Steakhouse Archives - Page 13 of 33

BentoBox Releases 2022 Restaurant Trend Report With Insights From Over 14,000 Restaurants

Posted on07/11/202308/08/2023Author

Amid a year of hospitality industry challenges, BentoBox found that restaurants leaned on technology to drive discovery, enable direct consumer relationships, and save $33 million on third-party fees.

NEW YORK, dec. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — BentoBox, the restaurant technology company that partners with over 14,000 restaurants worldwide, today announced its 2022 Restaurant Trend Reporta data-forward look at the trends defining the industry this year.

Amid ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, and continued staffing shortages, the Restaurant Trend Report breaks down how the industry has evolved over the past year and what’s coming in 2023. Here are this year’s leading trends:

Cost pressures escalated across the board. While consumers returned to in-house dining, restaurants struggled to meet demand amid rising costs in both food and labor.

To combat labor shortages, 2022 saw a 9% increase in job postings and recruitment efforts on BentoBox websites from 2021.
While 91% of restaurants increased prices this year, 85% still report being less profitable than pre-pandemic.

Restaurant technology helped restaurants drive high-margin revenue. In search of clever solutions, restaurants leveraged technology such as email marketing and direct e-commerce to tap into repeat business with low acquisition costs.

Revenue from loyalty program promotions increased by 74% year-over-year. In total, repeat customers account for 35% of online orders, up from 29% in 2021.
BentoBox also found that revenue from digital gift cards increased by 9% in 2022. The average online gift card sold for $120but diners redeemed just 73% of that amount, with restaurants keeping the difference.

Diners used search engines and websites more than third-party apps. When a diner viewed a new restaurant this past year, there was a 75% chance their journey passed through the restaurant’s website.

Search Engines and Websites were the top two channels for finding new restaurants, outpacing Social Media and Third-Party Apps.
68% of diners age 40 and under were more likely to find new restaurants using the search engines they use daily than diners 41 and over.
Nearly half of adult diners did not use third-party reservation platforms to discover new restaurants.

Online ordering became part of the new normal. Once a lifeline amid COVID-19, online ordering sustained its momentum in 2022.

BentoBox saw an 18% increase in restaurants offering direct online ordering.
Restaurants that offered direct-to-consumer delivery through BentoBox saved $33 million on third-party fees.
As for tipping habits, only 88% of diners tipped on delivery, while 63% opted to leave a tip on pickup orders.
BentoBox found the three states with the best tippers to be Maine, Kentuckyand Delawarewith the three worst states for tipping being Oklahoma, Georgianand Texas.

In-person dining returned. Heading into the second full year of the recovery, reservations are in demand again and operators are leveraging in-person events as a valuable revenue channel.

The data showed an 84% increase in online ticketed event sales, pointing to a strong return to in-person experiences.
Customers are comfortable dining indoors again, with reported comfort levels higher and Google searches for “restaurant COVID” terms lower than any other time since the pandemic.

visit 2022restaurants.com to access the full report and read about emerging trends to watch for in 2023 surrounding labor costs, consumer interest, social media usage, and more. For additional information on BentoBox’s 2022 Restaurant Trend Report, please contact [email protected].

About BentoBox

The BentoBox Marketing and Commerce Platform delivers a seamless guest experience dedicated to accelerating growth and helping restaurants thrive. BentoBox empowers modern restaurants to build their online presence, engage with diners, diversify revenue streams and increase operational efficiency. To do so, the platform includes products such as websites, ordering (online ordering, pre-order & catering, gift cards, merchandise, tickets), events management, and marketing tools.

Over 14,000 restaurants worldwide rely on BentoBox as their digital front door. BentoBox is trusted and loved by hospitality groups such as José Andrés’s ThinkFoodGroup and Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group and independent restaurants including Emmy Squared, Suerte, and The Meatball Shop.

Contact:
[email protected]

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bentobox-releases-2022-restaurant-trend-report-with-insights-from-over-14-000-restaurants-301694194.html

SOURCE BentoBox

This tiny Brooklyn restaurant is the toughest reservation in NYC

Posted on31/10/202308/08/2023Author

At 4:45 pm Thursday, Carlos Sevilla and his date, Kriti Shrestha, finally secured a table for two at Masalawala & Sons. It was no easy feat. They’d been trying to snag one since September, when the Indian restaurant — with its Bengali dinner party atmosphere — first opened in a former Park Slope bakery and rapidly became one of the city’s hottest restaurants.

“When it first was about to open, reservations were a month in advance — it was slim pickings,” Park Sloper Sevilla, 37, told The Post. He found himself constantly reloading restaurant reservation site Resy — to no avail.

Dining at Masalawala & Sons is by reservations—only “unless there is any last minute cancellation,” its website alerts. But good luck scoring one at the 36-seat restaurant: the average waitlist is 600 people, a rep for the restaurant told The Post.

By 6 pm on a week night, the vibrant dining room at Masalawala & Sons is nearly full. — By 6 pm on a weeknight, the vibrant dining room at Masalawala & Sons is nearly full.

Tucked into a busy, unglamorous stretch of Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue not far from the Barclays Center, the humble-seeming restaurant is helmed by James Beard award-winning chef Chintan Pandya and restaurateur Roni Mazumdar. The pair are behind the critically acclaimed Dhamaka on Delancey Street and Adda in Long Island City. Dhamaka was said to have a 1,500-name wait list a full year after opening. Now, Masalawala & Sons — decked out with tangerine-colored murals and fiery orange-and-yellow flower garlands — is experiencing a similar frenzy.

Reservations open on Resy 30 days in advance at midnight, and one savvy diner told The Post they’ve gone so far as to enlist colleagues in London to book for them. That said, four barstools are allotted for walk-ins, and the odd two-top for a weekday 5 or 5:15 pm time slot does pop up.

Masalawala & Sons currently has a 600 person waitlist, a rep for the restaurant told The Post. The restaurant has 36 seats, and four bar stools are open to walk-ins, which typically have to arrive by 4:50, before the restaurant opens at 5p.m. to snag a seat. — Masalawala & Sons currently has a 600 person waitlist, a rep for the restaurant told The Post. The restaurant has 36 seats, and four barstools are open to walk-ins, which typically have to arrive by 4:50, before the restaurant opens at 5 pm to snag a seat.

Sevilla’s hunt for a table became a team effort; Shrestha, 31, who lives in Midtown, is now also trying, but she could only find a table open on Thanksgiving, when both already had plans.

Eventually the couple gave up trying to book online. Since Seville lives in the neighborhood, he walked by and asked for advice. Show up at 4:45 pm, he was told, 15 minutes before the restaurant opens, and he might get seated at 5. Three months after their journey began, they were sitting down for dinner at 5 on the dot.

“We were the first ones seated,” Sevilla told The Post, enthusing over the kosha mangsho, a braised lamb dish. “It was worth it. It was really good.”

The menu at Masalawala & Sons comprises standouts such as the Kosha Mangsho, a braised lamb dish (far left); Daab chingri, prawns cooked inside of a coconut (middle); and the The Ripon Street Majja (front, right) bone marrow topped with shaved eggs. — The menu at Masalawala & Sons comprises standouts such as the kosha mangsho, a braised lamb dish (far left); daab chingri, prawns cooked inside of a coconut (middle); and the Ripon Street majja (front, right) bone marrow topped with shaved eggs.

Getting a table for four on Thursday represented a major victory for Park Slope anesthesiologist Erika Pence, who confessed to having been on the case since October.

“They were booked out for the month every time I tried,” Pence said, savoring his good fortune, along with the forehead vada, a dish of fermented lentil dumplings served with sweet and savory yogurt flecked with roasted cumin.

“I got an email yesterday that someone canceled for 6 pm,” she said.

Despite Masalawala’s electric atmosphere and melting-pot menu fusing Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi flavors, there’s a familiar, comfortable vibe. And that’s the point, said Mazumdar. The restaurant is intended as a tribute to the Indian homestyle cooking that his Kolkata-born father loved, and that Mazumdar grew up eating.

James Beard award-winning chef Chintan Pandya is at the helm of Masalawala & Sons with restaurateur Roni Mazumdar. Their restaurant group, Unapologetic Foods, an Indian food empire, comprises Dhamaka, Adda, Semma and Rowdy Rooster. — James Beard award-winning chef Chintan Pandya is at the helm of Masalawala & Sons with restaurateur Roni Mazumdar. Their restaurant group, Unapologetic Foods, also comprises Dhamaka, Adda, Semma and Rowdy Rooster.

It’s the restaurant he tried to open ten years ago on the Lower East Side, which may have lasted a decade, but wound up serving a lot of chicken tikka masala and other dishes Mazumdar didn’t grow up eating. The first Masalawala closed last year; at the reboot, diners seem to be hungry for whatever the James Beard-winning Pandya is serving, familiar or not.

Shortly after 6 pm, a table of three sat attentively as a server carved fresh coconut flesh into shrimp curry, tableside. He reminded diners to scrape up every ounce of the Ripon Street majja, bone marrow in paya curry sauce, onto their fresh-fired pao Indian bread. Diners get an A+, he said,

Disgraceful Fine Dining Restaurant Willows Inn Permanently Closes

Posted on16/10/202308/08/2023Author

More than a year after allegations of a toxic workplace culture surfaced, one of America’s (seemingly) most idyllic restaurants has closed. The Willows Inn property, one inspiration for the recent chef-y horror film The Menus, has been donated to a non-profit, The Seattle Times reported on Monday.

Since the restaurant opened on Lummi Island in 2010, a flood of diners from around the world made the two-hour drive and ferry ride from Seattle, Washington, for a taste of its rustic-chic menu and lush surroundings. But over the past five years, the Willows Inn has faced a series of lawsuits, plus an April 2021 New York Times investigation outlining accusations of wage theft, sexual harassment, and racist bullying. Despite the allegations, droves of employee resignations, and various protests by locals, the restaurant managed to stay open until November of this year, finally serving its last meal the week before Thanksgiving.

The new owner of the property, which is valued at an estimated $2 million, is the Christian nonprofit Lighthouse Mission Ministries, located in the nearby city of Bellingham. Previous owners Tim and Marcia McEvoy donated the sprawling hotel, farm, and dining room to the social services organization, which primarily seeks to end homelessness, according to The Seattle Times. It’s still unclear if and when the Mission will seek a new owner for the property, but the sale could theoretically raise a lot of money for its work. “It’s too early to know if a potential new owner would want to operate the restaurant and hotel rooms in a similar manner,” the organization said in a statement.

The restaurant gained esteem in its early years, mostly for its hyperlocal menu from former Noma chef Blaine Wetzel, which earned rave reviews on virtually every national best-of restaurant list (including a 2013 mention by Bon Apétit). Yet the Willows Inn has been clouded in controversy for the past half-decade. Here are some of the reasons why:

In 2017, the restaurant was ordered to pay $149,000 in damages and unpaid wages to kitchen employees. According to a 2017 Eater report, the Inn required its entry-level employees to work a one-month long unpaid trial. Once hired, they were allegedly paid daily rates as low as $50 with no overtime and 14-hour shifts.
In early 2021, the restaurant paid $600,000 to settle a class action lawsuit riddled with similar accusations. At the time, Wetzel denied any wrongdoing.
Later that same year, a New York Times investigation uncovered allegations from 35 employees of verbal and sexual harassment, brutal 16- to 18-hour days, and sexist and racist bullying by Wetzel and manager Reid Johnson. According to the Times, workers accused Wetzel of pressuring young female employees “to drink alcohol, use illegal drugs and have sex with male kitchen staff members and visiting chefs.” The piece also alleged that the restaurant was passing off store-bought ingredients as being island-harvested. The owners denied the accusations then; the resulting class-action lawsuit, featuring 137 former employees, was settled this year for $1.37 million.
According to The Seattle Times, the Willows Inn also faced three other individual civil cases of over wage theft and wrongful termination this year. the New York Times reports that those have since been resolved.