Short Order | What’s Cookin’

Restaurant equipment purchases and capital expenditure are on the rise, according to the National Restaurant Association. Fifty-nine percent of restaurant operators reported planning to make a capital expenditure such as purchasing new restaurant equipment, expanding or remodeling in the coming months. Also, Fifty-three percent reported purchasing restaurant equipment or making other capital expenditures in the month of May.

This news comes as the National Restaurant Association reports increased restaurant performance for the third straight month, with increases in same store sales and traffic.

Just last month, the 2007 National Restaurant Association Hotel-Motel Show hit the Windy City. In its 88th year, the National Restaurant Association held events at the show including trans-fat free cooking, green products, and other restaurant industry trends and hot topics. Tons of restaurant industry workers attended the show.

Not only did the National Restaurant Association show feature cooking trends, but it also had fantastic technology displays and vendors on hand. Companies like Micros, Pitco and Digital Dining showed onlookers what they could do for their restaurants, featuring point-of-sale technology and other efficient business solutions.

Many attendants of the NRA show noticed that there were quite a few more technology vendors at the event this year than previous years. Some felt that it’s telling of the times — with so many advancements in technology, restaurants need to keep up in order to keep customers satisfied and provide optimum levels of service. With new products and solutions, it’s made easy for restaurant industry professionals to do just that.

Keeping up with customer demands can often be tough, but great restaurant equipment can make things easier. Check out ShortOrder.com’s great inventory of commercial restaurant equipment.

According to USA Today, the fast-food industry is gearing up for a war.

On breakfast.

Yep, the breakfast market is said to be worth $77.6 billion, which makes it very appealing to the fast-food giants, who believe staking a piece of that market “can mean the difference between growth and stagnation.”

Since people generally don’t venture much when it comes to breakfast foods, this means that fast-food companies are going to have to really push their new breakfast menus to consumers. And that means getting people to try fast-food breakfasts other than at McDonald’s, which is the fast-food breakfast leader.

(more…)

Forbes’ December 2006 article “Most Unusual Restaurants in the World” mentions some extremely interesting places. Chicago’s Moto restaurant has some courses that are prepared using a lightning-fast Class IV Laser, while tables at Brussels’ Dinner in the Sky are suspended mid-air with the help of a crane. No doubt, there are some truly creative things going on at restaurants across the globe.

(more…)

It’s been a while since I was in grade school, but I can remember exactly what I used to get every day for lunch in sixth and seventh grade: a basket of fries, a can of Coke and a freshly baked cookie that was roughly the size of my face. This was what I ate for lunch five days a week.

(more…)

New York City made headlines last December when it became the first U.S. city to ban artificial trans fats from restaurants. The proposal received a unanimous vote from The New York City Board of Health, and the ban now requires restaurants to cut foods containing trans fats from their menu by July 2008.

(more…)