A Finger on the Pulse
Our round-up of the recent biggest developments in the restaurant biz.
From the National Restaurant Association’s webinar with Heartland & MHFA to the SBA’s recently-released app for RRF grants and a positively compelling article by Patricia Cobe, Senior Editor of Restaurant Business titled ‘The Restaurant Critic’s Job Has Changed … Maybe Forever’ — there’s a lot to highlight this Monday.
Let’s tuck in…
The SBA & RRF Grants
The SBA is awarding funding through the Restaurant Revitalization Program to restaurants, bars, and other similar places of business that serve food or drink. The purpose of this funding is to provide support to eligible entities that suffered revenue losses related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
As detailed in our previous writings, the RRF was created by Congress to help restaurants impacted by the pandemic, and will grant up to $5 million per restaurant or $10 million per multi-unit operation. The SBA has now released a sample application, and plans to test the submission process over the next two weeks.
The SBA is also partnering with four restaurant technology suppliers — Clover, NCR Corp., Square and Toast — to ease the process in applying for federal aid from the $28.6 billion fund.
The initiative is intended to “meet small businesses where they are,” said SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman in a statement, and could help speed the application process for thousands of restaurant owners.
The SBA has not yet said when that process will begin. But when it does, eligible restaurants can work with their POS providers to apply. Some will offer a full application experience, while others will host interactive webinars or provide the necessary data and documentation.
—Excerpt via restaurantbusinessonline.com
The program is expected to result in an exponential number of applications, which is why the agency seems to be encouraging that the process takes place through each establishment’s respective POS provider, as far as possible.
Other restaurants can apply for aid at restaurants.sba.gov.
Webinar: How Cultural Intelligence Leads to Customer Comfort
Last week, the National Restaurant Association’s webinar with Heartland & MHFA helped patrons learn how to build loyalty via customer preferences and inclusivity.
Key takeaways from this include facets that truly hospitable restaurants have in common:
- They put the comfort and experience of the customer first. Team members ease guests through the seating process, get them settled and set up, note the needs of the party (children, elderly, disabled), note the spoken language and make every effort to be welcoming.
- They take advantage of the technologies that enhance hospitality through communication, including multilingual menus and POS systems, as well as translation apps on tablets.
- They consciously hire diverse teams both in the front and back of the house.
- They have an official zero-tolerance policy for any racist, sexist or generally demeaning behavior on the part of management, employees and guests. Managers repeatedly train crew members to learn and understand the policy.
- They’re aware of unconscious bias, and train employees to never assume anything about the customers coming through the door or their fellow employees. They are customers and coworkers. Period.
Read the full list of best-practices here.
The Restaurant Critic’s Job Has Changed … Maybe Forever — Patricia Cobe
“Adam Platt believes it may be a while before he writes a negative restaurant review,” begins the article by the Senior Editor of Restaurant Business. The intriguing piece goes on to expound how the restaurant critic’s job morphed into something reportorial, bordering on obsolete through the course of the pandemic before touching on the significant names who have retired from the profession and the rise of social media and influencers in the sector. However, the highlight of the editorial comes subsequent to her posing of the question ‘Does that mean restaurant criticism as journalism is dying out?’
• Not so fast. For the near future, at least, Selvam sees reviews becoming more like news or feature stories. “Chicago magazine qualified a recent writeup by saying ‘this is a restaurant preview, not a review,’” he said. “Lots of customers don’t really know the difference between a news story and a review.”
• But as more restaurants reopen and new ones launch, consumers will want to hear about them from a trusted source. “Maybe reviews will be divvied up among reporters to get more voices telling the story,” said Selvam. Micro-reviews of restaurants, much like those found in Eater’s Heat Maps in Chicago and other cities, may take precedence, he predicts. But people are looking for a voice of authority.
• Ruby believes that writers covering the restaurant scene will have to go deeper, reporting more on the inner story of a restaurant. And there’s no place for snarkiness, as restaurants continue to fight for their survival. “People used to love snarky reviews, but you can’t go there now,” he said.
• Although we might see more writeups of casual, more accessible restaurants as we emerge from the pandemic, Selvam doesn’t want to see journalists walk away from fine dining.
“That customer who saves up for a special occasion will still want that fine-dining experience. A good critic demystifies the experience and provides accessibility for that person,” he said.
Consumers are eager to dine out — and they’ll want some guidance. A knowledgeable, slightly gentler restaurant critic as storyteller can steer them in the right direction while supporting an industry trying to get back on its feet.
All excerpts from https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/consumer-trends/restaurant-critics-job-has-changed-maybe-forever
Please reach out to aman@dashin.in for any feedback or clarifications regarding the content of this article.
