Here’s what hit my radar recently. Chime in if you have more to offer or great restaurant news to share.

Restaurant marketing – so this is interesting and kind of cool. Two new companies based in Albuquerque hope to help restaurant clients make more money. One, Table Tents, works with their branding and social media strategy, and another, POSLavu offers iPad-based point-of-sale systems. The latter was even featured on the Gordon Ramsay “turn your restaurant around you f**king idiot” show.

New places opening up!

Vintage 423 – a high-falutin’ place that initially got mixed reviews, but maybe they’re coming around.

Zacatecas – in the Bumble Bees space. Same as Vintage 423 but with tacos. Hopefully service and execution are in line with the gourmet prices.

Farm and Table – ok, this one is watch-worthy. Fine casual dining in the North Valley with lots of fresh produce and not-crazy prices.

Other Press:

Enchiladas Loved by Canadians – found this cute round-up of local enchiladas in the Calgary newspaper. Those folks need some HEAT.

Restaurants’ raw ingredient costs have increased 26% in the last 4 years.

Menu price increases in the same time period average 2.6% – exactly 1/10 of the differential.

In the real world, how does that play out? Let’s say a dish was on the menu for $19.  The raw food cost on that item was probably around $8.  That left $11 for the restaurant to pay rent, bills, servers, cooks, insurance, et cetera.

NOW the dish costs $20 and you’ve noticed.  However, the food costs are now $10.  Two dollars have flipped in this deal – you’re paying $1 more but the restaurant is “getting” $1 less.  For the restaurant to still be making their $11 (of which about 50 cents to a dollar will be actual profit), they’d have to price the dish at $21 or more.  No one wins, but the restaurant is still cutting you a break.

Sucks, right?  Well, we are in a recession and you can choose how you spend your money.

My request for you is to consider spending your less-frequent dining dollars locally.  Instead of $30 for pizzas from a national chain, get take-out from Johnny’s.  Or delivery from Giovanni’s or Straight Up Pizza.  Or have a sit-down meal at The Grill and plan your next special occasion at the next-door spot, Jennifer James 101.

With many restaurants operating on a 3 or 4% profit margin, this means there are a lot of small local spots that are trying to just survive this recession, raising prices a tiny bit or not at all while making no money – possibly even losing money for awhile hoping to not have to drive away customers that are having their own wallet-pinching woes.

Go.  Visit your favorite local restaurant, where the cooks are visible, the owner circulating (if they’re not the same person!), and the patrons nearly all regulars.  Thank them for the service they provide and let them know you hope they’ll be around for a long time.

Then, tip well after you enjoy a great meal, even if it won’t all go to your server if the restaurant practices tip-pooling.  Know that you are making a difference in both your local economy as well as a small business owner’s success.

There is even a nice little website gem in there, applicable to every goddam restaurant website on the planet.  Hear, hear:

“The whole point of having a website is to disseminate your address, hours, contact information, and reservations policy. List ‘em. List ‘em prominently. Keep them current. Do not bury them behind a 30-second Flash introduction with music.”

Many of the grievances are about information and the lack thereof:

• disclose prices, from “extra sauce” to the daily special
• if hot food is ow-ow-ow-omigod-hot!, warn diners but don’t “protect” them from spicy food
• warn about portion sizes – if they are huge and a table of 4 is about to receive 12 pounds of food, it is really courteous for the waiter to notice this when orders are taken and to give the table a heads up

I have been a guest once (soon to be twice), and it is always a great time and a FAST hour.

The previous guests have all been excellent resources and interesting personalities.  I hope that this continues and we are able to keep hearing the voices of local restaurant owners, those interested in food, and even those who have a stake in farming, business and the future of our food supply.

Here’s the impressive guest list so far:

Gil Garduno (Albuquerque food blogger)
Cheryl Jamison (author and New Mexico foodie treasure)
Kate Manchester (editor of Edible Santa Fe)
Fran and Kevin Hopper of Local IQ
Nicole Villareal of Nicky V’s Pizzeria and Larry McGoldrick (food blogger)
Ari LeVaux (Alibi food fanatic and writer, TWICE)
Billy Baldwin of Billy’s Long Bar, Horse & Angel Tavern, AND Stone Face Tavern
Maxime and Daniela of Torino’s @ Home (the best Italian joint in the whole darn city)
Chris Morales of Golden Crown Panaderia
Cheri Frost (food blogger and traveler)
Saul Paniagua of 4 Aces Grill
Matt Rembe of Los Poblanos
Tim Harris of Tim’s Place Cafe
John Calvin of Casa Rondena Winery
Omar and Tony Neshiewat of Times Square Deli Mart and Sahara Middle Eastern Eatery

I mean, when HAVEN’T you felt great when someone acknowledged a successful project of yours, a kind deed, or simply a friendly smile?  We’re human, and we love to be seen as worthy.  These chefs, they ARE worthy.  Many more did not make the cut (ahem, Rob Connoley), but those that did seem to have the cred to deserve being on the list.

And, of course, Jennifer James was nominated again – this has not meant a win for her in the past, but getting a nod next to powerhouses like Martin Rios is  pretty fantastic.

Congrats to all, and happy eating!

Yes, my choice is Shopsins.

How can you argue – especially if you are the indecisive sort like myself – with a menu that offers hundreds of options though no substitutions are allowed; this ensures that no matter what you order at a meal you have plenty of other choices to pick from as the rest of your life transpires and you realize that choosing the absolute BEST restaurant you’ve ever enjoyed really would have been too limiting.  (And if it truly is the REST of your life, I expect sushi to be gone as a viable foodstuff in the next 10-20 years so that definitely leaves out all the great sushi joints.)

Now, a fabulous Japanese place, on the other hand… that could be pretty good.

Oh yeah, remember that talk we had about crappy restaurant websites?  Shopsins.com breaks the rules in that they are so unbelievably well-known that their website is free to be just a weird as it is.  But that’s in addition to the fact that they HAVE their address and phone number and hours in plain text right on the main page.  Thank you, Kenny Shopsin.

What happens when you are thinking of visiting a restaurant and you are just a little picky about what you eat?

You go to their website to look at the menu, of course.

But what if they have a page on their site that says, “We update our menu frequently, so CLICK HERE to see our latest menu”, and the menu link is from 2008?

Do you still go? Do you call them and ask them to update their site? Do you email them and threaten to boycott? Post a list of all offending restaurant sites to try to get them to sharpen up, or post a list of GOOD sites as motivation? Embark on a campaign of blogging about the problem?

I’m considering a few of these options – using my “evil powers” for good, as it were. I know a lot of non-picky eaters who could care less about the menu, but what if it were the HOURS of operation from 2008? That’s a bit more serious. Or a note that if your posted hours are until 5 but you close your kitchen at 4:30? In my mind, your “hours of operation” are the hours during which you will SEAT and SERVE any customer.

Your feedback is wanted – let’s make restaurant websites better!

Of course, this can be applied in many cases to all businesses, but since I typically deal with restaurants, I’ll put the focus on them.

GOOGLE YOURSELF – if you like what you see, great. If you don’t, you can some ability to change it. If you don’t see any relevant results AT ALL, start working on it immediately – your survival could depend on it.

If there’s one thing that annoys me about *any* business (and of course, there ain’t one thing, there’s usually lots of things…), it is the inability to EASILY find out hours of operation.

Assuming you have a working phone number and address, when someone calls you, if they don’t hear a live person answering, the very first thing they should hear is, “thank you for calling ZZZ.  Our hours of operation are:  YYY”.  It should be plastered on your front window, on every piece of paper you publish from biz cards to menus.  It should be on your WEBSITE in text (that might be Part Two).   And it should be in your YELP and GOOGLE pages – you as the business owner can control those pages – do so, especially if you don’t have a website.

Good businesses do this, and good luck to the rest….

Yet, if you wanted to make your own, you could add the ideal cheese for melting – American.  Or, you can go a little more upscale and flavorful, even if the results won’t be quite as silky in the end.

I think you cannot go wrong with a cheesemaker that’s a mere few miles from where I grew up in America’s Dairyland:  Widmer’s Cheese Cellars in Theresa, WI.

Getting a big ol’ pile of shrink-wrapped bars is a holiday tradition, but you can have the delicious love, too – their prices online are identical to in the store.  You’ll only pay shipping, and they’re even pretty cheap in that regard, too!

For the top of the line, 10 year aged Cheddar is as rich and decadent as Parmesan, for slivers on a salad or whatever use you can dream up.  On burgers, I’d probably go a little more mellow, like Provolone, salty and tender.

Here’s to green chile meets meat meets cheese!