Starting a restaurant….one of the most exciting, yet terrifying, thoughts for people looking to get into the food industry.  Even if you have the passion, drive, culinary experience and maybe even the finances, the thought of starting a new restaurant can still give you pause (and nightmares).  Where should you start start? How do you make this happen? What is your first step? Can you really fulfill your dream?

We are here to tell you YES! You can fulfill your dream, but launching a restaurant requires an enormous amount of knowledge and experience that even the most experienced restaurateur will find daunting. Enter VSAG: a team of restaurant consultants, restaurant designers and restaurant developers that combines their wide-ranging expertise to help our clients in a variety of different ways.  VSAG is leading the hospitality consulting industry with our team creating innovative concepts that are not only grabbing headlines, but garnering awards and loyal followers.

In addition to helping you in any way, our goal is to set you apart from the competition. We love the process, the planning, the customization, the branding. It all comes together in the end, and along the way we use the restaurant business plan we developed as step 1 to guide us and turn your visit and dream into a tangible product, a real brand that can be packaged and sold. Whether to investors, guests or the media, we will keep your image consistent throughout all facets of not only the restaurant design and menu design, but elements in the all restaurant development process.

Sure the hours might be long, you will pay your staff before yourself and you might be so tired some nights you sleep in your chef coat, but having VSAG’s restaurant consultants as your partner will make the process a little easier.

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.

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.

From Dan Simons, VSAG Principal, in Response to the December 7, 2009 article by Jane Black that appeared on the front page of The Washington Post:

We’re thankful to Jane Black for bringing such an important topic – sustainable agriculture and what it means to be a green restaurant committed to sustainable business practices – to the front page of The Washington Post. How much more important can this topic get for foodies and restaurateurs? Not much more, but we’re glad that there is focus on a successful business in Washington, DC, that is working to help American family farmers and pushing the envelope on a broad array of topics that go well beyond the superficial, easy topics. Read the rest of this entry »

Thai Chicken sauca

What’s one of the hottest trends in food these days?  Street food – but not any ordinary hot dog cart – today’s street food is driven by technology, great, unique foods and creative vision.  Ready to launch Washington DC’s most exciting new concept, VSAG announces the development of Sâuçá, a new concept in mobile restaurants.  VSAG has worked to develop the menus and processes behind owner Farhad Assari’s vision of bringing high-quality food to the streets.  International businessman, traveler, explorer and foodie, Assari has taken street food to a new level.  This very atypical restaurateur was inspired by the side street vendors in India, the old school food trucks in California, the railroad station vendors in Europe and the taquierias of South America, to create a new way to enjoy foods from around the world, with the convenience and fun of a serious kitchen on wheels.  The result is a great global gourmet experience with no reservations and no travel time!

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It’s no wonder that environmentally conscious diners think twice about ordering bottled water from the restaurants that they frequent, but for patrons of VSAG client restaurants Founding Farmers and Farmers & Fishers, there’s not bottled water available.  At least not the ‘fancy’ imported kind – their water comes from the Washington DC water authority – right out of the tap!  Since the opening of Founding Farmers in fall 2008, the Natura water filtration system has been used in house, and was installed at Farmers & Fishers last spring to eliminate bottled water and the waste it creates.   The system intakes tap water from the local supply and superfilters and mineralizes it for fresh, clean water to serve to guests, all without the use of chemicals and with a choice of room temperature, chilled, or sparkling.

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VSAG’s chefs are back at the pizza oven, this time with farmhouse pizzas.

Pizzas from a farmhouse? Never heard of it? Well, for something classic yet new with a farm-fresh twist, Farmers & Fishers now has a vibrant selection of artisanal pizzas on the menu.

The chefs are dedicated to serving true, American-farm ingredient pizzas that include selections like ‘New Haven Clam Pie’, the ‘Loaded Baked Potato’, ‘American Salami and Tender Meatballs’ and ‘Firefly Goat Cheese, Leek and Wild Mushroom’, just to name a few. Read the rest of this entry »

VSAG is proud of how well Farmers & Fishers did at the Arts on Foot event. They sold over 700 slices of carrot cake! See the post below from the Farmers & Fishers blog:

Well, Farmers & Fishers is certainly going to claim that title even if there wasn’t a true competition!   This past Saturday they sold more than 700 slices of our scrumptious, homemade carrot cake roll with whipped cream cheese frosting, candied walnuts and caramel drizzle at Arts on Foot…that’s a LOT of cake!   Just ask our super pastry maker, Supaya, who made it all, and delicious it was! Read the rest of this entry »

On Labor Day Monday Farmers & Fishers Sous Chef Mario Pineda appeared on the WUSA9 morning show and prepared the very popular Heritage Truck-style Fish Tacos on the air for anchor Kim Martucci in honor of Brazilian Independence Day.   Mario demonstrated his culinary abilities by whipping up our original recipe tacos in just 2 minutes!

See the video for yourself, and catch a cocktail segment with Founding Farmers Mixologist Josh Tugjnyam, who shook Cabana Cachaca (the spirit of Brazil!) into a couple great tasting cocktails.  No holidays for DC’s most popular restaurant!

On Labor Day Monday (9.07) Founding Farmers Mixologist Josh Tugjnyam appeared on the WUSA9 morning show and prepared the official cocktail of Brazil – the caipirinha – in celebration of Brazilian Independence Day.   Founding Farmers Chief Mixologist Jon Arroyo is the DC Brand Ambassador for Cabana Cachaça the upscale double distilled Brazilian Rum that is the key ingredient in the caipirinha.  Jon was away on holiday, so Josh stepped in to shake up some great cocktails.   See the video for yourself, and the food demo with Farmers & Fishers Sous Chef Mario Pineda, who prepared the very popular Heritage Truck-style Fish Tacos. No holidays for busy restaurants!