Lettuce Keep You Healthy

Rich Melman routinely delights consumers with his dozens of Chicago restaurants. Now he wants to disinfect them, too.

That sounds harsh, but the concept mastermind is acting out of extreme benevolence. He recently told the Chicago Tribune that his Lettuce Entertain You dining empire is striving to keep patrons healthy this winter by urging them to take the sort of precautions that a parent might press on a youngster.

Signs posted in all 30-something of Lettuce’s restaurants urge customers as well as employees to wash their hands. According to the Trib, the alerts point out that that “handwashing is the most effective way to reduce the effects of colds and flu.”

Signs in the Gents and Ladies also advise visitors to grab restroom door handles with a paper towel, not their bare hands, which can pick up germs from such a surface that’s been touched again and again and again. Melman acknowledged in the story that Lettuce is “without question” spending more on paper towels, but told reporter Janet Franz that “it’s a small price to pay.” As he noted, people don’t dine in any restaurant when they’re knocked flat by a cold or the flu.

Melman indicated that his company will spend far bigger dollars with its next health-oriented move. Among the company’s more intriguing operations is foodlife, a collection of themed food stations, were customers can try just about any of the ethnic or trendy cuisines they read about in Bon Appetit. They record whatever they’ve ordered from the stations on a single magnetic card, then pay the total charged amount when they settle up with a centralized cashier.

Melman told the Trib that he plans to add yet another out-of-the-ordinary feature to the Watertower Place food court: Public sinks in the dining area. Patrons will be able to set down their trays of food and wash their hands before starting to eat.

He attributed his newfound focus on customers’ health to serving on the board of a local hospital.

If anyone else had pushed his company to adopt similar safeguards, he or she might’ve been tarred as a nut. But this is Rich Melman, undoubtedly one of the richest persons in the business, and beyond a doubt one of the most prescient. He’s been ahead of any number of trends that eventually went mainstream.

You can only hope that this focus, as strange as it may initially seem, is added to the list.

Catching more than fish. And it stinks.

A rose is a rose is a rose. But down in Florida, the grouper could be anyone’s guess. An investigation several weeks ago by the Daytona Beach News-Journal found that four of 10 local restaurants were trying to pass off cheaper white fish as grouper. And the determination wasn’t made with a quick eyeball of whatever the investigators were served (Vietnamese catfish in three of the instances, emperor fish in the other). The newspaper sent samples to a lab for DNA testing.

The testing facility then told the Associated Press that similar checks of seafood from 24 U.S. cities revealed consumers have less than a 50:50 chance of being served the variety of fish they ordered.

Authorities in Florida have begun an investigation into the fish faking, according to the AP. A (sorry about the pun) bait and switch could cost a restaurant $15,000 per fake-out.

But follow-up news coverage has suggested that restaurants may not be the culprit. Some have said they, too, were duped—by their seafood suppliers.

The situation is reminiscent of the short-lived scandal that erupted in New York City about 18 months ago, when The New York Times analyzed what was being sold or served as wild-caught salmon. The probe revealed that a high percentage of establishments were buying farm-raised fish for about a third of what they’d have paid for the wild version, then selling it as the Alaskan variety for a huge mark-up.

And restaurant old-timers recall a time when a low-priced veal dish on a menu meant someone had pounded a chicken breast flat in the kitchen and cooked it Milanese-style. But today’s consumer, they attest, is probably too sophisticated to fall prey to that ruse.

It’s a shame that some restaurateurs spoil it for everyone by cheating like that. After being told non-stop how the industry is making them fat, short-changing them with skimpy wages, littering their streets with wrappers, and closing up their arteries with trans fats, the last thing consumers need to hear is how they’re being ripped off as well.

There’s no mystery about what kind of louts the perpetrators are. A crook is a crook is a crook.

Better off red?

If researchers discover one more benefit of drinking red wine, it’ll be a matter of time before moms start serving merlot instead of milk, pharmacies replace their vitamins with a selection of zinfandels, and marathon water stops run red with Chianti. Less clear is how restaurants will exploit the advantage of being a longtime purveyor of what is truly beginning to sound like a health elixir.

For starters, perhaps they should crack open a top-notch Cab and invite some researchers over for a review of the favorable data that’s poured out of vino-focused labs in recent months. First, by altering the diet of tee-totaling mice, the white-coat set was able to determine that a red-wine ingredient called resveratrol can prolong life dramatically. We’re talking in the neighborhood of 30 percent.

Or at least it can stretch the life of a rodent; conclusive studies have yet to be conducted on humans. But the information was sufficient to spark a run on resveratrol, which was an unusual item for even health-food stores to stock. Now you can’t find it anywhere. But, undoubtedly, that will change as marketers cash in. It remains to be seen if restaurants will enjoy a similar surge in demand for their resveratrol reserves, which are typically meted out by the bottle.

Just a few days after the anti-aging qualities of resveratrol were revealed, medical journals were set abuzz again by a separate round of research. Those studies had found that the red-wine ingredient could counteract at least some ill effects of a high-fat diet, including obesity and diabetes. Here again, the research subjects were mice, but experts have already said the effects should be translatable to humans.

To recap: Resveratrol can make you live longer, and better. Two big reasons to drink red wine, from highly respected health officials.

Pardon me while I wipe away a tear. I wouldn’t want it falling in my pinot.

Unfortunately, scientists noted at the time that humans probably couldn’t drink enough red wine to absorb the amounts of resveratrol that are needed to combat obesity and aging. Clearly they never belonged to a fraternity.

But even if the required intake is prohibitive, that’s not going to dissuade consumers from ordering red more readily. Remember, this is a society that equates the descriptor “fresh” with “healthy,” even if it’s being applied to lard. A little knowledge sometimes works in the industry’s favor.

Then this weekend came news of yet another finding about resveratrol. When lab mice were given the compound and put on tiny treadmills, they could run twice as long, with the reduced heart rate and other signs of conditioning you’d expect in athlete rodents. Researchers concluded that the substance dramatically boosted endurance. And this time, the scientists didn’t rule out that salutary effects could come from relatively small doses of the compound.

A glass or two, maybe?

Of course, the research also didn’t speak to motivation. Who’d want to get on a treadmill to prove enhanced endurance when there’s more wine to drink? No pain, no pain—yet lots of gain.

Talking dirty

Scandalous food-safety conditions came to light this week in Chicago and Philadelphia, but restaurants there are looking like potential victims rather than the culprits. Government hearings held almost simultaneously in the cities left little doubt that eateries and their patrons are facing a significant health risk because neither municipality has hired enough safety inspectors.

Chicago, for instance, has a field force of 46 people to monitor 15,500 food outlets. To inspect each of them once a year, the germ chasers would have to hit 1.3 establishments per day. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that a place be checked every four months, which would mean inspecting five outlets in an eight-hour day, week in and week out.

Instead, an official reportedly told a city-council committee that the inspectors get to about 6,000 restaurants and food stores per year, and those tend to be the places most in need of scrutiny. Despite the high management turnover of the restaurant business, the other places are left alone because no infractions were detected during a prior visit, which could have come more than a year beforehand.

In 1982, noted a Chicago Sun Times story on the city council hearings, the health department had 150 sanitation inspectors, and presumably far fewer restaurants to check.

Still, the situation in the Windy City seems preferable to conditions in Philadelphia, judging from coverage of the city council hearings held there on Thursday. Officials noted that the City of Brotherly Love has 15,000 restaurants and just 32 safety inspectors.

The industry has long bemoaned certain aspects of sanitation inspections. In particular, chains and multiple-restaurant operators complain that the regulations tend to vary from one jurisdiction to another, or even from inspector to inspector. The lack of consistency makes training that much more difficult.

And then there’s the lack of knowledge shown by some inspectors. The ideal safety guardian, restaurateurs assert, would be someone who wants to help them protect customers. That means teaching operators the right procedures and processes, instead of merely playing cop and walloping them with sanctions or a bad grade. Yet the inspectors are often as green as bread mold, and know far less than the restaurateurs they should be counseling.

It looks as if restaurateurs in Chicago and Philly—and, presumably, other areas—can put another item atop their gripe list.

Now in blogs! 'Truth or Fad'!!

Amid the features of www.eons.com, a site launched recently for fifty-somethings by a co-founder of www.monster.com, are brain teasers, puzzles and other mental challenges intended to keep visitors’ minds in Jack La Lanne shape. It’s only appropriate that The Scoop similarly aid readers of a certain vintage with its own dash of cerebral diversion. Hence the incorporation within this installment of that ever-popular foodservice parlor game, Trend or Fad.

A quick review of the rules: I describe the development that has the business currently atwitter, and you decided if it’s a hula hoop or the next iPod. Then I give you the correct answer, which, just coincidentally, happens to be my opinion on the matter. So here we go.

Truth or fad: The new meal-assembly concepts like Dinner By Design, Let’s Dish!, Super Supers and easily a half-dozen others.

In case you’re not familiar with these newcomers, you need to come out of your cave and take a look, especially if you’re involved in franchising. They’ve been growing by leaps and bounds, in part by signing restaurant operators as licensees.

In essence, the concepts occupy the grey area between restaurants and supermarkets. Patrons go online to select meals they’d like their families to eat, and to schedule a time when they can visit the meal-assembly center to put the selected dinners together. The place buys and prepares the ingredients ahead of time, so all the heavy lifting is done by the time the customer arrives. The guests assemble the components into a family-sized portion that’s ready to be slipped into an oven. Then they lug it home, to be either cooked then or slipped into the freezer for some later date.

The industry largely scoffed when these concepts first appeared on the scene about two years ago. Who’s going to spend their evenings in some communal kitchen with strangers, putting together meals they still have to cook? It’s neither convenient, effortless nor a dodge of stove time.

What the skeptics under-appreciated was the appeal of the social component. Customers apparently like the quilting-bee aspect of the assembly process, and the opportunity it affords to chat with new acquaintances as you engage in the redeeming activity of providing for your family. For many, it’s better than having a few drinks or spending date night at a conversation-less two-hour movie. Indeed, some of the concepts are marketing themselves as party places for groups of friends, or as an activity for businesses that want to foster some bonding among employees.

But doubts still abound. Chief among them: How fresh are the meals, and how much will that weigh against acceptance when consumers are demanding fresh above all else? There’s also been some snippiness about the quality of the ingredients provided. Are chefs doing the slicing and dicing, or some minimum-wage college student?

So what are these places, a flash in the pan or a major new consumer option that’s here to stay?

The correct answer: These places are going to become part of the dinner-options spectrum, but not in the numbers they’ll reach if they keep growing at the present rate. As with many Next Big Things, the potential is soon overshot by development and there’s a shakeout, with a few survivors serving what remains of the market after the initial excitement cools. This could be the textbook example of that familiar dynamic.

Truth or fad: Molecular gastronomy, or the desire by some chefs to play a mad scientist who lost it right after culinary school. Using gizmos like lasers or high-tech chillers and ingredients that sound like the chemicals that were kept in a locked glass cabinet in the high school lab, this new breed of culinarian is employing science in the pursuit of new dining adventures. The results include flavored foams, “caviar” beads of different flavors, or any number of mutations where a familiar food is given an unexpected texture or taste, like bacon ice cream.

I’ve been a hardcore skeptic from the get-go. Meanwhile, chefs are lining up to cook for free at the temple of the high priest of molecular gastronomy, Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain, in hopes of absorbing his brilliance. And the consumer food books are anointing Chicago’s Alinea, the high temple of the gastro-science on this side of the Atlantic, as the nation’s best restaurant.

As difficult as the admission may be for me and other fans of food that looks, feels and tastes as you expect it would, this looks as if it could be a trend, though one that may never trickle down to the broad-based dining-out market. It’s hard to imagine a Chili’s entrée where you start with a pillow of scented air, or a new fir-tree-flavored cream puff from Dunkin’ Donuts. Sadly, as the counterbalance to the ongoing appreciation of comfort foods, this appears to be a trend.

Trend or fad: Advertising to space aliens, as KFC is doing in its latest publicity stunt. The chicken chain fitted together 65,000 painted tiles in the notorious Area 51 of the Nevada desert to form 87,500-sq.-ft. portrait of the concept’s founder, Col. Harlan Sanders. Headquarters is crowing that it’s the first brand icon to be visible from space, an achievement that school children will someday sing of.

The question, of course, is why? The highly cynical should be forewarned that the official rationale could cause uncontrollable twitching and outbursts of sarcasm: “The Colonel is truly a global icon and we want everyone in the universe to see KFC's new look of the future," KFC president Gregg Dedrick was quoted as saying in a press release. KFC is updating its design, as Nation’s Restaurant News reported some time ago, and this is its way of getting attention. The specifics of the overhaul, like the inclusion of a free digital jukebox, just aren’t going to snag the attention of the YouTube generation.

And, just to be doubly sure it appeals to the X-Files crowd, the chain is touting the incidental benefit of having a billboard that even near-sighted Martians could spot. “If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice,” Dedrick is quoted as quipping.

So, what is it? A gimmick, a gimmick or a gimmick?

In wake of finger scam, more allegations surface

If you can’t tell the players apart without a scorecard, chances are you’ll really flub which restaurant allegedly served the rodent and which purportedly added the marijuana.

Indeed, with all the allegations in recent weeks of patrons finding alien objects in their food, it’s tough to keep the potential scandals straight. That’s assuming, of course, you hear of them at all, an uncertainty that’s probably for the best. In the wake of the finger-in-the-chili scam that a desperate couple tried to pull last year on Wendy’s, public suspicions have largely pushed reports of unwanted ingredients out of the mainstream news. But there’re always the web, the blogosphere and local radio stations to keep stomachs turning with reports of fingers being where they shouldn’t.

Like the one that a woman asserts she found in the cheese-steak sandwich sold to her by a Subway in Chowchilla, Calif. According to local radio reports, the patron came back to the store with the alleged digit several hours after she’d bought the sandwich. The unit stopped selling steak for two days, and Subway said it would investigate. The results of that inquiry have yet to be made public, and the customer has not announced plans to seek any redress in the courtroom.

Not so with the two law enforcement officers who claim they were served burgers laced with marijuana at a Burger King in Los Lunas, N.M. News reports say that three employees at the unit were arrested for pot-peppering the officers’ meals. Now the policemen, who work for the Isleta Pueblo tribe’s police force, are suing the chain’s franchisor, Burger King Holdings.

There’s no word yet on how sharply sales spiked afterward among college students.

A lawsuit has also been filed by the Dallas Cowboys staff member who told the media he was sold a salad containing a dead rat by a McDonald’s in Southlake, Texas. Todd Haley, his wife, Christine, and their au pair, Kathryn Kelley, say they are collectively seeking $1.7 million in compensation for their physical and mental distress (the salad was part of a larger take-out order for the three).

The operator of the franchised McDonald’s store told local media that it’s investigating the situation.

'Didn't clean your plate? Here's your fine.'

For years, activists have blasted restaurants for serving unnecessarily large portions. Now some establishments in Montreal are reportedly turning the tables and fining guests who opt for more than they can eat. It’s their way of enlisting patrons in the cause of holding down food costs.

The Gazette, a Montreal daily, reported today that at least two local Japanese places tack a surcharge onto the tabs of guests who eat only the fish part of their sushi and leave the rice behind. Odaki justifies its $10 penalty fee as the difference between the restaurant’s $22 all-you-can-eat sushi deal and the $32 eat-till-you-burst sashimi offer. After all, the rice-skippers are presumably downing more fish, which is why the sashimi meal was priced higher in the first place.

Kanda Sushi Bar charges by the piece—in this case, not for the sushi patrons order, but for the pieces they leave behind. If guests opt for the restaurant’s all-you-can-eat deal and then fail to consume every item they choose, they’re hit with a $1-per-piece leftover charge. It doesn’t come as a surprise; the surcharge policy is spelled out on the menu in an apparent attempt to discourage food waste.

A vegetarian outlet, Spirite Lounge, similarly levies a surcharge if patrons fail to clean their plates. And in addition to the $2 penalty, they’re denied dessert, and may be turned away the next time they try to dine there. Its mission is raising awareness of world hunger and food waste. “I’ve got to tell you, this is without a doubt, hands down, the absolute strangest restaurant I’ve ever been in,” Shelley Macdonald wrote in her review of the place for www.montrealfood.com.

You can read about the Montreal restaurants’ anti-waste policies at www.canada.com/montrealgazette.

One hot spot to another

Robert Gates, President Bush’s nominee to succeed Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, is no stranger to life during wartime. He’s a director of Brinker International, the casual-dining behemoth that’s felt the sector’s downturn this year. The company’s stock-rating has been downgraded by three financial-research firms since Oct. 6.

Gates is also a past director of the CIA, as in “Central Intelligence Agency,” not “Culinary Institute of America.” No doubt his prior experience has informed Brinker’s strategy for dealing with the media. Or not dealing with it, to be more precise.

Gates’ day job had been president of Texas A&M, where he’d earlier been dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service. What a coincidence that he’s been offered a job by George W. Bush.

Tallying the elections’ costs

Restaurateurs are going to pay for last night’s elections, and I mean that literally. Five of the six ballot initiatives calling for increases in their respective state’s minimum wage have been approved, and the yeas were outscoring the nays in preliminary tabulations within the sixth, Colorado (the count is expected to be completed there today, and hike proponents say they'll hold off on celebrating until it's official).

Some of those wage increases could be rendered unnecessary by the situation on the national level. Before the Democrats were even projected to win the U.S. House, CNN’s Lou Dobbs asked Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rahm Emanuel, a Representative from Illinois, how a victory by his party would change Congress’ agenda. Emanuel spouted the usual PC happy-speak about helping orphans and the patriots who want to better their family’s lot, which would apply to everyone but Lord Voldemort. But he did cite one specific measure the Democrats would hammer through: A minimum-wage increase.

The states that passed wage-hike initiatives are Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio.

Culture shock for cafeteria ladies

The chalk line between restaurants and gourmet food shops will be further smudged this winter with the opening of a new concept called Kidfresh. Like a Balducci’s or the grab-and-go sections of a Whole Foods, the New York City prototype will offer upscale fare. But like a restaurant, everything will be ready to eat. And unlike both types of food outlets, this one will exclusively stock ingestibles for kids.

The tykes can yank in Mom or Dad for a ready-for-school lunch, a packaged breakfast for the next morning, a snack for right then, or a dinner they can munch while the parental units slurp their spaghetti Bolognese.

Promotional materials say the meals will be healthy, with at least some prepared with natural, organic or additive-free ingredients. The announcement notes that items will be freshly made, though it wasn’t clear if that translates into “made daily” or “prepared to order.”

Restaurant veterans are apparently not among the founders, but Kidfresh said its launch team would include an award-winning chef, who was not identified.

Menu choices will include Star Shaped Pancakes with homemade chocolate dip; Honey Teriyaki Chicken Tenders with rice and edamame; and “pizza bites.”

Pointedly named as members of the start-up group were two marketing veterans, Dannon alumnus Gilles Deloux and Ralph Lauren Childrenswear veteran Samira Samii Mahboubian. They join the father who came up with the idea for Kidfresh, former management consultant Mathias Cohen.

Founders keepers

After aspiring for years to become an heir, I’m redirecting my career effort to finding work as a founder. Judging from today’s events, it’s a far, far more lucrative gig.

First, the trio who gave us the Outback Steakhouse chain—Chris Sullivan, Bob Basham and Tim Gannon—come forward to say they’re buying back their brainchild with help from some big-time financiers. Bain Capital, the one-time owner of Domino’s Pizza and co-owner of Burger King, is joining forces with one of the more intriguing and hyperactive private-equity firms buying into restaurant companies, Catterton Partners, to provide part of the $3.2 billion that Sullivan’s group has offered for Outback (now known as OSI Restaurant Partners). If you don’t know Catterton, you’re likely familiar with some of its holdings: Stakes in P.F. Chang’s and Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s new string of hotel restaurants, Spice Market, along with up-and-coming brands like the First Watch breakfast concept, or the Cheddars chain.

I’m surprised that a guy like Sullivan, who comes to the starchiest industry event dressed in a Mister Rodgers-like cardigan, would even know folks like the suits at Bain. And now he and his cohorts are going into partnerships with the Boston firm, which probably has a portrait of Thurston Howell III hanging in its hallway.

Of course, it’s not clear how the founding trio will participate in the buyout. They’re all major stakeholders. And they’re offering $40 per share to buy all of OSI’s stock. So they’ll pay themselves $40 for each share they hold? Something about that just doesn’t seem right. That’s presuming, of course, that they maintain their current stakes.

A deal of that scale had us buzzing at work today. But within hours, it was eclipsed by an even bigger industry deal, at least in terms of the dollars that will be spent. And—surprise, surprise—it was led by yet another founder.

The person this time was Izzy Sharp, co-founder and longtime CEO of Four Seasons Hotels. Sharp and his family already hold a controlling stake in the luxury lodging chain. To buy the rest, he really went big-league. His collaborators in the deal are none other than Bill Gates, of Microsoft fame, and His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Adulaziz Alsad of Saudi Arabia, the kind of guy whose private jet is a 727, and uses a real cannon for his marker when he plays Monopoly. Which, no doubt, he does with real money.

Together, the three are bidding $3.7 billion, or $82 per share, for the hotel company, or about a third more than Wall Street had adjudged it to be worth in trading during the prior six months.

Twenty percent? Pfft. But 33 percent? These are not the sort of guys you want for your next game of Texas Hold ‘Em.

And why do men as rich as Gates and the prince want with a hotel company? I can only suspect that they hate having to use Expedia for reservations, and this way a room will always be waiting for them.

Well, gotta run here. This founders correspondence course takes more work than you’d think.

Time for a sales boost

When the government does something that’ll likely boost sales, you’d think the restaurant industry would throw Capital Hill a parade. Yet, despite the pointed reminder of last weekend, the trade has been quieter than the Mark Foley re-election campaign.

Last Sunday, you’ll recall, most of us turned our clocks back an hour, officially ending Daylight Savings Time. Largely unnoticed was the larger significance of the occasion: It actually marked the end of DST as we know it.

Starting next year, we’ll be getting that extra hour of daylight for 34 out of 52 weeks, rather than the present 30. The whole nation will spring ahead in March, and stay on that schedule until November.

Proponents say the move will save the United States about 300,000 barrels of oil that would otherwise be used to generate light. What should interest restaurateurs, especially ones who cater to families, are the objections of the critics. They contend that the fuel saved from generating less electricity will be offset, if not eclipsed, by the additional gas that consumers tend to use during DST. The detractors point to indications that a later dusk tends to draw more people onto the roads for a longer stretch into the night. That’s why, they say, the alteration has been supported by places like amusement parks, malls and retailers.

Presumably, if those families are using the extra daylight to be out and about, they’re likely to grab a bite from establishments like yours rather than prepare something in their kitchens. It may not be a factor that makes or breaks the year sales-wise, but it could be an instance of the tide rising an inch or two, to float all boats that much higher.

If you're wondering how the extension of DST came about, you can credit Washington. The provision was slipped into the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which President Bush signed into law in August 2005.

The joys of dying earlier

If customers have a choice of living longer or eating in your restaurants, which way are they going to lean? That all depends on whom you regard as weirder, me or my wife.

My child-bride has been positively obsessed with the outpouring of stories in the last week about CR—calorie restriction, for those of you who don’t have a cryogenics pamphlet tucked away somewhere. It’s a new way of eating—or, actually, not eating—to promote longevity. In essence, you drop your calorie intake by about a third. We’re not talking here about cutting back to a mere Wendy’s Double from the previous standard order of a Triple. Ingesting 2,000 or so calories a day puts you in the realm of indulging in a few romaine leaves for Thanksgiving.

Yet the payback can be considerable. As recent stories in The Wall Street Journal and New York Times pointed out, CR is believed by a growing body of scientists (and, presumably, certified nut bars) to prolong life expectancy by as much as 40 years. They say adherents could easily log 110 or even 120 years, most of them Viagra-free.

There’s indeed a strong incentive there for the public to cut back its eating. My MBA degree hasn’t arrived yet, primarily because I’ve not so much as enrolled, but it seems to me that a drop in food consumption would be less than ideal for an industry that feeds people.

Which is why my wife has been stage-whispering comments about the restaurant industry taking a major fall. I hear it with each CR story that’s published. So, lately, only a Cubs fan would know more doom.

But I parry her assertions with a highly personal argument: I’d rather be gone next week than give up pizza. Or pumpkin pie. Or a chef’s salad. Or tofu, even.

And I’m sure I’m not alone in that sentiment. Why live if you can’t truly eat? I equate CR with living in a bubble. She insists it’s a bubble that restaurant patrons will readily enter as they learn more about the life-prolonging benefits of eating like a fashion model.

But decide for yourself. You can find the New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/health/nutrition/31agin.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. And if you want to tell my wife she's wrong, feel free. Just know that CR would be kind of academic at that point.

BK to beat McD in eliminating trans fats?

Think President Bush knows pressure? Consider whoever is charged with securing a trans-fat-free fryer oil that McDonald’s could roll into its domestic operations. The quick-service giant pledged three years ago to swap its partially hydrogenated oil for a medium that would eliminate a widely recognized health risk to customers. Yet, as CEO Jim Skinner has said, it still doesn’t know when the changeover will come.

Meanwhile, the public has watched a flurry of competitors raise their hands to pledge, “I’ll do it right now.” Wendy’s said in August that it was switching. KFC chimed in on Monday. And now Burger King is giving franchisees the heads-up that it’ll move toward a changeover within the next 90 days, starting with tests in selected units, according to a report in The Wall St. Journal this morning. The publication apparently interceded an e-mail that was sent to U.S. franchisees, disclosing steps to beat McD’s in switching.

And McDonald’s? Well, it did change the oil of all 740 of the chain’s outlets in Australia.

Of course it’s a bit tough for a chain of McDonald’s size to find sufficient supplies of trans-fat-free oil. It has in the neighborhood of 14,000 restaurants in the U.S., or more than Wendy’s and KFC combined, or about double the store count of BK.

Yet all of them are securing the oil. What’s the advantage of being the 500-pound gorilla when you can’t lock up supplies of scarce, valuable resources, at a cost that smaller jungle-mates can’t negotiate?

So that poor soul who’s leading the procurement effort must be looking a lot like an especially nervous Don Knotts these days. You can only hope that he or she has invested in some soybean farms along the way, because McD’s alone could make that a boom business.

More bang for bucking trans fats?

Does anyone truly think it was coincidental that KFC announced its switch to a trans-fat-free cooking oil in New York City, moments before the board of health opened hearings on a proposal to ban trans fats from restaurants? For that rare individual who probably believes pro-wrestling is real, consider that the chicken chain had shuttles on hand to haul reporters from its press announcement directly to the hearings.

That would also explain why it scheduled a press event for 9 a.m. on a Monday, traditionally a Dead Zone for the working press.

KC is swapping its partially hydrogenated oil for a trans-fat-free frying medium in all 5,500 of its units within the United States. The NYC ban would affect few of those stores, but other areas are quickly following the Big Apple’s lead in seeking to curtail consumption of trans fats, which are portrayed as a virtual toxin by coronary-health experts.

Although the New York announcement was carefully choreographed to coincide with the ban-proposal hearings, no connection was drawn to another relevant event, this one elsewhere within the KFC system. The chain’s Canadian operation disclosed at 3:01 a.m. on Monday that all 786 of its units would switch to trans-fat-free oil by early 2007. It did not specify precisely how early, but presumably KFC Canada will complete the overhaul before its U.S. counterpart, which pledged to make the changeover by April.

Why 3:01 a.m.? Maybe the operation realized that more journalists would be awake then than there would be at 9 a.m. on a Monday.

Former-sibling rivalry

Tim Hortons has been out of the fold for merely a few weeks, but Wendy’s is already seeing some side effects of spinning off the monster Canadian brand. The burger chain has cited the rollout of hot breakfast sandwiches and other morning options as a key part of its comeback effort, with projections that the a.m. menu could add $225,000 in sales per Wendy’s unit.

And what’s fueling Hortons’ sales growth these days? In part a hot breakfast sandwich, rolled out in the United States at the end of September. “We expect that the breakfast sandwich will contribute to continued sales growth,” Hortons CEO Paul House said in lauding the new item’s impact on sales. He also noted that the chain is finding new success in the States, which it largely struggled to do under Wendy’s tutelage.

The breakfast overlap isn’t the only indication that the chains’ test kitchens might’ve been aware of what the other was doing while they were part of the same company. Among the items that Wendy’s said it has in test: A chunky chicken salad sandwich, made on its new Frescatta fresh-baked bread.

In explaining why its units enjoyed a 9.2 percent increase in same-store sales (or 5.9 percent in Canada), Hortons cited the success of such promotional items as a chunky chicken salad wrap. Different by light-years, of course, from a chunky chicken salad sandwich.

Wendy’s said it’s also testing oversized Big Dipper chicken nuggets. No word yet on a comparable product from Hortons.

Succession planning of a different sort

Among the more intriguing informational tidbits served up at last week’s MUFSO conference was a revelation from Domino’s CEO David Brandon. He and other chain chiefs were asked what they view as their greatest industry challenge. Brandon noted that Domino’s, at age 46, is at a point in its lifecycle when a lot of franchisees would like to retire or otherwise kick back. How is the franchisor going to manage the transition to a new generation of operators?

It’s a question with profound implications for the brand. McDonald’s, with five more candles on its birthday cake, went through an adjustment of sorts in the 1980s and ‘90s when some of its long-time, smaller franchisees decided to focus on grandchildren instead of Big Macs. In many instances, the units were passed along to kids who’d grown up in the business, working in their folks’ franchises. But in others, the units were bought up by franchisees looking to expand their territory, leading to operations like Rick McCoy’s in Boston, with more than 100 stores.

Other systems have greeted that consolidation with concern, if not a counterattack. Pizza Hut didn’t like to see its franchisees become public companies. And most of the giant quick-service brands still don’t have publicly owned franchisees, with the notable exceptions of Burger King and Wendy’s.

Domino’s, founded in 1960, is entering a phase of maturation that other brands will hit sooner or later. Many have already made that changeover from early entrepreneurs to successive stages of franchisee ownership. For others, it’s a test yet to be undertaken.

Yet not a lot of eyes will likely be on the pizza giant, since that succession process is not a public display. Unfortunately, since it’s the franchisor is now a public company, many of those peepers will likely be investors’.

The MUFSO conference (for Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators, of course) is presented by Nation's Restaurant News. Look for full coverage in our Oct. 30 issue.

Near upset in Europe?

A $916 million bid for the European quick-service chain Quick has muted rumblings that the powerhouse brand would be acquired by Burger King.

The move would’ve been a brilliant flanking operation by the Home of the Whopper, giving it a dominant concept in the heart of the European Union. Belgium-based Quick reputedly outperforms McDonald’s in the French, Belgian and North African markets served by its 400 burger outlets.

Instead, Quick Restaurants SA said it fielded a friendly takeover bid from the French private-equity giant CDC Capital Investissements. Quick said it would exclusively deal with CDC to finalize a deal.

CDC’s per-share bid of $47.48 (or €37.8) outstripped the $43.98 (€35) offer that analysts had expected from Burger King Holdings, according to the Associated Press.

A green-hot trend

I appreciate your attention here, but keep an eye diverted for safety reasons. After the industry insisted for decades that it couldn’t afford to address social concerns, the pendulum is suddenly swinging the other way, and you don’t want to get bonked by that baby. Not at the speed it’s moving.

Consider how it’s been pushed in the other direction by events of the last few days. Walt Disney Co. would’ve generated headlines merely by adopting healthier menus in its theme parks, as it’s indeed doing. But it took the considerable extra step of vowing not to do business with restaurant chains that refuse to meet its health-oriented menu standards. A tie-in with the likes of Burger King, Taco Bell or McDonald’s can presumably mean millions in additional box-office revenues for a Disney flick. Yet the company has publicly vowed to walk away from such a collaboration if healthful dining options aren’t on its partner’s menus.

An aspect of the announcement that went unnoticed by the public: Disney convened an event the day afterward at MUFSO, our conference for restaurant-chain executives, to provide further details of its initiative. Was it a way of getting out the word to the big chains that future marketing partnerships would have to be much different?

The initiative is such a bodacious step that even the Center for Science in the Public Interest couldn’t muster it’s usual “good, but” response. It veritably gushed about the move Ditto for critics like Marion Nestle. It is indeed a quantum leap.

Yet the magnitude of that development might’ve diverted attention from other strokes of green. Normally, the launch of a new lodging chain by Barry Sternlicht, the Steve Jobs of the hotel industry, would have delivered the buzz of a honey farm. Add an exclusive affiliation with BR Guest, the New York indie-restaurant group headed by Steve Hanson, and the Richter Scale needle would’ve moved into the red. Overlay the news that the venture will be totally eco-friendly, right down to its restaurant, banquet and room service operations, and more than a few observers would be bouncing like Tom Cruise during an “Oprah” appearance. But coming just a few days after Disney’s announcement, it might’ve seemed, um, a little mickey mouse.

Ditto for Wendy’s disclosure that it had developed a website where parents could get information from dieticians about children’s nutrition, or the pledge from McDonald’s, a frequent partner of Disney, that it would develop more healthful kids’ entrees. McD also promised to spend 20 percent of its GDP-scale children’s marketing budget on spots that promote exercise.

Added together, the news suggests the industry is convinced, after decades of being hounded, that there’s considerable green to be made from being green.

The next big thing?

Add a new word to the crib sheet for staying current on restaurant trends, and put this one down in ink: izakayas, or the neighborhood restaurant-bars of Japan. Recent developments suggests they’re about to become the concept of the moment on the U.S. dining scene, with two very distinct followings.

The Japanese term was largely Greek to American foodies until a few weeks ago. But izakayas have been quietly infiltrating the U.S. market for several years, serving a subculture of Japanese students and young transplants within the States known as NEETs, or Needing Education, Employment, or Training. A major recent feature in The New York Times equated that portion of Japan’s youth to our slacker generation. It noted that these disaffected youngsters are coming to the U.S. in waves, for anywhere from a few months to several years, in hopes of finding themselves (read about it yourself at http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/fashion/15miho.html).

The story noted that so many izakayas have opened in the city’s East Village, an anything-goes area known for avant-garde boutiques and body-piercing emporiums, that a section of neighborhood has been re-dubbed Little Tokyo. The places are presumably authentic izakayas, Japan’s equivalent of the United Kingdom’s gastro-pubs. Both serve a clientele of professionals and hipsters who want to have a few drinks after work or school, accompanied by something better than each country’s equivalent of nachos, chicken fingers or other standard bar foods. Izakayas catering to NEETs and other Japanese immigrants typically offer small plates of highly flavored Asian specialties, often grilled.

If the anticipated izakaya craze went no further than serving those ethnic strongholds, the concept would likely garner no more attention from the dining mainstream than Korean barbecues or Peruvian eateries. But recent signs say the format may be moving into the American mainstream.

The Las Vegas-scale neon alert was the opening a few weeks ago of an izakaya-style place by P.F. Chang’s, the company that all but minted gold by introducing many areas of the country to Chinese food they could trust, in a setting that bedazzled instead of conjuring fears of ptomaine poisoning. Its namesake brand has been one of the most successful restaurant ventures of recent years, and a lower-cost version call Pei Wei Asian Diner has similarly enjoyed the touch of Midas, though both concepts have wheezed a bit in recent months.

And now comes Taneko, in Scottsdale, Ariz., a test of what the company hopes will be its newest Asian over-achiever. The company has set it up as a izakaya for the American mainstream, or at least the more adventurous of its dining-out aficionados. Like the pub-restaurants of Japan, it puts a considerable emphasis on beer, spirits and cocktails. The kitchen offers plates of what Gourmet or Food Channel fans might recognize, like Kurobuta pork chops or kobe beef, along with sashimi, tempura and noodle dishes. The company has indicated that patrons will typically spend $30 a head.

Meanwhile, another chain is poking its sandaled toe into the market. Wann, an izakaya brand from Japan, plans to open a U.S. outpost in downtown Seattle, that city’s Post-Intelligencer reported this summer. The newspaper’s restaurant writer, Rebekah Denn, cited the arrival as evidence of izakayas emergence as a next big thing, or what she calls the “it kids” of the local dining scene. Two izakayas are already in operation there, she noted.

Back on the Right Coast, The New York Times reported just last Wednesday that a place called Izakaya Ten had opened in the city’s Chelsea neighborhood, a frequent arbiter of dining fashion.

The paper has tacitly (and uncharacteristically) acknowledged that its hometown may be lagging behind Los Angeles in the evolution of the trend. Note the observation of a July Times story that carried a Los Angeles dateline: “The Japanese izakaya — a pub featuring savory snacks downed with sake or cold beer — is starting to shove the sushi bar off its pedestal,” wrote Jennifer Steinhauer.

And the ultimate gauge of a trend’s arrival: A Google search of “izakayas” served up 16,900 hits. That’s almost in Paris Hilton territory.

Seasons in the sun

Among the industry’s most-watched new restaurant ventures has been Seasons 52, Darden Restaurants’ attempt to mold an all-fresh restaurant and wine bar into something that could profitably serve the mass market, and aging Baby Boomers in particular. The company has been careful to characterize it as an experiment that might never grow into a sizeable chain. Or at least that’s what it had been saying before today.

The Red Lobster and Olive Garden parent tossed aside that usual caution when Blaine Sweatt, the concept’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, was asked during the MUFSO conference about Seasons 52’s chances of ever become a $1-billion-a-year business. Darden has said it wouldn’t undertake the development of a new chain unless it could reach that threshold. Would this ever be a concept feasible for widescale expansion?

“Are we ready to set the switch [to] ‘on’? Yeah, we’re getting pretty close,” said Sweatt. “Will it be a billion dollar business? Yes. It’s going to be bigger than a billion-dollar business.”

He explained that Darden’s success with the venture would likely prompt other casual-dining companies to develop knock-offs, which would add top-spin to the whole pack’s expansion. Darden would prosper, as would everyone else. But it’s invested the time and effort into nailing the right venture.

Sweatt noted that Darden has opened seven outlets of Seasons 52 in markedly different outlets, to gauge its popularity nationwide. Although he didn’t share details about the brand’s acceptance, the mere mention of that tactic suggests that Darden has liked what it’s learned.

Similarly, Darden is one of the industry’s most cautious players. It doesn’t boast or lightly project success. For Sweatt to speak the way he did,, the company has to be very confident about its chances of succeeding. It’s Darden’s boldest endeavor to date, but undoubtedly the one with which it’s moved most cautiously.

Behind the Baja deal

One of the big topics of conversation at MUFSO, Nation’s Restaurant News’ annual conference for multi-unit restaurant operators, has been Wendy’s sale of Baja Fresh for a mere $31 million. To put it in perspective: Wendy's bought the chain in 2002 for more than $275 million.

Attendees in a position to know said the brand had been widely shopped around before Wendy’s agreed to sell it to David Kim, a West Coast entrepreneur described as MUFSO participants as operator of more than 100 Cinnabon franchised stores. They also noted that he’s been a franchisee of Pickup Stix, T.G.I. Friday’s Asian little sister, and franchises a flower-delivery service called Kabloom.

Persons close to the situation say other bidders were put off by the poor financial health of company stores; they speculated that would-be bidders figured they’d have to close dozens of corporate units, which would represent a considerable write-off. But, they said, Kim has vowed to keep the units open, apparently by pursuing a turnaround plan he’s yet to reveal.

Many noted that a number of franchisees are thriving despite the brand’s travails. And word surfaced of an alternative prototype, already in operation in Pennsylvania, that offers the key benefits of speedier service and a less-expensive design.

Down from Olympus

Among the high points of this year’s MUFSO was having Norman Brinker attend. It was like going to a wedding reception and seeing the Rolling Stones take the stage. The man is nothing less than a founding father of the business—every bit as much of god as Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas, or Colonel Sanders. And there he was, sitting in the audience as if he headed a six-unit chain with national aspirations. This was a man who veritably invented casual dining, the visionary who thought up Steak and Ale, Bennigan’s and Chili’s when concepts of that sort were Gemini space craft in a horse-and-carriage world . Oh, yeah—along the way he managed to become one of the richest men in America. Yet you could readily reach him on the phone if you felt like chatting.

There, in the flesh, at MUFSO.

Yet a most extraordinary thing happened: Our industry’s equivalent of Frank Sinatra was in the house, and the house stayed as calm as a yoga instructors’ convention. A few of we old-timers said hello, but nary a Beatles-esque scream was raised, and the crowd kept its distance.

If most attendees merely wanted to respect the seventysomething’s privacy, that’s a wonderful thing indeed. But you can’t help wondering if many of those in the room didn’t grasp who this person was, and how much of a stamp he’d left on the industry, and society as a whole. They’re squandering the chance to meet a legend. And that’s sad indeed.

Bling for the King?

Can Burger King get its funk groove on, even with Diddy in the house?

The quick-service chain has contracted the one-time Puff Daddy as a “change agent” who can get the chain some street creds with the iTunes generation. The first step is the association of BK with the rap star on a page of YouTube.com, as if the King and Diddy hang together all the time. A video clip on the new Google holding shows the entertainer ordering a Whopper (written all in lowercase for added coolness) and explaining why he chose BK as a new collaborator. He’ll also star in an ad spot on that old-media staple, TV.

What either partner has yet to explain is the “consulting on relevant entertainment and marketing talent” piece of the deal. BK stresses that provision, and notes the deal is “multi-year,” but provides little detail. Is the burger chain looking to sign other stars for promotional gigs? Is it scrapping the hold-the-pickle-hold-the-lettuce schtick to become the sort of place where teens might skateboard in for the newest downloads and DVD? Will it sell the music and movies, as it’s already doing with its XBOX games, or just give it away to push more Whoppers—sorry, that’s whoppers, dog.

But while the King and Diddy are out clubbing, McDonald’s is already seeing more Big Macs slide across the counter because of its new entertainment initiative. Seventeen percent more, according to the franchisee of the test site. The m-Venue service, currently available just in that lone Schaumburg, Ill., unit, allows patrons to play songs, music videos or movie previews—all from Sony’s entertainment holdings—on any of 10 flat-screen TVs within the restaurant. They send their request via the ether, via either a text-message, a wireless laptop, or a web-enabled phone.

Right now, the entertainment is free. But the company supplying some of the equipment says a digital store is already part of the plan. At that stage, customers can buy the music or videos and download them to their wireless toys. There was no indication of how much the McDonald’s unit might collect from a sale.

That company, Akoo International, says McDonald’s units throughout the greater Chicago area will be retrofitted with m-Venue by year’s end, but the chain itself has not issued an announcement or other statement.

Coming clean on washing

Restaurateurs say getting employees to wash their hands is more difficult than packing the house. New research on American’s use of soap and water may provide some insight as to why.

Dining out may be ingrained in our culture, but hand washing is still surprisingly iffy, according to a new study from the Soap and Detergent Association, whose Washington, D.C., headquarters must be spotless. In a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, more than a third (36 percent) admitted they seldom or never wash their hands after coughing or sneezing. Almost as many (30 percent) said they don’t routinely give the paws a scrub before lunch.

Worst of all, about 8 percent confessed they don’t always wash their hands after using the bathroom. And the SDA surmises that the true figure may be far higher. “There’s a gap between what people say and what they do,” the group observes in its analysis of the data. It cites an earlier study, conducted in collaboration with the party animals over at the American Society for Microbiology, that found 17 percent of Americans don’t hit the soap after using a public bathroom.

And if adults don’t stop at the sink as a matter of course, what habit are their children going to develop?

Fish tales

Recent events confirm that Maine is very serious about fish. And don’t even get it started on crustaceans.

As we reported yesterday, one of the state’s U.S. senators has asked the federal government to prohibit restaurants from marketing pelagic crab meat as lobster, even if the designation incorporates the more familiar name of “langostino.” Olympia Snowe, a Republican, says her state’s lobster industry has lost $44 million in sales because chains like Red Lobster and Long John Silver’s can buy the less-expensive langostino and peddle it as langostino lobster, accent on the second word. In her view, the feds have to protect the majestic Maine lobster from being confused with the sea mutts she dismisses as “large shrimp.”

But while Snowe was trying to foment a storm, another fish story was unreeling far more quietly within the state. The conclusion will come within 30 days, when a special panel of the state’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife decides the fate of 10 koi that were seized from a restaurant’s dining-room aquarium.

The oversized, ornamental goldfish, routinely kept as pets in Asia, were taken from a Freeport restaurant called China Rose, where they’d lived for 15 years. Then a game warden spotted the fish and alerted authorities. In Maine, you need a license to raise koi, and China Rose proprietor Coung Ly clearly didn’t have one. Indeed, only one person in the state does.

The state is afraid that koi could escape from captivity, thrive like rabbits in the wild, and starve the endemic species that have turned Maine’s sports-fishing business into a whopper. So they took Ly’s fish—and gave them to a pet store.

Presumably, people can’t buy the specimens. But they can ogle the fruits of Ly’s crime and feel the pull of the dark side. If you know the right people, buying koi in New York or New Hampshire is a cinch.

Ly has begged to have his fish returned, pledging never to let them go or allow them to escape—which, presumably, is a pretty tough feat for a fish.

The odds of an escape will be weighed by the three-person panel appointed by Fisheries and Wildlife. They’ll decide if the fish will be returned to Ly. But regardless of their ruling, he’ll still face courtroom time and the possibility of a $1,000 fine under misdemeanor charges filed against him several weeks ago, for koi smuggling.

Hopefully he’s already erased any mention of langostino lobster from his menu.

This week in history?

After the events of last week, who knows what the next seven days will bring? It’s unlikely to be noted in history books, but the recent past served up some important milestones, some as obvious as Grant’s Tomb, and others as little-noticed as the Menudo reunion album.

Topping the list would have to be New York City’s call for virtual elimination of trans fat from restaurant preparations. A corner was turned, a tipping point was reached, the last straw was slipped into the camel’s pack. Whatever cliché you want to use, this is when it’s all likely to change, with regulators pushing on restaurants, the eateries pressuring their vendors, and the suppliers giving their R&D folks a firm kick. The end result is going to be the phasing out of trans fats, if for no other reason than the publicity that was raised by the New York health department’s call for eliminating the artery clogger from commercial kitchens. The infallible new gauge of buzz, the Google search, shows 106,000 website mentions of the issue.

And that’s going to be the first domino that falls. Chicago has already said that it’s eying what happens in New York as a model for what it does. And, whether you love New York or hate it, it’s hard to argue that it’s not a bellweather for much of the nation. Where it goeth, often so goes the nation.

Strangely, despite all the attention that New York’s proposed ban has garnered, several aspects of the proposal have been overlooked, or certainly under-appreciated. Why, for instance, is there not more of a sympathetic outcry for banishing trans fat from retail shelves? Or the home kitchen? Why is the public—and the restaurant industry—so willing to accept that double standard?

The answer may be the second part of the health department’s proposal, which, as we’ve noted in our New York office, was largely overlooked even by the city’s celebrated hometown media. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden also wants to mandate the posting of nutritional information on the menu boards of chain restuarants if the host concept already offers it as a handout or in some other form. It could be the stick that prods a sector of the trade to mute its protest to the ban proposal, which some insiders characterize as a done deal. If restaurants argue that they shouldn’t be subjected to the double standard of having to eliminate all but trace amounts of trans fats, when packaged-goods companies merely have to label the trans-fat content of their foods, then regulators might say, “Fine. Have it your way. Just provide the information, right on your menus. Along with info on cholesterol, calories and salt.”

Eliminating trans fat is a task that can be pushed back on suppliers. Menu labeling is a matter for restaurant accountants, and likely not one to make them happy.

The trans fat proposal may have accounted for plenty of headline ink, but it was hardly the lone newsworthy event of last week. Consider, for instance, the little-noticed tidbit about McDonald’s funding research into what makes children obese. About a year ago, I wrote a page-one story for Nation’s Restaurant News about the glut of research now being conducted on obesity, a cause du jour for academics, scientists and health officials. There’ll be no shortage of data on the topic. Yet McDonald’s is ponying up $2 million for more—no doubt in part to demonstrate concern, but perhaps also to make sure that all voices are heard in that authoritative discussion of obesity’s causes and possible remedies. As far as I can tell, it’s the first time that a restaurant chain has done such a thing, and certainly the only time that a quick-service operator has plunged into the world of health research to that degree.

The last week or so also brought the filing of three lawsuits against restaurants by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As was noted here last Saturday, Starbucks is being sued by the federal agency for allegedly violating the rights of a psychologically troubled employee, as provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act. A McDonald’s franchisee in Denver was hit with a suit for purportedly allowing two teenaged female employees to be sexually harassed by male managers and employers. And then came the announcement of a suit against the Parker Palm Springs hotel in Palm Springs, Calif., for allegedly hiring only males at one of its restaurants.

Given the volume of suits that the EEOC files, three doesn’t exactly signal a trend. But to have three actions against restaurants disclosed in the same week seems unusual. Is the EEOC stepping up its use of lawsuits as an enforcement tool? Are restaurants’ rules slipping a little in this tougher economic environment? Or are employees willing to resort to legal action more readily because jobs are harder to come by?

We don’t know. But maybe next week will provide an answer.

Slain Colo. girl was one of our own

The 16-year-old girl who was killed by a homeless man who took her hostage in a Colorado high school on Wednesday has been identified as one of our own. Emily Keyes worked in a Bailey, Colo., restaurant called the Cutthroat Café. A story in the Rocky Mountain News said her name was still on the work schedule as of yesterday.

The article said the café has become a place for locals to gather in hopes that grieving together may be better than trying to contend with the tragedy alone. A jar was set on the counter yesterday for donations to the girl's family. By noon, the local paper reported, the container was filled. Among the bills jammed inside was a $500 note.

In case you missed it, Emily was one of six girls that a gun-toting 53-year-old took hostage in Bailey’s Platte Canyon High School on Wednesday. Duane Morrison reportedly released four of the girls, then used Emily as a human shield when police stormed the place in hopes of rescuing her and the other remaining hostage. Morrison shot Emily in the back of the head and then killed himself.

If I learn how anyone without access to the jar can make a donation, I’ll pass that info along here.

Moddelmog named to head Susan G. Komen group

The restaurant industry’s ties to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation were seemingly strengthened yesterday when the charity, a favorite of many independents and chains alike, named Hala Moddelmog as its new CEO. Moddelmog, a consultant in recent years, is well known in foodservice from her many years of running the Church’s Chicken chain for AFC Enterprises. She parted with the chain when it was sold.

Moddelmog has also been very active in the Women’s Foodservice Forum and industry events.

A restaurant connection is hardly new for the Komen Foundation. It was named after the sister of founder Nancy Brinker, the former wife of Norman Brinker. Susan Komen lost her life to breast cancer in 1980 at age 36. Nancy Brinker subsequently devoted much of her life to fighting the disease. She was the CEO until surrendering that role to Hala.

This week alone, Panera Bread announced that its stores in southeastern Pennsylvania would generate funds this month for the Komen Foundation. Units there are selling a special pink bagel, like the pink ribbons worn by persons whose lives have been affected by breast cancer, to raise public awareness along with some dough. During October, a quarter from each bagel sale will go to the charity.

Restaurants in New York’s Chautauqua County are having a Dine Out-type function to raise funds. And countless restaurants elsewhere are doing their part to raise money and awareness during what is officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Bad timing, but who knew?

You can’t help but sympathize with Max & Erma’s, the 100-unit casual-dining chain. It announced a line-up of fall menu specials last Tuesday with the usual drum rolls and trumpet blasts. No fanfare was likely need for one of the limited-time items. Who wouldn’t notice a ravioli dish made with baby spinach, when health authorities were posting daily updates of how many people had been sickened and hospitalized from eating the green?

The unfortunate timing certainly wasn’t Max & Erma’s fault. No doubt its new Italian array was under development for months, starting back in the days when spinach was viewed as something that fostered health. And the menu is slated for the fall; who knows what the status of the spinach situation will be next week, never mind early December? Would it have made sense to hold back on a ravioli dish that features spinach when the vegetable might be re-designated as safe by the time guests roll into restaurants to give the new menu a try? Perhaps. But, for the sake of prudence, why not forego a mention of the product, at least in press announcements that the media will likely pass along to consumers?

Of course, Max & Erma’s is hardly the only chain to put the spotlight on an item that might have better been left under wraps. On Aug. 25, just about the time state health officials were fielding reports of people getting sick from eating spinach, Applebee’s scored the publicity coup of disclosing that celebrity chef/TV star/heartthrob Tyler Florence had developed four menu items for the mega-chain. One is an interesting poultry dish, called Crispy Brick Chicken, which is made by splitting a chicken and pressing it against a red-hot grill, according to the announcement that flooded the media. But in a regrettable twist of timing, it’s accompanied by a fresh spinach salad.

Applebee’s apparently kept the chicken, but smartly pulled the accompanying salad.

There’s no word yet on what Max & Erma’s plans to do if the spinach crisis continues, as it likely will to some degree. Fortunately, the new Italian menu includes three other dishes that can be touted. But it’d be a shame that all that the outcome of all that R&D work might have to be a raincheck.

WARNING: Writer is not responsible for this content

The most telling proof to date that corporate-governance watchdogs desperately need to be put on a leash: CBRL Group, the parent of Cracker Barrel and Logan’s, today issued a statement declaring its quarterly dividend. The actual disclosure of the financial information required 97 words.

The qualifiers, disclaimers and other defensive statements required by lawyers extended to 656 words.

The notable excerpts included an explanation that “forward-looking terminology” could include such words as would, could, regular or continue—“or the negative or other derivatives of each of these terms”; the warnings that business could be affected by avian flu or mad cow disease; and the heads-up that an executive’s inadvertent glimpse of a black cat could bring nine years of bad luck.

Okay, we made that last one up. But it kind of fits, doesn’t it?

The other side of the dark underbelly

Covering the restaurant business may not be war correspondence, but it has its unsettling experiences, be it writing about spinach poisonings (after you’ve consumed one of the brands cited by authorities as suspect), recounting the random shooting of 24 people in a Texas Luby’s, or reporting the illegal shenanigans of a CEO whom you regarded as a friend. And then there’s the story of Drago’s, the seafood restaurant in Metairie, La.

Like most of the dining establishments in and around New Orleans, the place was walloped by Hurricane Katrina last year. Two employees had insisted on staying inside the restaurant during the storm, which spared it from looting or vandalism. But they and colleagues from the area knew all that choice seafood, meat and frozen supplies they had on hand would spoil long before the restaurant could even dream of re-opening—a tragedy, given how many people in the area were without anything to eat. They figured they might as well serve it up. But here was one problem: They had no power to run a stove, oven or even a microwave.

But they improvised, doing whatever they could. Within a week, the staff was feeding the Coast Guard personnel who were struggling to plug the infamous 17th St. Levy levy breach. When Drago’s supplies ran out, proprietor Tommy Cvitanovich pressed his suppliers to pony up their supplies before that food went bad. Before long, he was hitting up every supplier and vendor he could. “We didn’t even buy from some of these people,” he would later say.

Yet the food donations poured in, as did a refrigerated trailer where the food could be kept. When locals came by for a hot meal, they’d stop by the trailer afterward to pick up cold cuts or other ready-to-eat foods they could bring to whatever shelter they were using. A trip would yield two or three meals.

It was an offer too good for the hungry and newly homeless to resist; At one point, Drago’s was feeding 3,500 meals a day, though it settled into a routine of a mere 1,500 a day. All supplied free, prepared free, and consumed for free.

As conditions improved, the restaurant raised its scope. It served 400 steak dinners to policemen, firemen and other recovery workers on Thanksgiving. And it started holding charity benefits to help out the fisherman who’d supplied the restaurant in better days. A Sunday lunch generated $21,000, all of which went to local oyster men.

By the time the restaurant was ready to resume commercial operations, it had fed an estimated 77,000 people for free.

Drago’s efforts led to its selection this year as a winner of the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Neighbor Award, an honor bestowed annually on four operations that embody the association’s core principle that restaurants are the cornerstones of their communities. Yet when Cvitanovich was presented with the $5,000 check that comes with the award, he said he couldn’t take it.

Instead, he explained, the restaurant was going to match the prize with $5,000 of its own money, and pool that with the matching awards Cvitanovich had successfully solicited from three other parties in the industry. “And I’m not done yet,” he said. The funds are already earmarked for a New Orleans-area high school that had to be rebuilt. “We want to make sure it has a kitchen in it when it reopens,” so youngsters could develop the skills needed to bring the area’s renowned foodservice industry back to what it was pre-Katrina.

At check presentation, an NRA official ad-libbed that he wished the industry’s detractors would think of Drago’s social contribution before they slam the trade as a bunch of burger flippers.

A negative side effect of this job is the cynicism if fosters. Then you hear of a situation like that, and the battle-weariness lifts. You realize it’s not always about money, ego or any other of the baser motivators. The bad may still seem pretty bad, but the good seems so dramatically underscored.

'When did the industry stop beating its spouse?'

If the Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives this November, as many pundits predict, what can the restaurant industry expect from the presumably anti-business shift in power? Perhaps not what you’d think.

The victory would likely be a squeaker, not the sort of rout that would enable the Dems to ramrod sweetheart legislation through the system, according to John Gay, who heads up lobbying for the National Restaurant Association (and hence for the industry as a whole.). In a briefing with Nation’s Restaurant News at our New York headquarters last week, Gay speculated that the new Congressional captains would have a tough time mustering sufficient votes to pass controversial measures like healthcare mandates.

But, he warned, the industry may still feel plenty of heat, much of it radiating from TV cameras and blistering attacks in newspaper op-ed pages. The Democrats would likely use their control of the committee system to schedule high-profile hearings on exposed-nerve issues pertaining to restaurants, like acrylomides, the suspected carcinogen that can be found in French fries, or obesity, and specifically how soft drinks might contribute to the problem. He asserted that restaurant executives could be summoned to the Hill for a public grilling or the forced application of a black hat. Ditto for some suppliers. The battle would shift from pushing legislation that makes the industry wince, to fostering an impression that the trade kicks puppies.

The antidote, speakers agreed during the NRA’s Public Affairs Conference earlier in the week in Washingon, is getting involved, at least to the point of casting a vote. Or as Richard Snead put it, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Snead was speaking as chairman of the NRA’s SAFE initiative, a grassroots lobbying program that you’ll no doubt be reading about more frequently in Nation’s Restaurant News as we get closer to the elections. His day job is running Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, the mega-sized parent of T.G.I. Friday’s and Pick Up Stix.

That sounds like a nearly overwhelming job. And yet he’s assumed the added duties of overseeing a $2 million political-action fund. And he asserts, very convincingly, that his political efforts may have to extend considerably beyond that role. As he puts it, “I will not let unreasonable legislation upset the growth of our company.”

You may not agree with the industry’s pro-Republican slant. But it’s hard to argue with Snead and other leaders about the importance of acting on your convictions, at least to the point of learning the issues and responsibly placing a vote.

You can find a roundup on the industry-specific matters at the NRA’s website, www.restaurant.org.

Tall double-shot of trouble

These haven't been the best of times for Starbucks.

First the caffeine specialist finds itself in hot-tea water because of a promotional giveaway that goes awry. Employees were invited to pass along a chit for a free iced latte to friends and relatives. So many staffers obliged that the chain decided to rescind the offer. Bad, bad move.

Caribou, a small but plucky competitor, tweaked the tiger’s tail by offering to honor Starbucks’ coupons. Then a Starbucks customer filed a lawsuit seeking redress for the discontinuation of the deal. She’s asking for $114 million, which is a lot of coffee even at Starbucks’ prices. But she asserts the chain would’ve spent that much on the free lattes, and wants to collect the money through a class-action suit for distribution to the people who were left dry.

Then some of the chain’s baristas decided that enough was enough; they couldn’t keep idly watching while customers bilked the chain. It seems that some patrons were asking for lower priced menu options, then doctoring them with Starbucks’ free milk to made a close approximation of pricier quaffs. Add enough half-and-half to an iced Americano, stir vigorously, and you have a more-than-passable ersatz iced latte, for half the price of the genuine item..

Employees decided to blow the whistle on the cheats by disclosing their ploy an a website for devoted Starbucks followers, www.starbucksgossip.com, But instead of rousing outrage, the postings opened an easy path to the Dark Side for heretofore honest customers. Some hardcore fans no doubt figured they’d give the trick a try and order the lower-ticket drinks.

It’s another indication the chain may be getting some pushback on its prices. Earlier, reports had surfaced of die-hard fans rethinking their preference after noting how they burned through money loaded on their Starbucks cards. You may not appreciate the aggregate outlay to the chain when you casually spend four or five dollars at each visit. But with the cards, you can’t help but notice that a $50 balance is gone in a week.

As if financial outrage wasn’t bad enough, Starbucks found its morals being slammed after headquarters resurrected the brand’s original logo for an anniversary celebration. Like the present-day version, the retro trademark features a mermaid. But you’re reminded much more, um, pointedly in the older incarnation that the Starbucks mermaid didn’t wear a bikini top. It’s hardly a Paris Hilton commercial, but it was racy enough to outrage an elementary school principle in the chain’s home state of Washington, as extensive press coverage attested.

But wait—there’s more.

News emerged this weekend of yet another lawsuit filed against the latte maker, this time by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for violating the rights of a disabled former employee. The woman parted with the chain in May 2004 because, the EEOC asserted, her psychiatric conditions weren’t accommodated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It contends that Starbucks knew the woman had issues when it hired her three years earlier. Concessions were extended to her during the early years of her tenure, but that tolerance changed when a new manager assumed responsibility for the plaintiff’s store, the suit alleges.

Even if all that agitation is counterbalanced by the purchase of 46 coffeehouses from Diedrich Coffee for a mere $13.5 million, it still has to be a bitter brew to swallow.

Meanwhile, in McDonald's outer boroughs...

Some of the most interesting news about McDonald’s these days is coming from abroad, where the chain seems more willing to take a risk. Consider the reports that surfaced just in the last two days:

In Japan, notes a website where visitors can post science and technology news, Big Mac is trying high-tech food wrappers. Each is embossed with a barcode-like pattern that the camera in a patron’s cell phone can decode into a URL. A web-enabled phone automatically connects to the website, where nutritional information about the item in the wrapper is displayed. From the user’s standpoint, you hold your phone to the wrapper, and calorie and fat info is instantly depicted on the handset’s display window.

Interestingly, said one reader who commented on the posting, the technology has been around for a long time—six months. Others indicated that such a system could work in Japan because everyone there has web-enabled picture phones. In comparison, Americans are still turning a crank on a wall unit and asking Clara the Operator to connect them.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s found itself in a pickle in Europe because of a new program it’s trying there. Employers are provided with a McPassport, which allows them to work in any McD’s unit within the European Union if a job is available, a set-up similar to one used by T.G.I. Friday’s in the States. McDonald’s said it regarded the McPassport as a perk, a benefit that gives its employees greater mobility. If a college-aged crewmember was leaving his or her job to travel, the chain might still pick up an hour or two a week from that individual during the roadtrip, or after they’ve relocated elsewhere for school.

It sounded like a positive gesture. Yet critics all but hanged Ronald. They alleged that McPassport is just a diabolical ruse to lure lower-paid workers from Eastern Europe into higher-wage jobs in the western part of the ECM. They portrayed the McPassport as a chit entitling the bearer to one (1) job.

It’s unclear—to me at least—why McDonald’s couldn’t attain the same end merely by offering jobs to the easterners. Why is a McPassport needed to hire them? Of course, I never understood Jerry Lewis’ popularity among the French, either.

Finally, news reports from Ireland say McD’s is making a bold move there to address health concerns. The stories say McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland have offered to halve the salt content of a French fries serving within a matter of weeks. The sodium in McNuggets has already been cut by 30 percent, and the McChicken Sandwich is 20 percent less salty than it was, according to the reports.

And what news did the chain disseminate here in the U.S. during the same timeframe? Boy, those $1.29 Snack Wraps are sure selling well.

We'll always have Paris

I’m on my knees, imploring you for mercy. But I realize forgiveness will be hard to muster. Seldom is a blogger afforded an opportunity like the situation that arose last week. Paris Hilton is arrested for driving with a snoot full en route to indulging her burger jones at an In ‘N Out Burger, not an outlet of the chain that paid her to savor its burger with near-orgasmic delight in a soft-porn commercial last year. And I almost miss it and the opportunity to note it here. If it weren’t for a heads-up from West Coast editor Lisa Jennings, I might’ve torn up a winning lottery ticket, so to speak.

But four days after non-stop coverage of the lodging heiress’ arrest for driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent, I’m hoping to redeem myself by recounting the rest of the story. It seems that Hilton insisted she was merely famished, not smashed. She explained to a Los Angeles radio station that she had a craving for a burger, an In ‘N Out burger, to be exact. She not only mentioned that brand name, but seemingly stressed it.

And, no, she hadn’t suffered any blows to the head before offering that explanation. There’s a reason stars have handlers.

Poor Carl’s, the chain that paid her to appear in one of the industry’s most controversial commercials. It catches more than a little heat for airing the spots. And then it’s dissed by Hilton after she downs what she insists was only one margarita. It should buy the Taco Bell chihuahua and sic it on Hilton’s exalted rat.

Of course, it could try spin-doctoring. It could put forth the idea that it’s burgers are so large and nourishing that Hilton only eats them after working up a sweat while washing her car or vigorously doing other chores around the house. No doubt in a bikini. Soaked.

Jokesters unmasked

Regular readers know that we at Nation’s Restaurant News have been trying to deduce who’s been lampooning us—admittedly gently—in an irregularly published electronic newsletter called Food Channel Month Daily (“Fake Insights for Restaurant Executives.”) As gumshoes, we’re not fit to carry Columbo’s raincoat (explanation for younger readers: He was a popular TV detective back in the days before every cop show started with “CSI” or “Law & Order.” We’d watch it on the Philco after parking the DeSoto and slipping off our spats).

We couldn’t figure out who the jokesters were, but this is a good time for apologies to my friend Bill and the others we suspected. Though, truth be told, they should be flattered we adjudged them capable of chicanery of that league. FCMD made us laugh, sometimes loudly, and we can be as mirthless and cynical as tax collectors.

But the Zoros who’d been good-naturedly jabbing us have taken off their masks at last. Turns out the satire was the brain discharge of an off-beat ad agency called G&M Plumbing, best known for the “Dan” campaign it developed for Del Taco. In a note you can read for yourself at www.foodchainmonthdaily.com, the daffy lot acknowledged they were hoping to snag some publicity and thereby land a customer or two in the restaurant field.

As you can imagine, parties of all sorts are constantly trying to con, cajole or blackmail us into giving them coverage. Usually, the very attempt leaves us all huffy (see our Food Writer’s Diary blog, written by my colleague Bret Thorn, for tips on how not to write a press release or otherwise pitch us).

But in this case, it doesn’t feel so bad. If you’re going to fall victim to viral marketing, it’s best to go down laughing.

The Wal-Mart way

The Great Price Rollback is officially underway.

Exhibit 1: A press release issued last Thursday by T.G.I. Friday’s, touting new riffs on appetizer staples like Buffalo chicken wings, quesadillas and loaded potato skins, along with such new meal starters as Fried Mac & Cheese and a sizzling cheese dip. The price: just $4 if you pop for an entrée, too, at least through mid-October. That’s such a small fraction of Friday’s usual appetizer price that a buyer would have enough left over to afford gas for the trip home. Which is, of course, the point.

Exhibit 2: Shoney’s has lifted the silver dome off its new sandwiches, including such hot options as a Philly cheesesteak and a pot roast selection, as well as a turkey club. The price: $4.99, until the end of October. Five bucks for a hot sandwich served by a waiter or waitress at your table, though you have to settle for potato chips instead of fries. I recently had a cheesesteak at Denny’s that cost me at least 40 percent more, though it was accompanied by hash browns.My usual sandwich from a Subway is more than $6, and you’d be lucky to get out of McDonald’s or Wendy’s for a mere five spot.

And the clincher, the sure-fire indicator that should have margin-minded restaurateurs wondering how far the pricing retreat will go: The quote two weeks ago in USA Today from Outback president Paul Avery, about the price cuts set to be adopted by the steakhouse chain in November: "We've lowered prices from time to time, but never this magnitude."

More alarming than the depth of the discounting may be the duration. Are gas prices ever going to fall below $2.25? The automobile manufacturers aren’t betting on it; they’re radically shifting their showroom mixes in anticipation for a prolonged, perhaps permanent adjustment in the way consumers shop.

And is the credit situation going to ease overnight? The economists have been warning about a blow from that dynamic for years. To assume it’ll be gone in a blink is just wishful thinking.

Perhaps the better fodder for thought is how to present value to consumers, without too much of a sacrifice in margins.

Chill pills

Burger King was recently sued in California for not warning customers about the potential risks of eating meat that’s been broiled over flames, a process presently being scrutinized for health risks. What’ll be the next concern to preoccupy the public? Sunshine?

Try water.

From here and there come indications that persnickety consumers are thinking heatedly about that most basic of pours—not just to avoid the slim threat of contamination, but because H20 represents an opportunity to promote wellbeing, like everything else they eat (from Whole Foods), drink (pomegranate-based, please), or do (drive their Prius to a spa, where they’re bake in a seaweed wrap). Standard tap issue, or even a bottled mass-market brand, just isn’t loaded with enough positives. But ice melt from a glacier, perceived to be as pure as angels’ tears, is another matter. Ditto for cubes made from water that could best be described as having a pedigree. Maybe it came from purified rainwater, or was taken from a spring, frozen, and sealed in an airtight container, all without being touched by the walking petrie dishes known as humans. Some of the suppliers are already talking about enhancing their water rocks with vitamins.

They may blast common ice and the purported detriments to health and flavor it poses, but they’re certainly willing to embrace old-guard marketing techniques. The alternatives to the mundane output of commercial ice makers have been christened designer ice, and priced accordingly, at about a dime a cube.

Right now, it’s still a novelty, largely limited to specialty retailers and presumably the kind of nightclub club where you wait outside behind a velvet rope. But is there any doubt it will arrive at a certain echelon of restaurants before long, satisfying patrons who fear they’ll fall out of the avant-garde, into the dreaded class of the merely trendy?

It may take awhile for the public’s interest to reach that point, but there’s already pressure building to use something better in a drink served on the rocks. NRN consumer insights editor Erica Duecy recently returned from Tales of the Cocktail, a relatively new conference that brings together cocktail enthusiasts from both sides of the bar. The restaurateurs there, Duecy reported, compared notes about how to meet mounting demand for harder ice delivered in more functional shapes, with the completely neutral tate that makes them an ideal complement to super-premium spirits or the cocktails made with them.

Think about it: If we’d told you three years ago that flavored foam and similar touches of food chemistry would be all the rage within fine-dining, you’d suggest a first-hand look at continuing-care feeding, from the patient’s viewpoint. And now that’s one of the driving forces behind the high-end sector. It’s already trickling down to lower-priced places through flavored sprays. Might this be something that hits the broad market even faster?

Makes you want a scotch on glacier ice.

And now, a word about gender equality

Before we shift the discussion to world peace, it’s essential that we right the wrong that’s been visited by the industry upon dads in recent months. During this age of shameless hype, when marketers can pump smoke through all sorts of media to snag attention for their brands, why shouldn’t the old man get a chance to be part of the publicity ploys?

But it’s Mom, Mom, Mom. Look at KFC’s announcement of two weeks ago, about the formation of a kitchen cabinet to counsel executives on the brand’s direction. Promising “a meaningful agenda,” the chicken chain said “the Advisory Board will meet in person bi-annually, hold quarterly conference calls and host monthly dinner meetings to gain information and advise KFC on everything from trends that affect families to new product ideas.” And what type of individuals is it seeking for that essential work? You can have an MBA, a resume listing one blockbuster feat after another, or a wand given to you personally by Harry Potter. But unless you’ve experienced childbirth, you’re not getting on the panel. Dubbed, in typical marketing reserve, the KFC Moms Matter! Advisory Board, it’s the panel of all mothers. KFC says it plans to draw them from all walks of life, starting with your typical author, radio personality, former TV anchor, and family-communications theorist, Julienne Smith.

Of course, cynics might say the panel was formed to shape KFC’s image more than its policies. But, regardless, why shouldn’t Dad get his time in the spotlight, even if it’s the modern-day equivalent of flag-pole sitting? Besides, the 13 members have already been treated to an all-expenses-paid trip to Louisville, Ken., KFC’s hometown.

Then again, it’s not as if Dad’s unaccustomed to this sort of rejection. In May, McDonald’s trumpeted the formation of a new advisory panel of consumers drawn from all over the world. They were selected as founts of advice from all walks of life, and duly celebrated in McDonald’s announcement of the initiative. The one unifying factor: They were all moms. The group is called the Global Moms Panel. Not the Global Parents Advisory Team, or the Childhood Savants Braintrust.

Clearly a pattern is forming here. Maybe it’s because no trust is left in men’s restaurant judgment after the start-up of Hooters.

The plot thickens

In yesterday’s posting, I mentioned that the foodservice industry has a mystery on its hands. Someone is anonymously publishing an electronic newsletter that satirizes restaurant-industry news and how it’s presented in the trade’s media, including Nation’s Restaurant News. The Food Chain Monthly Daily, available at http://www.foodchainmonthdaily.com, features stories like “Upcoming Multi-Unit Operators Conference to Focus Mostly on Golf and Drinking,” or “Taco Bell Jr. Marketing Executive Accused of Thinking Inside the Bun,” both from today’s edition.

As I noted yesterday, I sent an e-mail to the anonymous parties who had sent us the e-letter, asking who they were. Here was the response I got today:

“To answer your question as to who we are, that mystery will be solved very soon. There is a method to our fun poking which we plan to reveal after the next issue.”

So stay tuned.

Who is that masked jokester?

Jon Stewart draws millions of viewers with his nightly lampooning of major-media news broadcasts. Now someone is borrowing that “Daily Show” approach to take a satirical look at developments in the restaurant industry, with some fun poked at Nation’s Restaurant News in the process.

The question is, who’s doing it? As you’ll see by visiting http://www.foodchainmonthdaily.com, the presenter has invested a fair amount of time in creating what purports to be a new industry e-letter, Food Chain Monthly (“Fake Insight For Restaurant Executives,” reads the positioning line under the title). He, she or they also clearly know the business and how it’s been covered on the pages of NRN.

We learned of it from an anonymous e-mail. I’ve asked the author(s?) to tip their mask, but I’ve yet to field a response.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the first installment. You can read about how KFC is shielding itself from the possible fallout of avian flu by removing the “C” from its name and rechristening itself KF.

Readers also learn that Jack, the cue-ball-headed star of Jack in the Box commercials, suspects his wife is fooling around with The King mascot from Burger King’s spots. We also learn that the wife of Popeye’s director of menu development is sick of hearing about exciting new dipping sauces.

Also included in the premier edition is a story about IHOP franchisees’ inability to agree on the impact of a new ad strategy. Gathered for their annual meeting, they shifted their energies instead to an argument about napkin vendors.

The slice of sarcasm is a direct take-off on an NRN item written by marketing editor Gregg Cebrzynski, who also authors our Ad Watcher blog. He wrote an article some time ago about IHOP franchisees reaching a consensus on an ad effort.

The lampooning in that and other blurbs is more humorous than abrasive, and the e-letter does sport some wonderfully surreal touches. The closing article is headlined, “Exhaustive Three Month QSR Research Project Confirms ‘Bacon is Delicious’.”

A disclaimer carefully spells out who is not behind the venture: The e-letter and the website that houses “is in no way associated with Chain Leader magazine or its various associated publications,” says the teensy-weensy type at the end.

Doest it protest too much?

Bi-coastal opportunities

After four days of eating in California, my grease deficiency is gone. The state may be renowned for its fresh, lighter fare, but after hitting the dining landmarks of Los Angeles, from Pink’s hotdog stand to the Milton Berle-esque Cantor’s Deli, it’s clear the current partiality for salads and such masks a weakness for dripping meats mounded with bacon, cheese, sour cream, more bacon, and, if you think blood circulation is over-rated, pastrami. And I offer that assessment without trying Tommy’s, the hallowed downtown burger stand that is to gut-bombers what the Sistine Chapel is to ceiling art. I held off because a man has to dream.

But while my NRN colleagues and I stifled sobs because none of us had thought to order fries or onion rings at Pink’s, we spied the next wave of fresh-and-healthy places to dot the Los Angeles market. Some of them seem to be at least inspired by Japan, if not imported from there. Another sort is clearly an adaptation of the new hotspots where droves of office workers line up at midday back home in Manhattan. Indeed, it seems as if a bi-coastal concept swap is in the offing, with profound implications for lunch as we know it.

Right now, the trade appears to be unequal. Southern California is already enjoying a taste of New York’s ongoing made-to-order salad boom, whereby small Big Apple chains like Chop’t and not a few neighborhood delis allow professional women and other salad-loving lunchers to spec the ingredients of an entrée salad. Typically you pay $4.99 and up to choose a lettuce and four toppings to be mixed with it. Request a protein, from chicken to shrimp, and you can expect to spend at least $2 more. A staffer behind a counter adds whatever dressing you specify, tosses the whole thing, and perhaps even chops it on a cutting board. It’s scooped into a carryout container and off you go. And, typically, you leave with relief because you’ve waited in a long, long line to get your meal.

The adaptation I spotted in downtown L.A. was called Loose Leaf Custom Built Salads. No doubt similar salad specialists are in the works elsewhere in the city and state, prodded along by the strong appeal to entrepreneurs as well as consumers. When you’re offering cold dishes, you don’t have to install costly cooking equipment. Nor do you have the development complications of running gas lines, or providing the requisite venting. The cost of a venture drops.

But while Los Angeles embraces that concept, it’s keeping a jealous grip on a lunch option that seems to be popping up there like traffic jams. Drive by two or three strip malls or downtown office centers and you’re likely to see at least one sparkling new quick-service place sporting a Japanese-sounding name (I had intended to write them all down during our tour of the city’s quick-service icons, but ended up with nothing but grease stains on a paper and a pen too slick to hold). The ones I saw featured portable choices like rice bowls, teriyaki selections, some noodle dishes, and soups. The places were extremely clean and fresh looking, and the food looked and tasted the same. It was also an astounding bargain. I had a small bowl of rice topped with fresh vegetables and a teriyaki sauce at one for $4.

The places embody the big-three traits that fuel more mainstream fast-casual concepts: Freshness, flavor and value. With that kind of potent appeal, it’s just a matter of time until they hope across the coast to storm New York.

But if Los Angeles wants to send us a branch of Tommy’s instead, hey, we’ll make do.
Bico

A name of shame?

A journalist crosses a certain threshold when he uses the term “female genitalia” in an article. So it was for me yesterday when I wrote about the latest restaurant venture from Hard Rock Cafes co-founder Peter Morton.

Morton, whose publicist acknowledged that the entrepreneur and his relatives have garnered $1.2 billion from the sale of restaurants, casinos and hotels, wants to tout the new venture by putting its name atop the Arizona Cardinals’ pro-football stadium. He’s already offered $3 million for the naming rights, and underscored his seriousness—or so his press release said—by flashing a check for $5 million before the eyes of Cardinals officials.

That situation is extraordinary enough. But as Morton might say, in a decidedly hipper way, "Wait! There's more!"

The topper in this case is the name that would show in lights above the facility: Pink Taco Stadium.

If you’re one of those people who crook their pinkies when they sip coffee, you may not be aware that “pink taco” is slang for a part of the female anatomy that probably shouldn’t be mentioned in a family-friendly blog like this one (hence the afore-mentioned reference to genitalia.) And that’s the phrase that’ll greet families as they file into the stadium to root for their Cardinals.

Morton professes that he doesn’t see why the use of that name should be controversial, which is why he’s proudly using it for his new chain of Mexican restaurants (two open, seven under development). Which, by the way, is being run by his 25-year-old son, Henry, better known to the younger staffers here at Nation's Restaurant News as the boyfriend of Lindsay Lohan.

The Mortons characterized the fuss as “foolish,” noting that the Pink Taco has been used without any rub at the prototype in Las Vegas for six years.

Who’s opinion are they soliciting, the guys from Hooters?

They acknowledge that the brand name is a strong draw for men aged 21 to 34, which explains why the second Pink Taco, in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a phenomenal hit.

Yet father and son are astute enough to acknowledge that they’d settle for Morton Stadium if the community finds the other designation to be too explicit.

You’ll find the story in the Breaking News section of our website, nrn.com.