Menu Talk

Matt Weingarten believes in the power of community and of shared meals around the table. As head chef of 30-location DIG, that was his driving force when creating the menu for the brand’s new all-day cafe, DIG on 4th, where guests are encouraged to linger. Along with the plant-forward, customizable bowls from the original concept, this new fast-casual/full-service hybrid offers all-day happy hour,...

Menu guru Nancy Kruse, who writes the State of the Plate column for Restaurant Business , keeps a close watch on trends in chain and independent restaurants. She is seeing that several favorites that gained popularity in the last two years—like chicken sandwiches and cauliflower—are still going strong, showing up with global flavor twists. And burgers and pizza will always be platforms for creativ...

Graze Craze Founder Kerry Sylvester and President Brady Lee are taking the charcuterie trend nationwide through franchising. The focus of the 12-location chain is the charcuterie board, which became an Instagram sensation as photos of more and more elaborate creations were posted on the social media platform. Operating out of a small-footprint store, Graze Craze offers several charcuterie variatio...

Barbara Sibley opened La Palapa 20 years ago, bringing authentic regional Mexican cuisine to New Yorkers who thought nachos, fajitas and burritos were what Mexican food was all about. While the menu has evolved over the years, there are many “untouchables” that she will never take off. This became especially apparent during the pandemic, when regulars were comforted by ordering the menu items they...

Molly McGrath is director of culinary and operations for All Day Kitchens, a distribution platform for independent restaurants. Through its satellite kitchens in four cities, All Day puts the finishing touches on menu items and packages them for delivery. Each satellite kitchen houses 20 local brands and Chef McGrath works with every restaurant to curate and optimize their menus for delivery—wheth...

When 16” on Center opened Revival Food Hall in 2016, the collection of chef-driven eateries was an instant hit with Chicago’s downtown crowd. Like other urban food halls, the buzz died down during the pandemic as customers stayed close to home. But now Revival is gearing up for its next chapter, infused with fresh ideas and new concepts. Electric Greens, a new-age salad bar, just opened, with Chef...

Mawa McQueen grew up in an immigrant family in France and was educated at a leading culinary school in Paris, but was only offered dishwasher jobs once she graduated. She made her way to England to work as a nanny so she could learn English and realize her dream of coming to America—a country she saw portrayed on TV as a place where Black people could excel.

Rohini Dey broke the Indian cuisine mold when she opened Vermilion restaurant in Chicago. The Indian-Latin independent is still going strong 18 years later, and Dey is now on a mission to break through the gastro ceiling, collaborating with other women chefs and restaurateurs to boost their businesses and impact in the industry. Last year, she launched “Let’s Talk Womxn,” banding operators togethe...

Tara Gilad and her husband Roy were pioneers in the now trendy bowl segment, launching their superfoods café 10 years ago, before many consumers even knew how to pronounce acai. Their daughter, who was born with severe allergies, was the inspiration for the healthy concept, and the chain has since grown to 146 locations.

David Burke, the groundbreaking chef and restaurateur who helped pave the way for elevated American restaurant cuisine, is on a roll—despite an ongoing pandemic and several decades in the business. In the last year alone, he opened three new restaurants, expanded internationally into Saudi Arabia, partnered with Kentucky ranchers to start a Wagyu beef operation and received the 2021 Ernst & Yo...

CEO Graham Humphreys and Associate Director of Strategy Nikki Freihofer both stay ahead of the trends in their positions with The Culinary Edge, a food and drink innovation company. Together, they share their insights on the 2021 menu trends that have staying power and what we can expect to see emerging in 2022.

On this episode of "Menu Feed," listen as he describes how to craft well-balanced, flavorful and complex drinks with or without spirits and the importance of seasonality in a beverage menu.

Director of Menu Research and Insights Lizzy Freier reveals how the firm pinpoints the most relevant trends and why operators should pay attention to its forecast.

Anchal Lamda is a master franchisee with Gong Cha, a bubble tea concept that originated in Taiwan and is quickly expanding across the U.S. Lamda is just over 30, but she already operates 69 locations of Gong Cha in states ranging from New York to Texas.

Nate Weir developed his farm-to-table ethos early, growing up in Haiti and watching his mother shop at the local markets and cook with whatever was fresh that day.

As he celebrates one year as head chef at KFC, Chris Scott is poised to put his culinary stamp on new menu items and line extensions. Scott believes his customers are ready for innovation, but his philosophy is that while you can change flavor or format, you can’t change both at the same time. And you have to give people something familiar to grab onto. He’s eager to explore the wide array of Indi...

Francisco Migoya, head chef at Modernist Cuisine in Seattle, spent the last four years traveling the world on a pizza quest. He and his team visited 250 pizzerias, ate 800 pizzas on the road and baked 12,000 pies in the Modernist Cuisine Labs. The result? A three-volume tome called Modernist Pizza, making its publishing debut on Oct. 5.

Rob Giuliani, along with his business partner and surfing buddy, Abby Taylor, started Playa Bowls as a smoothie stand at the Jersey shore. To operate the blender, they hooked up an extension cord to Giuliani’s apartment above a pizza place. The duo offered smoothies and acai bowls as a healthier alternative to the fried foods, hot dogs and ice cream available to beach goers. They gradually opened...

As vice president of brand development for Nextbite, food futurist Liz Moskow tracks trends and helps position concepts for future growth. Nextbite specializes in developing virtual restaurant brands by leveraging an operation’s unseen assets while maximizing labor and kitchen space. But these are challenging times for a food futurist. The unpredictability of COVID is trumping the emergence of maj...

Payal Sharma, owner and managing partner of New York City’s Baar Baar, is on a mission to change Americans’ misconceptions about Indian cuisine. The gastro bar’s menu revolves around small plates and shareables, and post-pandemic guests are embracing the experience. Baar Baar also has an extensive list of inventive cocktails infused with Indian flavors, which are popular with the dinner crowd and...

Jennifer and Michele Kaminski are sisters and cofounders of 2 Korean Girls, a ghost kitchen that opened in Miami during the pandemic. The two had been planning the virtual concept for three years, offering a menu of delivery-friendly Korean-style bowls in an area devoid of Korean restaurants. Their mom, Sunny, owns a Korean restaurant in Indiana and helped the pair develop the menu, but her daught...

Peter Farrand, chief food and beverage innovation officer at Smokey Bones, felt that customers needed a little more variety to complement the restaurant’s signature barbecue items. So he diversified the menu, creating what he calls a “protein candy store,” where guests have the choice of many different cuts, global flavor profiles and formats. He also added more seafood choices and a veggie burger...

Passavant Community is a senior-living complex in Zelienople, Pa., managed by Cura Hospitality, an Elior company. General Manager Barbara Ferguson, a former fine-dining chef, oversees Passavant’s dining program, which includes restaurants, retail outlets, catering and Cura’s newest initiative— Fresh at Home meal kits . Listen as she describes the impact of this initiative and many of the other inn...

Piada Italian Street Food takes its name from the piada, a flatbread dough that’s baked on a stone grill and hand-rolled with a variety of fresh, authentic fillings. But Matthew Harding, senior VP and culinary director for the 38-location fast casual, has taken the menu way beyond its namesake. Chef Harding trains his teams to make sure every dish leaves the line with a “chef’s touch.” Listen as h...

The Melt Shop grew from a concept serving best-of-class grilled cheese sandwiches and melts to offer fried chicken, mac and cheese, and wings. Throughout the brand’s growth, new menu extensions had to fit founder and CEO Spencer Rubin’s basic criteria: How do we “Melt Shopify” it with big, bold flavors and other points of differentiation? Listen as Rubin talks about The Melt Shop’s evolu...