The literal definition of a menu is ‘a bill of fare or a list of food items a restaurant prepares and serves.’ Following the literal definition, one could just list the items offered on a piece of paper.  However, successful chefs and restaurant owners will realize the broad and comprehensive purpose of a well-designed menu.  An effective menu design should communicate a brand, the vision, the ambiance and feel of the restaurant and the food and the experience a guest can expect to have.

The driving force behind a well-designed menu is not the designer or printer, it is the restaurant owner or head chef. As the creative mastermind behind menu development, their insight, vision and guidance are what make it a complete representation of the brand experience.

Whether it is a five-star restaurant or a mom and pop diner, the menu needs to be developed from the perspective of the specific clientele the restaurant is looking to attract.  Once established, the goal is to creatively impress and entice guests. This comes down to the actual menu design, the fonts, color palates, use of whitespace and/or photos, descriptive content, even the type of paper used or the presentation folder it’s housed in.

Keeping the branding a streamlined theme throughout all elements of the restaurant, including the all-important menu design, will play a vital role in the success of the restaurant and greatly increase the chances of repeat customers.

This prestigious recognition was created this year as a part of the 2^nd annual “Business Gives Back” honors, where GW School of Business alumni and students are acknowledged for their commitment to teaching responsible business practices and empowering students to impact positive social change.

Held this past weekend in Washington DC, the “Business Gives Back” awards event brought together students, professors, alumni and members of the DC business community not only to celebrate the honorees, but to also raise funds for the non-profit/community service charitable organizations created by the three trailblazing GW student honorees.

The VSAG team is proud to congratulate our own Dan Simons for being given the “Business Gives Back Distinguished Alumni Award.”  As a 1992 GW graduate, Dan was recognized for his commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, most notably by incorporating sustainable practices throughout the successful Founding Farmers restaurants, of which VSAG is the creative partner and management group.

Doug Guthrie, Dean of the GW School of Business said: “The George Washington University School of Business challenges students to think more broadly about business and society. Our aim is to prepare students not only to tackle future business challenges, but to positively impact their communities.  Dan takes this commitment seriously. Sustainability is a responsibility and an essential part of how his business is run. It is our great honor to recognize him as an alumni who truly embodies what GWSB stands for.”

We couldn’t agree more! Congratulations Dan!

For more information, please visit GW’s Business School blog.

Since the average US consumer drinks 240 cups of coffee a year, we know that coffee has made its way into the mainstream.  But, not all coffee houses should be just average or mainstream … you want to create a coffee house that is unique and modern, yet inviting and warm, not a place that only provides a jolt of caffeine but one that creates and experience.

In performing hospitality consulting, we spend a lot of time travelling and checking out concepts all over the country and the world.  Through our travels, we’ve identified a variety of concepts that we think represent the future of coffee houses.  We love Starbucks as much as the next person, but we are really inspired by brands like Intelligentsia, La Colombe, Blue Bottle and Farm to Cup who have taken the coffee experience – from bean to coffeehouse to customized coffee programs —  to the next level.

For those brands, it’s not just about the beans, although that is very much part of it.   These successful new generation coffee companies are committed to the beans and everything that goes into growing them.  This attention translates to the bricks and mortar coffee shops these brands operate or sell to:  there is as much attention to the materials used in the décor, the food they serve, the music that plays in the background and more.

So, how do you make the step to enhancing your coffee program?  The first step is an easy one:  Treat coffee like you would any other ingredient.  Coffee beans are so versatile: they come from different places in the world, have different flavor profiles and will contribute a different brew so feel free to experiment and try different coffees until you find one that suits your needs.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 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.

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.