributors' warehouses. But that might be only the start.

--Better packaging. When was the last time you said, "Wow, that's a really cool takeout package we're using"? Customers frequent a place because of the food, the convenience or the price. But a truly breakthrough sort of packaging could help in delivering that overall sense of "better."

--Better French fry alternatives. The apple slices are now a standard. Carrot and celery sticks are tight there, too. So what's next? Sweet potato fries are certainly cropping up everywhere (and are rumored to be in test by Wendy's). A personal plea: Please, someone add raw broccoli florets as an option so I can get my sister off my back.

--Better veggie options. I'm talking about new choices from the mainstream chains and brands. It's time to go beyond veggie burgers and sandwiches with the meat omitted.

--Better pizza. This isn't a swipe at Domino's, since I've not tried its new artisan pies. it's directed at all the pizzerias in the eastern regions of the U.S., and New York in particular, that have coasted on the strength of their ovens for decades. They've turned pizza into a commodity, instead of striving to do something different. Like something better than the mass of pie makers out there.

--Better prices on better drinks. I'm not lost in some nostalgic dream about nickel candy bars, but a $12 beer is overpriced, especially when I know it retails and wholesales at a completely different tier. Wine prices are also getting crazy. A $40 tab for two glasses of wine on the way home for work just doesn't make sense.

--Better office catering. I say that as a consumer. More flavorful and extensive choices, please. The portable taco bar is the last innovation I can remember in that realm.

Don't let these gems slip past

In the roar of prognostication that erupts every year-end, some of the most intriguing predictions are lost in the din. Sadly, it’s even happened this year with the standout of the breed, the National Restaurant Association’s annual survey-based forecast of trends. Consider, for instance, the finding that 61% of chefs are considering the start-up of a food truck.

But that’s not the only jaw-dropper. One-third of the 1,791 surveyed chefs said their restaurants have a garden that supplies produce. A shift to vegetable and vegetarian options was forecast to be the hottest trend in appetizers during 2012, and No. 30 on the list of 223 expected shifts was increased use of “ancient grains” like spelt and amaranth (and, presumably, faro). That’s opposed to the proliferation of dishes made with quinoa, which dropped to Trend #40.

The spread of beer sommeliers was predicted to be the 58th hottest trend. No doubt they’ll be knowledgeable about gluten-free beer, No. 39 on the ranking.

It’s intriguing that North African or Maghreb cuisine was predicted by the canvassed chefs to be hotter in 2012 than Korean food, contrary to most of the other forecasts for the year. Indeed, I don’t remember another one that mentioned North African food. But they were certainly bullish on Korean and Nordic fare.

Perhaps they’ve been sipping once-banned absinthe, No. 138.

Similarly, pies have repeatedly been touted during Forecast Season as the treats that supplant cupcakes as the hot indulgence of the day. Yet pies finish last on the NRA list, right behind Italian cuisine, which I put high on my personal prognostication list.

The list of trends begins as you might expect, with variations on the local and sustainable boom (the shift to local or sustainable foods accounts for six of the Top 10). You can find a review of those expected currents anywhere. But treat yourself to a drill-down of the list. You may be very, very suprised.

What do you want to know?

On Thursday morning I’ll be moderating a panel on what restaurateurs need to know to participate in the political dialogue leading up to the 2012 elections. During the session of the People Report Best Practices Conference, we’ll be fielding questions about issues of particular interest to the business. We want to arm the trade with the knowledge and confidence to counter partisan bickering with reasoned, substantive discussion.

If that brings to mind any questions you’d like me to ask the panel, please drop me a line via e-mail (promeo@cspnet.com) or Twitter (@peterromeo). The group consists of Dawn Sweeney, CEO of the National Restaurant Association; Craig Miller, the former restaurant-chain chief who’s campaigning to become Florida’s next U.S. Senator; and Josh Davies, the Sage Hospitality executive who ran for a seat on Denver’s City Council.

I look forward to hearing what you’d like me to ask. If your question is posed to the panelists (and I’ll do my best to get them heard), I’ll try to cover the responses here.

Kids' stuff. And lots of it.

While Muffy and Scooter learn their isotopes at physics camp, restaurants are rethinking how to deal with the little dears and their schoolyard posse.

Recent days brought two major industry initiatives for bolstering school-aged patrons’ health.

Meanwhile, mom packs are forming in the blogosphere to shame a restaurant that decided it’d rather not risk the time-out behavior of bad boys and girls. McDain’s is banning all pint-sizers under age 6 from its dining room. You’d think from the reaction that the Pittsburgh-area establishment had suggested the tots be banished to Devil’s Island with nothing but a sharp knife.

Clearly, kids are in the foodservice spotlight, for better or worse. It’s no surprise, given how exalted they are in general society. The trophy industry must be going gangbusters now that hardware is bestowed on any tyke who’s a part of a team, class, playgroup or other social unit. If they show up, the big brass is theirs.

Along with the pampering comes a degree of protection that falls just short of a mandatory bubble-wrapping of any nippers who ventures outside their child-proofed home. That’s why we have a mother in Arizona who visited the playgrounds of 50 fast-food restaurants to video unsafe situations or to swap hard surfaces for bacteria. (In her defense, she found plenty.)

It’s also why a cross-agency federal task force has suggested that food sellers voluntarily meet certain nutrition standards for any product they advertise to youngsters.

Ironically, that effort came to light just as the restaurant industry was finalizing a program to offer more healthful choices to kids. The Kids Live Well initiative, officially announced today, will spotlight menus with better-for-you options for children. Nineteen chains representing some 15,000 establishments have already signed on for the program, a collaboration of the National Restaurant Association and the operator of HealthyDiningFinder.com.

The unveiling came six days after the Culinary Institute of America went live with Menu for Healthy Kids, a website that provides recipes for schools and other operations that’d like to offer more nutritional kids’ fare. It also provides statistics on the issue of childhood obesity.

Those may be the big tidal developments in regard to healthier dining by children. But there are countless small developments.

Consider, for instance, that Olive Garden just changed its serving standards. Instead of giving youngsters French fries, they’ll now get grapes. In place of milkshakes, they’ll now sip fruit smoothies.

At the very least, that sort of effort deserves a trophy.

Another day at NRA, another rescue

Several hundred of us watched a life being changed tonight. The change-ee will never forget an evening that started with dire concerns about her family’s financial situation and ended with a fresh start, courtesy of two restaurant luminaries who presumably didn’t know her before today. But I’m pretty sure the rest of us will never let it slip from memory, either.

But first, some chiding: If a mention of Salute to Excellence calls to mind a predictable night of canned speeches and saccharine tributes, you clearly weren’t at tonight’s installment.

The banquet, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary, is unique in the business because it spotlights individuals at either extreme of a foodservice career.

Part of the festivities is celebrating the teenage winners of the annual ProStart challenge, a competition between high school culinary teams from across the country. As the mentor of the winning team stressed to me, his pride unbridled, “These are the leaders of tomorrow.”

The other usual highlight of the evening is a celebration of a new “diplomat,” or an industry luminary whose example is an inspiration to any thinking person in the business. This year’s honoree was Ralph Brennan, one of the finest individuals ever to grace the trade. Put a Friday lunch at his Ralph’s on the Park on your bucket list, because you’ll see how sublime a New Orleans dining experience can be. He’s that good as a restaurateur.

You can argue that he’s even better as an industry leader, tirelessly serving the industry through his association involvements and informal mentoring of those who work for or know him.

Kudos to the NRA’s Education Foundation for packing a surprise tonight for Ralph and everyone else in attendance. Before he took the podium, pandemonium erupted. A second-line parade blew through the doors of the ballroom, with masked participants throwing or handing out beads, umbrellas spinning, as they high-stepped and danced through the room. A three-piece rock combo appeared on a balcony, wailing out a New Orleans tune. It was raucous.

Then, after Ralph gave a moving speech, many of us jumped out of our skins as cannons shot glittering confetti over our heads. The band charged into “My Tutu,” and the place rocked. This was not your father’s Salute.

But that wasn’t the big surprise of the evening. That came earlier, in what was clearly an unscripted moment.

Apparently some of the attendees had learned of the difficulties a high schooler in the ProStart competition was having at home. The nature of that rough patch wasn’t disclosed, but there was a vague mention of financial problems. In any case, explained master of ceremonies Carlton Curtis, the young woman would probably have to scrap her plan to start culinary school at the celebrated Le Cordon Bleu.

Not so fast. Curtis ceded the microphone to Ferdinand Metz, the former dean of the Culinary Institute of America and a long-time culinary educator. He noted that Burt Cutino, chef of the famed Sardine Factory restaurant, was on the board of Le Cordon Bleu. He and Cutino agreed that the young woman shouldn’t be denied a culinary education. So, on the spot, they were giving her a full scholarship.

The young woman came to the podium and tearfully gave thanks. It’s a safe bet the banquet staff had to collect plenty of damp napkins that night.

“Now you know why we do what we do,” observed Curtis.

Come hear our presentations

Restaurant Business will be providing information face-to-face this weekend. We have two sessions that we’re moderating on Saturday at the National Restaurant Association show, and we hope you’ll be there.

Sam Smith, our editor in chief, will be looking at the burning issue of rising commodity costs and how operators are dealing with it. Joining him will be David Groll, the former menu R&D chief for McAlister’s Deli; a purchasing specialist; a commodity-price expert; and a representative of the American Restaurant Association. Sam’s panel is scheduled for 12 to 1:30 in room S405B.

I’ll be leading a session on foraging, or how restaurants can secure sufficient supplies of local menu ingredients at a reasonable price. On my panel will be experienced foragers from Whole Foods Market and Bon Appetit Management, a contract feeder that has made local sourcing a part of its DNA.

Also speaking will be the former forager-in-chief for Chicago, who used his local-foods skills to help supply the city’s green markets.

Come see us at 2 o’clock in room S404ABC.

Dead-end business? Yeah, right.

This is for all the blowhards who pontificate that restaurants are a graveyard of ambition. I know that for a certainty, they confidently enlighten us, because I (take your pick here) waited tables, bussed dishes, worked a fast-food counter, delivered pizzas, valet-parked cars—all for minimum wage. It’s a bust.

There’s no doubt that restaurants are a tough slog. The hours are long, the work is intense, and there are more moving parts than a Lady GaGa dance outfit. But for those who view the dining room as a Broadway stage with napkins, who vibrate with delight every time a guest walks out with a smile, there’s no better opportunity. This is where they’re striving to make their mark—with all the relish of an aspiring rock star.

That’s borne out by new research from the National Restaurant Association. Elsewhere in the economy, minorities are hamstrung by systematic disadvantage that's hard to spot because it's so ingrained. The NRA data proves that restaurants have given minorities more management jobs than they’ve found anywhere else.

The ownership findings are even more impressive. The number of Hispanic restaurant proprietors has soared by 42% in five years, according to the NRA.

Women have also made dizzying strides. In 2002, women owned only 25.8% of independent restaurants, and just 13.2% of franchised outlets, according to a study released at the time by the International Franchise Association. Currently, according to the NRA data, women pay the taxes and manage the P&L’s of nearly half of all U.S. restaurants, which number nearly 1 million in total.

Clearly the restaurant industry has its challenges. Indeed, its unparalleled opportunities often land a young person in a management position that requires 110% of their people skills, a situation the business is constantly addressing.
But lack of opportunity is not one of its shortcomings.

Attention, Webster: Hyper-local's the word

Pencil a new term into the restaurant glossary: Hyper-local, which has nothing to do with a customer who lives really, really close.

That’s the label the National Restaurant Association has given the newest wrinkle in local and sustainable sourcing. The group explained that the phrase covers ingredients that don’t have to be trucked to the restaurant, even from nearby farms.

Rather, these are items that originated on the premises—produce grown in a rooftop or chef’s garden (or the new manifestation, interior “green walls” of living plants), or meats that were trimmed from whole carcasses on site.

Presumably it’d also cover fish grown in the restaurant’s aquarium, or, more probably, beverages that are made right there.

If the phenomenon sounds like something reserved for New Yorkers who dress only in black, consider that a shift to hyper-locals is expected to be one of the most noticeable trends in restaurants next year. Indeed, it was projected in an NRA-backed survey of chefs to be the fifth most powerful influence on menus in 2011.

Among the few forces scored higher by the 1,500 respondents in whites were locally sourced meats and seafood, which topped the list, and locally grown produce, at Number Two. Sustainability considerations was Number Three.

The annual survey is the third in a row to put the local/sustainable movement at the top of the trend rankings.

In short, local sourcing and its fellow traveler, sustainably grown foods, are not going away. They’re less a trend than a shift that will be with us for some time.

Remember the days when “imported” was the mega-trend?

Raising Cain, of The Hermanator sort

If you’re still a little woozy from Bristol Palin’s engagement announcement, brace yourself for another percussion bomb: Joe the Plumber, the 15-minute celebrity from the last presidential election, is already talking up a candidate for the next go-round.

But here’s the real stunner if you’re in the restaurant business: Joe’s preferred contender is none other than Herman Cain, a.k.a. The Hermanator, the one-time head of the National Restaurant Association, a familiar speaker at industry events, and a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

Cain, now a talk-radio personality in the Atlanta market, has been drawing attention in the blogosphere as a potential candidate, even though he’s yet to say definitively if he intends to run. There’s already a Draft Cain website; an affiliated political action fund, The Hermanator PAC; and a Draft Cain Facebook page, with about 1,000 fans.

Don’t confuse the latter with three apparently older Draft Cain pages on Facebook: One for the U.S. Senate, one for vice president (under McCain, apparently), and one for the governorship of Georgia.

Significantly, the latter features a riff on the now-famous Barack Obama poster, depicting Cain instead of the President. Much of the online coverage underscores that Cain is an African-American and hence a Republican candidate who could erode the President’s popularity among blacks. “Herman Cain may be Michael Steele with out the baggage,” Matt Lewis writes on the website Politics Daily, referring to the beleagured chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Regardless of what you think of Cain, it’s a shame his race is figuring so prominently into the discussion of a possible presidential bid. During his rise to prominence in the restaurant business, at a time when the leadership was nearly all white and male, Cain downplayed his historic role. When he was named the first-ever black head of the National Restaurant Association, I asked him if he felt any additional pressure, or expected any greater criticism, because of his race. He hesitated and joked, “I’ve been black all my life. I have no basis of comparison.”

He would, however, talk about his humble beginnings. His father was a chauffeur for the top brass at Coca-Cola, a company that ironically would court Herman for business from Godfather’s and his previous employer and then-sister brand, Burger King. The senior Cain worked a second job to give his children a better life. In some of his addresses to the industry, Herman would recall his father’s pride at being able to buy the family a house.

Those of us who covered Cain came to realize that his charm and pronounced oratorical gifts could screen some shortcomings in other respects. We noted, for instance, that he always talked publicly about empowering employees, and how important it was to broaden their horizons. Yet I can’t recall him bringing low- or even mid-level members of his organization to any industry event. The only person who usually accompanied him was a member of the PR department.

Similarly, insiders reported that his remake of the restaurant association wasn’t as phenomenally positive as Cain and his supporters incessantly asserted.

Still, the man has an ability to excite people, and certainly makes an impression. If he does run for president, and many of the blogo-pundits are already predicting he will, then we’ll all be in store for a lively, interesting race.

Like parents, like children

If the restaurant industry truly is a God-awful place to make a living, why does it draw so many youngsters who know exactly the sort of life they can expect? They’re the ones who’ve grown up in the business, witnessing firsthand the tribulations and opportunities it dealt their parents. But instead of driving them to law school or a saner field like engineering, the experience set the ketchup pumping through their veins.

That disproval of conventional wisdom was evident during the industry’s annual gathering last week in Chicago, where second-generation restaurateurs were as plentiful and prominent as Yankees on the All-Star ballot. I participated in a panel discussion with Jerrod Melman, who runs the city’s popular Hub51 restaurant with his brother, R.J. Their dad, Rich, runs a restaurant or two in the Windy City as well. (If you’re in the business and don’t know who Rich Melman is, hold a mirror in front of your nose and mouth to confirm the expiration, then neatly fold both hands atop your chest and await the undertaker).

When I wasn’t enriching the Melman clan during evenings at the show, I was likely milling outside the Purple Pig, wondering if I’d somehow been mistakenly transported to Wrigley Field before a game. The Michigan Ave. restaurant is the new venture of Jimmy Bannos Sr. and Jr. Jimmy the Elder is the proprietor of Heaven on Seven. The other J.B. is his son, also a chef (via New York) and restaurateur. For four nights straight, at all different times, I couldn’t cut through the throng to get a seat at the bar or common tables.

Instead, I amused myself with the latest blog chatter about a dustup in New York involving Marc Forgione, the son of famed chef Larry Forgione. The younger Forgione had scolded an employee within earshot of diners, including a writer for the New York Times. The scribe went into Forgione’s kitchen to express his dismay and ask the chef to stop.

Forgione apologized to customers, but asked the Times writer to leave, saying he wouldn’t be chastised in his own kitchen.

Okay, maybe Larry needed to focus a little more on management styles with his boy. But the point is, Marc followed his famous daddy into the business, and now cooks at a place that plays tribute to the family name, Restaurant Marc Forgione.

They’re prominent examples of a generation following the preceding one, eyes wide open, into what’s popularly portrayed as a career of last resort. Further refutation is provided by succeeding generations of Doolins, Luthers, Pettises, McCormicks, Metzes, Grotes, Thomases, and of course Brennans.

Parents always want their children to do better than they did. It’s remarkable that so many offspring pick the restaurant business as the way to make their parents proud.

Orlando starts its push for the NRA show

Looks as if Orlando is starting a full-court press to become the next host of the National Restaurant Association’s annual convention.

The Florida city ran an ad Friday in SmartBriefs, the NRA’s daily e-mail newsletter for restaurateurs. “Meet in Orland, Save $20 million?” read the headline of the pitch.

It explained that the Society of the Plastic Industry will save that much by shifting its big trade show to Orlando in 2012 and 2015. The savings, along with the service provided by the city’s convention center, “led SPI to leave Chicago after nearly 40 years and meet in Orlando,” the ad explained.

The NRA has held its trade show in Chicago for about 60 years. It’s committed to holding the mega-event in the Windy City’s McCormick Place through 2011. The association has worked with the convention center and the unions that serve it to bring down the cost of exhibiting, a complaint of some participants.

Before the NRA re-upped with Chicago in 2006, Orlando and Las Vegas had reportedly tried to land the convention.

The NRA show is one of the nation’s largest trade expositions, with attendance typically topping 75,000, not counting exhibitor personnel. Last year’s turn-out was dampened by the economy to about 38,000, with another 15,500 supplier company representatives also participating.

Giving credit where credit is overdue

Contrary to what you might suspect, the National Restaurant Association’s annual mega-show in Chicago is not subsidized by Dr. Scholl’s. Indeed, you may be surprised to learn the conference, one of the largest in the nation, is largely the responsibility of one person, though Mary Pat Heftman has put together a stellar team.

Even if that group was bigger than NASA’s usual launch squad, it’d still be undermanned, given how much has to be done. In truth, it’s more the size of a Roman candle ignition team. Yet the convention comes together every year—in laudable fashion, judging from the 30 or so I’ve witnessed. Insiders say the key reason is Heftman.

Granted, I strongly suspect that Heftman is a cyborg, if not multiple people cloned by the NRA from a master Mary Pat to handle all the daunting details. Most of us would be doing asylum time if we so much as oversaw the badges for such a gathering. Yet you routinely see her throughout the show, darting here and there, often ready with a quip and a warm hello. This is a show with several thousand exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees. It’s not natural, I’m telling you.

Turns out we were right to suspect that Heftman is out of the ordinary. The Trade Show Exhibitors Association has just announced her nomination for Favorite Show Manager of the year, one of the top honors in her field.

At the same time, the NRA show itself has been nominated for Best Show of 2009 honors. It's a double tribute to Heftman, her staff and her colleagues.

Exhibitors are being asked to vote for which of the nominees deserves the top accolade in each category . If you’ve exhibited at or attended the NRA convention in Chicago, I suspect you may have a favorite. Do the right thing and cast your votes at the TSEA's online ballot booth.

And don’t forget to let all the clones have a vote.

Closing the deal: Help for vendors

One of my favorite people is Ernie Renaud, a longtime restaurant-chain executive and an even longer-time attendee of the National Restaurant Association’s annual convention in Chicago.

Ernie, now in his 80s, has been attending the show since the mid-1960s, when it was a collection of booths on Navy Pier. He was there again this May, which made everything right in my universe, since I could ask him once again about his collection.

The “collection” is a shoebox of business cards he’s amassed over the years from salesmen whose booths he’s shopped. Ernie would ask them to get in touch with him after the show because he was interested in a product or service for whatever chain he was representing at the time (the list ranges from Jerry’s Diner to Long John Silver’s to Fazoli’s). The ones who never responded had their cards put in the collection. It was a marvel to Ernie that they never so much as made a follow-up attempt to get his considerable business.

That situation comes to mind because I just learned of a webinar the NRA will be offering this afternoon to those who exhibited at the show. It’s called the Exhibitor Success Institute: Post-Show Success, and it’s offered for free. Among the topics slated for discussion is the use of social media to spread the word about a vendor’s brand.

I’m going to participate, in large part out of curiosity. I can’t figure out why a company would invest considerable time and money in exhibiting at a show, only to squander opportunities by failing to make the most of the sales opportunity.

I encountered the problem firsthand when I was a co-presenter of the Menus conference for Restaurant Business magazine, which I served as editor. In attendance would be dozens of menu planners for restaurant chains, including McDonald’s. Yet our exhibitors would invariably complain about not having enough exposure and access. They’d be in their booths, waiting for prospects to come to them. Clearly they weren’t exploiting the opportunity that was gift-wrapped for them. And these were big companies with extensive sales forces.

It got so bad that decided to hold a sales primer for the exhibitors—only to catch guff that we were talking down to veteran marketers. So that idea was dropped.

The NRA appears to be taking a much more sophisticated tack in providing support to exhibitors. It’s a laudable effort that certainly appears to be worth the required time investment.

Let's hear it for restaurants' smash fest

There’s a lot to be said for sledgehammers, especially if we’re talking mental health. Or economics. Think about it: Despite a calamitous scene right out of “Batman,” not a single restaurant chain went postal this recession. Oh, sure, there were a few eyebrow-raising moments from Quiznos and Burger King. But sanity, and profitability, more or less prevailed.

And for that, you have to acknowledge the role of the sledgehammer. If you don’t believe me, consider the words of Hudson Riehle, statistician and economist for the National Restaurant Association and definitely a Commissioner Gordon kind of guy. “The recessionary environment is fundamentally rewriting boundaries of market and brand definitions,” he said during a confab held last week by NASDAQ.

The translation for those of us who giggle when we hear “standard deviation”: Frustrated by the drop in business within their usual strongholds, savvy restaurateurs took a sledgehammer to the walls that once defined their segments. They busted out.

Fine-dining chefs opened burger joints. Quick-service burger places focused on coffee and raided the full-service sector for items like ribs, Teriyaki bowls and mac and cheese. Taco Bell crowed that it was now a place for the health-minded, and revealed in recent days that it would develop family style meals like the casseroles now offered by sister concept Pasta Hut—er, Pizza Hut.

It’d be like a pizza chain going into the sandwich business. Which, of course, Domino’s did as a way of cultivating a lunch trade. Beforehand, execs said, many of its outlets didn’t even bother to open until dinnertime.

Kentucky Fried Chicken went the other way. Buckets are what move at dinner, so it added Kentucky Grilled Chicken in hopes of selling more buckets to families.

Some operators needed a sledgehammer dropped on their toes to get hoppin’. A number of McDonald’s franchisees opposed the burger giant’s multi-million-dollar effort to recast itself as beverage specialist. Now, USA president Don Thompson told CNBC, 40% of the customers who buy a coffee drink where stopping at a unit specifically for that reason. It’s incremental business in a big, big way. No wonder the field-level opposition seems to be waning, at least here in the New York market.

The smash-and-charge approach definitely seems to be working. Jamba Juice, a chain whose products once all came in a cup, tested solid food in just six units before deciding to roll the wrap, salad and flatbread array into all of its California stores. The reception was enough to prompt CEO James White to predict the menu could generate as much as 20% of an outlet’s sales.

Yet, Riehle asserted, returns will likely surge as the economy improves. He explained that the diversifiers are winning “credibility” from consumers who might once have seen the brands as a one-trick pony. Now they’re being viewed as brands with a variety of viable options, which promises to expand the concepts’ scope and foster more frequent visits.

“We used to call it ‘the veto vote,’ where someone in a party would say, ‘No, I don’t want to go there because they don’t have whatever,’” Riehle said, no doubt making some bloggers feel old. The diversifiers are smashing that common objection, he suggested.

The industry might also stand to gain handsomely from the biggest boundary smash of all: Licensing, a sleeper part of the business that’s currently surging into a major trend. By moving beyond ready-to-eat food, into products as strange as body cologne (Burger King), pajamas (BK as well), casual wear (BK and Chuck E. Cheese's), and toys (Jamba Juice and McDonald’s), the chains are erecting their own Alaskan pipeline into new revenue sources.

And the key: Once again, the sledgehammer, used this time to smash pre-conceptions and limited forms of thinking about what a brand represents. The new perspective is to view a restaurant-chain brand name as more of a lifestyle badge, which adds considerable topspin to the licensing movement.

But it all comes back to that sledgehammer. So, please, stop drooling over your Blackberry and give heavy construction tools their due. Make this today Sledgehammer Appreciation Day.

A spokesperson for 13M restaurant employees

From time to time, the National Restaurant Association and its state affiliates have waged marketing campaigns to encourage dining out. If the groups are considering a similar drive during these trying times, they should save their money and just lift a snippet from a video aired by a panelist at the association’s just-completed convention in Chicago. All they’d have to do is run the clip with a caption reading, “This is the person you’d be helping.” 

The video was run by Burgerville, a 40-unit fast-food chain, during an educational session on the top-line benefits of pursuing sustainability. The segment featured an employee identified as a “team member,” who earnestly explains how she looks up to the managers who have been her bosses and tries to model her life after theirs.  

“I didn’t really have that when I was growing up,” she says to the camera. 

Now, she says, she has her own house and some money together.  

I really, really doubt that she was reading off a teleprompter.   

Let Madison Ave. stick with ads for breakfast cereal and car insurance. The restaurant industry has stumbled on an eloquent spokeswoman who can articulate its genuine economic importance. All it needs to do is remind consumers that patronizing restaurants helps far more people than just the stockholders of McDonald’s and Darden.

Restaurant association to offer more flu resources

The National Restaurant Association will post a "tool kit" of resources on its website in the next 24 hours to help restaurateurs deal with the swine flu, a representative said this afternoon during a webinar on the epidemic. 

He did not provide details.

The association's website is restaurant.org. It also has a special page set up to provide information about the flu. 

The webinar also revealed that hand sanitizers can be an effective way of killing the swine-flu virus on hands, provided at least 60% of the type being used consists of ethanol. 

Bruce Cords, an infectious disease expert for webinar sponsor Ecolab, also noted that differentiating between swine flu and other forms of flu may become important when restaurants have to decide when to allow a recovered employee back to work. Viruses like norovirus can presumably last a lot longer and pose more of a risk. 

Among the other interesting tidbits:

--Encourage guests and employees to avoid a recontamination while washing their hands by leaving the water running. The hand washer should grab a paper towel, thoroughly dry his or her hands, and then use the towel to clean off the faucet.

--The swine flu virus only survives on hands for about five minutes.

--However, hard surfaces like kitchen counters can harbor the virus for up to 48 hours, and can be spread to hands on contact for 24 hours.

--The virus almost certainly cannot be spread via the surfaces of foods, like melons from Mexico, because it doesn't survive that long on porous surfaces.

5 questions about swine flu's effect on restaurants

1) Might this be a time when reason prevails?

The buzz on the internet could be characterized as cynicism rather than panic or fear. The consensus seems to be, “Isn’t this just the crisis du jour? And as long as it just gives me the flu, what’s the big deal?” If there’s fear, it’s not of eating pork or going to a restaurant. It seems to be prejudice-tinged worry about contamination from Mexicans. Which leads to….

2) What effect will this have on immigration reform?

From a Yahoo Answers message group:

“Most restaurants are saturated with Mexican workers, and I am sure many know someone that recently or constantly travel to/from Mexico; increasing the chance of contracting the Swine Flu. I personal believe we are at higher risk that we think if we often eat out at our local restaurants.”

Consider this snippet from a tirade on examiner.com, a new network of citizen-journalist reporters and commentators. It comes from Frosty Woodbridge, a popular spokesman for the faction that believes the best immigration policy would be to shoot on sight:

"The current Swine flu spreading across Mexico providesAmericans a glimpse of their future if mass immigration from third world countries continues into the United States.

"It stems from cultural habits that cannot be changed once they migrate over U.S. borders. Third world people lack personal hygiene, collective health habits and educational understandings of how their personal actions promote disease transmission."

Much of the installment deals with toilet-paper disposal norms. I kid you not.

3) Will it affect the turnout for the National Restaurant Association’s big convention next month in Chicago?

4) Does anyone doubt, at least right now, that tourism will be the big loser?

The European Union has already advised residents of member nations to forego all but essential travel to the United States. The U.S. travel industry is clearly worried. The head of its promotional group, the U.S. Travel Association, issued a statement this morning that urges the government to weigh carefully what it says and does about the situation. “We must address the situation with measured, pragmatic responses so as not to cause panic and negative consequences to the economy if health risks are not imminent,” said CEO Roger Dow.

5) Where’s the original reporting on what this means to restaurants?

Where’s the coverage of how the outbreak has affected the sales of places along the border, or in San Diego, or in concepts that might be particularly vulnerable because of its clientele, like Chuck E. Cheese? How about the impact on a chain like Pizza Patron, a brand targeted at the Latino community in the United States?

This is undoubtedly the story of the moment, and restaurants, as the modern-day town square, are in the thick of it. Yet the reshuffling of McDonald’s beverage line-up has generated more coverage so far in the business media. Why are they ceding this story to Twitter?

Caterers protest the protests against biz events

Consider this scenario: Mega Screw & Trust, a New York bank, is teetering on the brink of insolvency until feds showed up with bags of greenbacks from the Troubled Assets Relief Program. It stays open, and even decides to proceed with the big party it was planning for 20-year veterans who met their cost-cutting goals. But the press finds out and makes a stink, prompting MST to cancel the five-figure fete.

Sunshine Bank & Kitten Saver, a medium-sized competitor that stayed financially fit, witnesses the fallout and decides it’d better pull the plug on a celebration honoring the employees who came up with the best give-back programs for local charities. It alerts Joe’s Neighborhood Grill that it won’t be taking the back room next Friday. The banquet’s off.

Edmund Schmoe III, a former Mega Screw & Trust VP who now works as a banquet waiter at Joe’s, finds out he won’t be needed next Friday. His first response is letting his brothers know they can’t count on a contribution from him for the catered party they were planning for their father’s birthday. The siblings decide to cancel.

That sequence of events, or at least a segment of it, has transpired often enough to prompt a muted outcry from the National Association of Catering Executives. Treading carefully, the group yesterday released survey results that indicate 90% of the nation’s caterers and meeting planners have lost business because of the outcry over businesses holding events in the current economic climate. Almost the same percentage of respondents say the public outrage has made that climate worse.

"While I understand that in these times it is important to spend carefully, the bashing of the catering, events, meetings and travel business is not only unfair and prejudicial to our industry, it is counterproductive to economic recovery," said Greg Casella, the San Jose, Calif., caterer who serves as president of NACE.

If the situation is that bad for caterers, imagine the fallout for restaurants. Not only are they losing party and banquet business, but even routine expense account meals.

The question is, what can be done about it? As Restaurant Reality Check previously reported, the National Restaurant Association quietly pushed back last month against federal legislation that would have mandated cuts in banquets, catering and other foodservice expenses by companies receiving bailout funds. How can any group publicly call for those types of expenses to continue when so many people are struggling to afford groceries, never mind a party?

Still, NACE deserves a lot of credit for spotlighting a facet of the situation that deserves consideration. As it noted in releasing yesterday’s statement, its membership extends to 4,000 businesses, which obviously must employ a big multiple of that number. Those people are struggling to eat, too.

Industry lobbyists look to walk a fine line

The restaurant industry will have to be careful as it contends with a legislative threat that arose last week on Capitol Hill. A provision introduced in the Senate would prohibit the 421 financial institutions receiving federal bailout assistance from holding parties, celebratory dinners or other entertainment-type events, according to Michael Kaufman, the current chairman of the National Restaurant Association.

“Think of the effects of that bill on the hospitality industry,” Kaufman said during a presentation at the New York restaurant show this afternoon in New York City.

Kaufman cited the initiative as an example of the legislative proposals the Association regularly monitors and attempts to temper or defeat.

Good luck this time around. Lynch mobs probably formed after word leaked out of lavish parties being held by some of the banks that received billions in aid from the U.S. Treasury Department. The NRA will have to move delicately as it tries to preserve a lucrative source of event business for restaurants. Otherwise, it’ll look as if the industry is an enabler for the banks’ lavish shenanigans.

During his presentation, Kaufman also revealed the NRA is in the later stages of developing a new healthcare insurance program for the industry. He noted that the Association’s current chief, Dawn Sweeney, joined the group about a year ago after helping AARP develop a breakthrough healthcare program for its members. That acumen, he suggested, is being applied to the industry’s longstanding quest for affordable insurance for the rank-and-file.

An NRA director in attendance said he believes the program under development could cut the healthcare bill for him and his wife by more than $3,000.