Healthful food for thoughtHealthful food for thought

Robin Lee Allen

The clever tweet, written shortly after McDonald’s said in July it would include more fruit and fewer fries in its kid-oriented options, read something like this: “The Cookie Monster now eats vegetables and McDonald’s Happy Meal is healthy. Childhood is officially dead.”

I don’t know where the tweet originated, and I certainly hope its conclusion is false. But one thing is certain: Our nutritional orientation is changing at the speed of light — especially when it comes to kids.

Consumers care more today about the healthfulness of foods — even The Cheesecake Factory, its namesake offering a longtime fixture on the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s lists of notoriously unhealthful foods, acknowledged the changing environment by debuting Aug. 1 its new 40-item “SkinnyLicious” menu. And over the past two months the focus on marketing to children has ramped up considerably, with several groups unveiling proposed guidelines and both McDonald’s and the National Restaurant Association introducing initiatives intended to head off what many fear could become regulatory mandates.

Beginning on page 1 and continuing in the Business Intel section, we look into how the battle over marketing to children is unfolding and what could lie ahead from several perspectives, including those of restaurant operators, government officials and consumer advocates.

Another controversy — that surrounding the sustainability of bluefin tuna — takes center stage in Food & Beverage, where we examine how the fish’s growth in popularity and subsequent overfishing has consigned it to the murky waters of usability. Several chefs weigh in on both preparations and alternatives for the species.

Not so controversial is the growing enthusiasm among restaurateurs for tableside touch-screen computer terminals. In the Operations section we explore the benefits of such technology, from boosting guest control over, and satisfaction with, the dining experience to better capturing useful operational and marketing data.

Data from the new NRN-MillerPulse operator surveys figures prominently in the Finance section, where we feature a story on the inflationary pressures that are wreaking havoc on the consumer psyche, and the rising commodity costs that continue to haunt operators trapped in the value-driven world. Survey results, collected and analyzed by Larry Miller of RBC Capital Markets in Atlanta, can be found monthly on NRN.com. The upshot for now: uncertainty abounds.

Despite the uncertainty, however, this year’s slate of Hot Concepts! Award winners is prospering. In this issue’s special section, we introduce you to this notable crop of up-and-coming brands, including Crave, FöD, Mixt Greens, True Food Kitchen and Twisted Root Burger Co. Each concept springs from a different inspiration and has different aspirations when it comes to growth, all of which is spelled out in the individual profiles.

In the Community section we profile Aziz Hashim, chief executive of Atlanta-based NRD Holdings LLC, a multiconcept franchisee also on a growth trajectory. Most recently, NRD purchased 23 Domino’s units in Florida, boosting its number of quick-service restaurants to 54.

In Marketing we look at the lure of trivia as a way to grow repeat business, customer engagement and check averages. From old-fashioned game nights to digitally driven contests, operators are finding that offering up friendly competition and fun is a powerful way to build business.

And if that’s true — that play still holds sway — then it would seem that we needn’t lose much sleep about childhood being dead, as the tweet so ironically indicated. More to the point, it’s alive and well, and getting healthier all the time.

Robin Lee Allen
Executive Editor

Contact Robin Lee Allen at [email protected].
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