April 25, 2008  |  By Walter Ezell
Category:  General

How to help your restaurant survive and thrive
amid the Low-Carb Craze

The low-carb way of eating is sweeping the country

It may be a fad, but we believe it signals long-term changes in the way Americans eat. Some restaurants may not survive these changes. Others will not only survive, but thrive. They will do this by understanding and serving the needs of their customers.

We offer here a plan to thrive during the low-carb craze
and emerge from it stronger than ever.

• Understand good nutrition at least as well as your most choosey customers.
• Understand how to serve low-carb meals without compromising good nutrition.
• Make a commitment to offer healthful, delicious options.
• Make these options very visible on your menu.
• Advertise these changes to bring in new customers and keep the old ones coming back.

The food pyramid is dead

It turns out the Earl of Sandwich didn’t do humanity any favors. Of course, the Earl, engrossed in a marathon gambling session, did not consider that the slices of bread he grabbed to enclose his meal of ham and cheese had a high glycemic index. Far better for human health if he had grabbed some romaine to wrap his ham, or stuffed it into a whole-grain pita pocket.

Not only is it true that “man does not live by bread alone,” now we are learning that most of the bread that Americans eat is really bad for you. Whole-grain foods are good, but foods with any refined wheat are not. Enriched wheat flower (pumping in some of the nutrients that milling has removed) only papers over the nutritional treachery. Who among us dreamed that the food pyramid, promoted for decades in recipe books, magazines, and on the walls of doctors’ offices, grocery stores and school cafeterias, was a recipe for diabetes and heart disease, or that people who eat according to the pyramid would start to be shaped like the pyramid, bigger at the bottom, smaller at the top?

Carb-Watchers Table Stands Highlight your Carb Wise appetizers, meals or specialty dishes. Our beautiful table stands come in three finishes: Clear Coat, Golden Oak, Medium Oak and Mahogany.

Good Carbs & Bad Carbs

Low-carb diets such as Atkins attack the Food Pyramid at its base, where the pyramid recommends 6-11 servings a day from the “bread, cereal, rice and pasta” group.

Calling this a “food group” is simplistic and misleading. It doesn’t distinguish between whole-grain foods (good carbs) and refined and processed grains (bad carbs). The whole-grain foods are digested more slowly and don’t cause a spike in the blood sugar. The refined and processed grains do cause a spike, making a person feel first energized, then tired and hungry. Two measures of how foods affect blood sugar are “glycemic load” and “glycemic index.” Foods with a high glycemic load lead to overeating, heart disease and a condition called pre-diabetes.

So while the Food Pyramid is simplistic, it is just as simplistic and misleading to refer to carbs, without considering how different carbs affect blood sugar and long-term health.

This presents a dilemma to you in planning a menu. Do you pander to a simplistic and misleading low-carb fad favored by many of your customers, or do you take a stand for good nutrition by offering whole-grain bread, brown rice and other alternatives to white bread, potatoes and white rice?

We believe the answer, for now, is to do some of both. Offer your customers what they want, but make sure there are always clearly indicated state-of-the-art nutritional choices on your menu. That way, as Americans grow in nutritional sophistication, your restaurant will be positioned to grow with them.

How Menu Works can help

Your most important option for highlighting new items is a well-designed menu.

Our designers know a number of techniques for highlighting the Carb-Wise items on your menu. Separate sections on the menu are one way. Another is to integrate these items with the rest of the menu and tag them with a little icon to alert your carb-conscious diners. The use of colored backgrounds, colored type, photography and illustration are more of the techniques we can use to highlight these items.

Using table stands or a separate Carb-Wise menu is another option.

Once you have updated your menu, Menu Works can also help you design an ad campaign to get the word out.

Call us any time to discuss these options. A representative is available to visit your restaurant in most locations throughout the Southeast.

Eating out is a problem for travelers whose nutritional preferences are not in the mainstream. Check out the “continental breakfast” offered at many motels. Donuts, toast, biscuits, cereal and waffles—all no-nos for people who are careful about carbs. The good news: If you have a good breakfast menu, you can lure away some of those listless people who browse the high-carb offerings of your local motel.

Suggested Readings:

Eat, Drink and Be Healthy
by Walter C. Willett, M.D., and Patrick J. Skerrett.

The South Beach Diet
by Arthur Agatston, M.D.

The South Beach Diet Good Fats Good Carbs Guide
by Arthur Agatston, M.D.

The Get with the Program!
Guide to Fast Food & Family Restaurants
by Bob Greene

April 21, 2008  |  By John
Category:  New Products

We've added several new Kids Menu designs. Take a look here.

February 27, 2008  |  By Walter Ezell
Category:  General

We seek to see matters from the client’s point of view. We realize that differences in experience make this difficult and sometimes impossible. We require of ourselves the patience to listen, the words to reflect in our own way what we hear from the client, and the courage and compassion to express our own insights once we have understood.

We do not wish ever to sell a client a product or service that is wasteful, useless or more than they can afford.

If our experience and wisdom tell us a proposed purchase is ill advised, we will counsel with the client as earnestly as if they decline to purchase a product or service that we believe is necessary.

We understand the difference between wants and needs. Wants and needs are merely the opposite poles of a continuum. Indulging a certain amount of unnecessary wants is necessary for emotional well-being. This is where choice comes in and choosing among non-necessities is an expression of freedom. So we have a conundrum here, the necessity of non-necessities.

It is, at last, the client’s choice that must prevail. In the rhythmic rise and fall of conversation we know when to yield and when to move on.

Not all purchases can be justified by the crunching of numbers. There are many times (perhaps most times) when selling and buying are not relentlessly analytical. While we offer products and services that build a business and contribute to profitability, we collaborate with our clients in addressing the need for beauty, fun, entertainment and excitement.

We value wisdom above cleverness. We do not use word-play or tricks to persuade the client to say “Yes.”

We are driven to offer the best. If a prospect wishes to save money by purchasing at a lower level of quality from another vendor, we will seek to address their price concerns with fairly priced, affordable options, but will not pander to frugality by foisting inferior goods or services upon a trusting client.

It appalls us to think of selling a product or service that the prospect would be better-advised to purchase elsewhere. This is one of the reasons we are driven to offer the best. If a prospect seeks to purchase from another vendor because of superior quality, we will understand the difference in quality, master it and regain assurance that our product is indeed the best in its category.

We do not live for money. Money is only a representation of value. To sacrifice values for money will lead to the loss of both. We cannot nurture the spirit while injuring the client.