Sustainable Seafood: How Demonstrating Your Commitment to Integrity can Increase Your Revenue

As people become more environmentally aware of the impact their choices make, sustainably harvested seafood has come under the spotlight in restaurants around the country. Numerous fish species have been harvested to the point of decimation, and fisherman around the globe have come under scrutiny for their unsustainable practices.

As a result, people want fresh seafood and they want to know where it’s coming from before they buy. As such, it is a smart move on the part of every restaurant owner who serves fish and other types of seafood to not only ensure that there are sustainable species on their menus, but also to educate their servers and wait staff accordingly.

Educated Servers = More Sales, Happier Seafood Customers

One of the simplest ways to build your reputation (and thereby increase your revenue) in relation to seafood, is to educate your servers so that they can talk intelligently to customers about the seafood they are serving. With rapidly changing menus and a sea of information about the best choices in seafood, people are really confused about what is the right way to go.

Therefore, it’s more important than ever to demonstrate the quality of what you are serving to your customers and the care that you have taken in selecting it. The only way to do that is to provide your servers with the seafood education they need to adequately address consumer concerns.

Sustainable Seafood Programs Demonstrate Integrity

There are a variety of sustainable seafood programs that restaurant owners can participate in to ensure that they are offering ocean-friendly species to customers. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch is one such program. Partners of the Seafood Watch commit to removing all species from the Watch’s ‘avoid’ list from their menus as well as educating their servers about ocean-friendly seafood.

This organization (as well as few others) also has a nice Power Point presentation that they will send individuals for free which details species currently on the Watch list, if you’re interested in seeing how your menu compares.

Sustainable AND Local Seafood Make an Unbeatable Combination

While it’s important to avoid species of fish whose populations cannot be harvested sustainably, it’s equally important to select species of fish that are as local as possible. Locally harvested seafood not only has less environmental impact, but it also gives you the ability to build your good reputation further by supporting the local community.

You’d be amazed how much of a draw fresh, local, sustainably harvested seafood can create for your establishment. By making these kinds of changes, you are making a commitment to integrity – which goes a long way toward making your business stand out from amongst the crowd and increasing your revenue.

By investing in education for your servers about ocean-friendly seafood, you are ensuring that customers are aware of your environmentally conscious efforts to be an establishment that operates with integrity. Making this kind of commitment further increases the chances that those customers will help you spread the word about your eco-conscious, locally sourced menu.

Seaweed in the Restaurant

When most people think of seaweed, they picture wraps of nori around a sushi roll and leave it at that. But actually, there are many types of “sea vegetables,” each with distinct and versatile uses. Chefs around the country are getting creative with these multipurpose greens (or reds, or browns as the case may be), and customers are loving it.

Seaweed has Excellent Nutritional Value

Although there are many types of seaweeds, each with distinctive taste and texture, all forms of edible seaweed are high in nutritional value with many of the same benefits as land vegetables. Most seaweed is high in essential amino acids as well as vitamins A and C. They are also one of the few vegetable sources for vitamin B-12. Seaweeds are also rich in potassium, iron, calcium, iodine, and magnesium due to the fact that these minerals are concentrated in sea water.

Seaweed has Health and Medicinal Value as Well

Seaweed has many medicinal and health benefits as well. It has long been used as a healthy substitute for salt and has recently been touted as useful for weight control.  When eaten as part of a meal, seaweed can help regulate and balance blood sugar levels because it is a soluble fiber which helps to slow the rate of digestion.

Seaweed has also shown anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects on animals, and numerous individuals have used it to reduce or eliminate the amount of medication needed to manage thyroid problems.

What are the Best Types of Seaweed to Use?

The six most commonly used seaweeds in restaurants are wakame, nori, kombu, dulse, sea beans, and Irish moss. Also known as sea mustard, wakame is the most common seaweed used in miso soup. It has a salty-sweet zest and swells up significantly when soaked in water, so a little goes a long way. It is commonly known as the ‘woman’s seaweed’ because it is loaded with osteoporosis-preventing calcium and magnesium and acts as a diuretic which helps to reduce bloating.

Nori is most commonly used to wrap sushi and seafood, but it can also be chopped up into little bits to flavor soup, casseroles, rice, and grains. Nori is one of the richest sources of protein amongst marine flora, and one sheet has as much fiber as a cup of spinach and more omega-3 fatty acids than a cup of avocado.

Kombu is a leafy kelp with a full-bodied, savory flavor. It is most commonly used to make dashi broth, a common stock base for many traditional Japanese dishes. It is a prized source of iodine and alginic acid which helps break down tough cellulose fiber and make foods more digestible.

Dulse or dillisk is a red algae that is often eaten dried and uncooked though it can also be added to soups, casseroles, and salads to enhance flavor. Flash frying chunks of dulse is a quick and easy way to create delicious seaweed crisps that can be used as pre-dinner appetizers.

Sea beans or sea asparagus has a bright green appearance and firm texture. It can be used raw, blanched, or boiled to add a crunchy, sea-salt flavor to food and is especially tasty in meat or fish dishes.

Last but not least, Irish moss is used as a clarifying agent for beer. If soaked, it can also act as a binding agent for sweets. In Scotland and Ireland, it’s strained to make a delicious tapioca-style dessert.

As you can see, seaweeds are an incredibly versatile and multifunctional source of food. It’s no wonder restaurantsaround the country are finding creative ways to put it to use!

Understanding the Gluten-Free Diner

People who are born with a food allergy or intolerance or develop one later in life often approach dining out with a certain amount of trepidation. This fear is well justified considering that accidental consumption of the offending substance can cause serious illness and even death. Gluten allergies, in particular, can be especially difficult to manage.  As a restaurateur, it’s important to understand the needs of your gluten-free customers and to provide thorough training to your employees to avoid mishaps.

Wheat Allergies, Gluten Sensitivities and Celiac Disease – What’s the Difference?

Allergies and intolerances come in many different forms, and one of the first things to realize about gluten is that gluten intolerance and wheat allergies don’t always go hand in hand. In fact, many diners who are allergic to wheat can actually eat several other types of high-gluten grains, such as barley and rye, without problems.

Celiac disease is a lifelong autoimmune disorder that damages and inflames the lining of the small intestine. Diners with this condition must avoid gluten at all costs or suffer severe health repercussions.  These individuals are highly sensitive to even the tiniest amount of gluten, and along with avoiding likely suspects such as beer, pizza, and bread, they are susceptible to gluten cross-contamination from places like cutting boards and fryers.

Although gluten intolerance or sensitivity is not the same thing as Celiac disease, the symptoms are similar and individuals with gluten sensitivity often have to follow the same type of diet. Unlike Celiac patients, however, those with gluten intolerance can sometimes consume gluten – depending on their level of sensitivity.

Keeping the Monkey Wrench Out of the Gears by Training Employees about Gluten Allergies

While it’s important to train employees to take gluten allergies seriously in order to avoid mishaps with customers, it’s also important to be able to accommodate gluten-free diners easily without throwing a wrench in the gears of your operation. Restaurants serve hundreds of plates a day, and the only way to ensure that a gluten-free request does not disrupt the flow is to train employees well about how to handle the request. Many restaurants do this by creating a ‘gluten-free’ station to avoid cross-contamination and by designating one employee to be in charge of cooking the gluten-free food to ensure quality.

Creating Foods that Gluten-Free Diners Love

Most people with gluten allergies have given up breads, pastas, and fried foods as a lost cause long ago – and usually, not by choice. As a result, restaurants have a unique opportunity to treat gluten-free customers by providing them with the opportunity to eat gluten-free variants of these types of food.

For example, a little experimenting with a mix of white and brown rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch can yield crispy, crunchy, and delicious fried chicken that you can’t even tell is gluten-free.

Thanks to the rising awareness of gluten allergies, there are tons of delicious, gluten-free recipes out there. A little experimentation and a commitment to meeting the needs of your gluten-free customers can make all the difference in how often this demographic of diner frequents your establishment.

Why Restaurants Need Restaurant Management Groups

Achieving success in the food service industry doesn’t happen overnight, and it can be especially challenging into today’s economic environment. Many restaurant owners are struggling to make ends meet and even those managing well enough on their own can occasionally benefit from assistance. That’s where restaurant management groups come in – to provide whatever kind of assistance is needed to help you achieve success in the restaurant industry.

Restaurant Assessment and Consulting Services

Every aspect of your business affects the bottom line, and there are always ways to improve your operation so that it is more efficient and successful.  Areas where you can receive consultation assistance and advice include everything from changes to your décor or your menu to advice about your operations, profitability, and risk management.

You can get assistance creating marketing strategies, doing market research or positioning your brand, receive extensive assessments targeting operational areas in need of improvement, or even develop strategies that lower employee turnover by making your business a better, safer place to work.

If you’re considering franchising your restaurant or simply expanding to new locations, restaurant management groups can help you with your development and implementation strategy there as well, further rounding out the extensive list of positives to working with a restaurant management group. No matter which facet of your business you’d like to address, restaurant management groups can provide you with the expert assessment and consultation services that you need.

Assistance and Advisement for Matters of the Bank and Court

The kind of assistance you can receive from restaurant management groups isn’t limited to operational assessment and consultation. In fact, it’s dealing with troubling financial or legal matters that end up bringing businesses to a management group’s door more than anything. This is the case for good reason. A restaurant management group can provide you with such services as court appointed receivers, bankruptcy advisors, examiners and trustees, borrower analytics, and due diligence lender and acquisition services as well.

Turnaround Management Specifically Designed for the Restaurant Industry

Many business owners and executives don’t seek assistance until the situation is dire, and it’s at this point that the business needs more than consultation and advice – it needs full scale turnaround management.  The most effective way to do this is to take a comprehensive, bottom-up approach, strategically identifying and eliminating the factors that are inhibiting your business’s success. This type of comprehensive turnaround management is perhaps one of the most important services a restaurant management group can offer.

Furthermore, there are many turnaround management companies out there, but few who specialize exclusively in food service operations. Because the factors that affect the food service industry are unique, it’s of utmost importance to be working with management teams who specialize in all areas of food service operation.

Whether you’re a restaurant owner who just needs a little advice or a financial executive worried about a distressing restaurant obligation, restaurant management groups are the expertise you want to source. You’d be surprised how effective implementing just the right changes to your operations can be!

What Today’s Consumer Wants to See in a Restaurant

As consumers become more conscientious about their costs, their health, and their sources of food, restaurants have to adapt accordingly or suffer the consequences. Today’s consumer expects far more from restaurants in terms of quality and value as compared to earlier eras. While a desire for lower cost remains the number one area where consumers would like to see improvements in restaurants, there are several other features today’s customer looks for in a dining establishment.

Greater Variety of Healthier Items

As understanding of how diet affects lifestyle grows, people are naturally looking for healthier ways to eat, and this includes the selections they make when eating out. As a restaurant there are several easy ways to accommodate this desire. Start by adding a section to your menu which features healthy items and provide some information about what makes it healthy (under X calories, heart smart, low-carb, etc.).  It can be difficult to know what to eat when you’re trying to change your diet, and customers really appreciate being able to choose from a ready-made list of options.

Another way to accommodate the healthy aspirations of your customers is to allow healthier substitutions for menu items – salad instead of fries, wheat or wholegrain bread instead of white, steamed vegetables instead of mashed potatoes – you get the idea. If you can do this without having to charge the customer for it, all the better.

Smaller Portions, Higher Quality Food and Ingredients

The next two areas that consumers would like to see restaurants improve have to do with the quality of the foods, ingredients used, and the ability to have the option for smaller portions. While the desire to have higher quality food and ingredients could be a result of the general move toward healthier eating we just discussed, it also has to do with the desire to experience a higher quality meal than what one might cook at home.

Higher quality food is generally also higher in nutrient value, which further appeals to the healthy eating crowd. Plus, customers are generally willing to pay more for a meal if they know that what they are getting is of high quality.

The ability to choose smaller portion sizes is another common area consumers would like to see restaurants improve. Fortunately, this one is fairly easy to implement (it’s no more difficult to load a plate with two scoops of pasta than it is three and charge less accordingly), and the customer responds well to having this choice available.

More Locally Sourced and Local Food Options

Featuring local food options is always well received, even more so if those options were cooked using locally sourced ingredients. Getting your produce locally is an excellent way to reduce the cost of transport and support the local community while offering fresher goods. People’s environmental conscientiousness has risen in tandem with their awareness of healthier choices, and taking a ‘local approach’ can be a powerful way to appeal to this consciousness.

While some of these changes will take some effort, others can be implemented today with little or no cost. With consumers eating out less and being more deliberate in their choices when they do, recognizing and adapting to their changing needs is critical to your restaurant’s success.