The Food Scout

Given that prime-grade beef, usually only found at steakhouses, is piling up in Sam's Clubs, it shouldn't be surprising that burger innovations are taking center stage these days. Hardee's shrank its Thickburger several months ago but Burger King recently introduced miniaturized Burger "shots," more in line with the mini burgers now common at casual dine restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's, TGIFriday's, and Chili's. Then, just this week, BK opened its first of many Whopper Bars at Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando, where burger lovers can custom-build their burgers with a choice of 22 toppings. Recent months have also seen the opening of chef-run burger joints. TV personality (oh yes, and chef) Bobby Flay opened ...

In many ways, 2008 was the coming out party for tea - both iced and hot - and now the question is how much hotter the tea trend can get.  Tea has long been the "alternative" beverage: It was just the right compromise when you didn't want just water or a sweet beverage with your restaurant meal. And if you weren't a coffee lover, but wanted to partake in the coffee culture, tea was there to provide a cup of status that was more drinkable than a stout cup of java.  But thanks to the time-honored tradition of pre-sweetened iced tea in the South, which was institutionalized and spread by McAlister's Deli chain ...

Okay, I can handle the stock market shrinking for awhile, because it's going to come back, right? (Right?) But there are some things in life that, once you've crossed the threshold you can never come back (in this case I'll focus just on the food world), and that  I can't document the day when the coffee industry moved off its standard 16 oz. size, but I read online that that transgression began in the 1960s, where we now find a "pound" of coffee weighing in at just over 11 oz. Perhaps jars of spaghetti sauce (which now weigh more like 28 oz. than 32 oz. in previous years) and jars of peanut butter (only 16 oz. instead of 18), aren't as ...

I was food scouting in Chicago recently and ran into a facing of nutrition bars in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Now for me, one of the appeals of nutrition bars is that they can sit in your desk, car, gym bag, pocket or wherever you happen to be that a meal or snack is not readily available. So the idea of a bar you have to keep in the refrigerator seems to kill the convenience of bars a little. At first, I thought this was a Marie's salad dressing or Kraft Velveeta merchandising gimmick, wherein shelf-stable products are sold in the produce section or dairy case to enhance their fresh perception. But after a look at the website I ...

Orlando and Tampa are shaping up to be the new playground for innovative food retailing. If you live in the Southeast, you know Publix supermarkets. And if you live in north Florida, you know that Publix is leveraging several sub-brands into new retail units and merchandising opportunities. Its Aprons brand, originally a cooking school, is now a meal-assembly concept, cooking demo kiosk, and a catering business. Greenwise is a brand Publix is using on its new tony Whole Foods-style units, BUT it's also a brand merchandised in most of its stores around natural foods including meats, cereals, and juices. And Sabor ...