Although the economy is heading toward an alleged rebound, wallets are still tight— something the restaurant industry is all too familiar with. With less discretionary income than before, customers and operators are both downsizing and looking to extract the most value out of every experience.

This past October, Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN) featured San Francisco-based hotel and restaurant consultancy, Andrew Freeman & Co.’s, 2011 menu predictions. Agile Chef has taken those top trends and broken them down into seven key categories:

The Fall of the Cupcake
The days of haute, celebrity-endorsed cupcakes may soon be dethroned. This year, don’t be surprised if you see people lining up for a slice of sweet or savory pie, a cup of exotic infused soft-serve ice cream, or a grownup version of the popsicle, which has been reinvented in a variety of seasonal and sophisticated flavors, ranging from peach-ginger, watermelon-cucumber and sugar-snap pea.

The Rise of Mom & Pop Restaurants
Last quarter we discussed whether it…

Whether you consider healthier menu options a fleeting trend or something that’s here to stay, the fact of the matter is that the most successful restaurants change with the times. If you believe the latest foodservice industry statistics, diners are becoming increasingly interested in menu choices that are altogether healthy, flavorful and affordable. According to a recent study by The NPD Group, a Chicago-based foodservice market research firm, consumers over the past decade have been cutting down on foods that are high in sugar or fat, and shifting more toward items that could be seen as being more nutritious.

Add to that the requirement in the 2010 U.S. Healthcare Bill that says chain restaurants must include calorie counts on menus, and you may find that if you’re not offering options for health-conscious customers, you might need to makeover your menu.

Make It Healthy, But Make It Good
While the general consensus is that diners want healthier options, the statistics are somewhat…

Everybody has a favorite soup. Maybe it’s a rich tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich from a local diner. Or your favorite aunt’s chicken soup, which may still be the only cure for the flu. Maybe a chowder, a bisque or a stew hit the spot when you were growing up. After 9,000 years in existence, soup may qualify as the ultimate comfort food.

A Growing Market
Soups, stews and chilies are making a resurgence on restaurant menus, driven largely by soup lovers who constantly crave new flavors and by diners seeking healthier menu choices. The movement has helped free soup from its lunch-only, left-side-of-the-menu status.

The trends in homemade soup mirror what’s happening across the food industry, according to Campbell Kitchen’s Vice President Lucinda Ayers. A study her company conducted identified emerging soup flavors that include watermelon, rhubarb, celery, pork belly, grapefruit and coconut, and trends that include figs, pomegranate, beets, cauliflower, acai and whole grains.

Seafood soup…

From a customer standpoint, there’s nothing more frustrating than having to wait, whether it be at the bar to order a drink, behind the guy at lunch who can’t decide what he’s in the mood for, or sitting (im)patiently at the table for the server to bring the check. The same goes for restaurant and bar operators—there’s nothing more frustrating than losing customers as a result of slow service. Lucky for all of us, those days may soon be behind us thanks to the advent of mobile menuing technology.

There’s An App for That
In late 2009, restaurateurs jumped on the iPhone app bandwagon, and they don’t seem to be slowing down. Dunkin’ Donuts introduced Dunkin Run, fast-food giant Burger King launched the location-aware NOW, and within three months of inception, Pizza Hut’s iPhone and iPod touch ordering application generated over $1 million in sales for the chain.

More recently, Chipotle, the fast-casual franchise that’s…

Starting a restaurant is by nature a difficult and trying endeavor. Studies have shown that an average of 50-60 percent of restaurants fail within the first five years, and 23 percent fail within the first year. That’s when the economy is healthy. Add a down economy to the mix and flying pigs would seem a more possible scenario than opening a successful establishment.

So if you’re an ambitious restaurant entrepreneur, should you just wait until the economy is in better shape before tackling a new eatery? Not necessarily.

If you have all of the right ingredients, you can build an establishment that caters to a penny-pinching public, and can survive through a struggling economy and beyond.

Keep an Open Mind
You’ve been dreaming about your restaurant for a long time. You’ve developed your ideal concept, brainstormed menu ideas and shopped around for the perfect décor. It’s all set in stone. While it’s great to have a plan and set lofty…

President Obama doesn’t have any problem eating Gulf Coast seafood. His chef, White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford, doesn’t have any problem preparing it. Neither do a lot of restaurants in New Orleans, a city on the leading edge of the culinary world and the water’s edge of this summer’s massive BP oil spill. But the scientific community jury is still out, large areas of the Gulf remain closed to fishing, and it will be years before the spill’s full effect will be known.

So, should you worry about eating seafood now from the Gulf? More importantly, should you worry about serving it to your customers? You might be curious to hear some of the early returns.

The Government Effort
The federal government is working hard to assure everyone that Gulf seafood is safe. In July, President Obama hosted a ceremony honoring the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. The main course? Gulf shrimp. His chef toured…

The infamous school cafeteria menu has survived several presidencies, but it won’t be around much longer if the Obama administration has anything to do with it. With the obesity rate rising among children, the administration is making every effort to overhaul the much scrutinized school lunch program, which means stricter guidelines for cafeteria operators.

Transforming School Lunches

A growing number of children across the country (31 million to be exact) participate in school lunch programs every day, and as they shuffle back to school this fall, they’ll realize their once favorite sweet and salty snacks will be hard to come by, and some may even be asking, “where’s the beef?”

In response to changing school nutrition legislation, cafeteria operators nationwide have started trading the tater tots for sweet potatoes, and using leaner proteins in place of red meat. And Let’s Move, First Lady Michelle Obama’s nationwide initiative to raise a healthier generation, can be credited for jump starting this nutrition…

In this economic crunch, everyone’s looking for a little extra value. As a restaurant operator, you’ve likely seen this firsthand, as cost-conscious diners continue to seek out satisfying dishes at lower prices. As a result, many customers are bypassing once-popular appetizers like soups or salads and heading straight to the main course. Darren Tristano, Executive Vice President at foodservice research firm, Technomic, Inc., explains this trend:

To justify spending on items from the left side of the menu, they want more value—dishes with unique flavors they can’t make at home, or are large enough to share or eat as an entrée …

With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to make sure your restaurant’s soups and salads work just as well on their own as they do before the main course. Luckily, it couldn’t be easier to move beyond boring chicken noodle soups and dull Caesar salads. The same pastas you serve as individual entrees are just what you need…

Part 2 of 2

Now you know just how easy it is to save money and conserve energy with a few quick changes to your restaurant’s water and electricity use. But why stop there? Remember the three R’s — reduce, reuse and recycle! From doing away with Styrofoam tableware to starting a compost pile, you can improve your operation’s environmental efficiency through the simplest substitutions or the most creative recycling programs. We’ll help you find the right balance for your restaurant.

Repairs and Remodels
As any operator can tell you, there’s no way to avoid the occasional repair or remodeling job. Whether your restaurant’s in need of some minor renovations or a total overhaul, there are plenty of ways to go green without going overboard on your budget. Recycled brick, stone and wood products offer interesting (and eco-friendly) alternatives to standard construction materials, while natural lighting sources like windows and sun lights create a more enjoyable dining room atmosphere than harsh overhead bulbs.…

Part 1 of 2

These days, you’ve probably heard a lot about running a more sustainable, environmentally friendly restaurant. But it takes so much effort to keep your operation running smoothly, the last thing you want to do is change the formula that’s working for you! Don’t worry — it’s easier than you’d think to run a greener establishment with just a few quick changes to your daily operations, and with all the incentives out there for eco-friendly restaurateurs, the timing couldn’t be better to start “greening” your business.

In our two-part series on greener restaurants, we’ll give you some surprisingly simple tips for conserving water, energy and cash. We’ll also show you how to use the three R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle) to run a cleaner, greener establishment. You can improve your operation’s environmental efficiency through the simplest substitutions or the most creative recycling programs. We’ll help you find the right balance for your restaurant.

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