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How the Global Supply Chain Crisis Affects You and Why

Even as diners return to restaurants in the U.S., a perfect storm of supply chain issues has led to unwelcome new challenges for operators: product shortages and hefty freight charges.

How to Meet the Pent-up Demand for Catering with Limited Staff

Catered events are coming back in a big way. But the increased demand brings with it some new challenges. We have some ideas to help you manage unnecessary labor and waste without sacrificing quality.

9 Tips for Dealing with the Restaurant Labor Shortage

A nationwide labor shortage is making it difficult to staff up for the busy spring and summer seasons. How can you overcome the labor shortage and entice people to work for you? We have some tips.

Re-Opening in the Time of COVID: Guidelines for Operating Safely

After a year of navigating constantly changing mandates, a restaurant industry coalition has compiled its first nationally accepted safe dining guidelines for operators. The goal is to educate both diners and food service workers with informative signage inside restaurants, as well as step-by-step protocols to keep everyone safe.

Al Fresco Fries: Choosing the Right Fry for New Outdoor Seating

While many cities are mandating lower indoor seating capacity inside restaurants thanks to COVID-19, many are also allowing operators to add new seating areas outside—on the sidewalk, on a closed street or even an adjacent park.

Reopening Successfully, Part 1:  How to Manage Labor

Maybe you closed your doors temporarily or kept a skeleton crew for takeout and delivery orders. You’ve made it this far. Now governors are setting dates for when restaurants can fully reopen. That’s good news.

Reopening Successfully, Part 2: Menuing Strategies

With seating capacity reduced by social distancing guidelines, it’s going to be critical to make as much as you can from every seating and keep tables turning. Now is the time to take a hard look at your menu and make sure it’s optimized for profitability and operational simplicity.

Reopening Successfully, Part 3: Optimizing Revenue and Operations

In Part 1, we discussed ways to improve the way you attract, train and manage labor as you restart operations. Part 2 covered the steps you can take to streamline and optimize your menu for profit. This article offers you some promotional and operational strategies to maximize your traffic and profitability.

14 Recipe Ideas for Mother’s Day To-Go Meals

You know what moms would like for Mother’s Day? A break from cooking. Many operators scored a welcome success with Easter-themed to-go meals over the recent holiday weekend. With shelter-in-place orders continuing, it’s a smart idea to begin planning how you can make Mother’s Day delicious for moms in your area, while bringing in some additional revenue.

Helpful Food Industry Links for COVID-19 Resources

Here are some links we’ve gathered from around the Internet to help keep you informed during this unprecedented time.

23 Things Foodservice Operators Can Do TODAY to Stay Open and Reduce Losses

If you’re like most operators, your dining room is quiet (perhaps even closed), your staff is worried, and your shelves are full of food you’ve already paid for. What can you do right now—today—to protect your business through this crisis?

Guide to Marketing Delivery, Takeout & Curbside Pick-up

This short guide is designed to give you answers to these questions and more. While every restaurant is as unique as its owner, we hope this provides a jump start to help you move faster and more successfully as you get going with to-go.

Tips for Converting to a Takeout and Delivery Operation During Coronavirus

Even as authorities have shuttered restaurants to slow the coronavirus outbreak, many are allowing takeout and delivery to continue. If delivery and takeout (including drive-thru) are new to your operation, you probably have a lot of questions.

Lessons From Katrina: How New Orleans Restaurants Rebounded–And What It Means Today

For the restaurant industry, the coronavirus has been devastating. Owners, employees and suppliers are struggling to cope with the extreme disruption and dislocation. This brought to mind another catastrophic event for Simplot rep Nick Niemenski: Hurricane Katrina.

Round Up Part 2: Inspiring Ideas from Operators to Help Your Business During Crisis

“Comfort food” isn’t just an indulgence, especially in times of social distancing. Comfort food has real, psychological and social benefits for many, and operators are shifting menus to help deliver comfort-based menu items people are craving. In Cary, N.C., operators of Postmaster, a high-end prime rib restaurant, switched to offering takeout cheeseburgers—both to meet demand for comfort food and so their margins made more sense in the age of delivery.

Round Up: Inspiring Ideas from Operators to Help Your Business During Crisis

We’re all pulling together to help support our operators and their communities during this unprecedented time. In every large-scale emergency, we have always been inspired by how individuals innovate and how others can take those good ideas and adapt them.

25 Survival Strategies for Breakfast Spots and Diners

As we head into the second (or for some operators third) week of stay-at-home guidelines from state and federal governments, operators are reporting plummeting sales and empty dining rooms. Here Simplot Corporate Executive Chefs Roberto Roman and Michael Zeller offer timely advice for breakfast- and lunch-focused operators new to takeout, delivery and grab-and-go service.

Walkables/Carryables/Deliverables: How to Take on More Takeout

The statistics are staggering: 86% of consumers are using eating off-premise at least monthly.1 And a third are using it more than they did a year ago.2 Even more exciting is that food delivery is expected to grow in the double digits - -12% per year over the next five years.

4 Tips for Serving Better Fries Amid COVID-19

With the current shelter-in-place orders, delivery, takeout & curbside pick-up orders are rising fast. Learn 4 key ways to serve better fries off-premise.