Once again, I overdid it at the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show. Last year, after covering my first NRA Show since moving to NRN’s Chicago office, I swore I would approach the event the right way next time. I was supposed to pace myself with all the free food, drink less and sleep more.
So much for that.
Instead, I raided a candy purveyor’s booth on the show floor each day because the company kept leaving a tray of cookies and brownies unattended. I ate to my heart’s content at the NRN staff dinner at Michael Kornick’s mk restaurant, but then declined to share a dessert — because I wanted one all to myself. And every night of the show I drank too much, be it beers with colleagues at a blues club or cocktails at the many industry receptions where I’m usually too nervous to network.
But I have nobody to blame but myself. Restaurants enabled my personal bacchanalia last month in Chicago, and they should have.
My point is one operators know well: It’s the restaurant’s job to serve me and make me happy, but it’s my job to know when too much happiness is too much.
Before my four-day spree of self- indulgence, the last story I worked on was about McDonald’s defending its marketing practices in the face of pressure from consumer watchdogs. While I can certainly understand Corporate Accountability International’s call for the world’s largest hamburger chain to stop advertising Happy Meals to children, I disagree with the notion that marketing alone forces people to eat something they don’t want.
As he has for the past few years that I’ve been covering McDonald’s, chief executive Jim Skinner said during the chain’s annual shareholder meeting that choosing what to eat is completely a matter of personal responsibility. McDonald’s would not stop marketing kids’ meals or retire brand spokesman Ronald McDonald, Skinner said.
Restaurants don’t tell consumers what to order; they merely tell consumers what they could get if they felt like it. I don’t get an Angus Third Pounder every time I visit McDonald’s because a commercial destroyed my free will. I get it because I’m usually in the mood for something more substantial than the Asian Salad or a Snack Wrap. Even if a restaurant felt compelled to advertise its healthful grilled fish, I wouldn’t feel compelled to order it rather than the deep-fried fish and chips platter I really want.
Brands should advertise what their customers want. Consumers find those chains’ better-for-you dishes when it’s necessary.
Even gluttons like me dial it back when we need to. The last day of the NRA Show, I went to Jamba Juice and Protein Bar in Chicago for lots of fruit, granola and quinoa to start reversing my self-destruction.
Restaurants enable recovery, too.
Contact Mark Brandau at mark.brandau@penton.com.
