WHNetwork Blog

Top Trends for 2011

What, pray tell, does 2011 have in store for our industry? What trends will we see the end to, and what new ones will emerge? That is what is on my mind as this new year begins. To start, I thought I'd check out what other people were saying.

According to Andrew Freeman (founder of an SF based hotel & restaurant marketing firm), pies top the list of top trends - small, large, sweet, savory, pies of all types - in fact, pies are the new cupcakes. (full article here)

When the NRA asked 1,527 chefs for their 2011 top trends, tied at No. 1, with 86 percent of chefs identifying each of them as important trends, were locally sourced meats and seafood and locally grown produce. Sustainability came in as the third most important trend, the NRA reported. Nutrition and health were a focus of both Andrew Freeman and the Chefs, including children's nutrition (thanks Jamie Oliver!) and smaller plates. There's a belief that many consumers will choose healthful options over indulgent options more often, although comfort food is apparently not losing popularity either.

Many trends of course come as a response to the troubled economy, including creative use of spaces and multi-use spaces, Eataly in New York is an example. "We are going to see markets opening in the corners of restaurants," according to Andrew Freeman. Lisa Hemenway's Fresh concept, recently opened in Santa Rosa is an example of this concept taken even further, with many concepts under one roof, including a market, deli, bakery, espresso bar, full service restaurant, catering and more.

On the subject of the new trends emerging due to the economy, Rick Bakas's recent blog post included the suggestion that wineries cut costs in 2011 by using less oak. According to Bakas, "A brand-spanking new French oak barrel costs somewhere around $800-1200. A barrel can be used a few times before it becomes "neutral," or doesn’t impart oaky flavor. American oak is an option, but French oak is the preferred choice. Wineries order pallets of oak barrels each year. If a winery buys 500 new oak barrels at an average of $1000 per, that’s $500,000 in barrels." And he concludes, in his opinion, with less oak, they'll make better wine.

As far as the wine industry, one industry blogger's prediction was that the two top trends would be emerging markets and the continued focus on social media and mobile technology. VinTank endorses SCVNGR, the location based software that uses geo-social gaming to engage consumers. The gaming aspect is "sticky" keeping users engaged with competitions; and wineries, restaurants, and other businesses offering rewards for SCVNGR active consumers.

I believe technology in general will remain a focus, how to use it better - not only for promotion and social applications - but also to make business run more quickly and efficiently, in uses such as wine lists on iPads, tableside payment systems, Internet ordering, and discounting websites such as Groupon and now LikeList.

What trends are emerging in your area? What ones do you like and what ones are you not so crazy about? Let me know!

-Margie

The first professional restaurant review may have been in the New York Times in 1859, when the editor in chief told an unnamed reporter to "go and dine" in order that he might provide an account of his experiences. We've come a long way since then...

And now, with the Internet has come the huge (and seemingly unstoppable) rise of consumer reviews, blogs, opinions; on anything and everything. As always, food, travel & wine are favorite topics. Millions of foodies (and travelers and wine lovers) are now civilian critics, letting Chowhound, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Citysearch, and other sites in on their recent experiences. Further adding to this global change, print publications are in crisis, reducing journalistic staff, and making professional reviews fewer and further between. Will professional reviewers become extinct? And what the difference between a professional review and a consumer review anyway?

Jeff Cox, who had been working independently as a writer since 1981, including as a restaurant reviewer, describes his view on the differences between a professional reviewer and a consumer reviewer: "

Others are mixing community building with professional standards of reporting. Oakland Local, a community site founded by Web entrepreneur Susan Mernit and funded through both a start-up grant and advertising, is one example of such an experiment. It covers topics like the environment, food, development and education for its local community and in a recent month had 65,000 page views, 40,000 visits and 25,000 unique visitors.

And some partnerships have begun between the old and the new media. The Seattle Times is partnering with a number of local neighborhood blogs including westseattleblog.com to share links and collaborate on reporting. Other legacy news organizations are looking to become aggregators of community sites as a way to deliver more micro local news to their users (and increase their value to users in the process).

Although I did not find traditional restaurant reviews on these sites, both oaklandlocal.com and westseattleblog.com have a fairly extensive food section, westseattleblog.com with a strong restaurant focus. Could reviews be coming? And what will all this mean to current guides and rating systems such as Zagat or the Michelin Guide? Where will they fit into the mix?

I'd like to know how much impact each of these rating, guides or reviews/reviewers has had on your business (whether food, wine or hospitality related) and where you see the future of the reviewer or critic. Please take a moment to let me know!