Every month we like to shed some insight into the newest menu offerings from your favorite quick-service and casual dining restaurants. There are lots to choose from this April and we did notice an emphasis on pizza (one of our favorite foods, admittedly!) Read about these debuting menu items to see whether they might be worth a taste.

Pizzaburger from Boston Pizza: No, this is not a late April Fool’s joke. Yes, pizzaburger – as in a food which is the combination of pizza and a burger. The Canadian pizza chain, Boston Pizza, describes this unusual dish as, “100% Canadian beef. Our half-pound prime rib beef burger wrapped in a cheese pizza. Stuffed with pizza mozzarella, cheddar, feta, Asiago, fresh Parmesan and our signature pizza sauce. Baked to perfection and topped with lettuce, tomato and pickle.”

Deep! Deep! Dish Pizza from Little Caesar’s: This very excitable name describes Little Caesar’s latest creation: “Our Detroit-style deep dish pizza with a unique, crisp-on-the-bottom, soft-and-chewy-on-the-inside crust. Topped from coast-to-coast with fresh, premium mozzarella and Muenster, baked to a crispy, crunchy, caramelized cheese edge. Four corners of perfection weren’t enough – so we gave you eight!” Deep! Deep! Dish Pizza will be available for Hot-N-Ready pickup.

Crazy Cheese Crust Pizza from Pizza Hut: It looks like the battle of the pizza chains is going strong this month! Pizza Hut unveiled an extremely cheesier cousin to its class Stuffed Crust Pizza this month. At just $12.99, you get a large pepperoni pizza that’s surrounded by 16 pockets of Italian 5 cheese blend. We never thought pizza could any cheesier until now!

Egg White Delight from McDonald’s: We recently mentioned this new healthier offering in our previous blog post. This egg white sandwich will be on sale starting April 22.

St. Louis Style BBQ Ribs from Boston Market: Move over ham, it’s time to share the spotlight with a new menu item– ribs! For a limited time, Boston Market is offering customers slow-smoked, seasoned BBQ ribs. It’s certainly is a nice twist to Boston Market’s traditional menu.

Video Little Caesars:

There are a lot of new restaurant menu items to look forward to in March as well as some returning favorites. Check out our list of March’s hottest new and returning menu items from some of the most well-known brands:

• Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos from Taco Bell: The highly anticipated Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Taco has finally arrived and debuted nationwide on March 7 to drooling fans.
• Hazelnut Macchiato from Starbucks: Inspired by one of their best sellers, the Caramel Macchiato, Starbuck’s newest beverage features a hazelnut twist.
• McCafé Shamrock Shake from McDonald’s: This festively green and minty seasonal favorite is made with reduced fat ice cream, “Shamrock Shake syrup,” whipped cream and topped with a Maraschino cherry.
• Skinny Sorbettos from Red Mango:  The frozen yogurt  retailer has introduced a new line of dairy free, sugar free, probiotic softly-frozen treats called “Skinny Sorbettos” and is offering in raspberry and chocolate flavors.
• Brussels and Bacon Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen: Creating a tasty marriage of veggies and meats, this unique pizza truly highlights the Brussels sprouts. This LTO if offered through the end of March.
• Shrimp Burger from The Habit Burger: This promotional burger features char-grilled, ginger-teriyaki glazed 100% whole shimp shrimp with lettuce, tomatoes, grilled pineapple and homemade tartar sauces on a whole wheat bun.

As the world’s most romantic holiday approaches, restaurants ’round the world are getting their V-Day menus ready and reservations are in-the-making. After Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day is the most popular holiday for dining out. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA) research, it’s expected the one quarter of Americans will dine out this Valentine’s Day and that “nearly one-third of American adults would like to receive a restaurant gift card as a Valentine’s Day gift.” Read the entire article here One-quarter of Americans dine out for Valentine’s Day.

Here are some more interesting stats –check out this infographic from OpenTable from 2012 regarding restaurant reservation trends. Some rather interesting factoids include:

• 53% of OpenTable diners state they plan on making their restaurant reservations a week in advance
• 35% of diners believe that Italian cuisine is the most romantic cuisine to eat on Valentine’s Day followed by 25% who think French is

If you operate a restaurant, we’ve got a couple of tips that can drive sales on this holiday:

•  Have a server show up to the table with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses for a complimentary taste with the hope to sell a premium glass of wine
• Serve up Caesar salad tossed table side
• Offer a delectable Bananas Flambé done table side
• Special chocolate truffle and champagne dessert is a great way to end a meal
• Create a special, economical prixe fixe menu just for Valentine’s Day and advertise on social  media outlets
• Live music is always a winner — free entertainment for your guests!

We hope your sales will go through the roof this Valentine’s Day!

We’ve written a lot in the past about how more consumers are being conscious about what they eat — they are looking healthy options like organic and all natural. Many are interested in green and sustainable practices and businesses have been taking notice, too.

Let’s get a refresher on what sustainability really is when it comes to food production. According to 1990 “Farm Bill,”

“the term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:

• satisfy human food and fiber needs
• enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends
• make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
• sustain the economic viability of farm operations
• enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.”

source: http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/agnic/susag.shtml

And just recently, McDonald’s has proudly announced that are serving MSC -certified sustainable fish — the first USA chain to do so. According to their press release,

“McDonald’s collaboration with the Marine Stewardship Council is a critical part of our company’s journey to advance positive environmental and economic practices in our supply chain,” said Dan Gorsky, senior vice president of U.S. supply chain and sustainability. “We’re extremely proud of the fact that this decision ensures our customers will continue to enjoy the same great taste and high quality of our fish with the additional assurance that the fish they are buying can be traced back to a fishery that meets MSC’s strict sustainability standard.”

As restaurant operators, it sure is a lot to juggle the day-to-day operations, customer satisfaction, quality control and bottom line profits. Sometimes, however, small changes can make a huge difference.

It’s not a surprise that “waste” is a buzz-word in the restaurant industry. If you think about that word, most would associate the word “food” with it. But looking at the bigger picture, there many facets that contribute to waste that effectively can eat into profits. This includes anything from food, water, energy and supplies.

Reduce Waste Now at the Self-Serve Counter

In previous blog posts, we’ve written about reducing waste by composting, recycling and even how to reduce napkin waste. In today’s piece, we’re talking forks! If you want to reduce inventory usage by your customers, installing a utensil dispenser like the Dixie SmartStock, may be a good idea.

Devices such as these have a small lever that a guest would simple push in order to retrieve a fork, for example. The genius in the design is that it only dispenses one fork at at time. Since it is encased in a close container, it’s more sanitary since guests cannot directly touch them (or worse, sneeze on them!) with unclean hands. Also, because of the vertical standing design, less counterspace is used as compared to traditional open-bin plastic cutlery containers.

How do you reduce waste at your restaurant? Share you techniques!

We hope you all survived the first week of 2013 and have freshened up, ready to take on the new year! The first week of 2013 proved to be an interesting one in restaurant news. Here’s our list of some interesting stories:

1) Los Angeles Eatery Gives Discount if You Hand Over Your Phone
2) Hulk Hogan Opens Hogan’s Beach Restaurant in Tampa (For Real)
3) Wendy’s, Domino’s ring in new year with aggressive value plays
4) Jamba Juice Debuts First Kids’ Meal Menu
5) Foie Gras Ban In California Means Big Business For Nevada Restaurants

We have written a lot about restaurant nutritional labeling standards and news in the past and with a recent study published by Technomic, more valuable insights are provided on the consumer’s viewpoint on this matter.

The recent study conducted by Technomic reveals that a majority of consumers really do care about restaurants disclosing nutritional details, such as calorie and sodium content, about the food they serve. According to Technomic study, “65 percent favor nutritional labeling in restaurants, with the strongest demand for listing of calories and sodium content. Seventy percent of consumers say they care that chain restaurants disclose calorie and other nutritional information on their menus and 68 percent want nutritional information on all restaurant menus, not just chains.” Read the entire press release on this study here: Technomic finds strong consumer support for nutritional disclosure at restaurants.

Currently, the menu labeling requirements are only meant for restaurant chains and retail food establishments with 20 locations under the Patient  Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Keep up-to-date with news from the FDA on regulation for nutrition labeling in restaurants: Overview of FDA Proposed Labeling Requirements for Restaurants, Similar Retail Food Establishments and Vending Machines.
If your restaurant needs assistance with creating accurate nutrition labeling for your menu items, contact Synergy Consultants at 888-861-9212.

As we settle into November, we are immediately reminded that the holidays are near; whether you’re watching TV, surfing the net or listening to the radio, holiday ads will be a’sounding! And our favorite ads are, not surprisingly, the ones with holiday food promos! You know exactly what we’re talking about; those limited time, seasonal food items we all crave as soon as they’re gone (McRib, anyone?).

So since we are on the topic of holidays, we wanted to make your November and December a bit tastier than usual. We’ve got a list of few well-known fast food restaurants offering some seasonal drinks that might just give you that same cozy feeling when you eat your favorite holiday comfort foods. We’re definitely digging the “pie shake” inspiration seen lately! Try them out and let us know what you think (not all at once, of course!).

Gingerbread Cookie Shake from Burger King: “BK^® invites guests to get into the holiday spirit with a satisfying and delicious dessert that starts with rich and creamy vanilla soft serve, topped with crispy gingersnap cookie crumbles and finished with a swirl of sweet gingerbread sauce.”

Eggnog Jubilee Smoothie from Jamba Juice: An eggnog smoothie? Yes! One made from frozen eggnog base, frozen yogurt and soymilk.

Pumpkin Pie RoyalTM Shake from Dairy Queen: “Pumpkin pie blended with milk and creamy DQ^® vanilla soft serve into a DQ^® Royal^TM Shake garnished with whipped topping and nutmeg.” Who needs to cut into a pie when you can just drink it?

Eggnog Ice Cream Shake from Jack in the Box:  For you vanilla ice cream fans (hey, who isn’t?), try out this shake, made with vanilla ice cream, eggnog syrup with whipped topping and a maraschino cherry on top.

Share your favorite holiday drink specialties in the comments section!

If you’ve ever frequented IKEA, you’re  probably very familiar with the food department (Swedish meatballs, anyone?). Now after you’ve shopped your heart out and worked up an appetite and thirst, you can grab a cold house brewed beer made especially by and for IKEA – no assembly required! Choose from Ol Mork Lager (dark lager) or Ol Ljus Lager (regular lager). Sorry, but the IKEA beer is currently only available in the UK. Read more about this here: IKEA Now Brews And Sells Its Own Beer

If you think about it, IKEA isn’t the first major retailer to brew its own beer. Only a few years ago, mega store Costco began to brew their own beer under the Kirkland brand.

What do you think about this move from IKEA? Do you think they will be successful with their new beer? Do you see this product as an offering in the United States?

We’re no strangers to food innovations and restaurant technology. Just a couple of months back, our team visited Asia for an “eating mission” and witnessed a restaurant using a very cool robotic wok that was used to cook perfect stir-fry dishes with minimal effort. We’re also no strangers to what makes a great pizza, so when we caught wind of a new pizza vending machine, we just had to find out more.

So, you might be thinking to yourself that a pizza vending machine doesn’t sound too novel — after all, there are already vending machines for sandwiches and the like. But this particular vending machine is not spitting out premade frozen pizzas and merely heating them up before dispensing your meal; it’s actually creating the pizza from scratch (flour, dough, water, yeast, cheese) and even baking it, delivering it you piping hot. Amazingly, this process takes just 3 minutes and you can choose from pizza varieties such as margherita, salame, and prosciutto for example. See the video below for more details about the pizza vending machine from A1 Concepts, Let’s Pizza:

As noted in the video, the machine is the first of its kind to be “the only machine in the world capable of making healthy and genuine pizzas using entirely fresh ingredients” highly emphasizing its human-free environment, high hygiene and freshness factors (e.g. single dose and vacuumed-packed toppings, no ingredients are frozen).

It still begs the questions: 1) would you try this? and 2) will the taste compare to your favorite pizza restaurant? The convenience and relatively inexpensive suggested retail price of just $5.95 for a freshly made 10.5″ pizza may prove that Let’s Pizza might very well be a hit in the U.S. We’ll be excited to find out.

Read more about this here: http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article/195667/Let-s-Pizza-vending-machine-ready-for-U-S-debut