This is the last episode to appear on the First Bite channel! If you would like more daily updates on the restaurant industry, subscribe to Restaurant Daily at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

First Bite is becoming Restaurant Daily! Don't forget to subscribe at Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here.

According to Grubhub, Starbucks is the most searched merchant on its app that is not yet available. Overall, Starbucks has been slower to partner with third-party delivery companies than many other top chains in the foodservice industry. While the company began offering third-party delivery through Uber Eats in select markets in 2018, Uber Eats delivery was not available nationally until 2020. Starbucks did not begin offering delivery with DoorDash until last January, and the partnership was not expanded nationally until March 2023. 

Grubhub is the final delivery company of the “big three” that Starbucks is now partnering with, though the company has the smallest delivery market share at 8% (as compared with DoorDash’s 67% and Uber Eats’ 23%), according to Bloomberg Second Measure.

The company’s engine has no doubt been churning at full speed of late, as evidenced by share prices jumping by nearly 75% since October alone. There are several factors pushing the company to new heights, including a sharpened focus on throughput and a prioritization of the employee proposition. For that latter piece, Chipotle has continuously evolved its benefits to include mental healthcare, expanded parental leave, tuition reimbursement, English as a Second Language classes, pet insurance, and more. Most recently, the company added a service that provides faster access to paychecks, as well as a matching contribution to 401(k) workers’ student loan repayments. This continuous evolution of benefits is informed by town hall meetings each quarter, a “pulse survey” every other year that goes out to all the company’s 120,000 employees, and a benefits department that is highly in touch with workers’ changing demands.

The company has cited challenging economic conditions, diminishing in-store traffic driven by sustained work-from-home trends, rising food and utility costs, and “significant increases to the minimum wage in California.” On April 1, California’s minimum wage increased by 25% to $20 an hour.

Rubio’s is seeking court approval to continue operations during the sale process to ensure continued payment of employee wages and benefits. All gift cards and rewards will be honored at the remaining 86 locations.

In jumping from one fast-growing beverage chain to another, Batty will help Swig to achieve its long-term goal of growing from 70 locations to 1,400 units over the next eight years.

Swig is best known for being at the forefront of the dirty soda beverage trend — which combines soda, dairy creamer, and flavored syrups and is popular in Utah — and was one of the fastest growing new concepts last year. According to Technomic Top 500 data, Swig had the second-fastest sales growth rate across the beverage and snack category at 39.1%. Swig also had the third-fastest unit growth rate in the category, behind only Crumbl and HTeaO.

With an ambitious long-term goal of building more than 1,300 stores in mind, the company will probably be about 900 franchised shops and 500 corporate stores, with corporate growth likely to move along quicker than franchise growth. Batty is currently in talks with the Swig leadership team to put a development plan in place.  

After several quarters of negative traffic and sales, new CEO Julie Felss-Masino announced last month that the family-dining chain would be undergoing a brand makeover to become more relevant, with five pillars of change, ranging from store remodels and tech investments to menu changes and pricing. While brand makeovers are not unusual (Domino’s and Papa Johns both announced new strategic overhauls at the start of the year), Cracker Barrel needs to walk a pretty narrow balance beam of modernizing the brand without drifting from the kitschy, homey vibe the chain is famous for.

During Cracker Barrel’s investor update call, which was hosted just two weeks before the company’s Q3 quarterly earnings, Massino broke down the ways in which the company is trying to dig itself out of the red and onto a positive path forward. While these company updates typically don’t pique the interest of the public outside of investor and restaurant news circles, mainstream media picked up the story, and Cracker Barrel was trending on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

As most quick-service restaurant chains struggle to balance profitability with perception of value and affordability, particularly for lower income consumers, raising prices has been a common strategy. However, as NRN recently reported, 78% of Americans now believe that fast food is a luxury purchase, according to a new LendingTree study.

According to Russell Weiner, Domino’s saw the writing on the wall about consumer spending in this inflationary environment and pumped the brakes on pricing a bit earlier than most. 

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based fast-casual restaurant brand debuted a fried-chicken sandwich and a grilled-chicken sandwich on its permanent menu on May 21.

The chain’s chicken breast is prepared sous-vide. The new sandwiches come grilled or hand-breaded and fried, topped with fresh lettuce, tomato, pickles, and honey mustard.

The new sandwiches join the brand’s Jumbo Chicken Wings, Chicken Tenders, and Grilled Chicken Bowls.

Since the debut of Popeyes’ chicken sandwich in 2019, there’s been a surge in chicken-sandwich products across the industry, many brands trying to chase Chick-fil-A’s success in the category.

Technomic data shows that chicken sandwiches are continually increasing on menus despite their seeming ubiquity. In 2023, chicken sandwiches grew on menus by 0.4% and the five-year growth is expected to be 1.1%.

Indeed, 80% of American households have less cash available than they did in 2019, while credit card debt has reached a historic high. Meanwhile, a JP Morgan survey found that over 70% of low-income consumers are having a hard time making ends meet. Notably, middle-income households are also feeling pinched; 67% believe their income is falling behind the current cost of living.

Fast forward to this post-pandemic environment and fast casual has become a rare sweet spot of growth for the industry as price point lines continue to blur between segments. In the past several quarters, as inflation-weary consumers pull back on visits to most casual-dining concepts and some quick-service concepts, fast-casual players like Potbelly, Chipotle, Wingstop, CAVA, and Shake Shack have enjoyed traffic lifts — in some instances quite significant. The segment has also outperformed on sales. According to recently released Technomic data, fast-casual sales in 2023 grew by 11.2%, followed by quick-service sales at 7.9%. Family-dining restaurants grew by 5.7% and casual-dining chains grew by 4.7%.

Of course, there’s an ironic twist at play here. Those rates remain high because demand remains high. Driving much of this environment is a sturdy set of consumers with more wages in their pockets and a continued pent-up demand from the pandemic. Those consumers, especially younger ones, have also proven that they really, really like to frequent restaurants. And so here we are, with a murky understanding of what exactly growth means at this post-pandemic juncture.   

The consensus is that most of the industry’s growth from this point will come from higher demand concepts focused on convenience. High rates haven’t derailed the quick-service or fast-casual segments, for instance, or many bigger players in general. According to Technomic data, the top 500 chains increased sales in 2023 by $31 billion, or nearly 8%. During the recent Restaurant Leadership Conference, Technomic Managing Principal Joe Pawlak called it a “very, very strong growth year” for those at the top.

Operators are waking up to the significance of data collection and optimization in operational decision-making, from employee scheduling and inventory management, to marketing data about customers. This was especially evident at the Restaurant Show, where almost every booth at the tech pavilion went into detail about the data their software (and sometimes hardware) provides.

Gusto founder/CEO Nate Hybl said this conversation about employees is long overdue.

The bigger companies are already focusing more on the employee proposition, but smaller brands need to make people development a part of their budget, Hybl added. He suggested taking 1-2% off the topline to invest in people.

Hybl said acknowledging and understanding the Gen Z mindset of work/life balance and diversity and inclusion are more important than they’ve ever been, in fact, he added that the pandemic changed the employee mindset and gave more leverage to hourly workers.

Over the past 10 years, that idea has been flipped. Eatertainment had moved onto larger-scale games like bowling and pool. Chains like Punch Bowl Social, founded in 2012, were also focused on offering upscale food and drink in a hipper environment.

Following the struggles of Punch Bowl Social, which filed for bankruptcy in December 2020, a new class of eatertainment venues have arrived. For the most part, they are concepts based on sports ranging from golf to pickleball to bowling. They’re just as focused on elevated food and drink offerings as their predecessors, but the concepts focus on just one or two larger-scale games rather than several.

With the focus on just one game, these eatertainment concepts have been able to drill into what makes each brand special. For most of them, it’s technology that elevates gameplay.

Or has it? Customers may have more options than ever before, from ordering almost any food they want from the comfort of their own home to choosing to dine out “the old-fashioned way” (and every “channel” in between), but spending habits have not changed as much as we might think they have. According to data from Technomic, customers are roughly as price-conscious now as they were just before the pandemic. In a survey, half of customers said that they picked restaurants with lower prices in Q1 2020, while 52% of customers said they do so in Q1 2024, and the exact same percentage of customers (68%) said they pay close attention to menu prices in both Q1 2020 and Q1 2024.

Auction site Tagex has listed 48 closed Red Lobster locations and has put all of their contents up for sale in an auction scheduled to end on Tuesday. They’re “Winner Takes All” auctions, meaning buyers are bidding on the total contents of each restaurant.

Thai Union, which has long been a large minority shareholder in Red Lobster, said in January it would sell its stake in the company and has reportedly been looking for buyers ever since.

To understand the secret of Chipotle’s momentum of late, it’s important to understand its sharpened focus on throughput. Indeed, the word “throughput” was mentioned 33 times during the company’s earnings call April 24. Unsurprisingly, several brands, from Cheesecake Factory to Starbucks to Portillo’s, have noted a more intentional prioritization of throughput, because why wouldn’t they want to emulate Chipotle’s recent success? That said, they all have some catching up to do to get on the same playing field as Chipotle.

Quickly, Miri gained a following with her videos going viral, garnering tens of millions of views on her videos between January and April of this year. But Chick-fil-A wasn’t happy.

The Atlanta-based chicken chain made Miri stop posting videos because they violated the employee handbook, as she explained, and the company would not be making an exception for her or collaborating on any future posts.

“People do that stuff as it’s convenient, and they back-burner more often,” said Lena Katz, lead, creator-integrated services at Ampersand (AOI-Pro). “Once one side begins to feel exploited, the relationship sours or ends.”

Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman stated that while January was tough with weather, the benefit of two holidays in the first quarter was a boon to business.

The quarter, ended March 31, saw most of its success from 41 net new store openings over the past year, resulting in $21.1 million in additional revenue.

CFO Mitch Reback mentioned that Sweetgreen was impacted by AB1228, increasing wages in late February. While it’s too early to see the full results, he said, the brand has made some adjustments.

Sales from aggregator channels have grown to 16% this quarter, as compared with 12% the same quarter of 2023, meanwhile organic delivery has declined year-over-year, while carryout remains flat. This highlights the quandary operators face when utilizing third-party apps: they are crucial to pull in new and non-regular customers, but operators lose revenue from these transactions.  

Traffic will likely continue an upward growth trajectory after Dutch Bros starts accepting mobile order and pay, which the company will begin offering for the first time by the end of 2024, in partnership with Olo. The new partnership and mobile order and pay solution is currently in test mode at seven locations, and is meant to boost operational efficiency, especially for guests that want to cut down on wait times at the drive-thru lane.

The same blend of Arabica coffee beans from Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras are being used for both hot and iced coffees, but the roast is different.

The difference between chefs’ love for squash and consumer perception might be reflected in Technomic’s Ignite menu data, which indicates that mentions of squash on United States menus overall decreased by 7% between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023. But butternut squash soup mentions are up by 19.6%, and squash mentions in fine-dining restaurants are up by 8%.

One big squash advocate is Dan Barber, chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., and Family Meal at Blue Hill in New York City.

Barber also is the founder of a seed company, Row 7, that essentially got its start developing new squash varieties, including the popular koginut, a variation of butternut that is now grown nationwide.

According to CEO Laxman Narasimhan, the global same-store sales drop of 4% was driven by declining traffic in North America, issues in China and the Middle East, bad weather, and “a more cautious consumer overall.” Additionally, Starbucks revised its annual fiscal guidance to reflect a more reserved growth outlook as the company attempts to reverse this negative sales trend.

Besides reaching these occasional guests, Starbucks leadership emphasized that many of the issues over the past quarter came down to challenges with meeting demand, particularly during peak morning hours. 

Technology was the focal point of that optimism, with CEO David Gibbs noting that Q1 marked the first time the Yum system surpassed over 50% in digital sales, representing about $30 billion in annualized, digital sales. These sales were driven by the continued rollout of Click and Collect and kiosks.

One example is voice AI at the drive-thru, which Yum has been testing at five Taco Bell restaurants in California. The company is expanding the test into 30 restaurants in Q2 based on positive feedback. Yum is also piloting AI in its proprietary app, which makes it easier for general managers to access information to make decisions.

In a Q1 earnings call, Domino’s CEO Russell Weiner discussed how the loyalty program is synergistic with other elements of the company’s previously announced “Hungry for More” strategy for 2024, including menu innovation. For example, the new New York Style pizza launching this week, made with thinner crust and a provolone cheese blend, is now available as a rewards deal.

All roads lead back to the loyalty program: Domino’s highly successful “Emergency Pizza” promotion, which gave away $1 million of free pizzas last fall, was effectively a rebranded “BOGO” coupon, that allowed customers to come back and cash in their free pizza at a later date. For Domino’s, it allowed the company to welcome new customers and lapsed customers back into the fold.

The company also generated 7% comp sales growth, while system sales grew 15% to reach $2.7 billion. CEO Brian Niccol said in-store sales were up by nearly 20% as throughput reached its highest level in four years. That throughput improvement has stemmed from the company’s Project Square One, first put into place during the summer of 2022 to prioritize a focus on operational fundamentals for a workforce that largely dissipated during the pandemic. The company improved its throughput by nearly two entrees during its peak 15-minute timeframe versus last year, with sequential improvements each month. Niccol said its operations initiative focuses on four areas, including expediting the bagging and payment process and ensuring the manager supplies both lines with food to avoid interruption.  

The amount of both regional legislation and individual litigation attempting to regulate and mitigate issues with the food delivery industry has escalated recently. Over the past two months alone, Florida passed a bill requiring delivery apps to get permission from restaurants before arranging pickups, a New York City councilmember just proposed a bill that would require delivery apps to allow customers to tip before placing orders, and California put forth a bill that would require delivery app providers to provide an itemized breakdown of fees at checkout, including a disclosure of restaurant-facing fees.

Chipotle Mexican Grill scored a 97.72 out of 100 on the organization’s burnout rating score, second only to Progressive Insurance as the workplace with the most complaints of burnout, with “stressful” being the most common word used to describe the workplace environment. According to the Glassdoor reviews that mentioned burnout, Starbucks was also in the top 10 companies out of the 550+ companies surveyed. As non-franchised organizations, the reviews of both Starbucks and Chipotle are overwhelmingly from corporate employees.  

According to the legal representation for Starbucks, the highest court in the land should reconsider the district court decision in part because the NLRB’s request for a temporary injunction was approved on the grounds of a two-factor test, even though other circuit courts use a more rigorous four-factor test to determine if the injunction will be granted.

This month has produced filings and rumors of more to come in the pandemic-shaken restaurant industry.

Maitland, Fla.-based Tijuana Flats Restaurants filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Florida Middle District Bankruptcy Court after closing a total of 40 restaurants this year, 11 of them last week.

And, while Tijuana Flats is in the fast-casual segment, North Aurora, Ill.-based Oberweis Dairy filed April 12 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization at the 43-unit dairy and retail concept.

And Bloomberg reported April 16 that Orlando, Fla.-based Red Lobster, a stalwart in the casual-dining segment, was talking with experts about a possible bankruptcy filing. The company named Jonathan Tibus, known for his restructuring expertise, as CEO in late March.

Senior editor Ron Ruggless helps us make sense of it all.

The answer is always shifting, and Nation’s Restaurant News’ annual Power List has evolved alongside it, recognizing everyone from chief executives to tech entrepreneurs to general managers. This year, though, a clue can be found in the official definition of power: “possession of control, authority, or influence over others,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Influence. With influence comes power, and increasingly a horde of social-media users are gaining power by capturing consumers’ attention and driving their purchasing decisions.

The main takeaway is labor. There was a lot of discussion about labor and wages against the backdrop of California’s AB1228 which went into effect earlier this month, raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour. One operator told Alicia he’ll “never” expand in California again, while another felt confident about the combined pricing and technology strategies her team has put into place to soften the inflationary blow. We’ve seen plenty of stories so far about layoffs and kiosk implementations and even menu adjustments to navigate these higher wages, but time will tell how it ultimately shakes out. Will this $20 watermark trickle beyond QSRs? Likely. Other markets? Maybe. Will California’s restaurant growth stagnate a bit? Perhaps among smaller players, but not likely among the bigger players who have the advantages of scale to absorb the higher costs.

Senior editor Joanna Fantozzi was there are had some key takeaways from the conference.

First, pricing & labor costs. Something we’ve been talking about in the industry for quite a while ranging from digital menu boards to AI technology that can predict future needs to how to maintain fair pricing while also turning a profit.

Second, experience is still key. At casual dining restaurants, there’s a hesitancy to embrace technology out of fear that it would disrupt the hospitality they’ve become known for. How can they balance both? Also, the rise in the new kind of eatertainment brands was a big theme of the conference.

Third, data is a big tech takeaway. We’ve been talking about data collection here for a while but the question of ‘what do I do with his data?’ is still a mystery for many brands, including the top 25.

It’s operationally straightforward to swap one sauce for another, but quite impactful in terms of flavor.

Sweet-and-spicy was certainly the flavor combination of last year, and Arby’s, Qdoba, Buffalo Wild Wings, Genghis Grill, Red Lobster, Chester’s Chicken, and Bonchon all added sauces in that category. Twin Peaks added a hot sauce that’s so spicy its name requires an asterisk, while other chains augmented what they already had, such as The Halal Guys and Naf Naf Grill.

McDonald’s, while busily upgrading its burgers, also decided to make its beloved Big Mac sauce available for any menu item.

Dunkin’ found that the Butter Pecan Swirl which was a seasonal syrup that guests could add to their coffee was so popular that they made it a permanent addition to the menu.

Plano, Texas-based Pizza Hut is teaming with the NAACP Outstanding Social Media Personality winner to support both Lee’s charities as well as promote its “$12 Any” campaign, which allows customers to customize their toppings and crust.

Lee’s community pizza features his family favorite toppings, pepperoni and bacon, on a hand-tossed crust.

Lee is known for his food content pushed to more than 16 million TikTok followers.

As part of this partnership, Pizza Hut and Lee will donate $50,000 to Southfield ANT and OakHills High School, where Keith and his wife, Ronni, attended high school.

These drinks, available at all Starbucks cafes for a limited time starting April 16, join the lineup of “swicy” drinks made with hot honey that were announced last month for Reserve stores in Chicago, New York City, and Seattle. Together, these beverages join the throng of hot honey pepperoni pizzas, sweet chili-flavored Takis, and chili pepper maple syrups that have been popular on menus and in grocery stores over the past year. 

While other brands have simplified and paired down menus, Velvet Taco has become known for expanding its menu. From the brand’s signature tacos like the Chicken Tikka to its weekly taco features, called WTF, the brand is leaning into the fun part of the restaurant industry.

CEO Clay Dover, who has worked at Pei Wei and Raising Cane’s as chief marketing officer, has promised that the chain will be growing soon and has 200 restaurants in the pipeline. Some of those new locations include airports as well as international expansion.

In addition to Chick-fil-A, which received 16% of the vote, other top choices include McDonald’s (10%), Chipotle (9%), Raising Cane’s (4%), and Texas Roadhouse (4%).

The survey polled 6,020 teens with an average age of 16.1 from 47 states. Of the teens, 38% are employed part-time, and their average household income is $66,280.

Chick-fil-A is a favorite among consumers, and as the chicken segment has been on the rise, the chain has benefited from its success while maintaining its signature service. Last week, Technomic released its report on Chick-fil-A’s 2023 financials, which were up 43% over the chain’s 2018 numbers.

While Panera originally made its mark by offering freshly baked bread and other bakery goods — and later on, used ethical sourcing and “clean” ingredients as an industry differentiator – the fast-casual brand has recently changed its outlook.

As Panera looks to “get back to its roots” ahead of a near-future IPO, the company recently introduced a menu transformation, while allegedly simultaneously axing about 19% of the menu, including flatbreads, grain bowls, select pastry items and cold brews, and more. Additionally, the company has quietly rolled back some of its ethical sourcing practices to allow for “judicious use of antibiotics” and ease supply chain pressures. At the same time, Panera is still grappling with several lawsuits surrounding Panera customers that died allegedly after consuming highly caffeinated lemonade energy drinks.

Such momentum hasn’t necessarily been the case for many of its casual dining peers in a challenging post-pandemic environment. Many have experienced declining traffic patterns and, in some cases, unit count retrenchment. This divergence pushed Texas Roadhouse past one of its biggest segment competitors in 2023, as the Louisville, Ky.-based chain generated higher sales than Applebee’s for the first time, according to new data from Technomic Ignite.

Texas Roadhouse also snuck up on casual dining leader Olive Garden, though it’s worth mentioning that Olive Garden’s 2023 was certainly remarkable in its own right. The Darden Restaurants’ brand finished 2023 with $5.11 billion in sales, an 8.8% increase over 2022’s $4.69 billion.

In the process, the company has also continued to gain market share in an intensely competitive QSR chicken category. 

As Chick-fil-A’s consistent growth remains a major narrative, it’s worth mentioning that its competition extends far beyond the QSR chicken category. Indeed, Kalinowski Equity Research noted all the way back in 2018 that Chick-fil-A’s biggest competitor is McDonald’s and it’s no wonder why the Golden Arches and seemingly every other QSR concept (and beyond) have since ignited a chicken sandwich war replicating the Atlanta-based chain’s signature product.

Fast forward to now and this competitive set remains just as broad. Chick-fil-A released its latest Franchisee Disclosure Document this week, showing that the chain’s average unit volumes for non-mall locations in 2023 reached a record $9.3 million – an 8.1% increase over the previous record, $8.67 million, reached in 2022.

For decades, we knew what we were getting from the awards: Mostly well-established chefs from fine-dining restaurants in major cities. Yes, they were usually white and male, but arguably more importantly they were largely from the same groups of chefs with well-established networks and hardworking publicists. The same nominees put forward by past winners and a cadre of food writers (including myself until the late 2010s) who didn’t change very often appeared on the ballots every year, minus whoever won the previous year. And when the big-name chefs such as Thomas Keller and the late Charlie Trotter won all the awards they could win, the nominations were passed on to their protégés. 

That’s no longer the case.

The Beard Awards were essentially canceled in 2020 and 2021 for obvious reasons, and in the interim the foundation did some serious soul-searching and reworked the criteria of the awards. Now those nominating potential winners must explain how the chefs, restaurants, bartenders, etc., fit into the foundation’s values “centered around creating a more equitable, sustainable, and healthy work culture.”

Analysts Eric Gonzalez of Keybanc and Mark Kalinowski scraped data and researched pricing trends over the past couple of months at major restaurant chains to determine how much menu prices have been impacted by surge in labor costs in the state. All eyes are on companies like Chipotle and Starbucks especially, as these brands do not franchise (which is historically an industry anomaly).

According to Kalinowski’s research (which sampled 25 Chipotle restaurants in California), the price of a Chipotle chicken burrito went up 8.3% from February to April, while the cost of a steak burrito increased by 7%. This research is in line with Gonzalez’s analysis, which suggests that pricing at most Chipotle’s 476 stores in California increased by 7-8%. Gonzalez said that Chipotle is actually an unusual case because the company has undervalued its menu prices in the state to compete with the proliferation of other burrito options in California.

Waitr was founded in 2013 as a boutique delivery platform by students at McNeese University and then was officially launched in 2015 before spreading throughout Louisiana and into other regions. In 2018, the company was acquired by Landry’s owner Tilman Fertitta’s blank check company, Landcadia Holdings Inc., for $308 million.

Since then, the company has experienced a series of financial ups and downs as the restaurant industry entered the golden era of food delivery and it was “sink or swim” in the increasingly crowded market. Waitr tried to differentiate itself from competitors like Grubhub and DoorDash by catering toward smaller, independent restaurants in mid-sized cities.

Then, a couple of weeks later, on March 24, Panera Bread also experienced a “massive tech outage” that impacted online ordering, POS systems, and in-store kiosks, as first reported by Silicon Valley Daily, though the company was not as forthcoming as McDonald’s had been about the cause, and Reddit users in the Panera community speculated that it could be a cyberattack of some kind.

Although few details were revealed about either the McDonald’s or Panera outages, the reality is that widespread IT outage can affect operators of any size, and restaurants need to deploy resources from preventing (as much as they can) these issues from happening in the first place.

There were keynotes from Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Katty Kay, Cassandra Worthy, and Kendra Scott, as well as networking activities.

At the conference, there were sessions on inclusion, overcoming imposter syndrome, personal branding, boundary setting, communication, and sessions for communities of interest like women of color, LGBTQ, single/working parents.

Ahead, you’ll hear from one of the editors from NRN who attended the conference, Joanna Fantozzi, about her impression of attending for the first time as well as hear what her thoughts are on moving the needle forward for DEI and gender parity at a time when companies are rolling them back or changing language.

According to a press release, KFC has been measuring progress using the McKinsey & Company Inclusion Survey, which tests whether a subset of employees believe they have an equal chance of success within the company. The survey measures the “gender experience gap” to understand the differences in employees’ observed, perceived, and lived experiences.

KFC’s parity milestone comes on the heels of McKinsey’s 2023 Women in the Workplace Report, which shows that for every 100 men promoted from entry-level to managerial positions, just 87 women received similar promotions.

Most recently, the legislation was clarified via assembly bill 610, which carved out some exemptions to the bill, including workers in nontraditional restaurant locations like airports, hotels, event centers, theme parks, and corporate campus cafeterias. Originally, this bill included a carve-out for restaurants that bake their own bread, like Panera, though after pushback, Gov. Newsom was pushed to clarify that Panera would be following the new minimum wage law requirements.  

As you’ll hear ahead, some of these menu items have been so popular that they’ve joined menus permanently. Others haven’t even existed.

This year in particular, there are a few chains that seem to be embracing pickles which, in light of yesterday’s episode, would seem to be on trend.

Bret Thorn and I discuss food trends in the industry when it comes to beverages and what’s up ahead.

Its new Crispy Cuppy ’Roni is a thicker version of the popular pizza topping with crispy curled edges.

The new topping is available on the NY Style Crispy Cuppy ’Roni Pizza for $13.99, in the Crispy Cuppy ’Roni Papadia folded sandwich for $6.99, and in the miniature Crispy Cuppy ’Roni Papa Bites for $4.99. They’re being offered now to Papa Rewards loyalty program members and to everyone else starting April 1.

Hear more about trends in the pizza segment with senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn on today's episode of First Bite.

An increase in advertising/marketing spend was one of the major themes from this latest round of earnings calls, in fact, and it’s a strategy shared by brands from Brinker to BJs, and from Shake Shack to Dutch Bros. There’s a reason for this (or several). Firstly, we’ve returned to a far more normalized environment after three years of anything but. Second, several brands are growing and therefore cultivating top-of-mind awareness as they enter new markets. Third, consumers are becoming more discerning and pulling back on traffic, and it’s important to keep their attention.

New tech capabilities, including AI, will play a crucial role in the rise of dynamic pricing across the industry. For Wendy’s, changeable pricing starts with digital menu boards, which are being rolled out across the company’s portfolio, and includes AI-enabled menu changes that allow restaurants to raise or lower prices in the moment. This type of instant gratification suggestive pricing capability is being tested out by companies like restaurant revenue management platform Juicer, which just announced a new tool that helps restaurants adjust pricing and special offers based on data from local competitors.

Lynch was hired at Papa Johns in August 2019 and helped drive record global systemwide sales of over $5 billion at the company. He has also led the company’s growth to approximately 5,900 units.

This bonus initiative was first introduced in 2020 as a company-wide effort to support diversity, equity, and inclusion at Starbucks and was quickly emulated by other major foodservice chains nationally, including Chipotle, which increased the percentage of its executive bonus ties to company ESG goals from 10% to 15% in 2022.

Last year, 7.5% of Starbucks executive bonus consideration was tied to diversity, while 7.5% was based on sustainability goals. In the proposed outline for 2024, 75% of executive bonus consideration would be tied to overall financial performance and 25% would be based on individual performance. Additionally, the company replaced the word “representation” with “talent” in its PRSU (performance-related restricted stock unit grant) program “to include a broader spectrum of the workforce and provide for different representation improvement targets.”

While the announcement comes as no surprise — it has been a while since the metaverse and NFTs captivated audiences and motivated tech companies — Starbucks ending Odyssey in its current form signals the closing of a chapter in the history of restaurant technology.

For Dutch Bros, that means focusing on smart development with fanbase growth in mind, building brand awareness, and give the company’s tech stack a makeover.

In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker called the expanded joint employer rule “arbitrary and capricious,” and said that it would be “contrary to law.”

With this menu launch, the company projects to use more than 2.5 million additional pounds of produce in 2024.

Not only is this new menu aimed at capturing younger consumers’ protein preferences, it was also created to “tackle misconceptions” about only being a late-night brand, the company said. During the company’s recent Live Mas Live event in Las Vegas, CMO Taylor Montgomery said the company is making a play for more lunch/afternoon business.

Most recently President Biden mentioned getting rid of junk fees again during the annual presidential State of the Union address last week.

In 2023, KFC opened nearly 2,7000 restaurants across 96 countries, a 10% development pace and setting a brand development record. More than 80% of unit growth came from 15 publicly traded franchisees. KFC accounts for nearly 50% of parent company Yum Brands’ divisional operating growth.

During Yum’s most recent earnings call last month, executives called out several standout markets for the brand. China, India, Thailand, South Africa, and Spain drove KFC's development during 2023 and were part of a group of 15 countries that grew unit count by more than 25 restaurants. Further, KFC plans to enter its 150th country later this year.

In late 2022, Subway also launched six- and 12-pack “Cookie Bundles,” along with the debut of its limited-edition footlong cookie that is now available nationwide.

Meanwhile, KFC recently introduced its new Colonel's Homestyle Brownie, while its sister brand Taco Bell is testing things like Churro Chillers shakes, Baja Blast pie, and the Taco Bell x Salt & Straw Ice Cream Chocolate Taco. Further, Wendy’s just teamed up with Cinnabon to debut a Cinnabon Pull-Apart breakfast offering, Chicken Salad Chick acquired Piece of Cake to sell its signature desserts, and Peter Piper Pizza is adding Buddy V’s Cake Slice and Dippin’ Dots options for guests. Shake Shack is testing desserts at select locations to see if they can boost afternoon traffic and, in Canada, Burger King added new “Blasts,” which are kinda like McFlurrys.

In other words, things seem to be getting a bit sweeter around here.

Madsen, who had been appointed interim CEO in November following the departure of his predecessor Dave Boennighausen, was named the company’s permanent CEO right before the call.

Total revenue in the quarter ended Jan. 2, 2024, fell by 8.9% to $124.3 million, and same-store sales were down by 4.2%. The company reported a net loss of $6.1 million or 14 cents per share.

Operating margins were down by 50 basis points to 14.7%.

For the year, revenue was down by 1.2% to $503.4 million and same-store sales were down by 1.9%. Noodles booked a net loss of $9.9 million or 21 cents per share.

Central to the plan to turn the brand around is an overhaul of the menu, which Madsen said looks dated, and while it offers familiar and comforting dishes that the chain’s regulars enjoy, “we are not currently a compelling alternative for lapsed guests or new guests.”

For more on what's going on at the restaurant chain, let's turn to senior editor Bret Thorn.

According to the December 2023 Market Leader Report from Nation’s Restaurant News Intelligence, only 21% of operators would rate their data quality as good, while only one-quarter of restaurant operators are confident in their data optimization abilities, revealing the need for more data education.

But just knowing how important data is to the operations of a modern restaurant isn’t enough. Restaurant operators need to build the nuts and bolts of data optimization by asking themselves (and their teams) the right questions.

For more, let's turn to senior technology editor Joanna Fantozzi.

But this brand transformation doesn’t just add new items—it also removes items. Although not included in the original press release, a Panera spokesperson confirmed with NRN that flatbreads would be removed from the menu moving forward. Flatbreads were introduced in 2019 as part of a previous menu overhaul as the JAB Holding-owned company introduced new menu categories specifically designed to target the dinner daypart.

According to the American Psychological Association, 50% of adults ages 18–34 reported a mental illness in 2023, versus 31% in 2019. That number is likely compounded among restaurant workers, who are most at risk for substance abuse disorders and heavy alcohol use, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association. Overall, foodservice is considered one of the worst industries for mental health, according to a 2017 report from Mental Health America. 

After experiencing a historic labor shortage that impacted sales and operations in 2021 and much of 2022, it seems the industry is now doing more than ever to help its people. Prior to the pandemic, employee mental health programs in the industry were quite rare. In the late 2010s, Chipotle and Starbucks became pioneers here, with the former adding access to mental healthcare and the latter providing inpatient and outpatient mental healthcare and mental health training.

Executive editor Alicia Kelso has more.

“Dirty soda” is a sparkling beverage with something creamy added to it — often milk or half-and-half, but also non-dairy options such as coconut cream.

In its current form, the menu platform gained traction with the help of Swig, a 63-unit beverage concept based in Lehi, Utah, and now larger chains are getting in on the action — particularly as interest in nonalcoholic beverages takes off.

Dairy added to soda isn’t a new concept. Ice cream sodas and root beer floats have been around for decades, as has the egg cream — an oddly named drink since it has neither egg nor cream — that was once popular in New York City and is made of seltzer with whipped chocolate syrup and milk.

For more on the history of dirty soda, let’s turn to senior food & beverage editor Bret Thorn.

The task was more daunting than she expected it would be.

“It was hard. I did find some. They existed, but we didn’t know each other,” Morris said during a recent interview.

So, the group made plans to get together in person in conjunction with the National Restaurant Association in Chicago and have some deeper conversations. That decision likely changed the course for women in the restaurant industry, as their camaraderie and shared experiences drove them to eventually create the Women’s Foodservice Forum.

The delivery sales improvement was actually noted before Domino’s began feeling the full effects of the company’s historic partnership with Uber Eats, which was first announced last July.

Although daily operations won’t change much for franchisees and employees as the company moves to a more platform-based business model, more brand collaboration will be on the table.

The goal is to eventually break down most silos between the seven restaurant brands — including Jamba, Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s and Moe’s Southwest Grill — and commonly share resources, personnel and technology. For example, the company is in the midst of moving all seven brands to a single POS platform, Qu, to promote synchronicity among the brands.

For now, Dobbertin, a repeat 2023 and 2024 James Beard Award semi-finalist, is busy running Best Quality Daughter, which she first opened alongside two friends in 2018 and five years after opening her first brick and mortar concept, Hot Joy. Best Quality Daughter has since become a San Antonio staple featuring Asian-American cuisine with a South Texas influence.

Rueben Asaram, who was trained at the Culinary Institute of America and now owns and operates Reuby in Philadelphia, blends Mexican and Indian flavors. Asaram has a background in fine dining but left to travel as much of the world as he could. The experience inspired him to since create colorful popups throughout his city, which has become his signature.

Lawrence Smith is a bit newer to the scene, working his way from line cook to sous chef to executive pastry chef. In early 2022, he opened Chilte in Phoenix, which he describes as experimental, modernized Mexican cuisine.

Shake Shack launched a pop-up at two Los Angeles restaurants to promote its new Korean-style menu on Valentine’s Day called the “Swicy Date Night Experience” — “swicy” being a combination of sweet and spicy, two common Korean flavors.

In New York City and Los Angeles, Panda Express unveiled its newest menu item, Firecracker Shrimp, via a five-course tasting menu at two select locations of the chain. The menu included an elevated take on Panda Express classics as well as other Chinese American dishes.

And Wingstop, in honor of being named one of the worst date spots, launched its own fine-dining Valentine’s Day experience that included a pairing menu with alcohol and the chain’s famous wings and chicken items.

What do all these activations mean?

Given the company’s results, this didn’t seem out of place at all. For Q4, the Louisville, Ky.-based casual dining company’s comp sales were up 9.9% at company-owned restaurants and 8.9% at domestic franchise restaurants. Those comp sales were driven by 5.1% traffic growth and a 4.8% growth in average check. By month, comp sales were up 9.2% in October and November, and 11.1% in December.

Restaurant margin dollars increased by 21.4% to $176.7 million versus $145.6 million in the year prior, primarily driven by sales. Restaurant margins were up to 15.3%, or 75 basis points higher year-over-year. The company opened 12 company restaurants and seven franchised restaurants during the quarter.

This year, 25 states introduced or will introduce new minimum wages, with six states increasing their minimum wages to either match or surpass $15 (California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Washington state). 

On top of ever-increasing minimum wages, the joint employer rule is top of mind for many business owners. The National Labor Relations Board introduced a broadened joint employer in October that would make franchisees and franchisors jointly liable for labor terms and conditions such as union contracts, pay, scheduling, and more, reviving an Obama-era rule that was limited in scope during the Trump Administration.

Garutti said the limited-service industry has already established that customers like combo meals, such as sandwiches, fries, and a drink, at drive-thrus, and he wanted to try them at his chain while still maintaining the brand’s identity of offering a relatively upscale experience.

Desserts, such as the sundaes that Shake Shack offered before the pandemic and the mini-shakes that it started testing at the beginning of last year, are being tested at select locations to see if they can boost sales and increase afternoon traffic.

She loved everything about the concept – the smell, the look, the product. Stores are closed on Sundays, which aligned with their values. They checked out an open location closer to home, in Louisville, Kentucky, and realized it was exactly what they wanted to pursue.

They set up a call with corporate and were approved for a store and, just this week, opened their third Crumbl location in their home market. Their experience with the concept has been “really positive, which is why we went for a third.” Notably, their experience also coincides with the company’s meteoric growth trajectory. Crumbl more than doubled its unit count from 2021 to 2022 and now counts nearly 1,000 shops, while its sales jumped more than 2.5 times to $985 million during that same timeframe.

The chain ran an ad at the game that was a fighter jet scene reminiscent of the Top Gun films with pilots rushing to get their free burger.

Carl’s Jr. announced it would be giving away free Western Bacon Cheeseburgers to its loyalty program the day after the Super Bowl.

Customers with the Carl’s Jr. app who have joined the My Rewards program received the “Free Burger Day” offer and were able to order it through the app or show the app offer to team members at a restaurant. No purchase is necessary.

The company said the giveaway is part of an effort to distance Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, which had often been marketed together.

But during all of this, a number of chains have been reworking their burgers, pouring time and money into upgrading the sandwiches themselves, as well as the equipment used to make them, ensuring their core products are top of mind for an increasingly sophisticated consumer who still very much loves beef. 

Among them is McDonald’s. And when McDonald’s makes adjustments, the industry is wise to pay attention. Other brands sharpening their focus on burgers recently include Red Robin, Jack in the Box, and Mellow Mushroom.

The company also opened a record 121 new restaurants during the quarter, 110 of those in the Chipotlane model. The highlight of the company’s report, however, was its transaction gain of 7.4%. This is compared to a 1.6% decline across the limited-service segment in the quarter, according to Placer.ai data, as well as negative traffic recently reported by both Starbucks and McDonald’s.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because Chipotle reported traffic increases of over 4% in Q3, compared to negative 4.2% industrywide. Notably, Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol said this time around the chain has shown strength across all income cohorts – a different tune than McDonald’s, which reported earlier this week it has experienced negative transactions from lower-income consumers.

Domestically, same-store sales were up 4.3%, mostly in line with expectations but well below the company’s performance in its most recent quarters. U.S. same-store sales in Q4 2022 were up over 10%, for instance, while the company is up over 30% versus where it was in 2019. CEO Chris Kempczinski said he expects the rest of this year to play out similarly to Q4, which is “normalized growth.”

In the U.S., McDonald’s is navigating transaction reductions from its lower-income consumers making $45,000 and below. Kempczinski noted that these consumers are likely opting to eat at home as grocery/supermarket inflation has cooled faster than food-away-from-home. The company is focused on re-engaging these customers this year.

During the Starbucks earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Laxman Narasimhan pointed to the Israel-Palestine conflict as a source of friction in both the Middle Eastern markets and in the U.S., where there have been calls for boycotts of Starbucks from supporters on both sides of the conflict. Narasimhan also explained that slower spending in China contributed to headwinds for the quarter — an issue that was highlighted by Luckin Coffee overtaking Starbucks as the number one coffee chain in China this November.

That means the editors at NRN are anticipating same-store sales increases across many brands though some segments are expected to lag. Mainly casual dining except for Darden, most likely, because of the company’s immense popularity. Five of Darden’s brands landed on our report, America’s Favorite Chains and we expect their earnings to show as much.

Expect the next week to hold some big numbers as Brinker, McDonald’s, Chipotle, and Yum Brands report.

However, investors have said that they expect the consumer to soften in 2024 so this may be the last bit of good news for a while.

Not only are robots and AI becoming more adept at understanding human guests, they are also becoming more conversational. Vox AI is (yet another) voice AI company that is looking to revolutionize the drive-thru and the company differentiates itself by claiming to be the most intelligent and conversational voice AI on the market now. RichTech Robotics — known for its robotic barista/bartender, ADAM — announced similar updates to the drink-making robot, which makes him more conversational than previous iterations.

In other news this month, POS integration platform Chowly acquired digital marketing platform Targetable, and PathSpot introduced a new platform that targets food safety.

Executive editor Alicia Kelso attended the conference and was able to speak with executives. Many of those conversations will appear on our website in the upcoming days and weeks.

Today, she spoke with First Bite about what she learned from the 2024 conference and how Papa Johns stood out to her among the crowded rooms.

And although many of you would probably prefer that Americans take a break from drinking during busier months, Dry January doesn't have to mean weak drink sales.

There are now many socially acceptable options for non-drinkers that also are profitable for restaurateurs. Non-alcoholic beer is part of the regular inventory of many restaurants and bars and, according to an October report in The Wall Street Journal citing Euromonitor data, accounted for 0.9% of beer sales by volume as of September 2023. In Western Europe it accounts for 5.8% of total beer consumption.

There’s also an abundance of alcohol-free wine and zero-proof substitutes for hard liquor. And bartenders are getting better at making spirit-free cocktails.

For more on how to make the most of dry January in your restaurant, here's senior food & beverage editor Bret Thorn.

As the legal landscape around third-party delivery workers begins to shift substantially through local legislation — including a new New York City minimum wage law for contractors that work for delivery apps — on a federal level, standards might not change much for these same delivery app workers.

The final rule, which goes into effect on March 11, 2024, reinterprets the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act and negates the effects of the Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was passed during the Trump administration.

The appropriately named 2024 strategy has Domino’s saying “yes, more” to everything, including loyalty participation, pizza delivery options, tech innovation, and marketing innovations like the emergency pizza promotion, which is an upgraded “Buy one get one free promotion” that lets customers buy a pizza and get a promotion for another free pizza to use at a later date.

One option is to make them drinkable.

Beverage consumption in general is surging as consumers turn to menu items that are fast, portable, customizable, and satisfying, especially in the growing afternoon daypart. Restaurant companies large and small have noticed, and are responding with an array of drinkable desserts.

Whether they’re milkshakes, dessert cocktails, coffee slushes or other options, these sweet, fun, and often textured drinks are striking a chord with guests.

Recently, Starbucks collaborated with Stanley (the makers of the uber-popular insulated tumbler) to sell a $49.95 “Winter Pink” 40-ounce Starbucks cobranded cup, available exclusively at Target on Jan. 3 to celebrate the new Starbucks winter menu. Collaborating with multiple trendy brands to market a limited-edition item to the core Gen. Z demographic was a recipe for virality: Long lines of customers waited outside of Target before dawn to grab their tumblers (limited to a few dozen per Target location), and the coveted cups are already reselling for $350 on eBay.

The two companies — which together own hundreds of Pizza Hut restaurants in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties — are eliminating the delivery driver position as the layoffs become official in February, according to federal WARN Act notices filed last month with the Employment Development Department.

Influencer marketing is certainly nothing new, but it is reaching a fever pitch and, in fact, the industry has increased by nearly $20 billion in the past seven years. Restaurants in particular are well positioned to capitalize on this trend. According to CreatorIQ, more than 437,000 creators posted about food and beverage brands more than 1.2 million times, driving nearly 75.5 billion impressions, 3 billion engagements and a whopping $4.8 billion in earned media value (EMV). And those numbers are just from the first half of 2023.

A National Restaurant Association survey from early December showed that 63% of adults planned to eat out during the subsequent weeks, while 48% planned to order takeout or delivery. As such, after experiencing a dip in traffic through much of September and part of October, business appears to have picked up in early November and continued through the end of the year. Master Card Spending Pulse data shows that restaurant sales were up 7.8% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 versus the same period last year – the highest gain among all sectors, and by far. By comparison, retail sales increased 3.1% year-over-year.

Further, Technomic Ignite’s Tindex indicates industry sales were up nearly 10% in November 2023 versus November 2019. Of course, a good chunk of this increase comes from elevated pricing, but it indicates consumers are still very much willing to pay those higher menu costs. Notably, wage growth has outpaced inflation growth.  

With its nomination of three directors to the Starbucks executive board, the Strategic Organizing Center hopes to address the company’s treatment of its employees, including Starbucks’ clashes with its growing union, arguing that the company’s alleged union-busting tactics have led it legally vulnerable and have tarnished the goodwill of the Starbucks brand.

Indian cuisine, finally

Trend watchers have been waiting for Indian cuisine to really take off in American dining for decades, and it seems to finally be happening. Medium- to high-end independent Indian restaurants are opening across the country, some led by big-name restaurateurs including Maneet Chauhan in Nashville, Rohini Dey in Chicago, and Srijith Gopinathan in San Francisco, and others by operators still developing names for themselves. Then there’s the growing roster of fast-casual Indian restaurants including Rasa, Curry Up Now, The Kati Roll Company, Tarka Indian Kitchen, Inday, Choolaah Indian BBQ, Tulsi Indian Eatery, and many more. Also of note is the addition this past August of a Zingers Tikka Wrap on the permanent menu of Miller’s Ale House, a casual-dining chain not known for its adventuresome cuisine.

The Zingers is what Miller’s calls its signature chicken tender, but in this case, it’s wrapped up to resemble a kathi roll.

Coffee as the base for spirit-free cocktails

Consumption of coffee is on the rise, as are energy drinks and non-alcoholic cocktails. Young consumers, dating back to when Generation X was young, have long enjoyed energy drinks — often Red Bull — spiked with alcohol. And what has arguably been the trendiest cocktail over the past few years? The Espresso Martini.

Put all of that together, and the stage is set for a proliferation of coffee standing in as the base for spirit-free Old Fashioneds and espressos and tonic. Versions of those drinks are already available at some coffeehouses, notably Everyman Espresso in New York City and Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair, N.J.

That’s already a lot of factors pointing to a beverage trend in the making, but there’s another one, too: Cold brew coffee, the increasingly popular version of America’s favorite pick-me-up, is getting better. Some coffee aficionados have long said cold brew doesn’t extract the unique flavors of high-end beans, but new technology from companies such as BKON, based in Morriston, N.J., have developed technology to extract those flavors. That allows coffeehouses to develop cold brew concentrates unique to their brand, and also makes premium coffee available to bars that might not want to make their own.

White lamb

There’s a fairly new breed of sheep arriving in the U.S. from Australia. The Australian White Sheep has hair instead of wool, giving it a somewhat milder flavor because it doesn’t taste of lanolin from the wool, a plus for people who find lamb to be gamy. But it still tastes very much like lamb. It also has a lot of intramuscular fat, but unlike wagyu beef, which also has a lot of marbling, the meat is nonetheless firm. However, the fat has a lower melting point than traditional lamb, resulting in less of a greasy feel, and arguably a better nutrition profile since it contains less saturated fat. Also unlike wagyu, Australian White Sheep is all grass-fed.

It's likely to sell at around a 10-15% premium to conventional lamb.

Ammonium chloride

Residents of the Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — have long enjoyed salmiak, a salty licorice that gets part of its distinctive flavor from ammonium chloride.

Also called salmiak salt, Ammonium Chloride is a slightly toxic substance that researchers from the University of Southern California and the University of Colorado recently discovered might trigger a unique taste all its own, apart from the five senses of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.

What does it taste like? Well, Andrew Richdale, writing in Saveur magazine in 2017 and recently cited by bigthink.com, said it “felt simultaneously fascinating and … abusive? Or at least odd like a knocked funny bone.”

Others say it tastes bitter, salty, and]]>4 predictions from senior food & beverage editor Bret Thorn:

Indian cuisine, finally

Trend watchers have been waiting for Indian cuisine to really take off in American dining for decades, and it seems to finally be happening. Medium- to high-end independent Indian restaurants are opening across the country, some led by big-name restaurateurs including Maneet Chauhan in Nashville, Rohini Dey in Chicago, and Srijith Gopinathan in San Francisco, and others by operators still developing names for themselves. Then there’s the growing roster of fast-casual Indian restaurants including Rasa, Curry Up Now, The Kati Roll Company, Tarka Indian Kitchen, Inday, Choolaah Indian BBQ, Tulsi Indian Eatery, and many more. Also of note is the addition this past August of a Zingers Tikka Wrap on the permanent menu of Miller’s Ale House, a casual-dining chain not known for its adventuresome cuisine.

The Zingers is what Miller’s calls its signature chicken tender, but in this case, it’s wrapped up to resemble a kathi roll.

Coffee as the base for spirit-free cocktails

Consumption of coffee is on the rise, as are energy drinks and non-alcoholic cocktails. Young consumers, dating back to when Generation X was young, have long enjoyed energy drinks — often Red Bull — spiked with alcohol. And what has arguably been the trendiest cocktail over the past few years? The Espresso Martini.

Put all of that together, and the stage is set for a proliferation of coffee standing in as the base for spirit-free Old Fashioneds and espressos and tonic. Versions of those drinks are already available at some coffeehouses, notably Everyman Espresso in New York City and Paper Plane Coffee Co. in Montclair, N.J.

That’s already a lot of factors pointing to a beverage trend in the making, but there’s another one, too: Cold brew coffee, the increasingly popular version of America’s favorite pick-me-up, is getting better. Some coffee aficionados have long said cold brew doesn’t extract the unique flavors of high-end beans, but new technology from companies such as BKON, based in Morriston, N.J., have developed technology to extract those flavors. That allows coffeehouses to develop cold brew concentrates unique to their brand, and also makes premium coffee available to bars that might not want to make their own.

White lamb

There’s a fairly new breed of sheep arriving in the U.S. from Australia. The Australian White Sheep has hair instead of wool, giving it a somewhat milder flavor because it doesn’t taste of lanolin from the wool, a plus for people who find lamb to be gamy. But it still tastes very much like lamb. It also has a lot of intramuscular fat, but unlike wagyu beef, which also has a lot of marbling, the meat is nonetheless firm. However, the fat has a lower melting point than traditional lamb, resulting in less of a greasy feel, and arguably a better nutrition profile since it contains less saturated fat. Also unlike wagyu, Australian White Sheep is all grass-fed.

It's likely to sell at around a 10-15% premium to conventional lamb.

Ammonium chloride

Residents of the Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden — have long enjoyed salmiak, a salty licorice that gets part of its distinctive flavor from ammonium chloride.

Also called salmiak salt, Ammonium Chloride is a slightly toxic substance that researchers from the University of Southern California and the University of Colorado recently discovered might trigger a unique taste all its own, apart from the five senses of sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.

What does it taste like? Well, Andrew Richdale, writing in Saveur magazine in 2017 and recently cited by bigthink.com, said it “felt simultaneously fascinating and … abusive? Or at least odd like a knocked funny bone.”

Others say it tastes bitter, salty, and a little sour, with hints of window cleaner.

Given Gen Z’s penchant for trying new things, and their pleasure in consuming energy drinks that some of their elders (I, for one) have described as tasting like sweetened battery acid, and you have the potential for a whole new polarizing flavor profile.