An FTC restaurant crackdown on seafood language
Plus: Do you want an app with that?
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Some restaurant operators are asking if they should bother with a restaurant app. Others are questioning if they should bother with the restaurant industry at all. Fair questions, really. Plus: A look at a $25 all-you-can-eat gourmet restaurant in San Francisco. Pull up a chair!
On the menu:
đź’ The FTC gets fresh with seafood restaurants
đź’ Restaurants ask: To app, or not to app?
đź’ How going whole hog helped this restaurant
đź’ Seeing convenience stores as competition
FTC dives into the seafood business
"Ahoy there, restaurant owners and other friends! Gather around to hear about the restaurant that tricked people into thinking its shrimp and fish were wild caught right nearby, when, actually, they were farmed, frozen, and shipped in from afar." Thus begins the FTC's blog post published last month addressing how restaurant decor (like fishing nets) and menu language (like "local" and "fresh caught") could lead customers to think their fish was, in fact, fresh and locally caught. "Not only is it illegal to mislead customers about where the seafood is from, but it's also not fair to other restaurants that tell the truth and play by the rules," the post continues.
A few weeks later, FTC Commissioner Alvaro M. Bedoya sent letters to the 10 largest seafood chains directing them to the blog post and guidelines. "I am writing to relay recent guidance from Federal Trade Commission staff regarding restaurants' obligations to ensure that they are not giving consumers the wrong impression — specifically, that they are serving wild-caught, American seafood when they are actually serving foreign, farm-raised imports," he wrote.
It's certainly a surprising move from the FTC and one that's been met with criticism from some in the restaurant industry, like Restaurant Business's Peter Romeo, who asked: "Should [the FTC] really be deciding whether décor and ambiance are in line with what a restaurant actually sells?"
70% – 85%
The amount of seafood consumed in the US that is imported (NOAA Fisheries)
“The last thing I’d do right now is open a restaurant.”
Chefs like Seamus Mullen, Anita Lo, and David Waltuck, who established themselves through their work at high-end restaurants, are forging a new career path and looking beyond the institutions that made them famous. Mullen has a farm and meal delivery service, Lo hosts culinary tours, and Waltuck taught actor Jeremy Allen White knife skills so he’d be believable as a chef on the Bear. They’re part of a growing number of chefs rejecting the long hours and tight margins of running a restaurant and looking for new ways to create food-focused careers. “I loved it when I was in it,” Mullen said of the restaurant industry. “But the last thing I’d do right now is open a restaurant.” (The New York Times)
There’s an app for that restaurant
Toast wants to offer custom-branded mobile apps to restaurants. If this sounds familiar, you may be recalling DoorDash's similar announcement last month. But does every restaurant really need its own app? Well, restaurants seem to want them. Toast said apps were one of the most highly requested features.
Toast’s data shows that customers who order through a branded app are four times more likely to be repeat customers than those who order from a website. Why’s that? “Presumably, it’s because a customer willing to download a restaurant’s mobile app is willingly taking the restaurant-diner relationship to the next level,” argues Expedite's Kristen Hawley. “ It’s also probably because we’re really, really used to using ordering apps, third-party or otherwise.” (Toast)
"When you can run a restaurant for a week on one pig, then if you’re smart you can make some money on it."
Rob Levitt, now of Publican Quality Meats in Chicago, shared how he was able to run a successful restaurant during the financial crisis
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What we’re following: The growing competition between restaurants and c-stores.
Who we’re following: Chef Anita Lo may not have a restaurant of her own, but she sure is having culinary adventures, as evidenced by her Instagram feed.
Plus: Consumers are looking for long drinks, highlighting a shift towards affordability and limiting alcohol.
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