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November 9, 2008 |
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Burger Time |
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“It’s a comprehensive trend across the country,” said restaurant consultant
Clark Wolf, who advises clients from his offices in New York and Northern
California. “This has all coalesced at the exact time when we were looking
for something accessible and comfortable to put our faces into.”
Wolf says the burger trend has been building for years but has exploded in
response to the economic downturn.
“After the market crash in 1987, it was roast chicken and mashed potatoes.
Now, it’s hamburgers,” he noted. |
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Hotel dining is sexy, says Clark
Wolf, a consultant who has served as matchmaker for many
celebrity chefs and Las Vegas hotels. "Dinner can lead
to a room. It adds electricity to the meal."
It is also profitable for the
right operator. Wolf says that his research shows hotels
can make four times as much money when they turn their
dining operations over to an outside operator with good
name recognition. But that doesn't mean more truffles.
"Nobody wants a 'fine' restaurant anymore," says Wolf.
Restaurants such as the Asian
fantasy bar Spice Market (rumored to be the new tenant
in the Midtown W) are the new ideal. Bob Amick -- who
owns Two Urban Licks, Trois and other urban hot spots --
has signed a deal to develop restaurant concepts for the
Novare Group's Twelve hotels.
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"This isn't
about healthy," said Clark Wolf, a food industry
consultant based in New York. "This is about a whole new
way of eating.
"Fast-casual concepts, especially salads, are the
industry's answer to the public's demand -- and
perception -- of what's fresh. People are demanding this
-- they don't want their food coming from some huge
distribution center anymore."
"As a
culture, we've been sold a bill of goods that fast and
inexpensive equals bad," said Wolf, "and it doesn't
anymore."
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August 11, 2006 |
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Seeger's Final Meal |
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"The top
level of dining is a precious thing," said restaurant
consultant Clark Wolf. "When times are good they sprout
up like crazy. But when things get complicated, they get
cut off at the knees. That's why the best ones are worth
keeping around."
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October 22, 2005 |
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Plastic Glasses |
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“It’s the trickle down and over
from Miami and the whole pool side lounge thing,” says restaurant consultant
Clark Wolf. “Cocktails are supposed to be a mini vacation, and in plastic
they stand out.”
Yes it’s all over Miami and Las
Vegas according to Wolf, and making inroads into the cocktail culture of
downtown Manhattan. Order a mojito on the outdoor patio at Ono in the
Meatpacking District, and it will come in a glass that bounces when dropped. |
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February 22, 2004 |
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Reading Glasses |
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Clark Wolf, a New York-based
restaurant consultant, noticed more glasses coming out after the latest
economic downturn. “When 25-year-olds were making billions in the dotcom
boom, you didn’t see it as much,” he says.
“After the economy turned, the
only people who could afford to eat in some of these places were in their
50s. Restaurants were doing everything they could to make it comfortable for
them. I was afraid they were going to offer laser surgery at the door.” |
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June 2, 2002 |
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Warm, Fuzzy |
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Seeger's isn't the only formal
dining room that finds it can be lonely and not terribly
lucrative at the top. New York restaurant consultant
Clark Wolf notes,
"That very high end is appealing to fewer people." He
claims the successful new restaurants offer
"naturalistic, delicious, in season, simply prepared
food and warm, fuzzy service."
Wolf finds
that Seeger's problems bring to mind the massive and
sustained raspberry that greeted the world-famous chef
Alain Ducasse at the Essex House when it debuted in
Manhattan two years ago. "When Ducasse opened, its
greatest sin was ludicrous service. Can you imagine
bringing 12 pens to a billionaire?" Ducasse offered a
selection of knives, it sealed its wine list with wax
and it made customers contemplate six varieties of water
before they could gulp down a drink.
But when Wolf returned
last February, it was "flawless, international 100-star
service," as generous in spirit as it was proficient in
technical matters.
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