The following article is a guest post from Felicia Baratz-Savage who is a writer and graphic artist living in Indianapolis, IN. As a contributor for Cooks & Travel Books,  she specializes in travel, culture and education.

There are plenty of plausible reasons why a restaurant owner might choose to move his or her business from one location to another. Whether it’s to improve the restaurant’s appeal and accessibility to customers or to make more room for a larger customer base, sometimes a fresh location is the key to generating more success from the business. Although moving is often worth the hassle that it requires, it doesn’t change the fact that there are still many risks and inconveniences involved in the process. For a more successful endeavor, consider the following helpful tips for moving your restaurant.

Keep an Open Line of Communication with Moving Companies

According to Brandy Cross, a member of the Yahoo! Contributor Network, communicating with your moving company is crucial for ensuring that the extent of the job is understood on both ends. Cross personally experienced a situation in which movers were assigned to transport items from her old restaurant to the new one. The movers came to the new place and proceeded to set down three convection ovens, two deep fryers and a 500-pound grill in the middle of the floor. They claimed their job was finished at this point. Although Cross was able to file a complaint and have the job completed, the trouble could have been avoided with more effective communication tactics.

Know the Rules

Municipalities each have their own set of rules that public buildings have to abide by to be in accordance with the law. If you’re moving the restaurant somewhere outside of the city limits, the rules and regulations your restaurant is subject to will likely change. To make sure your restaurant is in accordance with these rules and regulations make sure to stop by city hall for a list of regulation requirements and the fire marshal’s office for the area’s fire safety requirements. Doing so could help protect the safety of your restaurant, while also saving you from getting into legal trouble in the future.

Be Cautious with Expensive and Easily Damaged Equipment

Both you and your movers should be aware of the importance of handling specialized restaurant equipment. Whether it’s an insulated banquet cabinet or a commercial dishwasher, moving with care is not only a good idea for preventing damage to your equipment, but can also save you the trouble of having to purchase replacements. This can add up especially when considering the fact that most restaurant supply companies require business owners to purchase a certain number of items for wholesale purposes.

According to Stephanie Somogyi Miller, president of a public relations firm, the most important thing to take into account before moving your business is to ensure you have enough money. Since unexpected damages can easily set you back quite a bit, it’s crucial that you take every precautionary measure possible while moving. Following the above tips will ensure a more successful move that allows your restaurant to get back on its feet and start reaping the benefits that inspired the move in the first place.

The article below contains some practical advice on managing and maximizing your inventory. I have some of my own and it is really simple: track it.

As amazing as it is, many independent restaurant owners don’t bother to carefully track their inventory and they have no set system for how much to order. This is guaranteed to cost you money- the only question is how much. You simply can’t manage something you don’t track.

So, start by having a solid system for tracking what comes in, what gets uses, what gets thrown out and what gets disposed of as waste. If you track it, it will automatically improve. And if you actually work to improve it, things will be even better.

As a restaurateur, you probably struggle with inventory on a regular basis.  Balancing walk-in space, fast-selling menu items, and slow moving items can create a constant headache.  Some of your product moves quickly, some does not, and inevitably some ends up sitting in the walk-in for far too long.

That sitting product is costing your restaurant money, because you’ve already invested money in it but you aren’t seeing any return in the form of sold entrees to customers.  Even worse, it’s taking up room in your walk-in while it costs you money.  So how to turn frozen product into dollars in the cash register?  Some tips to help you manage inventory:

What do you need?  What do you already have?  It’s very hard to manage inventory when you don’t know what you’ve got and what you need.  More than likely you use a POS system to help you manage existing inventory and to track sales so you know what you need more of.  However, it’s important to supplement any POS tracking with a regular manual inventory of your stock.  That way you can double check what the software is telling you while also checking that food quality has been maintained.  A regular inventory schedule will also let you track trends in your inventory, like items that sell better or worse seasonally and product that you consistently have too much or too little of.

Get creative with what you’ve got.  Once you identify the food products you’ve got more than enough of, you need to think of a way to move that product from walk-in to plate.  That means getting creative.  Develop specials and supplemental menu items that feature your excess product at a sale price.  This strategy has multiple benefits: it adds some variety to your menu, it turns sitting product into dollars, and it can provide a little easy market research.

Variety and selling product are pretty self-explanatory.  The most exciting benefit is testing new items made from product you already stock on your customers.  You never know when you’re going to stumble across a hit that really sells well.  When you do, adding it to the menu is easy because you already buy the product and you know how to prepare it.  The best part is, you’re taking extra inventory that was sitting around and moving it out the door, all while giving your customers something new to rave about.

Effectively managing and utilizing your inventory first takes accurate data.  Once you know what you’re dealing with, you can apply the best of your creative process to maximize the efficiency of your kitchen.  The opportunities the extra product lying around your freezer represent an exciting way to hone your menu into a selling machine with very little waste.  And once you get your restaurant operating at that level of efficiency, better sales, and better profits, will follow.

Quoted Article Source Link: Backburner

Guest post on the many facets and benefits of the bacon craze. If there is any one food that I would try as a one item restaurant concept, it would have to be bacon! Read on and learn something about America’s favorite meaty indulgence.

Bacon is a much loved part of the American culture. In fact, it probably isn’t all that good for you, but it’s certainly well-loved and much eaten. As well as being often consumed, bacon is also becoming a culture in the United States. There is an entire list of bacon products, including bacon poetry, bacon jokes, bacon stuffed animals and even bacon t shirt sales are up an incredible amount. Entire restaurants are being opened based on bacon recipes and bacon accessories are at an all time high.

To make a long story short, bacon is making a real splash in the news lately, with several high notes.

Bacon Restaurants

Entire restaurants have opened which are dedicated to bacon and bacon laden dishes. Several bacon restaurants have cropped up, including the Austin Texas café and restaurant titled simply “Bacon” which is reminiscent of a small town house and cooks as much as 150 pounds of the decadent crispy bacon that it is named for in a single day.

The first restaurant dedicated solely to bacon began to be planned in Atlanta, Georgia in 2009. Named Baconalia, the restaurant was designed to cater to high-end bacon lovers and included Japanese and Korean style menu items as well as something known as bacon candy, which was bacon that had been broiled under the flames with brown sugar on it.

Not only does bacon offer some wonderful tastes and an exquisite smell, it appears that it also makes a great way to raise money. In the news in recent weeks is an example of using America’s love or bacon to do something great.

Bacon Fund Raising

Chicago was the setting for the Chicago Baconfest just a few weeks ago. Now in this bit of news, not only does bacon taste good, but it also does good. Not only did the Baconfest offer a great taste of some wonderful bacon dishes to those who attended, but it also donated more than two thousand pounds of non-perishable foods to the Chicago Food Depository that helps families in need and prevents them from being without food. In addition, they raised funds in excess of $50,000 dollars for the charity. Bacon is being used to make positive changes in the world.

Bacon Candles

One chef, who cooked so much bacon that literally had pounds and pounds of the bacon fat left over has come to the conclusion that waste is a bad thing. He has created bacon candles, which are in fact edible. You can light the candle and drip the bacon fat from the candle onto your salad or greens to give them a lovely flavor, or simply use the bacon candle to scent your mealtime table. Chef Rick Gresh experimented for weeks before arriving at the perfect bacon candle recipe and since then has branched out to include several other candles in his restaurant menu. You can buy the bacon candles at the Prime house restaurant in The James Hotel Chicago if you are interested, or you can even make your own.

The bacon culture has taken over America, or so it appears. Take part in the bacon explosion by grabbing a bacon t shirt, a bacon mouse pad, or even, if you are feeling adventurous, your own bacon candle.

You’re out for dinner with your family at your favorite cozy restaurant. You’ve looked forward to this meal all week. This is your chance to relax and unwind, to enjoy your kids and, best of all, you don’t have to clean the kitchen afterwards. Then you notice your mouth is starting to itch. You know you have food allergies, but you were so careful to choose only the foods from the menu that you knew were safe for you to eat. So, what’s going on?

The answer? What’s on your plate may not be exactly what you ordered. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, tests run on the fish in many local sushi bars showed that, many times, what was on the menu and what was actually served on the plate were not the same thing. Out of 119 samples, 54 percent of them were mislabeled. What was supposed to be yellowtail was often a Japanese fish called amberjack. Flounder often turned up in dishes that were supposed to be made with halibut.

While this could be of small, or even no consequence to most of us, for some people this could be a very serious problem. Some people, for example, need to avoid certain foods for religious reasons. It is of the utmost importance to them that they get exactly what they have ordered when they are eating out. Other people have allergies. Reactions to food allergies can range from the inconvenient — itching and rashes — to the life threatening. In extreme cases, an allergic reaction can result in anaphylactic shock and even death.

According to MedlinePlus, a website sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, a food allergy is an overreaction of your immune system triggered by certain foods. The site states that the foods most likely to cause serious allergic reactions in most people include peanuts, eggs and tree nuts like walnuts, pecans and almonds. It also lists fish and shellfish like lobster, shrimp and crab as likely culprits. Because so many allergies are caused by seafood, it’s easy to understand why the mislabeling of sushi might cause serious problems.

So, now you know the food at your favorite restaurant may be mislabeled. What can you do about it? First of all, rest assured that this is a relatively rare event. Most restaurants are dedicated to the health and comfort of their patrons and would never knowingly offer foods that could cause allergic reactions or go against someone’s religious beliefs. Restaurants — especially new ones — pay top dollar for their restaurant supplies and can’t afford to have their reputations tarnished by intentional mishandling of food. But we’re all human and accidents do happen. One way to protect yourself is to check restaurant reviews. Many newspapers run restaurant reviews and some even list Health Department reports for local restaurants. You can also look online for reviews. Other resources include Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, but that’s a little sensationalist for some tastes.

If you’re still concerned about what might be on your plate, you can ask your server. Stress the fact that you’re not just being picky, but that this is very important to you for personal reasons. You can ask your server to check if the restaurant equipment has come into contact with anything you are allergic to. Your waiter can ask the chef about what ingredients have been used and even check labels for you. Remember, too, that even food that has been prepared on a restaurant supply item used for processing the food you’re allergic to can cause a reaction. Your waiter can check packaged goods for warnings such as, “This product has been produced on equipment that also processes peanuts.”

Never let embarrassment stop you from asking about the food you’ve been served. Your concerns about your religious practices and your health come first, and the wait staff at any reputable restaurant will know that and be happy to accommodate you.

OK- now, do you know where your food cost overage is going? Well, do you have scales?

If the answer is no then you probably aren’t going to be able to get your numbers in line- at least not nearly as in line as they should be.

There are lots of places to you can see your food cost climb above where it should be and using scales is the easiest way to spot those problem areas and keep them in check. It starts with knowing how much food you got in, and then keep close track of consistent and measured portioning in the food going out. Anything that doesn’t go out to a customer should also be tracked and recorded. At the end of the day, week and month, those numbers should add up.

Just by measuring things, you will see an automatic improvement. By studying the numbers you will learn to spot problems as soon as they crop up and fix them immediately. Don’t use the scales as a “gotcha” for punishing employees- instead use them as a challenge and a motivator.

Before long you will literally be able to track money flowing directly into your pocket from the savings and all for the cost of buying a couple of scales and putting them to use. Simple, but absolutely true.

I’m not telling you anything new when I tell you that inventory control is very important in any restaurant.  But I think it’s surprising just how few restaurants view the use of scales as a way to manage shrink and really control how food product is used.  In fact, scales should be the central tool in any restaurant manager’s quest to make sure everything that comes in the restaurant goes out as a finished product a customer is paying for.

The best place to start is with a receiving scale.  As product rolls in the back door off the truck, weigh each bulk item and record the weight.  That way you know exactly how much of each kind of ingredient you have available.  This helps you in two ways:

1) You’ll know exactly when it’s time to order more product
2) If you’re out of product, but you only sold X number of entrees that use that product (i.e. not enough of them to be out), inventory shrink is happening, and it’s time to hunt down the culprit

Portion scales are a necessary compliment to your receiving scale.  After all, if you’re measuring what’s coming in but not what’s going out, you’ll have a hard time managing your inventory.  There are two kinds of portion scales: mechanical scales and digital scales.

Scales mean accuracy.  Accuracy means less waste.  Less waste means less cost.  Less cost equals more profit.  The equation is as simple as that.

Quoted Article Source Link: Backburner

The advantage of franchising is the business plan is already laid out for you- your job is simply good execution. This should appeal to people who want to get into the industry but have little or no experience and aren’t sure how to create a concept or manage the business.

That said, a franchise is not an automatic money machine. You must keep a close eye on things and make sure you match the business with the right location or you are in for a rough road. Spend time talking to other existing unit owners and make sure you understand the real challenges and opportunities and don’t just be sucked in by the franchisor sales pitch which always makes it sounds both easier and more lucrative than it typically is going to be.

Franchise lending has steadily increased throughout the past 12 months, according to the new monthly Franchise Lending Index from the International Franchise Association (IFA) and BoeFly, an online marketplace connecting small business borrowers with lenders.

According to the data, throughout the past two years, lending showed the steepest increase from November to December 2010, when lending to franchise businesses rose by 20.54 percent. This increase was largely attributed to SBA stimulus from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which allotted $730 million in SBA loans.

The upward trend was followed by a sharp 28.78 percent decrease from December 2010 to January 2011 as franchise lending reverted back to its financial crisis levels following the impact of government stimulus.

According to the Index, franchise lending experienced a growth of 10.56 percent between February 2011 and February 2012. Despite the net 12-month gain, the period was variable with as many months seeing expansion as retraction.

“The Index confirms that access to credit in the franchise industry has achieved relative stability, a non-trivial achievement in the wake of the financial crisis,” said Mike Rozman, co-president of BoeFly. “In developing the current Index, we explored how borrowers were using credit to establish new franchise units or to refinance existing debt.”

In the first two months of 2012, there was a shift in the direction away from new development: in February, 42.7 percent of loans approved by dollar amount for franchises was used to fund new businesses, whereas January experienced 54.9 percent of credit went to new entities.

Quoted Article Source Link: FastCasual

How to Keep Employees and Customers Happy with Effective Restaurant Cleaning Techniques

Restaurant cleanliness is one of the major factors that affect how customers perceive your company. On the milder end, a dirty restaurant will affect the taste and quality of the food, and on the extreme end, it could even inflict your customers with food poisoning. Not only will it affect your appeal, but also the flow of business and the general satisfaction of your employees. No matter what size your restaurant is, ensuring that it’s clean without a doubt can be difficult without an effective strategy in mind.

To enhance cleanliness and sanitation in your own eating establishment, consider applying the following fundamental techniques:

• Consistently Evaluate Cleaning Crews and Employees.  Many restaurants hire professionally trained cleaners to help keep the restaurant in good shape, which is an effective way to pick up where employees left off and ensure a thorough job. The problem with most restaurant managers is that they fail to consistently monitor these cleaning crews to ensure that the job is done correctly and according to the standards of the company. First of all, restaurant managers should make sure that cleaning professionals have the proper certification. For example, cleaning professionals should have a verifiable certification from the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration for proper cleaning of carpeted regions.

To eliminate the likelihood of mistakes and inconsistencies in restaurant cleaning, managers should strive to hire the same professional cleaning crews each time. Furthermore, restaurant managers should assign regular cleaning tasks to employees to keep the area from becoming overwhelming for cleaning crews. For example, if your restaurant makes pizzas you can have cooks wash and sanitize all pizza equipment after the end of a shift to keep it fully clean and functional.

• Go Green by Saying Goodbye to Bleach.  A common chemical used in restaurants, bleach will certainly kill germs and get the job done; but it doesn’t contribute to a healthy environment. According to Anselm Doering of CafeMeetingPlace.com, bleach is the restaurant’s No. 1 enemy to worker health and the environment. Bleach not only causes irritation for individuals with asthma and allergies, but can even cause dangerous chemical reactions when mixed with other common substances in a restaurant setting. For example, chlorine bleach can mix with organic matter and create chloroform, which is a toxin and known carcinogen. Creating this toxin is not only dangerous for everyone in the restaurant, but can also mix with organic matter in the environment and spread it all over the planet.

To prevent the hazardous side effects that can come from using bleach, consider safer, more effective and environmentally friendly alternatives. One great alternative is Quats, which stands for quaternary ammonium compounds. These compounds are colorless, odorless and non-corrosive, which makes them safe for anyone to use on virtually any metal equipment and surface. An even less expensive alternative is sanitizers made from on-site Electro-Chemical Activation devices, which combine water, salt and small doses of electricity to create a powerful cleaner. Best of all: these cleaners cost less than one cent per gallon.

• Keep a Routine Cleaning Schedule.  Cleaning the restaurant should never be approached from just one angle. According to Jake Wayne at eHow.com, restaurant owners should assign daily, weekly and monthly schedules to each cleaning task the restaurant needs. For example, a full sweep and mop of the restaurant should occur every night after closing, while dusting and rearranging a display case may just need to be done once per week. Other types of similar scheduling includes cleaning cash registers every Monday, thoroughly cleaning storage rooms every Tuesday, sweeping and organizing office areas on Wednesday, and so on.

Keeping the restaurant clean can be a full-time job for restaurant owners, and when business is going especially well, it can be even more difficult to stay on top of it. However, sacrificing as much time and effort as necessary to exemplify the above strategies will ensure more successful and smoother business in the long run.

I feel these stories are inspiring and demonstrate that anyone can open a restaurant if they put their mind to it, have a good plan and are persistent enough to overcome the challenges they will face along the way.

In Spartanburg County, a number of dining establishments have closed due to financial difficulties and other reasons.

But the game has changed recently. During the past year, a new group of young restaurateurs has stepped up to the mark and opened their own independent ventures.

With an infusion of energy, delicious food and fresh ideas, this youthful crop of business owners is rising to the top and, at the same time, helping to shape the future of the local dining industry.

Tony Angelakis, the youngest of the group, was just barely out of high school when he opened his 49-seat authentic Greek eatery Cuzina Grill in December at 910 E. Main St.

“For me personally, I was looking for an income … and I didn’t want to work for anybody else,” Angelakis said. “I heard people saying they were tired of the same old Spartanburg. So I decided it was time to go out with the old and in with the new.”

Angelakis serves as the head chef and co-owner, with financial and moral support from his aunt, Effie Scordilis. Angelakis learned the restaurant business while working in a few of those restaurants.

He said his two biggest culinary influences were his mother, Mary Angelikas, who died last year, and his grandmother, Betty Diangikes. Cuzina is dedicated to his late mother.

“There aren’t too many locally owned restaurants in Spartanburg,” Angelakis said. “The trend right now is toward local. I hope people in the community continue to support that — if not this restaurant, then any other local restaurant.”

He said the evolution of information sharing on the Internet has made customers more aware of food trends and helped them become more knowledgeable.

“People know what they want to eat,” Angelakis said. “There is a progressive movement among diners. You can’t just serve them the same frozen or canned stuff you’ve been serving for years. You have to make it fresh, local and delicious.”

Fresh, local

The local trend is precisely what Joel Sansbury and his girlfriend Lenora Martin are capitalizing on to bring something unique to the area with their new eatery, The Farmer’s Table.

Sansbury, 21, and Martin, 26, both of Spartanburg, opened the restaurant in March and have quickly become popular for their tasty dishes made from fresh, local ingredients.

Although it’s the couple’s first business together, they both have extensive restaurant experience.

While working for Converse Deli, Martin met Sansbury, who began his career as a busboy at Ruby Tuesday’s and moved on to be a bar back at Gerhard’s Café.

“Our idea was different,” Sansbury said. “I’ve seen a lot of restaurants come and go. Our goal is to keep our customers happy. We try to keep our prices as low as possible. We have worked some of the kinks out of our service. We only serve local, healthy and delicious food.”

Martin said the couple’s decision to open a restaurant was “life-altering.” Tapping into maturity beyond their years, Martin and Sansbury said they are in it for the long haul and hope to deliver on everything — service, quality and price.

“We want to have the whole package,” Martin said. “We traveled around a lot and visited other restaurants to make sure we had everything the way we wanted it. We’d like to see this business prosper and maybe in 15 or 20 years reevaluate where we are and possibly sell it and get some fresh blood in here.”

Martin and Sansbury said they focus on listening to their employees. In return their workers give them respect despite some of them being older than the owners.

“It’s important that we be able to relate to our staff,” Martin said.

Just a few blocks away at the upscale II Samuels restaurant and Ribault St. Catering at 351 E. Henry St., owner Sammy Ridgeway has begun handing over the day-to-day operations of his eatery to his son, Carter Ridgeway.

Carter Ridgeway, 26, graduated from Broome High School. He attended University of South Carolina Upstate and was a standout local player on the men’s soccer team.

He has applied the same work ethic to the restaurant business that he brought to school and athletics. Ridgeway started washing dishes for his father and has worked his way all of the way up to the top of the operation.

“I’ve sort of evolved into a leadership role,” he said. “It’s not the easiest business to be in. When times are good, that’s the easy part. You never know what’s going to happen from one day to the next.”

Ridgeway said he and his peer Wade Lindsey, son of Wade’s restaurant owner Hamp Lindsey, are leading an initiative for the Spartanburg Area Restaurant Association to encourage a younger generation of restaurateurs to join the group.

“I think it’s a good thing (that younger owners are stepping up),” Ridgeway said. “Competition is always good. Although we’re all in competition, we don’t do the same things. People are starting to go out again. I hope that lasts. But more people getting involved and staying in it for the long run creates a better environment. As the older guys get out, younger people need to take the reins.”

While new eateries have been popping up all over town in recent months, many believe that the youth movement among independent restaurants started last summer in downtown.

Following that line of reasoning, the godfathers of the movement are William Cribb, Raj Patel and Ryan Traywick, whose 4,700-square-foot venture Cribb’s Kitchen on Main at 226 W. Main St. debuted in July.

Cribb’s has continued to gain a following and has elicited rave reviews from foodies far and wide.

“I feel like I’m 28 going on 50,” said William Cribb. “It’s tough in this business because you are working when your friends are out playing golf and other things. It takes a higher level of commitment.”

In December 2010, Traywick and Patel, proprietors of Main Street Pub, signed a lease on the former Tap Room space adjacent to the RJ Rockers Brewery. They had discussed opening a national pizza chain restaurant.

A mutual friend introduced them to Cribb, whose business had outgrown its small space at 151 N. Spring St. The trio sparked up a friendship over a plate of food prepared by Cribb and they decided to go into business together.

“It’s a tough time to be opening a restaurant,” said Cribb. “The reckoning was that I’m young enough and would be able to bounce back if anything did happen. Business wouldn’t be business without risk.”

Traywick, 32, said the ownership has a few things going for them that work in their favor. The first is teamwork.

“There are three of us here,” Traywick said. “We get together and come up with the best plan. You’re not shouldering all of the responsibility. You want to be original and you want to be different.”

The young owners also can respond quickly to customer requests and maintain the quality of work in the kitchen, the front of house and in their service, Traywick said.

Recently, customers complained of background noise levels in the restaurant’s back dining room. The owners responded by tweaking the room with soundproofing equipment.

“It feels good,” said Patel, 28. “You have to be responsible. If you sell a good product, it doesn’t matter how old you are. You have to be able to adapt quickly and listen to your customers.”

Cribb said he believes there is plenty of room for new restaurants, especially in downtown.

“I learned at a very young age that the restaurant business is like a fraternity,” Cribb said. “It’s good to know people. It’s good to have allies. We want everyone to do well because it ultimately helps our business. I’m glad to finally see people interested in local food.”

Quoted Article Source Link: Google

But here’s another reason- people want to buy breakfast at a restaurant. Mostly fast food restaurants but that isn’t the only place people will go.The market research data below supports the idea that now fewer people even have time for the morning meal at home and are willing to grab it on the go.

This explains why so many more places are now offering it, even those you wouldn’t think of as having any kind of serious option for breakfast (I’m looking at you, Subway!).

If you have a concept that will support a breakfast menu and a desire to make more money while spending very little extra I would suggest giving it a try. Yes- you won’t get to sleep in (or, ideally, your manager won’t be sleeping in- you still can) but the rewards should more than compensate you for the change and you may end up wondering why you didn’t do it a lot sooner.

If you’re planning to start your day with an Egg McMuffin or some other fast-food breakfast item tomorrow, you’re not alone.

In fact, the morning meal is the fastest-growing segment of the quick-service restaurant business, according to market data reported by CNBC.

NPD Group says that 80 percent of breakfasts are purchased from fast-food restaurants, and research shows that people care less about the price of their morning meal than they do about the cost of any other meal.

This big breakfast business explains why almost every fast-food restaurant, even Taco Bell, now starts serving first thing in the morning.

Consumers also tend to be loyal to their coffee supplier, with 33 percent of people sticking with the brand or restaurant that gives them their morning jolt, up from 25 percent in 2009, according to market research firm Technomic.

Starbucks has boosted sales by selling more breakfast sandwiches and wraps, and earlier this month, Dunkin’ Donuts tried to take a bigger bite of the market by re-doing its bagel recipe.

Quoted Article Source Link: Google

Personally, I try not to use my phone at a restaurant at all if I am with someone, and if I am alone I only use it to read email or browse the web- never to have loud phone conversations with people. But I may be in a dwindling minority…

Quoted Article Source Link: Bing