VSAG is very excited about Founding Farmers’ new iPhone App—it’s a great way to reach out to the guests and to keep the restaurant on the cutting edge, important parts in our work in restaurant management and restaurant social media.

Be among the first iPhone users that have discovered the fun, convenient way to see what’s new on the menu, make reservations and even choose a wine with dinner with the new Founding Farmers restaurant app.   This FREE app is available through the iTunes App Store, and Founding Farmers is among just a few restaurants that have seen the fun in reaching out to guests in a new way.  Even TIME magazine has noticed! Read the rest of this entry »

Another great story on VSAG’s green restaurant operations work at Founding Farmers. Lancaster Farming News, that is…which is great because much of what arrives at the restaurant daily and weekly comes from farms in Lancaster County, PA and from surrounding areas!  Thanks to reporter Tracy Sutton for spending so much time with Founding Farmers, and for sharing the important story behind the restaurant with information about the restaurant’s 42,000 American family farmer-owners (North Dakota Farmers Union) and about how food gets from farm-to-table, with a quick stop in the Founding Farmers kitchen along the way!   Read all about it – A Restaurant For the People, By the Farmers.

With Founding Farmers at the top of nearly everyone’s list as a destination for great plates influenced by Southern and soul food cooking, VSAG’s own Dan Simons is a sought-after source of information on this popular and delicious food topic.  Simons’ thoughts on Washington, DC, Southern-inspired cuisine was featured in the Express Night Out article “Take Your Mouth South: Finding Healthy Cuisine in Washington’s Soul Food Craze” published on July 14, 2009. Read the full article here.

VSAG begins work on the development and launch of Cucina 39, a high caliber gourmet line of Italian sauces and entrees for retail sale.  The culinary, management, product development and implementation teams at VSAG are guiding Chef Keaton Hopkins through the process of taking a product to market, with goals to get the first phase of the gourmet sauces line out to the marketplace in early 2009.

Another successful concept develop and launch, VSAG announces the opening of Chocolata Cocoa Bar in Houston, TX (www.chocolatacocoabar.com)

VSAG Principal Dan Simons was recently quoted as a topic expert in the QSR Magazine article “Delivery vs. Takeout,” which examined dining trends and consumer opinions on delivery and takeout services.   The logistics and operational challenges posed by delivery and / or takeout are just some of the areas in which VSAG provides solutions and ideas for profitable execution of these foodservice strategies.  An excerpt from the article:  When it comes to delivery, packaging can make or break you. More often than not it does the latter. “We need some brilliant engineers to create packaging that goes beyond holding the food without spilling, packaging that separates and then allows for mixing of ingredient, that can be easily labeled and doesn’t require an environmental heart attack for the end user who has to dispose of all of it,” says Dan Simons, a partner in foodservice consultancy Vucurevich/Simons Advisory Group.   Read the rest of this entry »