Join the Women Industry Leaders’ Inaugural Meeting

NAFEM’s first female president will speak at the May 19 gathering in person in Chicago and accessible by Zoom.
Louise O’Sullivan will speak at the inaugural meeting of the Women Industry Leaders group on May 19.
Those heading to Chicago for the National Restaurant Association Show in May might also want to mark their calendars for another industry gathering.
At 2:30 p.m. on Friday, May 19, the inaugural meeting of the Women Industry Leaders group will be held in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association Show, with an exact location provided upon registration. Virtual attendance via Zoom also is offered. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend, get involved, and show support for the new group.
Register here for the inaugural meeting of the Women Industry Leaders Group.
At the meeting, longtime industry executive Louise O’Sullivan will be a guest speaker. A few of O’Sullivan’s career highlights include serving as NAFEM’s first female president in 1991 and founding Prime Advantage Corp. (a group purchasing organization for industrial manufacturers) in 1997, along with various awards and accolades. Now retired, O’Sullivan runs a small consulting and coaching business.
The WIL group is focused on empowering women and educating all. For more information, contact womenindustryleaders@gmail.com or call Jennifer Ward at (614) 309-8233

Registration – WIL Inaugural Meeting
Women Industry Leaders Group (WIL)
“Empowering, educating, and mentoring women in the food service equipment and supply industry.”

Event Date: May 19, 2023, at 2:30 PM CST
Event Location: The NRA Show (2023) in Chicago, IL
*Exact meeting location will be provided following registration.

Last day to register: May 12, 2023
This group is focused on empowering women and educating all. Everyone is welcome to attend, get involved, and show their support. Please feel free to share this invitation with others and we look forward to seeing you there!
For questions, please reach out to Jennifer Ward at (614) 309-8233 or WomenIndustryLeaders@gmail.com

THE CONCEPT, CREATED BY REALITY TV STAR JON TAFFER, WANTS TO OPEN 120 RESTAURANTS IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. IT WILL DO SO WITH INDUSTRY-LEADING LABOR COSTS AND BEVERAGE SALES . . . .
How Taffer’s Tavern is Revolutionizing Post-Pandemic Dining
Jon Taffer, star of “Bar Rescue,” has a bold plan for his namesake restaurant, Taffer’s Tavern.
The industry veteran is aiming for roughly 120 units in five years.
“A little aggressive, but not outrageous,” Taffer says.
The brand, which debuted in 2020, has three streetside locations in Alpharetta, Georgia; Watertown, Massachusetts; and Washington, D.C., and two concessionaires at FedEx Field, home of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Nearly two dozen more are in development. The NextGen Casual has secured multi-unit franchise deals in several markets across the country, including Las Vegas; Savannah, Georgia; Northern and Central Florida; and Montgomery, Alabama.
The brand’s upcoming Las Vegas location will have the same menu and decor package, but will be 12,000 square feet in size. Taffer’s Tavern also created a smaller prototype—about 1,750–3,000 square feet—to fit in secondary markets. Taffer says the model would be ideal for a strip center and endcap situation.
Jon Taffer on Changing the Restaurant Game as We Know It
“We’re about to begin selling that smaller version of the franchise, and we’re finding a lot of our franchisees who have bought in major markets like Boston or Atlanta are saying, ‘Boy, we love the big unit for downtown. How about some smaller units for this for the suburbs?’ So we see that as a way to attack a marketplace—a combination of the large flagship unit with some smaller satellite units around it. So we’re looking very, very hard at that expansion approach right now.”
The TV personality and entreprenuer is confident in scale because of the brand’s simplicity. The idea for Taffer’s Tavern began five years ago when Taffer challenged himself to redesign a kitchen that reduces back-of-house labor by 60 percent and one that cuts a week of training into seven hours. His team worked in test kitchens for two years experimenting with sous vide products, which he describes as a “very, very high-end preparation technique used by Michelin and five-star chefs around the world.” There’s no traditional stoves or hood. It’s all combi and Turbo Chef ovens and unique cooking equipment designed to finish sous vide products.
Taffer says a customer could walk into a packed restaurant at 9 p.m. on Saturday night, and there would be only two people working in the kitchen.
“They’re not screaming and yelling,” he says. “It’s air-conditioned. You could almost carpet the darn place. It’s so cool and calm and the product consistency is wonderful. So we’ve really mastered and embraced technology in the kitchen. And reinventing the kitchen, as an end result, we have great product consistency.”
The format fit COVID parameters quite nicely. Taffer’s Tavern has a third of the counter space of a regular casual-dining concept, preparation is contactless, and ticket times are six-and-a-half minutes. Taffer believes it’s the “safest kitchen in the world.”
All product is specified by Cuisine Solutions and comes portioned by a central commissary kitchen. Every oven is preprogrammed for each product, and no one at the property level can change the settings.
“There’s no way the incoming product can be manipulated,” Taffer says. “It’s perfect every time. There’s no way the cooking process can be manipulated. It’s perfect every time. It’s unbelievable. We’ve eliminated the human factor from purchasing. We’ve eliminated the human factor from prep. We’re not butchering, dicing, slicing. We’re not doing any of those things. Our cooks on a line don’t even season anything. That’s how tight we are.”
Additionally, no location picks its own music. Stores are equipped with an FM radio receiver, which corporate uses to send audio programs. Songs are curated—down to beats per minute—based on the demographics in the restaurant. The same goes for video systems. Customers won’t see sports anchors sitting behind a desk on ESPN, Taffer says. Everything is active—either a live game or some type of other action.
These pieces are what create perceived value, Taffer says. It adds to the experience and length of stay. Taffer’s Tavern also makes sure to leave technology in the back of the house. Taffer prefers front-of-house staff to be interactive, smile, offer menu recommendations, and build relationships with guests.
“It creates an energy, a dynamic,” Taffer says. “The pace of the staff. The connectivity. All these elements come together. Put boring music in there, and staff attitudes change. Pace changes. The whole damn thing falls apart. These are important parts of perceived value that many restaurateurs don’t talk about as much.”
In terms of menu, Taffer’s Tavern is 50 percent beverage sales, which has a “massive impact” to the bottom line, Taffer says. The concept has also found that as much as customers are suffering from inflation, they’re still treating themselves. The company hasn’t seen a drop in average checks or any shift in the menu mix. The restaurant’s short rib is one of the most expensive items, but still a top seller. The spicy chicken sandwich, a middle-priced item, is performing well, too. There haven’t been any reductions in cocktail consumption, either. But Taffer’s Tavern is still proceeding with caution. In the next couple of months, it plans to introduce more offerings that are cost-effective and lower-priced, such as salads and pasta.
As restaurateurs keep “getting killed” on commodities like chicken and fish, Taffer says customers understand that prices must go up. However, he warns operators to not take advantage of guests’ goodwill.
“They’re going for it,” Taffer says. “You know what, if a price increases 15 percent, raise it 15 percent, raise it 16 or 17 percent. Don’t raise it 30 percent. And I see some restaurateurs taking advantage of the current state of mind and digging a little too deep. That’s not good for the industry. That’ll destroy the value proposition for the whole industry if we take it that far.”
Taffer has spent 40 years as a consultant helping build hundreds of restaurants, but he’s quick to acknowledge that Taffer’s Tavern is a team effort. He praises the leadership of Sean Walker, who serves as president. He calls out the accomplishments of the human resources, marketing, and production departments.
It wasn’t always this way. A few years ago, Taffer struggled with turnover and finding the right people. These days, he able’s to spend a couple of months on his boat in Florida while his team handles business. That’s because all employees are led by three key words—get customers back.
“That’s what we do,” Taffer says. “That is our consciousness. We walk to get them back. We talk to get them back. We cook to get them back. We play music to get them back. … If you walked up to any [employee] and said, ‘What is your objective here tonight?’ They would tell you to get them back.” – Source: QSR magazine.

BEFORE OPERATORS CAN DELEGATE TRAINING, THEY MUST HAVE SYSTEMS IN PLACE . . . .

Who Should Train New Restaurant Employees?
Training your restaurant team members and management is critical to your success. But in a busy restaurant environment, who can you spare to do the actual training? I’ll give you a hint: it’s probably not your best employee and it shouldn’t be you.
For many restaurant owners and managers, quickly jump into having their best employees in each position become trainers. But I’m going to tell you right now, 99 percent of those great employees, your best employees in each position, often become your worst trainers. They’re usually good at their job because it comes naturally to them. They’re following some kind of instinct; they just have a personality that is perfectly suited to the job, and it comes naturally to them. This instinct makes them impatient with others who don’t have it, such as in training a new employee who has a different personality.
When you start to think about who’s going to be doing the training, the logical person is you, the restaurant owner. It’s an opportunity to build a special relationship with each new team member and it allows you to establish a strong leadership presence in your place, but the truth is you need to delegate training.
While you care the most and know the most about your restaurant, your job is working on budgets, marketing, developing your managers, leading the team, holding them accountable, thinking strategically, and moving your business forward. It is not to get in the trenches and teach somebody how to dice an onion or bus a table.
Before you can delegate the training, though, you must have systems in place. The systems are your process, your way of doing everything in your restaurant. You can’t have five different ways to train somebody on how to create a burger. They need to follow the recipe. There’s only one way to count out a bar drawer and serve a table: your way. You have to establish all of those systems first before you can train someone to start training. You need to get all that information out of your head and into your system, your process, your way.
Once you get some kind of training system in place—and it can be a training system without having everything else systematized—you need to then train the trainer.
You can’t just throw someone on the floor, point to someone on the shift, and say follow that person—although that is common. So many restaurant owners point the new employees toward the most senior person on the shift or the person who’s been there the longest and tell them to just do what they do. That’s not a trainer and that’s not a training system.
You also need to make sure you compensate the trainer both in both the front of house and back of the house. All too often in restaurants, they’ll compensate the front-of-house person, but not in the back-of-house. Training someone is an extremely important responsibility and whoever is doing it should be compensated. You want your trainers to feel appreciated and like they get paid for their knowledge, effort, and patience.
Find the employee on your team who does it your way, who will follow your lead, and ensure people who are coming in and doing it your way. That’s the most important part. Then make sure they are trained on your training system, and you’ll be on your path to having great new employees.   – Source: fsr.

Earlier this year, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. unveiled a new menu offering inspired by two TikTok content creators . . . .

Chipotle Mining for ‘Hidden Gems’ on its Menu
The digital-exclusive fajita quesadilla adds peppers and onions, plus a side of the chipotle-honey vinaigrette customarily served with its salads, to the standard quesadilla, which typically features cheese and pork, beef, chicken, or tofu.
The genius of the now-permanent addition to Chipotle’s menu, said Brian R. Niccol, chairman, and chief executive officer, is the product is made with existing ingredients in the restaurants’ kitchens. Only a few tweaks to the digital ordering technology were required.
“For the most part, this was a really easy one for operators to execute,” Mr. Niccol said during an April 25 earnings call. “So, the team is doing some work to figure out other opportunities like that within our menu and maybe could apply for both the frontline and the digital line. I do believe there are still a lot of hidden gems within the Chipotle menu. And I think we have the opportunity to talk about them in a more visible way.”
The launch of the fajita quesadilla resulted in a near doubling of total quesadilla sales and “two of our top digital sales days of all time,” he added.
As management continues to focus on the fundamentals of its operations, opportunities to introduce innovation with little complexity are a priority. A limited-time offering of chicken al pastor, as another example, combines the brand’s grilled chicken with a spicy marinade. That item has been “broadly appealing” to both new and existing customers, Mr. Niccol said.
Net income for the first quarter ended March 31 was $291.6 million, equal to $10.56 per share on the common stock, up 84% from $158.3 million, or $5.64, in the prior-year period. Restaurant-level margin benefited from higher sales, labor efficiencies, and lower avocado prices, said John R. Hartung, chief financial officer.
Total revenue increased 17% to $2.4 billion from $2 billion.
Comparable restaurant sales increased 11%, as in-store sales grew 23% over the last year, and digital sales represented 39% of sales. The company opened 41 new restaurants during the quarter.
Executives expect second-quarter and full-year comparable restaurant sales growth in the mid-to the high-single-digit range and are planning 255 to 285 new restaurant openings in 2023.
Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill on the New York Stock Exchange were trading as high as $2,047.31 on April 26, up 15% from the day before.  – Source: Food Business News.

Executives of McDonald’s Corp. are identifying opportunities to become faster, more innovative, and more efficient as an organization . . . .

McDonald’s Adopting ‘Horizontal’ Approach to Innovate Faster
A key strategy moving forward is “implementing horizontal ways of working,” said Christopher J. Kempczinski, president and chief executive officer.
“For years, our organization, like many others, was too siloed, whether that be geographically siloed or functionally siloed, and yet, our biggest challenges and opportunities are rarely limited to just one market,” Mr. Kempczinski said during an April 25 earnings call. “They can’t be solved by only one function. It requires collaborating across the organization to bring the full breadth of McDonald’s skills and experiences to devise the best system solution that can be scaled globally. In other words, they need to be solved horizontally.”
Removing internal obstacles and standardizing common processes to drive speed and consistency in operations are central to McDonald’s approach.
“We’re an innovative, entrepreneurial organization,” he said. “But once a part of our system somewhere has solved the problem or developed a novel idea, we need to stop the work elsewhere. We don’t need every market to invent its own light bulb, so to speak.”
The company has rolled out enhanced cooking procedures across the globe to improve the quality of its burgers. Upgrades include softer buns, more consistently melted cheese, seared patties, and more Big Mac sauce.
“We recently began to introduce these changes to our US customers through a rolling deployment, and the initial reaction has been positive,” said Ian Frederick Borden, executive vice president, and chief financial officer.
McDonald’s also is testing improvements to its mobile app in the United States that will “provide a more seamless interaction,” Mr. Borden said.
“Using existing location data, it allows our crew to start assembling a customer’s order prior to their arrival at the restaurant, ultimately delivering hot, fresh food when customers arrive to pick up their order,” he said. “While it’s still early days deploying this new digital enhancement, initial results are already pointing to improved service times and elevated customer satisfaction scores.”
The changes are expected to build on McDonald’s continued momentum in markets around the world.
Net income for the first quarter ended March 31 was $1.8 billion, equal to $2.45 per share on the common stock, up 63% from net income of $1.1 billion, or $1.48 per share, in the year-ago period. Results in the current quarter included pre-tax restructuring charges of $180 million, while results for the comparable quarter included pre-tax expenses of $127 million, primarily incurred to support the company’s business in Russia, and nonoperating expense of $500 million related to the settlement of a tax audit in France. Excluding the special items, adjusted net income increased 13% to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion, reflecting strong operating performance driven by higher sales-driven franchised margins, according to the company.
Revenues totaled $5.9 billion, up 4% from $.5.7 billion in the prior year.
Comparable sales in the US market grew 13%, benefiting from strategic menu price increases and positive comparable guest count growth. Comparable sales in internationally operated markets increased by 13%, led by strong comparable sales across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In international developmental licensed markets, comparable sales grew 13%, with a strong performance in Japan.
“These results reflect strong consumer demand for McDonald’s that we are seeing around the world despite a challenging operating environment and historically low consumer sentiment in many markets,” Mr. Kempczinski said.
Shares of McDonald’s Corp. trading on the New York Stock Exchange dipped by 0.6% to close at $291.51 on April 25. – Source: Food Business News.

Caribou Coffee is undertaking a major expansion effort with the addition of 300 locations . . . .

Caribou Coffee Adding 300 Locations
Caribou Coffee is part of Panera Brands’ portfolio, a business unit of JAB Holding Co., and has approximately 735 locations worldwide.
“Over the past 30 years, Caribou Coffee has refined and elevated the guest experience through an unwavering commitment to quality, as well as strategic investments in innovation,” said John Butcher, president and chief executive officer of Caribou Coffee. “With a shared vision and commitment to Caribou’s core values, we’re thrilled to be further expanding our footprint nationwide alongside such experienced and passionate operators, and we look forward to supporting their success.”
The company plans to add locations in Ohio, Florida, Michigan and throughout Missouri.
To build the locations, the company signed several multi-unit development agreements with Mike Mariola Restaurants for the Ohio locations, Wake up 727 for the Florida locations, Manna Development Group for Michigan, and Mike Hamra and Hamra Enterprises for Missouri.
The company also signed a multi-unit development agreement with Covelli Family Limited Partnership that will open 60 locations in Florida. In addition, Covelli Enterprises will open 100 locations across the northern half of Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and Florida. – Source: Food Business News.

Perdue Farms announced a partnership with Cornell University and the University of Illinois to reduce Salmonella cases linked to raw poultry . . . .
Perdue Partners in Salmonella Control Study
Through January 2024, Perdue will fund the research project, “Simulation and Modelling to Rationally Target Salmonella Control Strategies in Processing Plants.” The study will build risk assessment models that optimize Salmonella control strategies for poultry producers.
“Perdue Farms is proud to support meaningful research into Salmonella control strategies as we continue to learn and adapt our approach to food safety from farm to fork,” said Bruce Stewart-Brown, senior vice president of technical services and innovation at Perdue Farms. “Heightened food safety regulatory standards backed by science are a priority for our family-owned company, and we are confident these efforts will lead to improvements in public health and a reduction in recall risk for companies in the meat and poultry industry over time.
“Ultimately, our aim is to provide consumers with the safest possible products and reduce Salmonella contamination throughout the poultry supply chain. Partnership — including with industry, academia, regulators and consumer advocates — is the only way we get there.”
Matthew Stasiewicz, assistant professor of applied food safety in the Department of food science and human nutrition at U of I., is leading the project.
Stasiewicz said, in addition to funding, Perdue is supplying data on Salmonella control strategies that would otherwise be difficult to generate at such a large scale.
The project follows a national push toward Salmonella prevention.
In August 2022, FSIS declared Salmonella an adulterant in breaded and stuffed raw chicken products, giving the agency authority to recall affected products and ensure they are not sold to consumers. The agency followed the announcement with a proposed regulatory framework to reduce foodborne illnesses.
Earlier this month, FSIS invited poultry slaughter and processing businesses to submit proposals for pilot projects to test different control strategies for Salmonella contamination in poultry products. – Source: Purdue Farms/Meat Poultry.

Twitter will now let U.S. cannabis marketers feature their products in ads on the platform, with some caveats . . . .

Twitter Bolsters Charm Offensive With Cannabis Advertisers
The social-media company is now letting cannabis companies post pictures of their products in ads, less than three months after it first opened the door to their paid-for posts with heavier limitations
Twitter relaxed its rules on the types of ads U.S. cannabis companies can run on the platform, less than three months after accepting them as paying customers for the first time.
Companies can now feature their packaged cannabis products in their ads. Previously they could advertise their businesses and link out to websites but couldn’t depict the actual products they sold. The company has also increased the number of states where advertisers can target consumers for medical and recreational cannabis.
The new rules reflect Twitter’s recent sales strategy of working closely with cannabis companies, many of which have praised the company’s attentiveness but bemoaned the long, stringent, and sometimes unclear ad-buying process.
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After some of Twitter’s biggest advertisers in sectors from consumer-packaged goods to air travel paused or reduced spending on the platform following the company’s sale to Elon Musk, Twitter in February announced that it would let some U.S. cannabis companies buy ads in a loosening of policy not before undertaken by a mainstream social-media company.
But some cannabis executives said the policies announced in February were perplexing: Cannabis companies were allowed to buy ads, but they weren’t allowed to explicitly promote the sale of cannabis. That posed a conundrum for cannabis marketers, who often have small budgets, prize product marketing over brand marketing, and need to prove strong returns on investment to leadership and investors, said Jon Lowen, the co-chief executive and co-founder of Surfside, a digital media and first-party data firm that works with cannabis advertisers.
“A lot of people [in the cannabis business community] were citing the actual policy that Twitter published, and saying, ‘You really can’t advertise anything here,’” said Adam Terry, chief executive and co-founder of Cantrip Seltzer, a hemp and cannabis-infused beverage company.
“It gets really complicated to advertise if you can’t actually mention that you sell something,” Mr. Terry said.
Opening the Gates
Alexa Alianiello, Twitter’s cannabis sales and partnerships lead, said in a tweet Tuesday that the recent changes were implemented in response to cannabis executives’ requests. “We listened, and updated our ads policy,” she wrote.
Cannabis advertisers for years have argued that they should be able to advertise to adults online in states where its sale is legal. Technology companies historically haven’t agreed.
Only a handful of digital advertising brokers and media companies accept cannabis companies as clients. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google prohibit the advertisement of most cannabis products, although Google in January relaxed its policy to allow ads for some products made with CBD, a cannabis-derived substance formally called cannabidiol.
Twitter has approached the nascent industry with gusto since cracking the door open to its ads.
“Twitter has your back,” Ms. Alianiello told a room of cannabis business founders and investors earlier this month at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Miami.
Ms. Alianiello’s appearance was unusual: Since Mr. Musk bought Twitter, the company’s executives have rarely been put in front of an audience, in person or remotely. External communications have largely comprised Mr. Musk’s own Twitter feed and media schedule.
Delivering an empathetic keynote reflected Twitter’s strategy to go all-in on wooing and supporting cannabis companies, a move some say is working.
“I get texts and emails back [from Twitter] within a matter of minutes. It’s been really refreshing,” said Amy Larson, senior vice president of marketing and communications at Tilt Holdings Inc., a cannabis brand holding company.
“They obviously put a lot of thought into the program and have been very responsive,” said Kate Lynch, executive vice president of marketing at Curaleaf Holdings Inc., a dispensary chain, which began running ads on Twitter in February.
Ms. Alianiello has taken to replying directly to those cannabis advertisers on Twitter whose experience hasn’t been so smooth.
Common complaints include the rejection of ads’ messages on the basis of Twitter’s cannabis ads policy without a clear explanation.
Raveena Cheema, chief marketing officer of cannabis accessories company Purple Rose Supply, used Twitter’s self-service portal to submit ads when the company’s policy changed. The ads were never approved, and Twitter’s ads support team told her in an email that the ads she submitted violated its drugs and drug paraphernalia policy. But the email didn’t specify how.
“The answers I get back are very vague and automated, it seems like, and I can’t get in touch with a human that can help explain,” Ms. Cheema said. “It’s so much work to go through that it makes more sense for us right now to put more attention on other channels, rather than trying to help Twitter navigate this space.”
Cannabis companies interested in advertising with Twitter hit another stumbling block this month: The platform said it would temporarily only accept new cannabis clients if they commit to spending at least $5,000 per quarter on ads. The threshold was put in place to help Twitter sift through the backlog of cannabis companies waiting for the platform to manually certify their licenses, Ms. Alianiello wrote on Twitter.
Navigating the Policies
Despite the update to its policy regarding product-specific content, Twitter still prohibits cannabis advertisers from using common direct marketing phrases such as “10% off” and “click to buy.”
Cannabis companies who wish to advertise on Twitter must validate that they are licensed by appropriate local authorities, fill out an attestation form and submit their proposed ads for review. Ads cannot appeal to minors, make claims about health benefits or depict people under the influence, among other rules, according to Twitter’s guidelines.
After the lengthy submissions comes a waiting game, cannabis advertisers say.
“In my conversations [with a Twitter account manager] he said, ‘If money starts coming out of your account, then you’ll know it’s been approved,’” said Tilt’s Ms. Larson. Tilt next month plans to run Twitter ads for its Jupiter vaporizer business, and hopes to run ads for its Commonwealth Alternative Care brand of cannabis in Massachusetts as soon as possible.
Some companies have bumped up against fine print obstacles.
Cantrip, the cannabis soda brand, began spending around $600 a month on Twitter ads in February and increased the figure to $8,000 in March, but found the technology that tracks how ads lead to sales wasn’t working properly, Mr. Terry said. Cantrip upped its spending again in April but found its ads had been halted just before the unofficial cannabis holiday on April 20 because they included a call to action, according to Mr. Terry. Such language isn’t permitted in the Twitter ads policy, but Mr. Terry said that is not explicitly stated.
Cantrip submitted new ads featuring its soda cans when the policy regarding images changed, Mr. Terry said. But those too were deemed non-compliant. The reason? The image showed liquid splashing out of one of the cans, and Twitter’s updated policies dictate that cannabis advertisers can’t show their products out of their packaging, Mr. Terry said.
Cantrip is considering pausing all its advertising on the platform until it is confident Twitter’s policies won’t change again soon, he said.
Other companies have had better luck. Curaleaf pulled an animated background from one of its Instagram posts and repurposed it for Twitter as soon as the company’s drugs advertising policy changed in February, according to Ms. Lynch, the marketing chief. Twitter approved its first round of ads within 24 hours, she said.
Curaleaf saw its Twitter followers increase fourfold since it began paying for ads, and earlier this month began its second round of advertising on the platform, Ms. Lynch said.
“But at the end of the day, our goal is to drive sales,” she said. “So we continue to work closely with the Twitter data and our own e-commerce data to see how much of this is actually converting.”  — Source: Wall Street Journal.

The multi-concept operator, which emerged from the ashes of Craftworks Holdings, is taking in its first fast-food chain in Krystal. Both companies are owned by the private equity firm Fortress Investment Group . . . .

Krystal is Merging with Logan’s Roadhouse Owner of SPB Hospitality
SPB Hospitality, the multi-concept operator of casual dining chains like Logan’s Roadhouse and J. Alexander’s, is merging with Krystal Restaurants, the companies said on Thursday.
Both SPB and Krystal are owned by the same private equity firm, Fortress Investment Holdings, which acquired both companies out of bankruptcy in 2020. Krystal is the first fast-food concept in the Houston-based SPB’s portfolio.
Krystal operates nearly 300 restaurants in 10 states, mostly in the Southeast. The company will be operated separately under the SPB Hospitality umbrella as its own division. The brands in the portfolio operate independently, the company said, which allows the concepts to “enhance their unique identity.”
But as part of a multi-brand operator, they can share some services that are not brand dependent. “H.R., accounting, legal, it doesn’t matter if it’s a QSR, a fast-casual or upscale,” said Josh Kern, SPB’s interim CEO. “If we do things correctly, it could benefit Krystal.”
Multi-concept companies have become increasingly common in recent years, particularly among owners of smaller and midsized chains that hope to cut some overhead costs by operating them under a single umbrella.
Kern, however, suggested that such operations don’t always work, and he pointed out the predecessor company to SPB, Craftworks, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020. “I’ve seen it done incorrectly,” he said, “particularly at Craftworks.”
But he said that sharing services can make companies more efficient. Shared services can help these companies cut costs at a time when other costs are increasing and there are more demands for technology and remodels that add to the cost of operations. “There’s going to be more of it in the marketplace,” Kern said. “It’s interesting to really see some of the smaller, hyper-local brands that are starting to get into the shared services platform.”
SPB was created after Fortress acquired Craftworks out of bankruptcy. The company later acquired the upscale chain J. Alexander’s Holdings. That deal gave the company four brands, including its flagship concept, Stoney River Steakhouse, Redlands Grill, Overland Park Grill and Merus Grill. SPB already operated Logan’s, Old Chicago, Rock Bottom Brewery and several other mostly brewery concepts.
SPB has been moving some workers around and may eliminate some locations with the Krystal acquisition. The company has offices in Houston, Atlanta and Nashville from its different acquisitions but, Kern admitted, it may one day close the Houston office.
With its different brands, the company can use different real estate strategies. For instance, it may close a struggling Gordon Biersch Brewery and replace it with a J. Alexander’s. “You can take a restaurant that lost its luster and put one of our other brands in there,” Kern said. “We know the trade area, we know the landlord and we know what we pay for rent.” – Source: SPB Hospitality.

See the year’s best creative work and top marketing and production pros, as chosen by a jury of industry leaders . . . .

Introducing the Winners of the 2023 Ad Age Creativity Awards

Today, we are proud to present the winners of Ad Age’s seventh annual Creativity Awards. Paired with our long-running A-List, the Creativity Awards celebrate the year’s most impactful and innovative ideas, the agency executives and marketers behind them, and the production professionals who bring them to life.

The winners were chosen by four juries made up of leaders from top agencies, brands, and production companies. They spent a week last month debating the merits of the entries to select a truly impressive list of winners in 38 categories. They judged four categories: Work, honoring powerful creative ideas; People, recognizing individual talent across disciplines, including creative, media, and strategy; Creative Marketing, celebrating creatively effective marketers, ideas, and brands; and Production, saluting the people and companies setting the standard in making these ideas a reality.
Separately, a panel of Ad Age editors and TikTok executives selected a winner in the new Best Use of TikTok category, created in partnership with TikTok.
The people, ideas, and campaigns being recognized this year—the finalists as well as the winners—offer a compelling snapshot of the advertising industry at this moment in time. As new technology, new ways of working, and new processes and platforms continue to upend the industry, we congratulate those who continue to make the most innovative and impactful connections with consumers—bringing meaning, joy, and growth to those interactions at every touch point. – Source: Ad Age.

Melting Pot Restaurants Inc., the 94-unit fondue concept, plans to remodel a store each week during 2023. . .
Melting Pot Plans to Open a Remodel Weekly Through 2023
Melting Pot Restaurants Inc., the 94-unit fondue concept, plans to remodel a store each week during 2023, the company says.
Tampa, Fla.-based Melting Pot, a division of Front Burner Brands, has opened remodeled stores in Denver and El Paso, Texas, and launched what the company calls the “Melting Pot Evolution.”
Bob Johnston, Melting Pot CEO, said in a statement: “2021 and 2022 were both tremendous years for the brand in terms of increasing traffic — real growth. In other words, we had a growth that came not just through price increases, but actual traffic increases.” He said 74 restaurants in the system achieved all-time sales records in 2022.
The remodeled units offer a more open dining room layout, the company said, a more defined bar area, and elements like candles and fireplaces.
Deborah Ramos, senior design manager at Front Burner Brands, said: “When we started to undertake the remodel, we had a pretty wide variety of designs. The brand is a legacy brand, and some of our stores have not been updated since they opened in the early ‘80s,
Johnston noted that, across the network, remodeled stores performed 16 percentage points better than non-remodeled locations. In 2023, the company plans to fully remodel 60 existing locations.
Johnston said the relocation of a restaurant in King of Prussia, Pa., provided a traffic and sales boost, leading in 2022 to a 31.2% increase in revenue and a 17.9% increase in traffic over 2021 figures.
“The brand has been there nearly two decades, and the geographic location is great, but the building needed some improvements,” Johnston said. “The franchisee said, ‘Let’s not just renovate here, let’s get a great location.’ They relocated and built out that restaurant with the newest prototype, and it’s a fine example of what The Melting Pot of the future looks like.”
Johnston said the concept is looking at franchising possibilities in Charleston, S.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., Houston, Memphis, Tenn., and Montgomery, Ala.
The company is also near the opening of a company-owned location in St. Petersburg, Fla., which it says will be “a training center of excellence for the brand.”
Melting Pot was founded in 1975.
Parent Front Burner Brands also owns the Melting Pot Social brand, which opened its first location in July 2021 in Asheville, N.C., and expanded to Tampa and the fast-casual Oronzo (UN)Common Italian concept, which debuted in June 2020. – Source: NRN.

Did you get used to making your own coffee at home during the pandemic, and now find yourself in an actual coffee shop less often? You’re not alone . . . .

The Complicated Business of Foodservice Coffee
Brewed hot coffee consumption across restaurants, retail, and other foodservice locations has not rebounded since the pandemic, according to Datassential’s BUZZ 2023 Annual Report, as more consumers perfected their at-home brews and opted to make more coffee at home.
So as fewer consumers opt to go to a cafe or a drive-through for their hot cup of joe, what can foodservice operators do to drive traffic?
Specialty options enhance a hot cup of joe
Hot coffee consumption at foodservice peaks at midday, though that’s shifting more toward home. But there may be an opportunity for shops and retailers to focus on options for an evening mug, as those purchases have been slightly increasing in recent years.
What else do customers want with their hot brewed coffee? Options. Customer satisfaction levels are declining in part due to a lack of sweeteners, creamers and other add-ins. Offering a variety of creamers including both dairy- and plant-based options are a must. Sweeteners are also important, though regular sugar is by far the most commonly used sweetener for hot brewed coffee. Consumers also appreciate house-ground beans and other aspects of the experience they can’t get at home, so operators should consider adding those where it makes sense as well.
With hot specialty coffee, daily consumption remains steady, but consumers are making far more of these drinks at home as more work virtually and have purchased in-home equipment, like espresso machines. Currently, only about 20% of hot specialty coffees are consumed outside of the home.
So where can operators draw more sales for these drinks? Additives and toppings. Sure, stocking a variety of sweeteners and milk is important, but operators can stand out with indulgent and eye-catching toppings including everything from whipped cream, drizzle and spices to latte art. Seasonal flavors as limited-time offers are also key to drawing more visitors.
Iced coffee offerings reign supreme
The bright spot in coffee is all about the ice: daily cold coffee consumption has increased slightly across all times of the day.
Some consumers have shifted to more unique offerings. Options like cold brew and nitro are growing in popularity both at foodservice and in-home and could be a great way to bring more customers in, particularly in those times of the day when sales of other coffees wane.
Another way to grow cold coffee sales? Food pairings. Meals combined with cold coffee have been growing since 2019. These drinks are generally consumed in social outings or when others are present, so a cold coffee and snack pairing or a two-for-one offer could encourage sharing.
Above all, and regardless of what kind of coffee consumers choose when away from home, they want something — whether it’s the add-ons or the experience — that they can’t replicate at home. It’s a big plus when operators can offer house-ground beans or hand-crafted made-to-order beverages, but the key to keeping and growing a strong coffee offering is in the details: niche, local or specialty brands, syrups or toppings that make drinks special and vary by the season and a variety of plant-based and dairy milks alike. – Source: Smart/Brief Food.