FSR August 2023

FULL-SERVICE RESTAURANTS : SETTING AMERICA’S TABLE NO. 116

ESSENTIAL DELIVERY TECH STEAKHOUSES EMBRACE GRASS-FED BEEF

NEXT-GEN SOMMELIERS LOS DOS POTRILLOS GOES HYBRID

®

FSR 30 THE UNVEILING THE TOP FULL-SERVICE TITANS IN THE U.S.

DENNY’S RENAISSANCE HOW CEO KELLI VALADE

SPOTLIGHTING CHICAGO’S ‘BREAKFAST QUEEN ’ INA PINKNEY + IS RENEWING RELEVANCE AT THE 1,600-UNIT GIANT

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CONTENTS

FSR August 2023 No. 116

30 Denny’s Renaissance

CEO Kelli Valade is renewing rel evance at the 70-year-old breakfast giant by getting back to 24/7 oper ations and implementing new tech and menu innovation, elevating the nearly 1,600-unit diner chain to new heights. 36 e FSR 30 Our new report highlights the pow erhouse brands making legendary status in restaurant chain history. ough varied by cuisine type, these full-service restaurants all showcase recent growth. CHEFS & INGREDIENTS 13 Chicago’s 80-Year-Old ‘Breakfast Queen’ Ina Pinkney built a breakfast empire in the Windy City. Now, she’s recounting the lessons learned along the way. 18 From Pasture to Plate Steakhouses are seeing a signi - cant uptick in demand for grass-fed cuts and are innovating around menus accordingly, including at Gibsons Restaurant Group and Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse. LIQUID INTELLIGENCE 25 Ripening the Next Generation of Sommeliers In-house hospitality education pays o for up-and-coming sommeliers and sales, say leaders at Gracious Hospitality, Undercote, and more.

3 0 DENNY’S OFF PREMISES BUSINESS REPRESENTS ABOUT 22 PERCENT OF THE CHAIN’S SALES, INCLUDING ITS FOUR VIRTUAL BRANDS.

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CONTENTS

49 FSRmagazine.com August2023 No.116

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EDITORIAL

SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Danny Klein dklein@wtwhmedia.com

GROUP PUBLISHER Greg Sanders gsanders@wtwhmedia.com NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Eugene Drezner 919-945-0705 edrezner@wtwhmedia.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Amber Dobsovic 919-945-0712 adobsovic@wtwhmedia.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER John Krueger 919-945-0728 jkrueger@wtwhmedia.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Edward Richards 919-945-0714 erichards@wtwhmedia.com

FSR EDITOR Callie Evergreen cevergreen@wtwhmedia.com QSR EDITOR Ben Coley bcoley@wtwhmedia.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sam Danley sdanley@wtwhmedia.com DIRECTOR OF THE BRANDED CONTENT STUDIO, FOOD AND HOSPITALITY Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@wtwhmedia.com BRANDED CONTENT ASSOCIATE EDITOR Charlie Pogacar cpogacar@wtwhmedia.com BRANDED CONTENT STUDIO

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51 Why Delivery Tech is Essential YOUR TAKE Operators need to ensure operational costs don’t erode the broader margin, with profitability in the delivery channel becom ing more difficult to achieve. Here’s a guide on how to choose from the myriad of delivery technology options. 54 Start Me Up Chef Michael Hanna spent years honing his culinary skills in kitchens across Nash ville before launching St. Vito Focacceria as a pop-up in 2020, which opened its first brick-and-mortar in May. ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 4 Highlights from FSRmagazine.com 4 Brand Stories in Print and Online

FIRST COURSE 9 Rethinking our Food System

This year’s James Beard ‘Out standing Chef’ Award winner Rob Rubba is championing a hyper-seasonal and sus tainable approach at Oyster Oyster, his Washington, DC based restaurant. 10 Please Don’t Stop the Music Playing background music has proven to create a positive environment for restaurant guests, and can even impact purchasing decisions. Here are five of the top songs that enhance dining atmospheres, according to customers. BACK OF HOUSE 49 Growing from the Ground Up ON THE RISE By 2028, Luis and Daniel Ramirez want to expand Los Dos Portrillos to 12 locations in Colorado, with a mixture of full-service and fast-casual establishments.

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Tracy Doubts 919-945-0704 tdoubts@wtwhmedia.com CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Mitch Avery 919-945-0722 mavery@wtwhmedia.com

BRANDED CONTENT ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kara Phelps kphelps@wtwhmedia.com

DESIGN

ART DIRECTOR Erica Naftolowitz enaftolowitz@wtwhmedia.com

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FSRMAGAZINE.COM THE MOST POPULAR STORIES ON OUR WEBSITE, OR WHAT YOUR PEERS ARE READING Online

FAT BRANDS TO TAKE TWIN PEAKS PUBLIC After hinting to do so several months ago, FAT Brands will take Twin Peaks public and use the proceeds from the transaction to help pay off debt. FSRmagazine.com/Twin-Peaks-Goes Public HOW TGI FRIDAYS IS WINNING LOYAL GUESTS THROUGH SIMPLICITY The chain’s new rewards program cuts through the clutter, both from a tech and messaging standpoint. FSRmagazine.com/TGI-Fridays-Loyalty 32-UNIT GEN KOREAN BBQ FILES TO GO PUBLIC The casual-dining concept with no chefs in the kitchen filed to raise up to $25 million in an IPO, and believes it has room for more than 250 stores in the U.S. FSRmagazine.com/Gen-Korean-BBQ Public

DAVE & BUSTER’S

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Welcome

Don’t Fail to Learn YOU DON’T ALWAYS GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. I, for example, chose to major in biology when I rst got to college. Science fascinated me, but I soon realized I wanted something more hands-on, so a semester later, I tried out nursing. I lasted in anatomy class for about two weeks before deciding it wasn’t for me. From there, I basically spun a wheel of di erent majors and landed on communications, then philosophy, and probably two others until I took my rst journalism reporting class—and nally, some thing clicked. It felt like my whole life had been leading up to that decision, pointing me in the right direction. However, I believe those other classes and majors I tried ended up making me a better, more well-rounded jour nalist. ere’s always a lesson to be found in what some people would con sider mistakes or failures. I think Chicago’s ‘Breakfast Queen’ Ina Pinkney would agree with me; she had 21 jobs throughout her career, and was red from 19 of them. “And what I learned is that every job had something that I wanted to know,” she says. Turn to PAGE 13 to read her inspiring and wildly entertaining story (seriously, I hope I’m that spunky at 80 years old). is month’s issue contains a lot of teachable moments and growth stories. Restaurants like COTE Korean Steakhouse and others across the country are bringing no-cost, wine-intensive curriculums in-house to ripen the next generation of sommeliers ( PAGE 25 ). Consumers and steak house operators alike are discovering the quality and value of grass-fed beef ( PAGE 18 ). And Denny’s CEO, Kelli Valade, took it upon herself to learn the ins and outs of nance, development, real estate, and more when she was promoted to the rst female brand president of Chili’s Grill & Bar in 2016, as well as Brinker’s executive vice president ( PAGE 31 ). August’s issue also features the full-service giants with massive growth stories in our new report, e FSR 30, which we teamed up with data partner Circana to compile ( PAGE 36 ). Another brand on the rise, albeit at a smaller scale, is Los Dos Potrillos—a family-run Mexican restaurant seeking to expand across Colorado with a mixture of full-service and fast casual stores ( PAGE 49 ). Learn how to choose from the myriad of delivery technology options available on PAGE 51 , and discover how Chef Michael Hanna is bringing an ancient style of pizza to Nashville on PAGE 54 . Finally, let this year’s James Beard ‘Outstanding Chef’ Award winner Rob Rubba expand your mind with out-of-the-box ideas on how to make this industry more sustainable ( PAGE 9 ). As long as you keep turning the page, you’ll keep nding more lessons and new ways to engage with an ever-changing employee and customer base. Let’s dig in.

cevergreen@wtwhmedia.com FSRmag @FSRmagazine

On the Cover This month’s cover of Kelli Valade was shot for Denny’s by Kathy Tran , an accomplished photographer, photojour nalist, and multimedia business owner who hails from Dallas, Texas. While Tran’s expertise lies in capturing captivating visuals—including chefs, lifestyle, food, portraits, street styles, and more—her true passion lies in celebrating the beauty of life itself, always seeking out new slices of life to experience. To learn more about her, visit www.kathy-tran.com , or follow her on Facebook or Instagram at @kathytranx.

Callie Evergreen EDITOR

CALLIE: HOLLY FRITZ / KATHY TRAN

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First Course

This year's James Beard ‘Outstanding Chef’ Award winner Rob Rubba is championing a hyper seasonal and sustainable approach at Oyster

Oyster, his Washington, DC-based restaurant. Rethinking our Food System BY CALLIE EVERGREEN The fine dining world has arrived at a turning AFTER TAKING A SUMMER JOB with his uncle and falling in love with the culinary world, Rob Rubba began chasing the best restaurants and traveled around the country. He worked for Gordon Ramsay at The London in New York to Michelin-starred restaurants in Las point, and Chef Rob Rubba is leading the charge for change.

REY LOPEZ

Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and back to New York. He then opened a restau rant called Hazel in Washington, DC which was globally inspired and meat heavy. “And I started to think about what my impact as a chef was,” Rubba told listeners on a recent episode of

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First Course

PLEASE DON’T STOP THE MUSIC

FSR ’s podcast, ‘The Restaurant Inno vator.’ “A long career of thinking I was doing what was considered best, and finding there’s a lot of waste, that there’s a lot of mistreatment of both the employees in these restaurants as well as the folks who bring the food to you, and I realized the food I was cook ing was far from sustainable, and I kind of had this existential thing if I even wanted to cook anymore.” Rubba’s epiphany was two-fold: not only could he use his voice and public platform to push for positive change in the industry, but he could model a dif ferent way of doing things by building a sustainable restaurant from the ground up. “I might as well use what soapbox I do have to stand on and try to flip the script and push a better world for res taurants, whether that just be with the food when we talk sustainability or the way we ourselves operate,” he says. His awakening led to opening Oys ter Oyster in June 2021, a “dining expe rience for the future” that relies on sea sonal and local produce for its tasting menu, and ingredients that are sourced from individuals who believe in organic and regenerative farming practices. In addition to minimizing food waste and carbon footprint, Rubba and his busi ness partner, sommelier/restateur Max Kuller, believed they could make Oyster Oyster a one-of-a-kind experience in the Mid-Atlantic region. A creative menu that tastes as good as it looks has the world paying atten tion—and taking notes. Oyster Oyster received a Michelin Star in 2022, and Rubba was awarded the big prize at the James Beard Award ceremony in June: ‘Outstanding Chef,’ an honor in a national category. “We built something that was not only more sustainable for the environ ment, but for myself to not burn out in,” he adds. “We built something that was holistic for both myself and the staff, which is really beautiful.”

PLAYING BACKGROUND MUSIC has proven to create positive and engaging experiences for customers at restaurants, and can even impact purchasing decisions. Consumers in the U.S. make more than 90 billion vis its to businesses every year, and a whop ping 79 PERCENT NOTICE THE MUSIC THAT IS BEING PLAYED , according to SOUNDTRACK YOUR BRAND , which gives restaurants, bars, and retail stores an all-in-one solu tion for streaming music. While the types of music played can vary based on the venue, it can also directly impact the bottom line. In a recent survey by TOUCHTUNES —which provides a mod ern jukebox experience for thousands of restaurants and venues—five of the top songs reported by customers to enhance the atmosphere include: 1 “ Tennessee Whiskey” CHRIS STAPLETON 2 “ Blinding Lights” THE WEEKND 3 “ I Wanna Dance with Somebody” WHITNEY HOUSTON 4 “ Save Me” JELLY ROLL 5 “ Fat Bottomed Girls” QUEEN

TO LEARN MORE, CHECK OUT ‘THE RESTAURANT INNOVATOR’ ON ALL PODCAST PLATFORMS.

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Chicago’s ‘Breakfast Queen ’

INA PINKNEY TRANSFORMED FROM SOMEONE WHO HAD NEVER SEPARATED AN EGG WHITE BEFORE TO BUILDING A BREAKFAST EMPIRE IN THE WINDY CITY. AT 80 YEARS OLD, SHE’S NOW RECOUNTING THE LESSONS LEARNED ALONG THE WAY.

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WHILE GROWING UP in the 1940s and early ‘50s, Ina Pinkney can’t recall seeing any examples of women in the media who were entrepreneurs or who owned their own businesses, so the thought of opening her own business didn’t cross her mind until the ‘80s. From serving as a manager at furniture and toy show rooms to working customer service at Revlon, Pinkney had 21 jobs in her life, and was fired from 19 of them. “Now, I was a hell of a good interview, wasn’t I?

BY CALLIE EVERGREEN At 80 years young, Ina Pinkney shares the secret ingredients to her success.

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CHEFS & INGREDIENTS CHEF PROFILE

I kept getting jobs. And what I learned is that every job had something that I wanted to know,” she says. “I got red a lot because I treated my job like that department or that area was my per sonal business, so my employees were happier and more productive. And we got things done, and I created a ex time when there was no such thing … I really understood the business world.” “By the ninth ring, it didn’t bother me at all,” she quips. Pinkney recalls being red from one job on a cold Chi cago day because she came in wearing pants under her dress to stay warm, and women weren’t allowed to wear pants at

most businesses at the time. One day while getting ready to begin her 21st job as a manager of a plastics company, she saw an ad in a local news paper for a balloon delivery service— and an idea sparked. “For your birth day, people send you balloons, they send you strippers, and they send you singing telegrams,” she says. “ is was 1980. But nobody sends you a cake? Isn’t that sort of wrong?” She pitched the idea of tuxe doed butlers delivering cakes to people with sparkler, plus parchment scrolls with birthday wishes and kind messages. “And everybody was going, ‘oh my god, what a great idea.’ And I went down to my apartment, it was a Saturday, and I wrote down all the things I thought I needed to do to make that happen.” Soon enough, Pinkney’s phone was ringing with orders from peo ple who had heard through word of-mouth about her new butler cake-delivering service. “And I did what every entrepreneur does—I

said yes. And I took down all the infor mation. And then I thought, ‘oh my god, I need a cake,’” she recalls. At the time, most cakes were dry, layer cakes with “bad buttercream and I thought, ‘oh, I wouldn’t even eat one of those.’” So she decided to make one of Craig Claiborne’s recipes for a ourless chocolate cake she saw in e New York Times Magazine. “Now here was the issue—I had never separated an egg. I had never beaten an egg white. And I had never melted choc olate. So I tried to make this cake and it was a disaster, so I went out and bought enough ingredients for three more cakes,” she admits. “And by the end of that third and fourth one, it was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. And I thought, well, I’ve just learned something. If you can read, you can bake.” “I would follow a recipe and I would do what it said. Baking was so in my wheelhouse, because a tablespoon is a tablespoon,” Pinkney adds. “I’m baking at night, bringing the cakes to work, and these guys are showing up in their little tuxedos, they’re going o and delivering cakes, going everywhere.” Pinkney got red from the plastics

INA PINKNEY

BEST MUSIC TO BAKE TO: Today, I needed to get pumped up and was listening to “The Circle of Life” from “The Lion King” (Composed by Elton John, performed by Carmen Twillie) GO-TO COFFEE ORDER: I’m a latte girl, day and night. At night, it’s decaf with whole milk and good froth. WHAT YOU HAD FOR BREAKFAST TODAY: Amylu’s chicken sausages, and I like sunny-side-up eggs cooked in olive oil so that they frizzle at the edges. FAVORITE RECIPE: Heavenly Hots Pancakes that were on the menu, and people went crazy for them for 22 years. Ingredients: 4 large eggs, 2 cups sour cream, 1/4 cup cake flour, 2 tbsp. potato starch, 3 tbsp. Sugar, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, served with peach, raspberry, blueberry compote.

FROM FRIED CHICKEN AND WAFFLES TO PASTA FRITTATA, INA’S ELEVATED DISHES WITH HIGH-QUALITY INGREDIENTS.

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CHEFS & INGREDIENTS CHEF PROFILE

company and began baking fulltime at home, until she snapped up a storefront in the neighborhood and turned it into a licensed baking kitchen. She started a dessert catering business in 1980 when that kind of concept didn’t exist, she says. at business quickly evolved into a full-blown breakfast restaurant in 1991 after Pinkney realized the oppor tunity she had to create something dif ferent from the other options in town.

seats lled, thanks to people doing busi ness and meeting before work instead of leaving at lunch. Most importantly, the quality of ingredients was top-notch— like freshly-baked whole grain bread with seeds twisted and baked together for her version of breaking bread (with out the crumbs from a baguette), and freshly-cut soft butter, never wrapped in foil or served cold. “Everything had to be di erent and better than they had

restaurant career journey and the legacy she made in the Chicago food scene— which appeared in 48 film festivals. “Having [my life] documented is pro found, and I’m very proud of how it came out,” she says. “It’s a little overwhelm ing. And I say a little; it’s more than that.” On April 26 this year, Chicago Chefs Cook organized a birthday bash for Pinkney’s 80th trip around the sun, where more than 60 local chefs gath ered “in the spirit of neighborly love to unite and celebrate an icon, the Break fast Queen,” the event news release said. “But more importantly, the community will unite to celebrate Ina’s wish to lift up the next generation and ready them selves for the challenges of a changing world.” Chefs in attendance included Top Chef Master Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill; James Beard Award-winning pas try chef Gale Gand, host of “SWEET DREAMS”—the rst ever dessert-only cooking show on e Food Network; and reality star Chef Fabio Viviani of Siena Tavern and Bar Siena. The star-stud ded event’s proceeds benefited Chica go’s Green City Market and nonpro t Pilot Light. “ is is the part of the story where I look at you and go, I had no idea I would be relevant at age 80 and still be asked to do things,” Pinkney notes. “I went to work every day and did the right thing, and I think some owners don’t get it; they don’t come out of the kitchen, they don’t understand their presence matters. ey don’t understand that they need to greet their employees like they greet their guests, because the employees are the rst people through the door. And you set the tone with them by greeting them.” “Now, being a woman owner was very different than I’ve heard from other chefs,” she explains. “I always said they would never mistake my softness for weakness. Only once did I have to raise my voice, and that’s because I saw some one doing something dangerous.” Pinkney’s advice to “old chefs” is to “really respect the new way of thinking about the younger chefs, about having time and sharing that time,” she adds.

“Now here was the issue—I had never separated an egg. I had never beaten an egg white. And I had never melted chocolate. So I tried to make this cake and it was a disaster.”

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“Because it was the ‘80s, breakfast was thoughtless, co ee was insipid. Some body was breaking eggs on a greasy grid dle and scrambling them there. Every thing was so bad,” she says. “Somewhere in the ninth year of eating the worst food on the planet, I said to [my husband at the time], ‘why can’t anybody make a really good breakfast?’” Right then, Pinkney decided to open her own A.M. eatery “like no one has ever seen.” Her idea was to combine the best hotel dining rooms and old-school diners, and create a ne-dining break fast restaurant with accessible food, but with the atmosphere of an upscale hotel with carpeting and no music. Pinkney opened Ina’s Kitchen in 1991, which quickly became the pre mier breakfast spot in the Windy City. At 8 a.m. on Wednesdays, she had 110

ever had, and our signature,” she says. “I had a starting menu and I thought, ‘Okay, whatever doesn’t sell, I’ll change.’ e menu was exactly the same menu for 22 years. I added things, but I was right on.” After 22 years in business, Pinkney closed Ina’s in 2013, but has contin ued sharing her love for food in various ways. In 2014, she self-published “Ina’s Kitchen: Memories and Recipes from the Breakfast Queen” in hardcover, and has sold thousands of copies with minimal bookstore distribution. She also became a regular columnist for Chicago Tribune until 2020, writing about everything from Chicago restaurant reviews and where to nd the best bagel to tips for getting breakfast delivered. e next year in 2015, a 50-minute documentary was released called “Break fast at Ina’s”—showcasing her inspiring

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CHEFS & INGREDIENTS NOW SERVING

From Pasture to Plate BY SAM DANLEY Grass-fed beef is taking center stage in steakhouse menus.

GIBSONS RESTAURANT GROUP WANTED TO OFFER A MORE DIVERSE SELECTION OF STEAKS BEYOND THE GRAIN-FED DOMESTIC PRIME THE COMPANY WAS KNOWN FOR.

MARCIN CYMMER

THERE’S AN EVER-CHANGING land scape of beef available at Jacobs & Co. Steakhouse, where head chef Danny McCallum prints the menu daily. “I like to have the menu read like a wine list,” he says. “Do you prefer California Cab or Bordeaux? Angus from Kansas or from Scotland? It’s all about the terroir in these cases.” Guests at the high-end Toronto res taurant can also choose from a variety of grass-fed steaks, including domestic beef sourced from local farms in Canada as

well as imported beef sourced from dif ferent regions around the world. McCal lum notes he’s seen a significant uptick in demand for those grass-fed cuts, driven in large part by their health and sustainability halos. Gibsons Restaurant Group has seen consistent growth in consumers crav ing grass-fed beef, too. Corporate exec utive chef Daniel Huebschmann cites The Boathouse as one example. Located in Orlando’s Disney World resort, the upscale steak and seafood concept

stands as one of the nation’s highest grossing restaurants. It was moving a fair amount of 12-ounce grass-fed rib eye steaks when it launched the prod uct in the months leading up to COVID 19, and Huebschmann says the item has seen “exponential growth” coming out of the pandemic. “If I had to compare January 2020 to January 2022, I’d say we were up around 40 percent,” he says. “This spring we saw our second-best month on that item, and it’s been available for about four years.”

AUGUST 2023

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comes from and I want to know exactly how it was raised.’” Meat Standards Australia ( ), the country’s USDA-equivalent grading sys tem, takes into account specific attri butes associated with pasture-raised cat tle to provide a reliable framework for verifying and predicting the quality of grass-fed beef. MSA also serves as a tool for producers to optimize their practices, which Huebschmann says has resulted in an overall better-tasting product. “We found the Australian product tasted cleaner, and it didn’t leave that metallic aftertaste you get sometimes with grass-fed beef,” he says. “ at has to do with the environment and the quality of the grass that the animals consume.” McCallum shares a similar sentiment, describing the Australian grass-fed beef as “mind bogglingly delicious for being 100 percent grass-fed.” Jacobs & Co. also sources grass-fed beef from Argentina and from local farmers in Toronto. The full-spec trum approach creates opportunities to engage with guests and explain the di erences between the various grass fed options, as well as the di erences between grain-fed and grass-fed beef. Grain-fed beef tends to have a milder avor with a more tender and buttery texture. Grass-fed typically is leaner and chewier with a more grassy, earthy, and gamier taste. McCallum says it often is the least expensive option, which means people frequently order it by default, even if they’re unfamiliar with what it means in terms of avor and texture. “ ere’s a lot of explaining to guests that it isn’t necessarily your typical ten der and juicy steak,” he says. “That’s something you lose when you’re going with a product that’s more natural. On the other hand, it has more of a bite to it. It has a very unique avor pro le. When you start getting really speci c about where it comes from and what it ate, then you start getting closer to a true representation of what grass-fed can be, which is equal if not sometimes bet ter than grain-fed. A lot of people really enjoy it, so there’s certainly a lot of value in having it around.”

GUESTS AT JACOBS & CO. CAN CHOOSE FROM A VARIETY OF GRASS-FED STEAKS, INCLUDING DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED OPTIONS.

“I like to have the menu read like a wine list. Do you prefer California Cab or Bordeaux? Angus from Kansas or from Scotland? It’s all about the terroir in these cases.”

LAUREN MILLER

Grass-fed beef also resonates at Gib sons Italia, the company’s modern Ital ian steakhouse in Chicago, where the menu is designed to promote explora tion. Guests are encouraged to share steaks with their table and compare the avors and textures associated with dif ferent types of beef. Gibsons Restaurant Group rst got into the grass-fed beef game when Gib sons Italia was in the R&D stage. Hueb schmann wanted to o er a more diverse selection of steaks beyond the grain-fed domestic prime the company was known for. “We vetted out domestic cuts, and we vetted out Australian cuts. There really was no competition,” he says. “It would’ve been great to stay domestic on this, but when you’re talking about nd ing 100 percent grass-fed beef with all of the things people are looking for—free

range, no added hormones, no antibiot ics—there’s no competing with Australia.” It can be a challenge for chefs in the U.S. to source true grass-fed beef. Carrie Carter Balkcom, executive director of the American Grass-Fed Association, says some domestic beef products labeled as grass-fed may come from animals that were fed a combination of grass and grain or had limited access to pasture. “ e problem is that the labeling laws are so lax that we’re not really sure if peo ple are serving grass-fed or if they’re serving something they’re being told is grass-fed,” she says. “ e USDA allows meat that is brought in from o shore– which you have no clue how it was pro duced–to be labeled as grass-fed. It’s allowed to be labeled as a product of the U.S.A. if it’s repackaged here in any way. at means chefs really have to stand up and say, ‘I want to know where this

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“The biggest mistake I see restaurants making is not treating their frying oil like a food item.”

STRATAS FOODS

What to Know When Buying Frying Oil And why many top quick-service brands buy high-performance oils. M any of the comforting foods served by restau rants have something in common: They are fried in oil. And yet, not all restaurants take fry ing oil as seriously as they should, says Mike “I often tell people that fryer oil is a lot like buying tires for your car,” Nestor says. “Better tires perform better and last longer. You get more miles out of it. It’s the same as your oil—in the long run, it’s going to cost you less to invest in a high-performance oil.” Nestor also recommends that chain restaurant brands of just about any size reach out to their sup plier of choice for options to lock in long-term pric ing. Drawing up a contract for high-performing oils can help restaurants avoid massive spikes in oil cost.

Nestor, vice president of sales at Stratas Foods. “The biggest mistake I see restaurants making is not treating their frying oil like a food item,” Nestor says. “You have to find the right oil for your food and not just buy a box of oil from whoever is selling it at whatever is cheapest. Operators wouldn’t do that with other food ingredients they source, and they shouldn’t be doing it with oil.” Treating oil as a food item is something that many of the top quick-service brands already do, Nestor says. Because Stratas Foods services a large per centage of the top quick-service brands, Nestor knows that very few of them use a commodity oil in their deep fryers. Instead, the brands find that spend ing a little bit more on a high-performing oil will lead to less money wasted in the long run.

With operating costs at an all-time high, Nestor and his team are talking to an increasing number of restaurant operators who are looking to cut costs where they can. Their oil program, Nestor says, may be a place that they haven’t considered enough—he encourages them to reach out to him and his team if they have pressing questions about best practices and how to get more out of oil for less money spent. “It’s important that operators understand what their options are, what di erent types of oil are avail able and to take a serious look at which oil makes the most sense for them,” Nestor says. “And to then figure out what the ideal source would be to pur chase that oil.” S

FOR MORE ON BUYING FYING OIL, VISIT STRATASFOODS.COM.

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Liquid Intelligence

TRENDS AND CREATIVE APPROACHES TO SPIRITS, WINE, AND BEER. MENTIONED IN THIS STORY 1856 CULINARY RESIDENCE • • •

GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY • •

• VINE HOSPITALITY

“TEAM MEMBERS LEARN BETTER WHEN THEY HAVE A CONVERSATION AND TALK ABOUT WHAT THE WINE IS WAY MORE THAN IF THEY JUST LISTEN,” SAYS MIA VAN DE WATER OF GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY.

Ripening the Next Generation of Sommeliers

GARY HE

WINE-INTENSIVE CURRICULUM is no longer just for enrollees of CMS (Court of Master Sommeliers) or WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust). In-house hospitality education is expertly craft ing the next generation of sommeliers

through ongoing programs from six month and 13-week prepared classes to weekly and pre-shift tastings. Bringing no-cost courses inside the restaurant’s four walls provides uncom mon and invaluable opportunities

BY MANDY ELLIS In-house hospitality education pays off for up-and-coming sommeliers and sales.

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LIQUID INTELLIGENCE

(many of them paid) for team members to experience high-quality wines as they add more body to their knowledge base, create better sales opportunities and mar gins, and form richer guest experiences. “It’s essential to invest time and energy into education and training because the most important thing is your team can walk up to the table, read the guests accurately and skillfully, and use information from the rst 15 to 20 seconds of talking to build a full experi ence,” explains Mia Van de Water, mas ter sommelier and director of education at Gracious Hospitality Management. Gracious owns COTE Korean Steak house, COTE Miami, and Undercote in New York City and Miami. COTE blends the dining experience of Korean barbe cue with the hallmarks of a classic steak house, and the New York location has earned a star from the Michelin Guide each year since opening in 2017.

“If you don’t have an understanding as a server or sommelier on how to read someone or craft more complete experi ences…you’re not creating relationships that lead to long-term repeat guests,” she adds. Training has to be a consistent part of the everyday restaurant life, advises Serena Harkey, wine and spirits direc tor at San Francisco’s Vine Hospitality. at includes “daily lineups allowing sta to taste wines and making it incredibly immersive; having tech sheets available is one thing, but truly creating oppor tunities to experience and talk through wines on a daily basis is absolutely essen tial,” she says. As full-service restaurants sharpen the next generation of sommeliers, their hospitality education seeks to nd the right balance of complexity. “When you’re teaching, sometimes you need to lecture, but it’s better if you discuss.

Team members learn better when they have a conversation and talk about what the wine is way more than if they just lis ten to what you’re saying or read what you wrote down,” Van de Water explains. Gracious Hospitality’s innovative wine intensives span from a six-month sommelier internship to 13-week COTE College to Wine Wednesday. “It’s three different levels of commitment and engagement,” explains Van de Water; all are no-cost opportunities where employ ees are paid for their time. COTE’s Wine Wednesday o ers “bite sized, digestible wine education” on Wednesday pre-shifts with an emailed detailed doc while 13-week COTE College mirrors a CMS introductory course or WSET Level 2 with 90-minute bi-weekly classes surrounding 4-5 regional wines with tastings, quizzes, and a nal exam. And the hands-on Sommelier Intern ship is an eight-hour day per week plus

“When your staff drive that revenue because they’re so empowered and passionate about what they’re talking about, [the investment will] come back to you easily.”

SERENA HARKEY

MAKING WINE ANALYSIS

IMMERSIVE FOR STAFF INFUSES DEEPER KNOWLEDGE.

PCHANG / LEILA SEPPA

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bi-weekly sessions over six months with extra studying. It’s designed for staff wishing to become sommeliers, wine directors, directors of operations, gen eral managers, or owners. Ongoing conversations about wine poured over the restaurant’s culture, sta , and guest experience are key. And when COTE increased team education on speci c wine products, “We’ve seen

ence for guests, but a trustworthy expe rience when our sta knows and under stands what they’re selling.” You have to provide reasons to work at your restaurant beyond financial ones, says Van de Water. “It’s always been important to us to create a res taurant culture where people come to work because they feel energized and respected, not just because they make

tion for the server trying to add to the check; upselling is based on knowledge,” explains Thomas Price, Master Som melier at 1856 Culinary Residence and director of wine education at Auburn University in Alabama. “Knowledge drives restaurant sales, so the big bene t is knowledge and prod uct familiarity enable the sommelier to sell more,” Price says, “ at investment in team member knowledge will trans late into enhanced sales on your restau rant oor.” Pro ts and revenue bumps from in house wine education are a plus, but to see the bonus, you need to create an edu cation budget. “It doesn’t have to be a ton of money,” Van de Water explains, “It has to t into your prime cost some where, but I think the numbers can be pretty small.” Working with distributors and whole sale partners for trainings can help with cost as “they go into the storytelling com ponent of wine and how to present it,” says Price, who adds that it helps “1,000 percent” to have different educators teach, from wine directors to sommeliers and distributors to wholesale partners. “It’s incredibly rewarding to watch people grow and blossom,” says Van de Water. And education gives exceptional restaurant team members intimate knowledge on how to weave wine into the larger dining experience because they know the brand inside and out as they leveled up from server or bartender, she adds. In-house wine education “just drives revenue, and it’s a solid business invest ment,” explains Harkey. When your sta members move from selling $80 to $120 bottles of wine to being com fortable talking about $250 or $500 bottles, that’s from creating “an envi ronment where not only do guests take you seriously, but everybody around you respects and honors the craft, product, and restaurant so much more,” Harkey says. “Education develops respect, trust, and honor for what you have within your four walls, but also helps improve your business, its growth, and draws more guests in.”

THE ABILITY TO TELL WINE AND VINEYARD STORIES TO GUESTS CUTS THE BOTTOM LINE DIFFERENCE,

SAYS THOMAS PRICE OF 1856 CULINARY RESIDENCE.

MASON ERWIN

we get better wine by the glass sales,” says Van de Water. roughout Vine Hospitality’s nine restaurants, they use a similar range of knowledge. Harkey’s weekly team meeting empowers beverage managers to build wine lineups for daily sta edu cation, and a monthly 90-minute for mal presentation, tasting, and compara tive analysis allows her to infuse deeper knowledge. Vine also invests in CMS and WSET certi cations, with their three- to ve-year company plan including even more robust and interactive in-house wine education. “We want to continue investing every day in people on the oor who are talk ing to guests and building their knowl edge because it creates more con dence for sta when they’re knowledgeable and excited about our menu,” Harkey says, “Not just creating an intellectual experi

money, and it’s really valuable to work somewhere you feel is actively invested in teaching, mentoring, and coaching you to help you grow whether you grow with us or somewhere else.” Serious restaurant wine programs backed by education also draw tra c to increase revenue and pro ts, adds Har key. “I can definitely attest to invest ing in employee education having a profound impact on wine sales. When your sta drive that revenue because they’re so empowered and passionate about what they’re talking about, [the investment will] come back to you eas ily,” she says. It’s the profound wine list knowledge and ability to eloquently tell wine and vineyard stories to the customer that cuts the bottom line di erence. “Your knowledge is when you can actually upsell. Upselling is not just a sugges

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