Delivery and Vegan Food are the fastest growing restaurant trends
According to Grubhub and Yelp vegan and vegetarian options are trending like never before. The fastest growing item overall was cauliflower crust pizza. According to the “Year in Food” report cauliflower popularity grew by 650%. After several years of growth in meat alternatives can this really be called trendy any longer? I would suggest this is far from a trend. Americans are looking for comfort food without the animal protein.
Dine in, Delivery or in home Meal replacement that is the question
Whether you are catering to the meat alternative crowd or still serving meat and potatoes how and where are the next frontier. Diners are voting with their wallets and they are choosing in home meal replacement and delivery. Several restaurant publications have recently featured restaurants that have closed their dining rooms to expand delivery and take out ops. What this tells me is people want fresh not frozen and quality made meals. If it were just wanting to eat at home we would just nuke a frozen dinner right? Well, that ain’t happening.
Do you have to respond to trends in order to make it today?
Well that answer to that is above my pay grade. I do think if you are just starting in business and catering to younger diners you probably do. There is still room for the classic steak house and hopefully there always will be but the young guest are growing up in an alternative protein reality. The next generation will have never lived in a world where fast food did not offer a plant based alternative. At what point is it no longer an alternative? These same consumers will also grow up with every restaurant having online ordering and delivery options. So regardless of the concept you operate it may be time to dip your toe into the technology pool and see what happens. No need to do a cannon ball into the deep end, start slow with an iPad POS system and go with the flow. Let your guest tell you how they want to order and respond! While we can’t help you with plant based alternatives we can assist with the modern technology for your restaurant. Call us at 800-863-2274 or online at Restaurant POS including online ordering.