Are We Turning Restaurants Into Department Stores?

Its 7:00am when you first smell that fresh coffee brewing.  Half asleep and groggy eyed, you quietly pour the first cup of piping hot goodness.  As the mug warms your hands, you give a long morning stretch, and lazily open your laptop.  The calm peacefulness of early morning is soothing like crawling in fresh sheets after a hot shower.  Quiet, serene, the morning is yours.  Now it’s time to wake up, sleepyheads!

Like most Americans, your first morning task is to check email, delete spam, and cipher what really matters.  Without fail, there is a coupon in your inbox offering 53% off at your favorite local restaurant.

Hook, line, and sinker you’re sold.  Is this really a good thing?  Are we turning restaurants into department stores?

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Quick Reasons Why Prix Fixe Menus Rock

While they are nothing new, Prix Fixe Menus are a hot trend right now.  At least in St. Louis, they are cropping up everywhere!  In a downward economy people still want to eat out, but are looking to save cash.  Prix Fixe Menus bring in business and help your customers out.  Here are some quick reasons why:

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Are Restaurants Spamming Facebook?

Its official, we are full blown Vayniacs at UrbanBacon.  Can you blame us?  The guy is flat out awesome!  Yesterday Gary Vaynerchuk posted a video calling out spammers on Facebook. You can watch the video here. One particular winery directly posted blatant spam on Wine Library TV’s Facebook Page.  They even had the audacity to link emails and offer a discount to customers.  Gary was not impressed by this marketing  fail…

According to Vaynerchuk, this is happening more on Facebook.  As his example proves, the food and hospitality industry are also among the spammers.  Which brings up a logical argument.  Are restaurants more likely to spam?  A unique battle restaurants have is the constant need to get the word out about daily specials.  Typically, unless people are actively looking for specials, they consider pushing them spammy.  Just like Gary implies, it’s time to stop spamming your customers.

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Are You Listening to Your Customers? They’re Talking…

It’s no secret, the Internet has given individuals a voice.  Bloggers are splashed across the canvas of social media ranting about their encounters with restaurants and basically every industry on the planet.  Everyone is subject to reviews, and guess what?

People Listen.

This is the basis behind word of mouth marketing.  We all value each others opinions to some degree, almost more than we value critics.  Critics seem untouchable as humans, and it becomes hard to relate in our mundane lives.

This is nothing new.  We’ve been recommending and trashing restaurants for years.  Think about the office, how many times a day do you hear people talking about different restaurants?  Are they all good?  Of course not, people have bad experiences.  Not only that, we have been programmed by society to think complaining is rude.  So we hold complaints until we leave.  Maybe restaurants are to blame, maybe people are to blame.  The bottom line:  It happens.

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Is Yelp Dead?

Yesterday, the well-known start-up Yelp was slapped with a class action lawsuit.    You can read about the story here.  Yelp has been accused of “extortion” by a veterinarian hospital in California.  The hospital contacted Yelp asking them to remove negative reviews of the business.  Yelp refused to take down the reviews.  Then a funny thing happened, the veterinary hospital was promptly contacted by a Yelp “sales representative.”  The rep told the company they could delete or lower the negative reviews on their pages for the low cost of around $300/mo.

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Is Checking Email at the Table Rude?

It’s funny to think how far we have come since the first Nokia 5110 cell phones.  Remember all the sweet face plates and bad arse hip accessories?  The Nokia had a battery life of around 3.5 weeks!  Not to mention they were basically indestructible.  I remember nicknaming my Nokia phone “The Brick.”  Two reasons:

1.  The size and weight slightly resembled a brick
2.  It could smash through glass if thrown hard enough

In my eyes, the Nokia was the first widespread personal cell phone that people actually carried.  Who imagined cell phones would become necessity?  Now, it’s a way of life.  Cell phones have connected us in ways never before imagined!  If your restaurant hasn’t already, invest in a smart phone.

So, what’s all this cell phone talk about anyways?  There is a current trend I notice.  When people (especially younger generations) sit down to dinner, where do their cell phones sit?

On the table!

I am guilty of this habit, I admit it.  But it brings about interesting questions.  Why must our phones be in front of us?  Are we that worried about missing calls?  Why should restaurants care?

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