APRIL 2017 VOL 6, ISSUE 7 IN THE Rise Artisan Pizza + Salads FAST LANE CEO John Smith Georgia’s rapidly growing fast-casual restaurants SpaceX Chef Ted Cizma + Talks Cooking Vegan Who's Your New Competition? RestaurantINFORMER.com | 1 Join Gas South for an awesome Shindig on March 23rd at SweetWater Brewing Company! Enjoy food, beer & music while helping us to raise funds for Gas South’s 6th Annual Charity Cornhole Challenge that will take place at the 2017 SweetWater 420 Fest on April 23rd at Centennial Olympic Park. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates and information! Follow us: #GScornhole Contents 14 April 2017 DEPARTMENTS 3 Editor’s Note 4 GRA News 8 Quick Bites 10 ACF Update 23 Industry Events 18 24 Restaurant Report FEATURES Serving Up Dollars 6 As one of the state’s largest employers, Georgia restaurants deliver a significant economic impact. 4 In the Fast Lane 14 By Hope S. Philbrick Fast-casual restaurants went mainstream in the Food Fights 2000s, and now it’s the most rapidly growing By Nancy Caldarola segment of the restaurant industry. 20 There’s competition on all sides for today’s restaurant industry, so how do you stay Cooking with Plants: A Q&A with competitive and capture your piece of the 18 SpaceX Chef Ted Cizma consumer food dollar pie? Plus, 9 must-dos to By JL Fields keep your restaurant clean. Whether it’s for environmental, ethical or health reasons, more people are choosing to eat plant- based meals – even if they aren’t vegan seven days of the week. Publisher: John Sawyer Restaurant INFORMER is the official Editor: Christy Simo magazine of the Georgia Restaurant Graphic Designer: Scott Bagley Association and is published by Sawyer Direct, LLC at P.O. Box 49053, Contributing Writers: Karen Bremer, Colorado Springs, CO 80949. Nancy Caldarola, JL Fields, © 2017 by Sawyer Direct LLC. All rights reserved. Hope S. Philbrick For subscription or advertising About the Cover: Sarah Newman information, call 719.599.7220 or photographed Rize Artisan Pizza + Salads email [email protected] CEO John Smith at the restaurant’s Atlanta location in Poncey-Highland. RestaurantINFORMER.com | 1 Don’t have an IT department? We Are Your Full-Service POS Source from Beginning to End RDS. We Do That Seamless Integrations Using Interconnect Cloud Technology Across Multiple Platforms... Business Analysis & Garry Easterling Solution Development... Sales Director [email protected] RDS. WE DO THAT 678-279-8041 Veronica Lister Inside Sales [email protected] 678-279-8054 We can help with that.... IT Solutions for Large & Small Restaurants... Seamless Integrations Using Interconnect Cloud Technology Across Multiple Platforms... Retail Data Systems is your source Encrypted Transactions for PCI Compliance... for the well-designed POS system. We create custom integrations using a comprehensive list of top Skilled Help Desk Support 24/7/365... quality hardware and software products to strengthen your Unmatched Pricing for Hardware and Software... processes and your bottom line. In 25 offices across the country, our team of over 400 IT professionals is RDS. WE DO THAT dedicated to your success. rdspos.com Brisk BUSINESS resh. Vibrant. Global. Local. These are words you may not is responding to changing eating patterns can only help your Fhave always associated with the food served at fast-casual business succeed in an ever more demanding industry. restaurants, yet these are some of the ways today’s concepts are So Restaurant Informer did just that, profiling four of keeping pace with the larger food trends steering diners’ dollars. the state’s fast-casual concepts and showing how they’re a While fast-casual is one of the smallest subsets of restaurants reflection of the industry as a whole. You can find Hope S. – only about 7.5 percent of market share – growth in the Philbrick’s article, “In the Fast Lane,” on page 14. industry has been more than 500 percent since 1999. In fact, Keeping up with where the restaurant industry is going also while the restaurant industry as a whole grew 5.7 percent in means knowing who your competition is and what you need to 2015, revenue grew 10.4 percent for fast-casual restaurants. do to keep diners coming through your doors. Our longtime So what started out as a slightly elevated version of fast-food contributor Nancy Caldarola shares some of the new players back in the ’90s has now become the country’s fastest-growing in the field and 9 must-dos to keep your restaurant clean, segment of the restaurant industry, due in no small part to something that's always important but even more so in today's giving people what they want. dining climate. Today that means quality food, but fast. We have things to Lastly, one of the significant trends forecasted by food do. We want healthy foods, but not at a cost that will break our consultants is a bigger emphasis on vegetables. We talk with budgets. We want the experience of eating out, but we want SpaceX Chef Ted Cizma on page 18 about cooking plant-based efficiency, too. meals, even if you aren’t vegan yourself. In short, the segment is a reflection of the changing nature And speaking of trends for 2017, guess what’s No. 2 on of what it means to eat and what restaurants represent to our the National Restaurant Association’s list of Top 10 Concept culture. While every type of dining establishment has its own Trends? Chef-driven fast-casual concepts. Looks like everyone target audience, taking a look at how the fast-casual market is getting into the fast lane. Christy Simo Editor 25 offices across the country, our RestaurantINFORMER.com | 3 NEWS MESSAGE FROM THE CEO A Focus on Workforce Development he restaurant industry is in the peo- Association (GRA) focuses on workforce United Youth of America is a non-prof- T ple business. We are only as good as development initiatives to enhance the it organization servicing the needs of the people that we employ in our restau- economic stability of not only the restau- underprivileged young people, ages 7 to rants, and our employees are our biggest rant industry, but also for our community. 17. This organization works with sever- asset. It is important from an association The restaurant industry is currently al counties throughout Georgia to place standpoint that the Georgia Restaurant facing a labor shortage. Recruiting and students in paid apprenticeship pro- retaining top talent remains to be a top grams. The county agrees to cover a cer- challenge for operators. There is so much tain amount of the wages and labor taxes THANK YOU competition among other industries for during a six-month period. to the following members for employees. Workforce demographics Westside Works Culinary Academy is their continued support! are shifting as the younger labor pool is a partnership between Westside Works, shrinking, and there is a greater propor- Levy Restaurants and the Arthur Blank 360 Brands LLC dba Freight Kitchen and Tap tion of older workers. Foundation. This eight-week culinary Amici Arnall Golden Gregory LLP On the other hand, there are people academy introduces students to kitchen Barteca dba Barcelona Atlanta Wine Bar out there who are unemployed, dislo- safety protocols, international cuisines, & Restaurant and Bartaco cated workers or low-income adults and baking and pastry and restaurant simu- Bhojanic youth. Through workforce development lations and provides an opportunity to Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC programs, we can seek to improve the receive ServeSafe Certification. Graduates Chef Rob’s Caribbean Café job training and marketability of Geor- will have a path to employment through Cinco Restaurants, including After Five gia’s workforce while helping the restau- Levy Restaurants venues, as well as dining Foxhall Resort and Sporting Club rant industry create a solution for labor establishments throughout metro Atlanta. Heirloom Kitchen & Bar, Inc. dba Seed Kitchen & Bar/Sip Wine Bar shortages. The GRA is involved in several The GRA believes that these programs HMS Host initiatives to create solutions for both em- will create opportunities and a brighter Jinton Enterprises LLC dba Subway ployers and potential employees. future for job seekers. 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