Restaurant design for the post-pandemic consumer

By Tom Nightingale Perfecting your restaurant design can be tricky but it is a vital step for attracting and retaining customers. How can restaurateurs ensure they are appealing to the contemporary consumer and providing an atmosphere and aesthetic that diners want to experience? Datassential’s Trendspotting report offered a lowdown on some key and emerging trends in […]

Restaurant design trends for the post-pandemic consumer

Perfecting your restaurant design can be tricky but it is a vital step for attracting and retaining customers. How can restaurateurs ensure they are appealing to the contemporary consumer? The latest edition of Datassential’s Trendspotting report notes that as restaurants continue to struggle to stay afloat in the post-pandemic, inflation-infused climate, more than one in […]

Health, environmental consciousness driving plant-based demand

Consumers’ physical health goals and concerns about the environment continue to be the leading factors in driving demand for plant-based food. That’s according to the new “2022 Plant-Forward Opportunity” report from Datassential in collaboration with The Culinary Institute of America, Food for Climate League, and the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. The research found that more than one in […]

How is restaurant chains’ recovery manifesting?

You’ll have heard this before by now, but the pandemic has changed the restaurant industry forever. Datassential’s fourth annual Firefly 500+ restaurant report highlights many of these core shifts, such as restaurant chains focusing on key markets and unit growth rather than simply sales. The food industry market research and insights company’s Samantha Des Jardins […]

Most diners want QR codes as a long-term payment option

Restaurant operators, staff, and patrons have embraced increased technology over the past couple of years, both by preference and necessity. QR codes, which had existed prior to the pandemic but have surged in prominence since 2020, look like they’re here to stay. At first, part of that motivation was an early belief that COVID-19 spread […]

Cheers to the drinks of the future

From wearable tech to robot baristas, technological innovation is stirring things up in the beverages sector By Mike Kostyo New technologies have a way of seeming futuristic, even ridiculous, one day and indispensable the next. Looking back to just a decade ago, it’s hard to believe we had yet to meet Amazon’s Alexa or gotten […]

How restaurant operators are pivoting due to COVID-19

By Renee Lee Wege and Dave Jenkins, courtesy of Datassential There’s no sugarcoating it: The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world, in countless ways, both from a business standpoint as well as personally. From social distancing to stricter shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders, everything that was once normal – happy hours, having a nice […]

Going Global: Why restaurateurs should make the unfamiliar familiar

By Sherry Tseng Leftovers for dinner, again? It doesn’t always have to be that way. There’s no question that dinner is an important daypart — it’s the second most-offered daypart among foodservice operators, according to Datassential’s Pulse 2018: Market Overview, and more than 90 per cent of restaurants offer dinner service. With today’s up-and-coming generations more […]

Small Dishes, Big Flavours: The daypart trends to look out for

By Sherry Tseng Some say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but don’t be so quick to dismiss the impact of lunch and dinner. While the breakfast daypart is gaining ground, lunch and dinner still dominate the majority share of restaurant traffic, with lunch being the largest revenue driver for the foodservice […]