This summer’s beverage trends are leaning hard into function – drinks that not only quench thirst but also promote health. Think sparkling waters with herbs and extracts like adaptogens, turmeric or ginger as a base for crisp flavors like yuzu lime or cucumber mint. More restaurants are also combining the amino acid L-theanine with green tea or cold-brew coffee to boost energy and focus without jitters. For guests craving a post-workout refresher, probiotic juices with fermented berries and other gut-boosting ingredients can serve as a base for sweeter fruit drinks. Botanical sodas and herbal teas are also on trend right now and include ingredients like skin-and-joint-boosting collagen and soothing herbs like lemon balm and elderflower.

In a recent report from Forbes, 85 chefs shared their restaurant predictions for the year. Among their responses, a key theme that stood out was an ongoing push for sustainability and being transparent with guests about the origins of their food. Weaving more plant-based foods into the menu is one way to accomplish that – and chefs are finding ways to elevate and innovate with plants that can help add interest and nutrition to the menu. That includes using a wide variety of cooking techniques to enhance the range of textures and flavors plants can offer. Experiment with grilling, roasting, searing, stir-frying, braising, poaching and baking to alter the experience guests expect to have when eating vegetables. This year, there is also a growing variety of vegan products on the market that are minimally processed and prioritize the use of natural ingredients. If your guests are interested in eating more plant-based foods that mimic the experience of eating animal protein, you can source some surprising new vegan options that boost the experience factor you offer.

The appeal of non-alcoholic beverages has been on the rise for some time, with Millennials leading the charge. According to the IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, volumes of non-alcoholic beverages consumed in the U.S. climbed 29 percent in 2023 over the previous year – and people continue to favor these drinks. “An increasing consumer focus on moderation, health and wellness is having a positive impact on all no-alcohol sub-categories, with growth rates higher than their full-strength equivalents,” said Susie Goldspink, head of No- and Low-Alcohol Insights for IWSR.
Non-alcoholic beverages allow foodservice businesses to offer options that have a beneficial effect on health, while helping to boost guest satisfaction and check totals. Consider prebiotic and probiotic sodas, fermented beverages including kombucha and kefir, and smoothies with immunity-boosting ingredients. Or expand your tea and coffee menu with seasonal varieties. As the festive season approaches, you can inject some fun and creativity into your menu by developing a rotating list of drinks around a theme, telling a story about your signature drink, incorporating seasonal or functional ingredients into your hot and cold drinks, or naming drinks after noteworthy people in your community (or featuring a contest to have a drink named for a guest).

​Autumn ushers in a period of several months when consumers are apt to crave restaurant food: Weekend sports bring people together and provide natural occasions for eating comfort foods, and upcoming holiday gatherings (and their associated flavors) are on people’s minds. It’s a great time to innovate your menu with new and interesting options — and increasingly, consumers are looking for those options to be plant-based, plant-forward, or simply lean alternatives to meat. As recent research from Technomic indicates, consumers continue to perceive plant-based foods (including plant-based alt proteins) as healthier and more sustainable. Further, at a time when consumers are wary of menu price increases, plant-based ingredients can help you use your inventory more efficiently and economically across your menu, so the prospect of spending on a restaurant meal is more palatable to cost-conscious guests. Even if you don’t want to trim the animal protein content on your menu, there may be opportunities for you to highlight the “health halo” of certain proteins — such as particular seafoods, according to Technomic — or elevating turkey and chicken as leaner, healthier alternatives to red meat. Looking at your menu, where might you offer customizable options that help guests enjoy the comfort foods of the season, but in more health-conscious ways?

The pandemic demonstrated how having multiple income streams is vital to surviving and thriving in a volatile industry. Catering is one of those income streams — and it has been gaining momentum. As a recent webcast from Savor indicates, the catering industry generated $73 billion last year and forecasts indicate the industry could reach $124 billion in sales by 2032. The return to the office has fueled that growth, along with the “evolving role of food in the workplace.” Is your business ready to ride that wave? Catering business veteran Tracy Avolio said in the webcast that success in the business requires making seven touches before expecting to close a sale — a combination of phone calls, emails and in-person visits with samples. In your own catering efforts, how much are you reaching out to clients to secure potential sales as opposed to reacting to inquiries about your offerings? In your in-house and takeout orders, do you find opportunities to share your catering menu or invite people to have you stop by their office with samples? Can you create a menu with customizable options for a wide range of tastes or specific nutritional needs? At a time when many employers are looking for ways to entice employees back to the office, restaurant food can be an effective draw, enhancing the quality of a work environment. You can be their partner in that effort with a strategic approach to sales. As with so many aspects of the foodservice industry right now, there are tech tools and consultancies emerging to help businesses manage catering functions more smoothly or even outsource them altogether — support for you to raise your game if you see potential in it for your business.

This year, approximately 80 percent of restaurant operators expect their sales to either increase (33 percent) or hold steady (45 percent) over their 2023 sales, according to the National Restaurant Association. What’s more, the industry is expected to add a further 200,000 jobs this year. That’s a lot of forward momentum after some challenging years — and it represents a significant opportunity for operators to make the most of it. There are many ways to approach this — from labor management to time management strategies — but your menu holds many keys to optimal efficiency. A recent report from FSR Magazine details some approaches to maximize your menu’s effectiveness. For example, look for additional opportunities to decrease your SKUs by focusing in on serving up a shorter list of profitable winners as opposed to a broader range of items. Or simply be more creative and resourceful with the SKUs you have so they do triple or even quadruple duty across the menu. This could look like bundling items into a value meal, making items more customizable with premium proteins and condiments, or adjusting serving sizes of an SKU in menu options across dayparts. As a result, your menu will likely be perceived not as having holes but as offering expanded options — even as less labor is required from your kitchen staff.

In the past five years, sales growth for family dining chains has lagged behind the growth of every other restaurant category, according to Technomic research. While the fast-casual segment has roared ahead with 45 percent sales growth during the period, family dining has been stagnant at 3 percent. That makes it ripe for change — and innovation has been happening. A recent report from Restaurant Business says these restaurants tend to be full-service with moderate menu pricing around $18 or less per person. They lean towards breakfast and if they sell alcohol, it’s limited to beer or wine. Value is a key driver for family dining, so many brands are looking for ways to entice people to sit down for a full-service meal at a price that’s often no higher than one would pay in the quick-service or fast-casual segments right now. While these restaurants have long been places to satisfy cravings for traditional foods, consumers haven’t looked to them for the latest ingredient trends — but that is shifting as these brands look to target new generations of consumers (even if they don’t have families themselves). As a result, we’re seeing changes like a new line of eggs Benedict dishes at IHOP with elevated ingredients like roasted cherry tomatoes, fire-roasted poblanos and nut-free pesto. Cracker Barrel is serving up craveable dishes with a twist, like a hash brown casserole shepherd’s pie. Sizzler is innovating its burger menu with a prime rib burger and a crispy bacon burger, with the option to add a patty. In the segment, it’s becoming increasingly common to see more current flavors and presentations, elevated customizable options, and the addition of some convenience/portable items, but the scratch-cooking quality you expect from a family restaurant. As beverages have become bigger-ticket items that deliver on experience, there is room for development in this area within family dining too. To preserve value, these brands will be pushing hard to operate more efficiently, harnessing tech to do so.

Restaurants have to manage some challenging contradictions these days: Offer a menu that’s new and exciting, but keep your inventory simple. Make your promotions feel special and made-to-order, but do so with a low-skilled, skeleton crew. Increasingly, though, operators are finding ways through these challenges by innovating their beverage menus. Whether it be specialty hot and cold coffees, matcha teas, energy drinks or boba, beverages are giving operators opportunities to offer customizable options that delight guests and have Instagram-worthy visual appeal, but don’t require lots of training. New products and approaches are making it possible for operators to experiment with beverage textures, colors and toppings, as well as boost the guest’s overall experience factor. For example, displays at the National Restaurant Association Show included tasty new options to coat the rims of beverage glasses, a butterfly pea flower drink that changes color, and a bubble-topped cocktail that releases a smoky mist when the bubbles are pierced. Of course, specialty beverages can also fetch premium prices, so they reliably boost check totals – all while piquing guests’ curiosity, using an economy of ingredients, and being fairly simple to swap out with the seasons or your chosen promotional period. Is there room for innovation on your beverage menu? 

The pandemic ushered in significant (and seemingly permanent) changes to people’s working environments. According to Gallup research, 52 percent of employees in the U.S. work in hybrid offices or at home. This has caused a shift in not only where consumers are eating their meals, but to their eating habits themselves. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that as consumers continue to spend more of their time in their suburban and rural neighborhoods, some restaurants have adjusted their growth plans and followed their guests there. At the same time, this shift to the suburbs has resulted in a broader spread of business throughout the day as opposed to rushes during mealtimes. It can be a disruptive transition. Less people are having take-away lunch at their desks and operators are having to think about keeping dining room space available to people eating at odd hours, as well as to guests coming in with baby strollers. For some, the imbalance of traffic across the day means having to have a mixed-use plan for their real estate that allows them to continue to make sales regardless of the ebb and flow of traffic in a suburban location. Staffing can present another challenge if restaurants are used to sharing workers across multiple urban locations and now have spread-out suburban stores to staff. That said, these locations are experiencing appealing growth – and by becoming a fixture in people’s neighborhoods, a business may be more able to become a valuable part of their family and social experiences. There is opportunity to build loyalty and benefit from partnerships with other local businesses that enrich the fabric of the community. If you’re investing more in suburban guests right now, what opportunities do you see to boost their experience with you, as well as build their loyalty?

Nearly three-quarters of the U.S. food supply is ultra-processed, according to new research published by Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute, and these foods generate a higher risk of developing a variety of health problems. Consumer awareness is growing around the connection between ultra-processed foods and poor health. This could well have an impact on the dining choices of those who have grown more health-conscious in recent years, since conventional wisdom says the best way to ensure you’re consuming a healthy diet is to prepare your meals yourself. But that doesn’t have to be the case. More foodservice suppliers are looking to support consumer interest in healthy lifestyles while providing the taste and variety that can make nutritious eating easier to maintain – so there is significant opportunity for foodservice operators here. U.S. Foods, for one, has an “unpronounceables list” of 80 ingredients they avoid or replace in the foods they develop for select foodservice clients. The list contains items such as artificial colors or flavors, nitrites and nitrates, and high-fructose corn syrup. “This appeals to many of our customers looking for products that are produced with clean-label profiles similar to what they might make themselves back of house,” said Stacey Kinkaid, U.S. Foods vice president of product development, in an interview with Food Business News. The company uses the AI-supported e-commerce portal MOXe to suggest ingredients that suit the evolving preferences of their clients’ guests, so it is likely to become easier for foodservice operators to find ingredients and substitutes that meet their need for minimally processed menus.