Mix & Match to Lift & Separate
Hotel and restaurant operators are taking advantage of strategic partnerships with everyone from beverage vendors to charities to extend outreach and share costs.
Techie-Color Dreamcoat
Restaurants and hotels are developing personalities on social networking sites and will be using e-mail marketing, yelping, blogging and other methods to spread the word.
Layer-On the Green
Green is not going anywhere, and what was once a trend is now the standard. Hotels and restaurants are riding the green wave by recycling, conserving energy and sourcing sustainable foods.
Custom-Tailored
Hotels and restaurants will be more likely to comply with guest requests as loyalty becomes increasingly important, and service needs to be stellar. Guests will be dictating and getting the side dish, wine glass size and other offerings they want.
Giving the Finger
Finger foods and foods you can eat with your hands proliferate as guests look for comforting, easy and approachable menu items.
Dress It Down
New restaurants focus on a casual environment offering carafes of wine and dishes that your mother might have made in family-style settings, creating a place where guests feel at home even when they go out.
Meet Your Meat
From “Head to Tail” dinners, to whole-roasted fish, eating the entire animal has become an event. Now you can meet your meat, and often the guy who raised it.
Counter Culture Revolution
Restaurants forgo tables for counter seating overlooking the kitchen. Diners like the casual option of no-reservation seating and social dining.
Uncle Sam vs. Aunt Jemima
Restaurants are constantly adopting their menu choices to keep in line with government regulations influencing cooking methods like sous vide, calorie posting and ingredients like foie gras and trans fats.
Sexy Lounge-erie
Flexible lounges blur the line between the dining room and the bar allowing guests a comfortable and relaxed place to drink, people watch and order in increments as the evening progresses.
Small Is Big
Small space, short menu, hot concept! Tiny restaurants with only a few items on the menu are big news.
Shaken or Sparkling
Sparkling wine cocktails are light, re-freshing and flavorful and popping up on menus all around.
Waiter, There Is Something in My Drink
From tapioca pearls to spherical orbs of Cointreau, cocktail garniture gets creative.
Split Personality
They say it's a wine bar, but really it's a serious restaurant. Restaurants forgo the name for more casual monikers — it's happening here and in Europe.
Organic and Biodynamic Beverages
Growing methods and farming practices were once confined to the menu, but now wine lists designate sustainable selections, adding green to the list of reds and whites.
All Shook Up
Bartenders are adding egg white and shaking hard to create frothy cocktails of yore done today. We're flipping over these edgy delights.
Field-ing Inquiries
Chefs and farmers develop personal and profitable relations as chefs request custom-grown vegetables and farmers unload a glut of produce for a profit when chefs find a creative use.
Maximize Your Assets
Restaurants are opening for additional meal periods and offering limited menus during off-peak hours.
Neighborhood Night
Restaurants will be reaching out to local neighborhoods with casualized weekly specials designed to draw regular guests.
Members-Only Jackets
Restaurants and bars boast an exclusive club atmosphere: reservations essential and special members-only areas — they'll even let you store your stash for your next visit.
