Revenue Management

🍴 William Reed will publish North America's 50 Best Restaurants, featuring the U.S., Canada, and parts of the Caribbean, excluding Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic which are part of Latin America's 50 Best since 2013. The top-50 list is to be announced at a live ceremony later this year, on a date yet to be confirmed. U.S. restaurants like New York's Eleven Madison Park and Atomix, as well as California's SingleThread, have previously made the World’s 50 Best list. The North American rankings are derived from a panel of 300 anonymous voters, including chefs, journalists, and gourmets, with no participation fee for restaurants.

🏨 In a study tracking over 27 million CPC impressions, hotels allowing OTAs to undercut direct rates paid 47% more per click for their own brand name. Rate parity strategies still resulted in a nearly 36% CPC increase. This competitive bidding drives up marketing costs and diverts funds from other guest services. OTAs are not the villain; they help fill rooms and offer broad exposure. However, the key for hotels is to maintain rate integrity, ensuring the best prices on their own websites and fostering direct guest relationships. Industry trends indicate by 2030, direct bookings may surpass OTA reservations, highlighting the importance of prioritizing direct rate attractiveness for future business sustainability.

🍕 Roberto Levinson, after moving to New York City from Monterrey, Mexico, opened “Ánimo!” to offer authentic Mexican breakfast options. The 1,100 square-foot restaurant, located at 2nd Avenue and 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, seats 28 and serves breakfast and lunch, with dishes like Hot Cakes with Glorias and Chilaquiles Rojos. Also featuring a full espresso bar with drinks such as Mexican Vanilla Latte and Café de Olla, Ánimo! opened in October 2024 and plans to expand with a second location and a new dinner menu starting March 21.

🍴 Six locally owned restaurants were awarded the James Beard Foundation's 2025 America's Classics Award: Lem’s Bar-B-Q in Chicago, The Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum, Idaho, Sullivan’s Castle Island in Boston, Lucky Wishbone in Anchorage, Alaska, Dooky Chase in New Orleans, and Gaido’s in Galveston, Texas. Since 1998, over 100 U.S. restaurants have been honored. The awards ceremony will take place on June 16 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Restaurants are nominated by the public and awards voters from October through November.

🔥 Texas barbecue's popularity has led to craft joints earning Michelin recognition. Kafi BBQ in Irving, less than three months old, offers a halal, wagyu beef-centered menu, drawing on founder Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi's six years of experience after purchasing a Traeger smoker. KG BBQ in Austin, started by Kareem El-Ghayesh who left finance in Cairo for Texas in 2016, blends North African and Middle Eastern flavors with Texan tradition, earning a James Beard semifinalist nod and Bib Gourmand in Michelin Guide's recent Texas expansion. Texas Monthly’s top-ranked Goldee’s in Fort Worth serves smoked Lao sausage, while Fort Worth's Sabar and Arlington's Smoke’N Ash BBQ blend Pakistani and Ethiopian influences, respectively. Blood Bros. in Houston and other statewide restaurants incorporate Asian, Cajun, and Mexican flavors. These pitmasters view barbecue as a cultural bridge, with plans to create community hubs celebrating food, art, and culture.

🧃 Ghee, a staple in Indian cuisine known for its high smoke point and nutty flavor, has seen a 71% increase on U.S. restaurant menus over four years, particularly at independent and midscale eateries, yet appears on less than 1% of menus. With 33% of Americans aware of ghee and 18% having tried it, this clarified butter is celebrated for its versatility and connection to Ayurvedic traditions.

🍴 Bret Thorn, Senior Food & Beverage Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, covers food and beverage trends. He hosts the podcast "In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn" and wrote for "The New York Sun" from 2005-2008. Thorn joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999, Restaurant Hospitality in 2016, and lived in Thailand for about five years writing for "Manager" magazine and "Asia Times." A Tufts University graduate (magna cum laude, 1990) and member of Phi Beta Kappa, he studied at Le Cordon Bleu and was in Beijing for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Thorn won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award, was IFEC president in 2005, and contributed to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2nd edition, 2012) and Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets (2015). Inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014, he's from Denver and resides in Brooklyn.

🍸 The early 2000s cocktail renaissance continues, with bartenders using savory ingredients like cilantro in drinks. Empirical Spirits in Brooklyn, N.Y., launched a cilantro spirit last fall with 38% alcohol volume, made from French wheat, cilantro stems and leaves, lime, and tomatillo. Lolita in New York City offers the No Güey using Empirical’s cilantro spirit and sotol. Dear Strangers, which opened in November in Greenwich Village, features cilantro in the Star Treatment cocktail. The trend extends to international locations like NoMad London with their best-selling Sergeant Pepper cocktail and Licorería Limantour in Mexico City with an Al Pastor Margarita. Despite cilantro's divisive taste, its use in cocktails is growing.

🏨 Hidden costs can undermine hotel profits; this article suggests implementing expert cost-saving strategies to streamline operations, reduce expenses, and increase revenue. No specific numbers or statistical data provided. Published on February 17, 2025, by Akanksha Mohapatra, the article emphasizes the importance of smart strategies to avoid hidden costs in hotels.

💸 Inflation rose 0.5% in January, annual rate at 3%. Costs driven by shelter, energy, gasoline, food. Overall food index up 0.4%, food at home +0.5%, away +0.2%. Year-over-year, food prices increased: overall +2.5%, at home +1.9%, away +3.4%. Egg prices surged 15.2%, the largest monthly jump since June 2015. The gap between grocery and restaurant price increases was the narrowest since April 2023, yet grocery stores maintained a 150-basis-point advantage over the historical average of 70-basis-points, impacting restaurant sales in 2024. Menu pricing increased 3.4% year-over-year, equalling the 23-year average. Companies like McDonald’s and Brinker observed easing inflation, with Brinker's food and beverage costs improving by 20 basis points year-over-year.