Savory tidbits

Here's a grab bag of news developments and trends that promise to influence the restaurant business near and longterm:

--A history pop quiz: What major city was the first to mandate calorie disclosures on chain menus? How about the elimination of trans fats? And voluntary reductions of salt content? If you correctly answered “New York” to all of the above, and your market hasn’t yet adopted letter-style sanitation scores, carefully consider the statement Gotham issued today.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg told the press today that salmonella cases dropped 14% in New York during the first year of the city's new sanitation grading system. The controversial program requires restaurants to post their sanitation letter grades in windows visible to potential customers. Before it went into effect, operators complained that too much weight would be given to a single visit by a possibly subjective inspector, and that a bad grade would leave a damning impression in the public's mind. Restaurants would be unjustly killed by technical violations that customers couldn't grasp in the first place.

Contrary to those dire predictions, restaurant revenues grew during the first year of the grading system by 9.3%, to $800 million, Bloomberg pointed out.

He also dashed objections that the carrot approach was wishful thinking. Since the posting requirement went into effect, the proportion of restaurants acing their sanitation inspections has jumped by seven points, to 72%, according to Bloomberg.

No wonder, he suggested, that the publicly visible letter grades are favored by 91% of New Yorkers, and that 88% of Big Apple consumers say they factor the posted scores into their choice of a restaurant.

If you don't have a letter-grading system in your area, you might want to start cleaning a space right now on your front window.

--Fear not, those of you who can't get enough of chiseled athletes hawking fast food their trainers may or may not let them eat. The sports star endorsement is very much alive. Witness yesterday's announcement that LeBron James will be the face of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins in Asia, or that linebacker Troy Palomalu has signed on as a spokesman for the upstart LYFE Kitchen fast-casual concept.

They're the latest in a string of paid affiliations that once put Joe Namath in pantyhose and O.J. Simpson in a flat-out run for airport daylight.

--If you need any further indication that retailers are nipping at restaurateurs' heels, consider that the next generation of WaWa convenience stores will feature display kitchens. And we’re not talking roller dogs.

--The National Restaurant Association had to reschedule its annual mega-convention for 2012 because Chicago double-booked the G8 international economic summit for the original show dates. Yesterday the location of the G8 was shifted to Camp David, leaving lots of hotel rooms likely up for grabs come late May. That crunching sound you hear is likely the teeth gnashing of NRA officials.

--An unusual restaurant promotion will be launched by Starbucks later this week. According to Zacks Equity Research, customers who buy a coffee before 11 a.m. can come back after 2 p.m. for a second cup at half-price. The offer will run from March 8 thru March 11, Zacks said.

--I admit I’m prejudiced, but it’s not easy to accept that a guy named Yorgo Koutsogiorgas is leading a pizza chain, even if it specializes in that deep-dish faux stuff that Chicago tries to pass off as real pizza. Yet there he sits atop Giordano's. At least the company has an Italian name. Maybe Yorgo is known to friends as Luigi or Angelo.

--From the Not All People Should Procreate evidence file: A couple in Maryland didn’t realize they’d left their 3-year-old daughter at a local Chuck E. Cheese’s until a local news broadcast aired a story about how the girl had been found alone in the restaurant, asking the staff for something to drink. The parents were in their home at the time—some three hours after they’d left the restaurant.

--Utah is close to passing a bill that would allow restaurateurs to try an array of wines or spirits before deciding which to stock in their establishments. Sampling is currently illegal in the state, even for wholesale buyers.

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.

Restaurants show their hearts. My friend told me.

As a journalist who covers the restaurant industry, I of course have to remain absolutely, positively objective about the companies and chains that make up the business. Show appreciation or regard for even a single member and someone might suspect you lack the cold-heartedness to tell it like it is.

But I have this friend who covers the business, and he wants me to publish a few of the reasons why he’s particularly proud today to be affiliated with the trade. Here they are:

--McDonald’s pledged to donate $500,000 to relief efforts for Haiti, and its Latin American franchisee offered to match whatever the home office provides. That’s $1 million in aid.

--Burton’s Grill, a four-unit chain in the Boston area, announced that it would donate 15% of its revenues for the day to buy food for the Haitians. You could argue that giving away one of every six dollars that’s slipped into the till by a company of that size is a bigger sacrifice than the McDonald’s million.

--Yum! Brands, the parent of Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, pledged to send $500,000 from its standing hunger-relief fund to Haiti.

--Burger King's standing charity has pledged $50,000 in relief.

--In Chicago, independent restaurants are forming a Donate a Dollar program to fund a Haitian relief effort called Wake of the Quake. Apparently patrons will be asked to make contributions that will then be aggregated and shipped to the earthquake-devastated nation.

--A roundup of what other restaurateurs are doing to help was compiled by The New York Times' Kim Severson and published in paper's Diner's Journal Blog . Among the contributors are such gods of the business as Danny Meyer, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mario Batali.

There are undoubtedly dozens of other programs that restaurants are undertaking to help quake victims, and each deserves to be celebrated. It's a good feeling to be part of this business.

I was referring to my friend, of course.

News roundup for a Special Edition day

Today’s definitely a high point in the news cycle. The business day is only a few hours old, yet we’ve already seen…

The startling announcement that OSI Restaurant Partners, the troubled parent of Outback Steakhouse and four other casual-dining chains, has reached outside the business to tap the president of Avon as its new CEO. Yes, that’s Avon, as in “ding-dong, Avon calling.” The new hire, Liz Smith, has worked in the food business, but on the grocery side, serving as the president of Kraft Food’s U.S. operations.

Smith will succeed Bill Allen, who will continue as chairman after his retirement from the corner office on Nov. 15. Allen is one of the gems of the business, so its fortunate he’ll still be involved, albeit somewhat at arm’s length.

After nearly two years of trying, and showing how shrewd of a tactician he can be, Tilman Fertitta has succeeded in getting Landry’s Restaurans to let him take it private.

Fertitta, the company’s founder and CEO, already owned 55% of Landry’s stock, so you’d think it would have been a cakewalk. But he’s repeatedly run into complications, including a refusal by the board he chairs to disclose information it regarded as confidential. By that time, the board had accepted one of his offers. But rather than divulge inside stuff about the company’s dealings with lenders, the directors changed their mind in January 2009 and told Fertitta the deal was off.

Throughout the gyrations, the crafty suitor was buying shares on the open market. The combination of those purchases and the slide in restaurant stock prices have enabled him to trim his bid to $14.75 a share, compared with the $23.50 he’d originally offered back in January 2008.

Fertitta also bought a sizeable minority stake in McCormick & Schmick’s, a competitor to Landry’s namesake brand.

Today brought news that two of Chicago’s fine-dining pioneers will be firing down their stoves for the last time. Nick’s Fishmarket, a fixture of the Loop for more than 30 years, couldn’t survive the times. Owner Lee Suckow told the Chicago Sun-Times that business was off 30% from a year ago.

Even longer in the tooth was Don Roth’s Blackhawk, in the suburb of Wheeling. Don Roth, who opened the landmark in 1969, had been the Wolfgang Puck of his time, imbuing the place with a showmanship that made it the place to copy. Roth’s widow, Ann, is still involved in the business at age 90.

In announcing the restaurant’s closing, she noted that none of their children are interested in taking control of the business.

The restaurant will serve its last prime rib on New Year’s Eve.

How to lower start-up costs, learn prison feeding

Hard times foster a sharp upswing in scams, as earlier posts attest. The cons are usually plotted to fleece restaurants, often of a few dollars at a time. But a couple in suburban Chicago were jailed yesterday for allegedly grifting hundreds of thousands for the benefit of the restaurants they formerly operated, according to local media reports.

The pair was accused of falsely reporting that their former Bolingbrook, IL, restaurant, Escapades, had been robbed of its furniture, fixtures and equipment. The apparent ruse wasn’t discovered for a long stretch, enabling James Karonis and Denise Fardelos to wrest a payout from their insurance company, according to the news reports.

Then, the reports say, the pair opened a restaurant in North Aurora called The Wild Orchid. Authorities must’ve been suspicious, because they reportedly raided the place and found it outfitted with the items that had been “stolen” from Escapades.

The two were charged last May but allowed to remain free. They were brought into county jail yesterday.