Fresh Hospitality Has Its Finger on the Pulse of Fast-Casual Scaling

Will they? In short, yes.  Pizza is not going anywhere.  It is still one of America's favorite foods for get-togethers, events, movie night, or cheap food on the fly.  But, like many other sectors in the foodservice arena, we see a shift.  Foodable Labs tracks over 6 million influences and over 100 pizza chains.  Our data shows that pizza delivery over the last year is down, 12.8% to be exact, among 18-34-year-olds.  What is causing the slip?  Watch the video for more. 

The delivery game is changing and on this episode of On Foodable Weekly: Industry Pulse, we’re looking at what you need to do to take advantage of this growing market.

More than sixty-eight percent of consumers have ordered online delivery in the past 6 months. Meanwhile, nearly thirty-five percent of millennials have reduced their restaurant visits in the past year. With online delivery orders nearly quintupling (yes, that's FIVE) in just the past year, restaurants need to recognize that while this could be a threat, it could also be an opportunity.

Did you know that 71.2% of top foodie influencers cause others to visit restaurants and bars? Ever wonder which restaurants and cities foodies love the most? Foodable labs analyzed a data set of 7.3 million food influencers to figure out which foodie cities are the happiest. Of those 7.3 million influencers, Foodable Labs looked at those who dine out at least eight times a month and search exclusively for “happy terms.”

Here’s what we found!

1. San Diego - 91.56
2. Scottsdale, AZ 91.31
3. Austin, TX 91.08
4. Kansas City, KS 90.76
5. Palo Alto, CA 90.55
6. Sarasota, FL 90.37
7. Columbus, OH 89.37
8. Boulder, CO 89.11
9. Thousand Oaks, CA 88.62
10. Portland, ME 88.51

See which restaurants ranked the highest across America at www.foodabletv.com/top-restaurants

Mooove over beef, pork is hogging up the top spot as consumers’ most loved protein. With a sentiment score of 89.5 (out of 100,) consumers now prefer pork over any other protein. Beef has dropped to the number 5 spot below chicken, seafood, and lamb. Millennial demand for fresh seafood is up 49.5% and consumer mentions of pork menu dishes are up 23.6% from last year. That's more growth than both chicken and beef combined!

Aside from beef no longer being the most loved protein, top foodie influencers are slowly moving away from animal proteins altogether, showing a 309% increase in mentions of vegan menus since just last year.

The healthy halo category of restaurants is now one of the fastest growing segments in both restaurants and menu items. Chefs and operators are increasing their involvement in vegan menu development to meet this new consumer demand with healthy halo concepts increasing vegan menu offerings 211% over this time last year.

Watch the episode above to learn more about the latest protein trends!

The craft beer sector has shown a steady growth despite many small and independent breweries being acquired by beer giants.

According to the Brewers Association (BA), “in 2016, craft brewers produced 24.6 million barrels, and saw a 6 percent rise in volume on a comparable base and a 10 percent increase in retail dollar value...By adding 1.4 million barrels, craft brewer growth outpaced the 1.2 million barrels lost from the craft segment, based on purchases by large brewing companies. Microbreweries and brewpubs delivered 90 percent of the craft brewer growth.”

In an effort to continue nurturing that growth, the BA decided to create an Independent Craft Brewer Seal with the reasoning that the logo would serve as a tool for craft-beer enthusiasts to distinguish if their favorite beer was made by an independent brewer or not. In order to carry the stamp, a brewery has to meet the “craft brewer definition” determined by BA.

Craft Brewer Defined by Brewers Association

• Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales)
• Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.
• A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation.

Foodable has been following the growth of craft beer in the U.S. since its inception and has reported on the origins of "Beervana," what the craft beer market expectations and challenges are, and the network has also provided a behind-the-scenes look into some craft beer companies through its show Beer Artisan.

Most recently, though, the debate on what it truly means to be a craft brewer and consumer sentiments towards independent brewers who have been acquired by non-craft beer businesses have sparked Foodable’s curiosity.

Enter Foodable Labs, our sister data company, which has helped us compare the overall sentiment scores for three beer brands (Four Peaks Brewing, Cigar City Brewery, and Lagunitas Brewing) before and after their acquisitions.

Each beer brand was acquired by a company with more resources with goals of amplifying the beer production, as well as, the reach of the craft beer’s brand.

With more than 100,000 Floridians still without power, the state is working feverishly to return to normalcy. All the while, the Category 5 Hurricane Maria looms nearby. Though Maria is not expected to hit Florida, residents are still cautious and have not fully recovered from Irma’s destruction yet.

But restaurants in Florida have stepped up in the wake of Hurricane Irma, offering discounts, ice, and even power to those without. Though many restaurants are recovering themselves, they have come out in droves to support their communities.

Hospitality businesses across the state are doing their part by offering free water and ice to anyone in need. Many have had specials for first responders or have simply offered outlets to victims for them to charge their phones while soaking up some a/c.

Some, like Tijuana Flats, have dedicated percentages of their sales to hurricane relief efforts.

According to previous reporting by Foodable, 13,000 stores of publicly-traded restaurant chains in the U.S. were in areas hit by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. According the Credit Suisse’s Jason West, this is 15% of total units, meaning these chains are definitely going to see more of a summer slump.

Watch the episode above to learn more about how restaurants are responding to Hurricane Irma.

On this episode of On Foodable Weekly, host Paul Barron talks to Tom Holt of Urbane Cafe about why he decided to take on a full made-from-scratch menu in Ventura, California 12 years ago.

In 2003, Holt was a professional motocross racer and couldn’t find a healthy fast casual in Ventura. He took that as inspiration to create his own. And thus, Urbane Cafe was born. Everything at Urbane is made from scratch from the bread and the sauces to the dressings. The ingredients they use are as fresh and local as possible.

Barron asks Holt about his thoughts on how the fast casual sector is starting to get crowded. Of course, some concepts are going to succeed and other are going to fail, but being a “winner” isn’t the end goal for Holt. For him, there is a greater purpose to his menu.

“I don’t want to see any losers. I want to make sure that we’re able to really feed the general population with good healthy food,” he says.

Find out more about Urbane Cafe and their mission by watching the episode!

Foodable met up with some of the great minds in hospitality at this year’s HUB conference in Southern California. On this episode of On Foodable Weekly we hear how CEO Sam Polk started Everytable and how the company stays profitable.

Everytable creates healthy grab-and-go meals and sells them for cheaper than the price of local fast food. The goal is that everyone, even those in food deserts, can afford to feed their families nourishing meals.

Everytable is able to offer these meals at such low prices due to their small stores. Each store is about 700 square feet and only requires 2 employees working at a time. Their food is prepared at a nearby commissary kitchen in bulk and delivered to the stores daily, minimizing labor costs.

Find out more about how this company is improving local communities by watching this episode of On Foodable Weekly.

Eureka! is one of those brands that comes across as a one-off, independent restaurant concept. The brand even has 22 separate social media accounts on both Instagram and Facebook for each of its locations— the latest opening last month in San Diego, Ca.

“I've done that consciously,” said Justin Nedelman, CEO and co-founder of Eureka!, a multi-unit gastropub that was born soon after the economic recession of 2008 began.

“At that time, in the recession, I think people with money were trading down, but they still wanted service; and folks that had limited income and still wanted a great experience, they were really discerning and weren't going to spend that money on a big chain restaurant.”

On this episode of On Foodable Weekly, our host, Paul Barron, gets to talk to Erik Oberholtzer of Tender Greens and Chef Stephen Giunta of Cargill about how plates are getting greener.

As the guys explain, we are seeing that while alternative proteins like cricket and plant based proteins are on the rise, traditional proteins are not going away anytime soon.

Chef Guinta explains, “The plant based proteins are becoming part of dishes. They're not replacing traditional proteins- You’re not going to replace a pork chop with quinoa, for example, but they’re additions and more of a balanced approach.”

Oberholtzer adds that while we are seeing interesting food technology coming out like the Impossible Burger or soy proteins from Beyond Meat, he prefers to stick to whole ingredients. “What we’re seeing at least out of the fine dining world is that a lot of chefs are really leading with plants, they’re making plants the star. Plants are taking up more of the plate but proteins don’t go away.”

Learn more about the future of protein by watching the episode above!