Trends for 2008

Smaller restaurants with bigger flavors.
 

Pizza Pizza Pizza - with everything good from the Farmers Market across the street on top.
 

Upscale Soft Serve. Focused flavors from pure ingredients found in surprising places: Sketch on Fourth Street in Berkeley, Bacannalia in Atlanta, Meadowood in the Napa Valley - and it all came from a happy accident in Hoboken, NJ. A post – molecular gastronomy mid-range technology.
 

Markets and Market Buildings: Following the Ferry Building in San Francisco, there's Oxbow in Napa and soon the Fulton Stalls at the Seaport in Manhattan.
 

Even more serious attention to even better coffee. So much so that Starbucks had to close for a few hours to retrain and regroup.
 

Artisan Everything. Not sure what it means, exactly, but it's a magical goal worth fighting for.
 

Sushi withOUT tuna - especially bluefin.
 

Chefs Gardens, School Gardens, Home Gardens, Victory Gardens -- Survival Gardens. Better get the seeds out now!
 

Biscuits. Really good American Biscuits - preferably made by Scott Peacock from Watershed Restaurant in Decatur, GA.
 

Actually knowing, and wanting to know where and from whom our food is coming.
 

Eating smaller fish. When you think about it, being too far atop the food chain isn't always such a plus. Little critters have less time to pick up the junk we're tossing into the seas so GO, SARDINES!!
 

Cocktails worth eating. Yup, real (artisan) ingredients mashed and smooshed and blended to a frenzy, mixed with really good booze by master mixologists.
 

Prosecco's a-bubble, with just about any good food.