As the cold winter air seeps through the windows and the snow begins to fall, diners begin to crave hearty dishes that can comfort and warm them up all winter long.  Smart restaurants and restaurant business plans include taking stock of the season and create a menu that add little heat to the winter doldrums and brings guests back for more.

At VSAG, we use our menu development expertise to create specialized winter offerings that work well within the confines of any restaurant’s branding.  We believe that every season – just like every restaurant – has its own culinary direction. Spring and summer menus are filled with lighter fare that appeals to the freedom of being outdoors, with freshly picked fruit being a main ingredient. And the fall harvest prepares us for the forthcoming chill in the air, with apple, pumpkin and other hearty produce taking center stage.

Not sure what’s in season?  Take a look at Epicurious’ Winter Seasonal Produce Map or Local Harvest to get a sense of what’s in season when near you.

This winter let us help create the perfect seasonal menu for your restaurant. Our innovative chefs have the experience and the seasonal culinary know-how to satisfy your guests’ appetites for creative menu items.  Warming up your restaurant this winter with a seasonal menu your guests has never tasted so good.

The holiday season is finally upon us. It’s the time of the year where people gather around to share gifts and love for one another. It’s a joyous time filled with great food and drink, and it’s an excellent time for restaurants to market specialty items and selections geared toward the holiday season. So what can restaurants do to help their cause?

If you’re not using social media as part of your restaurant business plans, you may be missing out. Retailers know this and capitalize on it during Black Friday. It’s estimated that those with smart phones access the Internet through smart phones at least once a day. Many will use Twitter or Facebook to let friends and followers know the hottest current deals. Retailers are using these sites and others to reveal special promotions and other pieces of information to these savvy tech users.

Restaurants can do the same thing. Having a strong online presence can widely promote restaurant deals, new products or whatever else there is to promote. Restaurant consultants are constantly pointing to the importance of social media. As millions of shoppers are out there buying for their loved ones, they will need to eat somewhere (they even can buy a gift card from a restaurant as a gift). In that same regard, as friends and family greet each other after a long absence, they will need to have somewhere to congregate. A restaurant which capitalizes on social media promotions will certainly gain an edge for those who are looking to dine during the holidays.

More and more people are using social media sites as a go-to source for new places to visit – including new dining spots. Active participation in social media may be the tipping point for restaurants to enjoy a fruitful holiday season. Make social media an active part of your restaurant business plans. Happy Holidays!

Any restaurant consulting expert will tell you that marketing and branding is essential for a restaurant to succeed. Whether you’re a new restaurant owner or one solidified in your market, you need good marketing to stay relevant. One successful tactic is to personify your brand and promote the faces behind the names – and dishes.

Wendy’s was built on this premise, with owner Dave Thomas serving as the face of the brand throughout the 80s and 90s.  After Dave passed away, Wendy’s lost that personal connection, until recently, when Wendy (yes, that Wendy, all grown up) began to appear in the commercials.  The fact that she was launching a new product is certainly related but not the point.  Wendy’s has always been about the personal connection:  our family cares about what your family is eating.

This personal connection makes the customer feel connected and like they matter. They also feel that that the product the restaurant puts out was created with the customer in mind. The friendly face of Dave and now the friendly face of Wendy imply that personal connection and provide a lasting image that can create a base filled with new and repeat customers.

If you own or operate a restaurant, one successful tactic is to put a face behind the product. Whether it’s a gregarious chef of a fine dining restaurant or a host who will keep the patrons happy, guests patronize a restaurant as often for the front of the house as the food.  A restaurant consulting expert can help you find that face or image to keep your customers connected to the people behind your brand.

Uber website mashable.com recently published a blog post all about the best practices for restaurants on Facebook.

More than ever, it’s integral that a brand understand how to use Facebook to successfully reach the more than 700 million people who utilize Facebook every day. Food consultants constantly weigh the options on how to best tap into this market.

Facebook has countless restaurants, hospitality and food & beverage companies all jockeying for exposure and attention on the site.  The goal, however, is to make sure your brand uses Facebook to your best advantage to make sure you are a step above the rest.   Some top strategies include:

Be Trustworthy … Facebook recently changed their privacy settlings policy and brands are no longer allowed to hide comments; rather, they want users to be able to share content and have open dialogues.  Big problem? No Problem!  Guests don’t expect perfection every time, but they do want to know you care and are listening.  Make openness part of your restaurant business plans. Don’t be afraid of negative comments. Instead use the comments to engage in a public dialogue with your fans/friends/consumers to show them that you are committed to improvement.

Be Seen … show-off a little! It’s okay, really. Food consultants suggest a multimodal approach to branding. Since a picture’s worth a thousand words, showcase images: from your delicious-looking appetizers to your devilish desserts, to the dining room at fun, full-capacity, or upload videos of chefs’ creations, list/define a few of your enticing ingredients, highlight great pr/press, display your iPhone app … Get creative and get out there.

Be Consistent … Food consultants agree that branding is what sets you apart. Use your mission statements, ideologies and overall brand aesthetic as tools to guide you in your Facebook persona.   Make sure that anyone posting or responding is aligned with your brand mentality: It’s important to bring personality to the brand, not necessarily promote the people who work there.

How fast is too fast for your fast food? That may be the question facing many quick service food chains pretty soon. The popularity of online and mobile app-based ordering has reached new heights for many casual dining chains like Five Guys and Chipotle. Pizza has been in on the trend as well. Many pizza restaurants and chains allow you to order your food from home or on the road from your mobile phone or tablet. It offers an added layer of convenience and customization. However, should fast food restaurants incorporate online and mobile ordering into their restaurant services? It’s really a tough call.

For the most part, fast food restaurants have veered away from the idea of mobile and online ordering because of the logistics involved. Fast food restaurants are already geared towards fast, convenient food and some feel that mobile and online ordering may interfere with these operation plans or affect the quality of the food. It was never cost-effective as many customers are on-the-go or in a hurry anyway. However, with the successes mentioned above, some quick service restaurants are beginning to question whether there might be a market for online ordering in quick-service restaurants too.

Recent news from Sonic Drive-In restaurants suggests that this may be the case. Sonic will be testing out online ordering in a select number of its restaurants in Arizona. Snapfinger, the service provider that includes several restaurant chains like Subway, Baja Fresh, and Outback says that it has the technology to ensure that food quality doesn’t go down. If this is the case, food consultants might encourage more online ordering in quick-service restaurants. It should be interesting to see what the future holds.

For a while, trends have been going in the direction of simpler foods with fewer ingredients and more of an emphasis on freshness and locality. Customers want an idea of what they’re eating and where it came from. They do not want over-processed foods or those that have an ingredient list that looks like a novel. To that extent, some restaurants are taking this concept of simplicity and modest menu design to the extreme and are going back in time.

The Wall Street Journal released a piece last month highlighting several restaurants and chefs who are experimenting with recipes and cooking techniques long before their times.  Chefs are using recipes for traditional foods that date back to the Roman Empire and the Jewish Diaspora. While it may sound neat to try a food that people may have eaten thousands of years ago, there are a few hang-ups.

First, past cuisine featured different spices and meats that the novice foodie may not be used to. People of past eras used more parts of animals because they did not want to waste. Moreover, those who have tried some of the older recipes have indicated that the food was bland and not as many spices were used.  Those who try these ancient foods may be shocked to find that it’s not to their liking.

Moreover, those who want to try the food may have to shell a few bucks to do so. In order for chefs to make these meals, they have to use some ingredients that cost double the price of present day ingredients. These may be hard to find or just more costly as they’re not used as much given modern cooking.  Although these food items may have been inexpensive and widely available in the Renaissance, they may be a little harder to come by now.

Still, even with these constraints, it is an exciting idea and those who want to try something new will not be disappointed.

Congratulations to VSAG friend and client, Terrapin Chef Rodney Einhorn, on having been invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard Foundation.  Chef Einhorn will bring his culinary talents to NYC’s Beard House on November 29^th, during a celebration of Robert Foley Wines.

An acclaimed culinarian, Chef Rodney has received praise from critics and patrons alike, and participating in this prominent event is just another achievement in the professional career of this imaginative chef.

Named the 2007 Winemaker of the Year by Food & Wine magazine, Robert Foley’s Napa Valley portfolio attracts raves with every new vintage.  According to the James Beard House, “[Foley's] bold and expressive wines are a natural match for Rodney Einhorn’s modern approach to classic New American cuisine.

We wish Chef Rodney much success at the event – and bon appetit!

For more information about this event, please go to: http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=events_beardhouse_112911

Washington Post food writer Tim Carman recently chatted with Dan Simons about his latest project, a second location for Founding Farmers that’s set to open in Potomac, Md., in late October.

The apiary that Founding Farmers launched this summer in conjunction with George Washington University gets mentioned on KFYR radio in North Dakota.

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The great thing about our restaurant services is that we offer unbiased expert solutions. Opinions are easy to come by; your guests have an endless supply, as do your employees, and your investors. But VSAG brings you expert solutions and systems, not just hot air. We are restaurant operators ourselves and through our experience, we know what it takes to provide the most beneficial restaurant services. It starts with our complete restaurant business plans. These plans are built through research, factual data and our detailed knowledge; we do not use templates and industry averages to formulate generic plans. The data we gather helps us to formulate the Profit Architecture™ of your business and is woven into all of our restaurant services. Through the use of data and analysis, we can spot any weak points in your restaurant business model and provide the solutions you need.

We are able to offer complete restaurant services because we have a complete team of restaurant experts. Our operators work hand-in-hand with our system experts, project managers, procurement directors and our human resources staff to provide a fully-supportive team. When you combine the experience and expertise of each member of our staff, you get teamwork that produces restaurant services that work.

Our expert staff will implement systems; this is one of the places we excel, as we know what it takes to go from idea to documentation to implementation. These systems will be used to amplify the effects of your restaurant operations and results. However, our experts will never set up systems and leave them stagnant. We will interact with your restaurant staff to understand what is—and is not—working. We will train your staff so that they are better suited to carry out the benefits of our restaurant services. Our wide range of restaurant services impacts everything from FOH (front of house) operations to menu development, marketing plans and the back office.

The VSAG impact is clear: our track record of turnarounds, fixes, new concept launches, company growth and myriad other results speaks for itself.