Hotel Operations

🍗 In New York City, Pat and Bret attended a pig roast at Back Bar, Eventi Hotel, where Chef Laurent Tourondel's team cooked pigs from noon to 6 p.m. using a charcoal-fired "caja chino." At Heritage Grand Bakery, owner Lou Ramirez bakes with "population wheat," a mix of 17 grains. Perkins, renamed to Perkins American Food Co., focuses on bakery items, while Huddle House emphasizes its core menu, avoiding too much flavor innovation. Both chains form part of family-dining chains reinventing their menus.

🍚 U.S. per capita annual consumption of lamb is less than 1 pound vs. over 13 pounds in Australia. Lamb consumers in the U.S. typically have annual incomes over $150,000, tend to be millennials, male, and white. Technomic reports a 0.5% increase in lamb menu mentions over the past year. Fine-dining restaurants (47.2%) and upscale casual-dining restaurants (31.8%) often feature lamb. Taziki’s Mediterranean Café, with its 97th location in Johns Creek, Ga., attributes 10% of sales to lamb dishes. Butchr Bar in Los Angeles offers lamb salami with macadamia nuts and Australian pepper berry.

🍻 The Bloody Maria, a variation of the Bloody Mary with tequila instead of vodka, is becoming popular in U.S. restaurants. This over 100-year-old drink has gained traction among Hispanic consumers, flexitarians, pescatarians, and Generation X, partly due to the broader trend of global flavors and the rise of agave-based spirits. Datassential highlights its growing recognition in contemporary culture.