Restaurants of the future? WSJ Reports.

In an article featured in Friday’s WSJ, they discuss José Andrés’ newest restaurant in Beverly Hills, and how its key attributes may or may not be the trends of the future.  Interesting weekend read for all of y’all who are interested in the restaurant business.

It ain’t easy being green… WaPo Reports

Great article from the Washington Post highlighting the challenges of sustainability in restaurants, even if the intentions are good.  The article focuses on two case restos in the DC area: Founding Fathers, a 263-seat restaurant promoting a commitment to fresh and local ingredients, and Equinox, a 90-seat (expensive) restaurant basically doing the same thing.

While the challenges are the same for both, the lesser-expensive Founding Fathers often has troubles truly sourcing its local ingredients, citing lack of clear reporting and cost.  And that makes sense; think about three turns in a night, that’s almost 800 meals, and that’s just one daypart.

Talking with restaurateurs around in NYC, this is definitely an issue.  As with most purchase decisions, cost is a/the major factor in choosing one product over another.  Unfortunately, “long term assets” do not include anything about the environment or health concerns (until Google decides that they have a computer algorithm that can model this).  When the rubber hits the road, how can a “good idea” also be a “profitable idea”?  It is clearly a major concern for any business, and the food business is no exception.  Quite simply, it is expensive to source local ingredients, and in the winter months, as any farmer’s market regular will attest, it is difficult to get ingredients that would compose an entire meal.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  A survey sourced from Zagat says that 61% of people are willing to pay more for “green” or “sustainable” food.  A key question that is left out is of course, “how much more,” but let’s hold that thought for a moment.  If this 61% is willing (and able) to shell out a few extra bucks to support farmers truly farming/raising sustainably, then this provides the much-needed money to invest in infrastructure and other needs, which then addresses some of the volume and distribution issues that are the problems in the first place.  Take, for example, the Milk Thistle Farm, a local New York dairy farm in Ghent, NY.  They recently started selling bonds to invest in a new bottle facility on-site.  This will help with their distribution footprint, and will hopefully expand their market share.  And it will bring their costs down (I hope).

This is why I continue to see immense value in partnering with the big food companies in order to effect any real change.  At the same time, those big companies need to learn to partner with the little guys instead of buying them out and changing the rules.  During a meeting in the Lehigh Valley last week, the President talked about the importance of innovation and its longer-term effects on the job market in this country.  If we think about the food industry in the same way, there is plenty of room for innovation, and its benefits go much farther than job creation.

In any case, give the article a read.  And if you’ve got an extra grand, get a Milk Thistle Farm bond.

How about a side of flu virus with that creamed spinach?

I’m not really one to comment about restaurant cleanliness and all of that.  Maybe it’s the complete desensitization from watching too much Anthony Bourdain or my generally cavalier attitude about trusting eating establishments (“if you build it and people come and they don’t come back because they either die or get sick, they won’t keep coming”).  And, for those of you who don’t know me, it is true that I will not eat off of my own stovetop, but I will eat food off of tables in restaurants.  And, yes, I realize that those two facts diametrically oppose one another.

But sick restaurant workers is something that I do not stand for.  I think I saw a waiter blow his nose one time while standing at the POS station and nearly flipped my shit; since I have a really calm and cool exterior, I did it on the inside and hopefully it will stay repressed and come out as a panic attack in about 15 years (while doing something REALLY stressful, like getting my car washed).  However, a new New York City proposition might make this a fact of the past, according to an article I saw today on the NRN website.

It looks like the New York City Council is looking to make those tougher-than-thou restaurant biz give some sick days and not have employees worry about paying the bills.  Of course, since this would obviously double the hourly pay costs when someone calls in sick, the restaurant lobbyists are against it in full force.  According to Rick Sampson of the New York State Restaurant Association (NYRSA), this would place undue burden on the restaurant industry, and that it’s “totally ri-donkey-dick-ulous” (my words, not his).

I have a few issues with this.  First of all, who the hell wants to be around sick people?  Sometimes I don’t even want to be around healthy people.  Secondly, who wants these sick people to be either a) cooking their food or b) serving their food or c) anywhere near their food.  Come on Rick, give me a break– next time you walk out of your office, wait on the street corner until someone visibly ill walks by and hug him/her.  Really get up in there nice and tight.  Then lick his/her hand.

That sounds disgusting?  Tell that to the line chef who has to come in to work with 104 fever and a nose running like a faucet just to keep his family fed.  Then have him make you a tuna melt.

Rick is quoted, “I don’t know how in this economy an industry such as ours can afford something like this.”  Again, come on, man, that’s just a dumb statement.  Last time I checked  I don’t know what Rick’s credentials are, maybe he is a brilliant businessman who just says stupid things.  In this economy when people are hyper-sensitive of where they are spending their money and health care is at the center of mass debate (MASS DEBATE, MASS DEBATE!  Get it?), I don’t think you can afford to NOT do this.  I mean, think about it this way: I open a restaurant and tout the fact that I give my employees paidsick days.  I make a HUGE deal of it.  People start wondering, “why is this guy telling me his restaurant gives its employees sick days?  That’s really weird.”  Then they realize that maybe some other restaurants don’t give their employees sick days.  All of a sudden, you are a slave driver and I am a saviour.  My restaurants go gangbusters, yours are in the hole.  Sure, maybe I have slightly higher fixed costs, but I’m a good guy.  People like eating in my restaurants.  My employees are happy and people feel good about eating there.  Maybe I charge a couple extra bucks for it, too, and buy myself a nice Ferrari.

I mean, let’s think of the worst possible scenario.  Line cook Joe comes into work, really not feeling well.  He was tossing and turning all night, and then felt nauseous all morning.  He goes to work anyway since he can’t afford to miss that day of pay.  He gets the whole work staff sick, and a few customers get sick also.  It’s not a pretty picture.

Adding some actual history, let’s go back to December, 2006.  Dinosaur BBQ, Syracuse, New York.  1,000 people get sick from the norovirus after eating at Dinosaur BBQ; the source of the virus is unknown, maybe it was a staff member, maybe it was a customer.  The restaurant closes for THREE days, and all of their food is thrown out AND they have to pay employees to sanitize the restaurant.  How much money do you think was lost there, Rick?  Step into 2009, homeboy– SWINE FLU is a-comin’, and cooking that bad boy low and slow doesn’t seem to make it any tastier.  Stop being so short-sighted, thinking only about today’s profits and failing to think about the long-term.

But wait, there’s more!  Rick’s not the only one against it– Robert Bookman has also gotten a sound bite out there.  He is the legislative counsel for the NYSRA, so he’s a lawyer or something, and he must be smart (right?).  He has said, “We don’t believe the city has the authority to pass such legislation… For one thing, the city has no enforcement mechanism. There is no city department of labor. Who is going to oversee this?”

Are you kidding me?  The NYC restaurant business has over 30 percent of its work force comprised of illegal immigrants, and you’re playing the labor enforcement card?  Is this some sort of fancy lawyer trick?  Or are you going to say, “of COURSE they don’t get sick days, they don’t even get rights!”

Clever.

Anyway, I will go on record that I would pay one dollar more for my food if I knew that the guy preparing it wasn’t heaving in the bathroom prior to making my quesadilla.  I’m sure 100 other people would, too.  There’s Joe’s sick day right there.  If you can’t muster up 100 diners, you’ve got bigger problems.

And I’m done.

By the way, went to Grand Sichuan on 24th street tonight for dinner– tremendous.  Any semblance I had of a cold has been sichuan peppered out of my system.