Jamba and Jack in the Box have reported that they anticipate traffic to their stores to increase as tap and go payments become a part of consumers’ everyday routines. For many places, contactless payment may require an upgrade in their current hardware and POS software. But Jamba feels that the change will be worth it in the long run.

Here’s How Google Wallet Works

Currently, you must have a Sprint Nexus S 4G and use Citi Mastercard to apply this technology, but by the beginning of next year that is expected to change. Android already has plans to incorporate Google Wallet as well as just about every other mobile phone company. Since Google is a trusted name, the app is expected to take off.

The system allows for easy swipe with the phone in brick and mortar locations. The app also automatically applies any Google Offers and participating loyalty and gift card locations. Now you can truly go paperless with your coupons!

Soon Google Wallet is expected to add a sticker that you can scan right on the smart phone, enabling the customer to ditch their credit cards and carry everything on their smartphones

Google Wallet Provides Increased Security

Not only will Google Wallet bring an added convenience to eating out, but it is more secure. With any other type of debit card or credit card, it can easily be stolen and used. Google Wallet requires a PIN to access any of its features on your phone. Plus, you can always lock your phone, too.

Currently, Google does not store transaction details, but they are expected to do so. Needless to say, our purchasing demographics will probably be researched and explored for purposes of advertising.

Mobile Apps and Online Restaurant Reviews

While Zagat’s subscriptions have plummeted, they are desperately trying to increase their profit by improving their importance to the foodie on the go. For just $9.99 a year, you can put the Zagat app on your phone and be on your way.

But why would consumers do this when the Yelp app is free?  With or without the review, it still proves useful with pertinent contact information and an easily accessible map of restaurant locations.

The Power of Yelp

Yelp has collected over 20 million reviews from amateur reviewers in less than 20 years. Can these amateur reviews really take the place of professional food critics? HBS professor Michael Luca says yes. After combining revenue data and Yelp stars, statistics show that going up one star in ratings can affect a restaurant’s profits by five to nine percent.

Restaurant Reputation Management

Needless to say, restaurant managers and owners aren’t quite as excited about the massive amounts of online restaurant reviews from Yelp. But there is a silver lining to this dilemma. Many restaurants are foregoing their traditional advertising methods for reputation maintenance.

What does reputation management involve? Mostly it involves an adherence to high standards and quality in food. This is a win-win situation. Of course, some may try to game the system with phony reviews and false rankings, but Yelp’s algorithm is designed to detect these phony online restaurant reviews.

Whiskey Sales at an All-Time High

According to the President of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, Eric Gregory, distillers in Kentucky are having a hard time keeping up with the production of whiskey. In fact, whiskey distilleries in the South have spent well over $150 million to in an effort to expand the Bourbon industry.

What was once considered an inferior version of Scotch is now gaining respect and reverence with a new generation of drinkers.  Bourbon is now a first-class choice in cocktails because of its broad range of flavors and ability to mix well in cocktails.

Whiskey Cocktails Make the Specialty Cocktail List

The new generation of Millennials is returning to the classic days of Old Fashioneds and Manhattans, but with a modern twist. So what does a twist on these classics entail?

Let’s take the classic Manhattan on the rocks. Instead of the well whiskey and maraschino cherry juice with a dash of sweet vermouth, go grab a bottle of Maker’s Mark. Now mix it with Luxardo maraschino liqueur and mix it with a dash of orange bitters and serve it in a martini glass.

If a Manhattan doesn’t float your boat, let’s do down south and tinker with the Kentucky Derby classic, The Mint Julep. This is typically made with Wild Turkey and there’s nothing wrong with that! Go ahead and muddle the mint, but instead of the classic simple syrup, why not spruce it up with vanilla bean syrup and make it a specialty drink? Now serve it in a nice frosty Tom Collins glass. Perfection!

1. 1.      Menu-labeling laws

Expect all current administration for food labeling and food safety to go into full effect. By 2012, all chain restaurants with over 20 locations will be required to provide nutritional information on their menu.

1. 2.      Anything artisan

Expect to see this word everywhere in 2012. As chain restaurants start to feature artisan foods, expect to see the term used and abused.

1. 3.      Authentic foods hit mainstream bill of fare

More Asian and Indian foods will be featured on fast casual menus. Fusion foods will become commonplace. Korean and Peruvian foods will receive widespread attention as more restaurants pop up in major metropolitan areas.

1. 4.      Specialty alcohol drinks

Even with alcohol sales going down, expect specialty cocktails to be highlighted more.

1. 5.      Gradual and slight increases in menu prices on a regular basis

The price of commodities will increase. Food suppliers will continue to increase their prices as gas prices rise. Prices will get passed on to the end consumer in a gradual uprise.

1. 6.      A decline in comfort food popularity

In 2007, the economic recession prompted massive popularity in comfort foods. Expect to see the demand for a new twist on these old favorites.

1. 7.      More beer gardens

Many restaurants will start to use their backyard space and offer more low-cost specialty beers and microbrews.

1. 8.      Vertical plates go horizontal again

The tower of stacked food that has been popular since the early ‘90s will go horizontal. Instead of layers of food overlapping each other, expect to see long caterpillars of foods that preserve the distinct flavor of every element on your plate.

1. 9.      Sustainable foods gain traction, but may lose some credibility

Sustainable foods are starting to become a deciding factor for many consumers, but through various marketing trends terms like “sustainable”, “organic”, and “green” will become a little fuzzy.

1. 10.   Social networking becomes a necessity

This is the new form of word of mouth. It’s not so much an option as a necessity at this point.

The gourmet food truck trend started popping up all over the West Coast years ago. In fact, LA and Portland no longer even have food truck vending licenses available. That doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel though. There are plenty of mid-sized cities that want you on their street corner. Just pick carefully.

Is a Food Truck Business a Sound Investment?

It really depends on who you ask. Originally, food trucks were thought of as the cheaper version of a brick and mortar business, but there is more overhead involved than one might think. First you have to invest in both a truck and a fully functional kitchen. Then you need to think about insurance, permits, parking and storage.

Many entrepreneurs have found that they have had to burn the candle at both ends during startup. Think about things like a second job and massive amounts of time on social media networks promoting yourself and where you will be.

Obviously, the startup cost depends on a variety of factors but here are some basic guidelines. A used hot dog cart could be an investment of around $2,000 while the general cost associated with getting the food truck runs anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 and that’s just the barebones necessities of the operation.

Successful Gourmet Food Truck Ideas

You are really only limited by your imagination, but here are some ideas that have worked for others in the past:

• Gourmet hot dogs with things like Korean and Vietnamese themes
• A traveling dessert truck
• Gourmet tacos
• Gourmet ice cream
• Baked goods

Believe it or not, this has been a dilemma that Heinz has tried to solve for decades.

The Dip and Squeeze Ketchup

Heinz has tried a variety of ketchup solutions with little luck. They tried making it bigger, but that didn’t work. So the next innovation was an easier-to-open solution. Then there came the fries in the cup with ketchup attached.

When the new dip and squeeze single serve packets arrived, they put it through three years of testing before they let a few select restaurants do trial runs. The engineers tested study groups in minivans behind a glass window to see what happened while they ate fries. A Heinz VP of global packaging went as far as to get his own special minivan for ketchup packet experimentation and drove around to various Wendy’s and McDonald’s and ordered fries!

Chick-Fil-A, Smashburger, and Dairy Queen were some of the first to give it a try. Chick-Fil-A went as far as to make promotional material and deck the restaurant in information about the new Heinz ketchup packet arrival. McDonald’s and Burger King are still testing the precious packets.

It’s Just Ketchup, Right?

Well, ketchup packets are big business for Heinz. Did you know that these packets could possibly even mend a relationship with McDonald’s if all goes well? In 1973, they got into a disagreement and almost all McDonald’s will not use Heinz packets—until now. If it goes as Heinz projects, it could even increase sales of fries in the drive thru.

Restaurant Atmosphere

You’ve probably heard the restaurant myth before. The restaurant could have the best food in the world but without good atmosphere, it will never make it. Is it true that people go out to eat for the atmosphere just as much as the food? You’ve probably seen the subpar restaurant pack in the customers because of ambiance before. On the other hand, the mom ‘n’ pop diners and greasy spoons haven’t gone out of business due to bad atmosphere.

If you feel like your restaurant décor could use some sprucing up, you may want to take a look at these seven common mistakes in restaurant design.

1. 1.      Cheap and tacky furniture

You might think that the culprit here is the booth or bar, but think again. Those single pole tables with four little chairs in the middle of the floor are some of the most uninviting furniture in your restaurant.

1. 2.      Bad lighting

Make sure your lighting is bright enough to read by.

1. 3.      Restaurant hodgepodge

Have you ever been in one of those restaurants that look like the graveyard of several restaurants before it? It comes in the form of things like the buffet from IHOP in the Chinese restaurant or a French restaurant inside a former Pizza Hut.

1. 4.      Carpeting that is painful to look at

Pick something that is subtle and muted if you have to go with carpet.

1. 5.      Muzak

Unless you are in a bar or a themed restaurant where the music is a part of the atmosphere, keep the music as background noise.

1. 6.      Temperature control too hot or too cold

Just because the staff is running around and hot, don’t freeze out the customers.

1. 7.      Lack of Room dividers

These also act as noise dividers and offer a certain amount of privacy that really adds to the atmosphere.

National Restaurant News Releases New Social Media Tool

The NRN website announced the release of Restaurant Social Media Index (RSMI) in 2011. The tool was invented to give an analysis of how customers are interacting with restaurant social media. Effectively, this will tell you how the general public rates your brand.

You may submit your restaurant for analysis here. The tool measures and reports on activities concerning your restaurant from the following platforms:

• Facebook
• Google+
• YouTube
• Twitter
• Blogs
• Gowalla
• Foursquare

By monitoring the activity of your friends and followers, you can tell how well your brand is doing and what customers think. The tool provides the following data:

• RSMI score out of 300
• Klout score out of 100
• Social media growth
• Ranks your website’s importance on major social networks
• Customer sentiment

RSMI Top 100 for the Third Quarter

RSMI released the Top 100 social media brands. Here is a quick peek at the top 10.

1. Starbucks
2. Wendy’s
3. Chick-Fil-A
4. McDonald’s
5. Outback
6. Jimmy Johns
7. P.F. Chang’s
8. Applebees
9. Chipotle
10. Pinkberry

It’s very interesting to see the switch of advertising from print and TV to digital media. For example, Chili’s discontinued three weeks’ worth of TV advertisement in lieu of an intensive social media campaign. The results were astounding. They went under budget and had better results than TV.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on these scores and report interesting findings in the coming months as this scoring becomes standard in the restaurant industry.

Why is that? Well, many of our chefs and restaurateurs aren’t exactly experts in web design. It seems that they sat down with a web consultant and were talked into some of the flashiest, noisiest, most over-the-top decisions in web design.

Fortunately, some restaurants are setting the bar a little higher. Take note as they lead the way in successful website design.

1. 1.      Dunkin’ Donuts

Dunkin’ Donuts has some of the best social media experts and web designers on their side. Every step of the way, they get their customers to interact with them and listen to them carefully as they develop their menu.

1. 2.      Wendy’s

Is it really any surprise that Wendy’s has some of the market’s share on superior web design? They are some of the first marketing geniuses after all.

1. 3.      Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday’s overall website is designed well and really shows the restaurant off without too much flash.

1. 4.      Pizza Express

Pizza Express has a simple design that really interacts with the user. It’s easy to navigate and their promotions are easily visible without being too in-your-face.

1. 5.      McDonalds

We saved McDonalds for the grand finale. This is web design at its finest regardless of how you feel about the food. The navigation bar is easy to follow. The front page has a clean, simple appearance along with some really eye-catching graphics.

If you feel that your website has been lacking traffic or the bounce rate is too high, check these guys out to see what they are doing right. It’s not hard to stand out in the crowd as one of the best restaurant websites.