In Food On Demand’s home city of Minneapolis, this endless year has included another dimension of stress beyond the pandemic. Restaurants have felt this more than most in the business community, and sometimes words don’t capture what it’s been like on a human level.
Minutes after receiving an email about vaccine slots that were filling fast as I clicked through with shaky hands, I was in my car on my way to the Black Walnut Bakery in Uptown to interview owner Sarah Botcher about having her first full day off in months and how she brought her brand-new business through to the other side of … everything. I’m an emotional guy, so take this with a grain, but these kinds of conversations ain't like they used to be: They’re more meaningful.
|
|
|
Botcher wasn’t kidding about the difficulties of finding skilled labor. Five minutes after arriving, my hands were washed and I was folding freshly cut pastry and being politely told to move quickly lest the layers start breaking down.
Once they were chilling, we moved to the patio with masks off. Two men spoke a different language while eating breakfast behind us. Sarah chatted with an especially relaxed regular to our left who had his coffee, a roll and the Times. At the other end were a group of young, fashionable ladies laughing—and it was the most normalcy I’d felt in over a year.
Botcher and I covered everything from keeping the bankers at bay to not burning out her staff, making the hard decision to stop supplying other businesses to focus on her own clientele and not looking for new real estate, but instead focusing on everything here and now for the foreseeable future. Chasing growth isn’t always the right decision. Sometimes it’s chasing sanity and just living.
— Tom Kaiser, Editor
tkaiser@foodondemandnews.com
|
|
Ghoster Combines the Art of Virtual Restaurants with Science
Ghoster is the latest early-stage virtual restaurant provider promising that a focus on operations and technology will make the difference for restaurants bringing new brands into their kitchens. Read more.
|
|
Tech Stack Recap: Savvy Marketing is a Data Hog
During a panel discussion with Food On Demand, two marketing vendors with a handle on big, big data discussed how the marketing end of the restaurant sales funnel is getting digitized. Read more.
|
|
|
Saladworks Inks Deal with Ghost Kitchen Brands, Walmart
In a landmark deal that will nearly double the brand’s footprint with 60 kitchens in the United States and 30 in Canada, fast-casual franchise Saladworks is partnering with Ghost Kitchen Brands to open in dozens of non-traditional locations by the end of 2021, many of which will be inside Walmart stores. Read more.
|
|
Squarespace Acquires Tock
Tock, the restaurant reservation platform that moved into carryout and events, has been acquired by website and ecommerce platform Squarespace in a $400 million mix of cash and stock. Read more.
|
|
|
Virtual Operator Stay’d Pushes Hospitality into Delivery
High-touch, hospitality-minded restaurant folks are more than ready to bring people back into restaurants. But the founders behind delivery-only virtual restaurant brand Stay’d are looking to bring some of that high-touch hospitality to the delivery experience. Read more.
|
|
|
Building your Off-Premises Tech Stack Sessions Online
|
|
All the individual sessions from our latest webinar event are now online. If you missed the March event, head to the Tech Stack page to get keen insights into the tools you need to wrangle modern off-premises operations. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
