{"id":4761,"date":"2018-03-27T00:08:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T05:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-gordon-food-service.pantheonsite.io\/hitting-streets\/"},"modified":"2023-02-01T14:19:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T20:19:43","slug":"hitting-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfs.com\/es-us\/ideas\/hitting-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting the Streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sixteen years ago, we decided to let the rubber hit the road. Our goal in launching an annual street-level trends tour was to uncover menu-ready opportunities. We knew that the best way to find these for our customers was through live tasting\u2014visiting newly opened restaurants on the forward side of innovation and tasting their food. We knew that lightbulbs don\u2019t go off around trend tracking and opportunity spotting until that happens. We wanted to gauge the innovative quality of the food firsthand. So we came up with a strategy that involves intense research followed by my team and I traveling to the three primary markets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, visiting more than 100 restaurants and tasting more than 1,100 dishes. We then meticulously document our findings and cherry pick the best ideas for menu translation. By doing this tour every year, we\u2019ve created a continuous circle of identifying the most exciting new restaurant openings that lets us measure the arc of flavor on menus. <\/p>\n

First, research<\/h3>\n

At its core, the process begins by following what\u2019s happening in new restaurants in those hot markets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Although there\u2019s innovation happening in other cities, we focus on these three for a few reasons: first, they really are the epicenter of trends, and second, we have limited time and budget. We focus mostly on brand-new restaurants because new, full-service restaurants are innovation incubators. Sometimes, we visit a restaurant more than once, if they boast a particularly innovative chef. <\/p>\n

We track trends all year. It\u2019s how I start my day\u2014checking blogs, sites, printed materials\u2014from Eater and Thrillist to Grub Street, Tasting Table and more. I keep a running document with flavors and dishes that catch my eye, looking for creative combinations that may translate into wider opportunities. That work yields a count of more than 450 restaurants in those three cities that we think are noteworthy. That\u2019s when the vetting process begins, and we winnow it down to approximately 40 restaurants per city.<\/p>\n

Live visits<\/h3>\n

Once we land on our target list of restaurants, the logistical planning begins. We make reservations and confirm that they\u2019re open during our planned visit. We spend five days in each city and we visit eight restaurants a day. Our team is comprised of six people per city to maximize our findings, compare notes and document every detail. <\/p>\n

Dining our way through the menu, we try a minimum of 10 to 12 items, sometimes more. We take notes, photograph the plates, scan the menus and take hard menu copies. We also talk to the staff about the dining scene in that particular city, getting a clear overall picture of the latest trends and innovations. We put in 100-hour weeks, doing about 12 to 14 hours a day. We limp away, but we limp away smiling. <\/p>\n

Translating the opportunities<\/h3>\n

Once we\u2019re back to work, we parse out what we have seen so we can share with our customers what it all means. We analyze it and pull out trends and menu opportunities. We ask: What are the most significant findings that we\u2019re going to bring to our customers and build resources around? Every culinary article we write is based on this street-level research. We use it to continuously bring benefits to our customers, helping us identify new opportunities and nimbly adapt, giving our customers a chance to be first-to-market with new menu items. <\/p>\n

In our 16 years of research, we have visited over 1,250 restaurants and sampled over 13,000 dishes. Here are just a few of our favorite opportunities that have stemmed from this research:<\/p>\n