Last week, I argued with someone who said companies really only had opportunities to differentiate on service when they’d screwed something up – ‘problem recovery’.  Not true, I said. Then, @Bread_Winners went on to make my case.  Last week, I tweeted that I had seen a wine on the wall at Bread Winners while brunching [...]

How much of a ‘recovery’ do you think the restaurant industry will see this year? Many I have spoken with (or read) believe sales growth versus 2010 will fall somewhere between the 1.6% increase forecasted by Technomic back at the start of the year and the 3.6% predicted in The NRA’s 2011 Restaurant Industry Forecast. [...]

For Valentine’s Day, I treated my wife to an evening of Dining in the Dark. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. And I am guessing some of you may be debating whether that was, in fact, a treat. The occasion was staged in the basement level of the Aloft Hotel downtown, a venue [...]

I love to travel. Sure, sometimes the anticipation and memory of a trip is better than the trip itself, but still, I love it. Even business travel to a good destination can be a real treat. In a recent MediaPost article, Gary Leopold referenced two studies that could indicate future generations won’t share that love. [...]