Subject: National Restaurant Association

• Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, 9/4

  September 4, 2008

• Doctors' Orders?

  John Ashcroft says he pushed for "the real" patients' bill of rights. But who's the real John Ashcroft?

  August 31, 2000

• Here's to You, Mr. Robinson

  March 7, 2002

• Tip Storm

  July 18, 2002

• Tips Jar

  July 25, 2002

• Carb Barbs

  June 3, 2004

• Maybe FDA ain't so bad compared to our neighbors

  Flickr: Sifu RenkaThe Peanut Corporation of America messed up big time when it sent out salmonella-contaminated peanut butter. To its credit, the FDA was quicker in identifying the source than it had been for the tomato jalapeno scare, but lots of people still became sick and nine have died. While the peanut butter scare has captured the attention of the media and Washington, Maple Leaf Foods in Canada has found itself in just as much trouble. But so far, attention in the States has been virtual

  February 26, 2009

• Overland Park wins student cooking competition

  Clearing out my press-release inbox for the week, I noticed I missed this important announcement from the National Restaurant Association. (The good NRA.) It has chosen the Overland Park Convention Center for its 2010 and 2011 national competition. The 2009 competition is in San Diego.The Association's ProStart invitational for high school students involves a culinary event in which they'll prepare a meal consisting of a starter, an entrée and dessert in 60 minutes. There is also a management c

  February 27, 2009

• Sliding into 2009: small is big

  It's only March, but the National Restaurant Association has already dubbed 2009 "The Year of the Slider." On Monday, the association linked to an Orange County Register a story about "downsized" foods being a big culinary trend this year. The article points out that slider burgers -- a two-bite little sandwich once recognized as the signature sandwich of the Ohio-based White Castle chain (the distinctive burger was invented, however, in Wichita, Kansas in 1921) -- are being promoted a

  March 4, 2009

• Gringo's Paradise

  Dos Reales specializes in the kind of Mexican food Americans love best.

  July 5, 2001

• How to celebrate Food Allergy Awareness Week (hint: not with peanuts)

  According to a study done by Newsweek, food allergies affect more than 11 million Americans. The number of children who suffer from one of the most severe food allergies -- peanuts -- has more than doubled in the past 10 years. When I was in grade school, people made fun of the kid who couldn't have peanuts and that was that. Now school officials are so afraid of something bad happening that kids with severe allergies sit at their own special lunch tables.The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network

  May 11, 2009

• Calories coming soon to a menu near you

  Recently, Maine became the third state to enact a calories-on-menu law for restaurant chains. Similar bills have been adopted in such large cities as New York, Philadelphia and Seattle. The restaurant industry has loudly protested these bills -- and sometimes made itself look foolish. Such as when Dunkin' Donuts said that putting calories on its menu would make the type too small only to have the New York Health Department redesign the menu showing the chain could easily use a larger, easy-to-re

  June 16, 2009

• Manipulative menus

  Pictures and font varieties like on this City Tavern menu are key to bumping up salesGone are the days when a menu was a simple piece of paper listing items and prices. Restaurants see it as the last piece of advertising a guest sees before ordering. So it's only natural that large restaurant chains have brought in psychologists and sociologists and lots of other professions whose titles end in "ologist" to make menus as effective as can be.Certain little tricks can improve sales up to 10 percen

  June 22, 2009

• Need a job? Restaurants hiring summer help

  Earlier today, Fat City mentioned that Hardee's is hiring an attractive female for its ads. Assuming that position is out of reach, there are still more than 380,000 more jobs to be had this summer in the food industry, according to the National Restaurant Association. Nationally, eating and drinking places are projected to add 381,800 jobs during the 2009 summer season, a 4.1 percent increase over their March 2009 employment level. The positive growth in summer employment is one indicator of th

  June 30, 2009

• The return of the restaurant matchbox

  The restaurants are gone, the matchbooks linger on....​Even though it's illegal to smoke in restaurants anymore, one of the symbols of those carefree, let's-light-up-shall-we days -- the matchbook, or box of matches imprinted with the restaurant's name and logo -- is suddenly back in favor, according to an article this week in The New York Times. People love matches because they're free, they're a memento of a pleasant meal or a first date, they're always handy to have around the house

  October 23, 2009

• Going out for turkey day? Plan now!

  Who makes it at home anymore?​Plenty of restaurants will be open on Thanksgiving Day this year. The holiday wasn't always a big business day for the restaurant industry; until the late 1980s, Thanksgiving was considered a holiday when most people preferred eating -- and cooking -- at home. But anyone who has ever hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the extended family knows it can be an ordeal: roasting that bird for hours, creating all those side dishes, trying to remember which relative

  November 20, 2009