Check out this interesting piece about how convenience stores are managing the thin boundary between convenience and health.
It sounds like consumer demands are re-shaping the menus not only at quick-serve restaurants, but at c-stores as well. If your family is on the road around the holidays, keep an eye out for new and better options when you make the inevitable stops for gas and restrooms.
That said, Slush Puppies will always rule.
We stopped into Chick-fil-A for lunch. It was one of those last-minute decisions. I was in a bad mood because we unexpectedly had to get two new (large, expensive, ugh!) tires, just in time for the holidays. Let's just say the other driver in the household did something really, um, silly.
So we dropped off the car and went to eat. My mood was not so good. We nestled into a booth and served Baby A her usual (chicken strips, fruit cup), then tucked into our own usuals (classic Chick-fil-A sandwiches) when I realized I wanted a packet of buffalo sauce. Lately I can't get enough of the stuff. Strange. And, no, there's no "Baby B" on the way. It's just a thang.
I jumped up out of my seat and turned to head for the counter—and nearly crashed into an older woman with a gentle demeanor and a nametag that said HOSTESS.
She said, sweetly, "Hi, what would you like? I'll get it for you." Immediately, my mood softened.
"I'd like a packet of buffalo sauce, please."
"I'll be right back with it." And she was. "Thanks," I said. "My pleasure," she said.
What an awesome thing, especially when you're the sole adult eating with young children. It is such a pain to gather up babies and toddlers just to go twenty feet away for the spoon you forgot. Even older kids can get in trouble (or just be obnoxious to other tables) in a matter of seconds.
I'd like to claim this is Southern hospitality, but it's not. If I remember right, it was So Cal–based Carl's Jr. that first put hostesses in its dining rooms—employees, most often women, who were there solely to refill your drink, grab the napkins you forgot, or just ask how your meal is. When Carl's Jr. bought the Hardee's chain, it started putting hostesses in those dining rooms, too. I believe Long John Silver's tried it seven or eight years ago. Now, clearly, Chick-fil-A has picked up on the concept.
And what a great thing. As a parent, I'd love to see more of this.
Have you seen a host or hostess recently in a quick-serve dining room? In what brand?
There's a good story in the Orange County Register about the recent opening of McDonald's second R-Gym, this one in Santa Ana. Check out the video for a look inside the gym!
Quick Serve Kids reported the opening of the first location last June. (That's the location pictured to the right.) The company says it plans to open twenty locations over the next year.
An Indiana couple are suing Starbucks, saying one of the company's units served a cup of hot chocolate that seriously burned their little girl.
The mother ordered an adult-sized hot chocolate for herself and a child-sized hot chocolate for her daughter. The suit says that when the mother drove off, the girl's drink spilled in her lap, causing the injury. Starbucks says it is company policy to serve kids' drinks at lower temperatures that will not cause burns.
The girl was young enough to be buckled into a child restraint seat in the back—meaning she was pretty young.
Seems to me there might have been multiple failures in this situation. Starbucks has a policy, but occasionally employees mess up. I always, always try Baby A's drinks first, not just for temperature, for for freshness and safety. (She's been served rotten milk in a restaurant before, but that's for a different post.) And I'd never, ever let her hold even a mildly warm drink in the car. Really, she's lucky to get a drink of water when she's in her car seat. It's too messy.
What I'm getting at is I couldn't sue a company for my own mistakes. Not that I'm not perfect—it's hard to resist a child who's screaming for a treat, and it's easy to forget the taste-test.
What's your take? Where is that precarious edge between parental and corporate responsibility? Really, this ties into a much bigger picture—at what point are parents of overweight or diabetic kids responsible for what those kids eat at quick-serve restaurants? Can I sue because my child is obese? I say not--it is my responsibility--but it's an interesting debate, one that I'd like eventually to have here.
Comment and let me know your thoughts on this Starbucks case.
(Thanks to Blogging Baby and AdPulp for the heads-up.)
Call this a sort of Friday Free-for-all...an assortment of news to end the week:
If you're concerned about food safety, you're far from alone. A study released today shows about two-thirds (63 percent) of all U.S. adults are extremely or very concerned with the cleanliness of restaurants where they eat. That's about 140 million adults.
Women are more likely to be concerned than men, and adults ages 35 and over are more likely to be concerned than those ages 18 to 34.
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Great news! Taco Bell is joining the trend against trans fats. Testing of the new canola oil began two years ago, and the company says the transition is already complete in one hundred restaurants.
The nation's largest Mexican quick-serve chain, Taco Bell uses the oils to fry its nachos, taco salad shells, potatoes, chalupa shells, and other items. All 5,000 of Taco Bell's U.S. single-brand restaurants (meaning those not paired with a KFC will change from a partially hydrogenated soybean oil to a trans fat-free canola oil by April
Baby A hasn't eaten at a Taco Bell yet, mostly because we happen to have a local quick-serve Fresh Mex place right up the street. But I do love me some Taco Hell, and sooner or later A. will end up tagging along. I'm glad there will be fewer trans fats there.
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Guess what I learned this week? There's a Federation of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs in Spain, the members of which have pledged to refrain from promoting huge servings of food.
The other day, the Spanish Ministry of Health urged Burger King to pull an ad campaign for its monster XXL burger—which AO says is the caloric equivalent of eating ten fried eggs—because it violates a Spanish initiative against obesity.
The ministry reportedly has been asking the fast-food chain to abandon the campaign for more than a week because the commercials go against the federation. (Sounds Star Wars-ish, doesn't it?)
I doubt such an agreement for self-regulation could be reached here in the United States. But, I've been encouraged by all the trans-fats news, as well as Panera's organic kids' meal. Maybe, just maybe, self-regulation and market demand will work. Mayyyyyybe.
What do you think? Comment and let me know.
I'm happy to announce that Quick Serve Kids is now contributing to Clever Parents, a site for all parents—moms and dads—who are figuring out ways to get the most out of every day and every dollar and who do it in a way that’s healthy, fun, and…clever.
QSK's first piece is here.
If you haven't been to Clever Parents already, try it now. It's a great site, definitely worthy of bookmarking and blogrolling.
Has your family tried one of the Mongolian grill concepts? We visited our local Crazy Fire (no website—how strange!) restaurant today for lunch, and it was perfect.
If you're not familiar with the Mongolian grill thang, you grab a bowl and fill it with your choice of raw ingredients, everything from meats and tofu and veggies to noodles, eggs, ground peanuts, and cilantro. Next, you add a couple of ladles of sauce—I like a mix of ginger-lime and soy, along with a few shakes of dried red peppers.
Then you walk to the open kitchen and hand your bowl to cook who stir-fries your custom meal on a big, hot stone and hands it back to you on a plate with sticky rice. Yummmmy, and healthy.
Baby A liked making her own choices and watching her creation get cooked. I liked that she ate grilled chicken, broccoli, and steamed rice for lunch. And my own stir-fry was delicious.
Give one of these places a try at lunch or dinner. They're reasonably priced, too—our lunch was $10 for two adults and Baby A. Other similar concepts are Genghis Grill and Mongolian Grillle.
On a related note, how cute and kid-appealing are these clothespin chopsticks (above right) from CB2? You can buy them here.
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In today's advertising news: Why?
Warning: If you're not a parent, or haven't otherwise raised a toddler, don't read any farther. This post contains graphic potty-training scenes.
I mean it.
Okay, you're on board? Here we go. The scene opens in a hip, urban coffee shop. The lights are low. A DJ spins ambient and house tunes as the cool (read: non-parental) clientele hang out before hitting the club and bar scene.
Baby A and I are hunkered down at a corner table, enjoying a rare late-night (read: 8 P.M.) date, munching on biscotti and drinking milk. Suddenly, above the blissed-out music and hushed conversations, A. shouts, in that ear-shattering squeak only little girls can muster,
"Mommy, I have to POOP! Right now! I'm going to go poop! Here I go!"
All eyes turn to our table as A. hops down and sets off running for the restroom. I, of course, follow behind her just as fast as I can, relatively unfazed because, you know, this is just how life is now. It takes a lot to faze me, child-scatological-wise. And, in the big picture, this only makes the bedtime routine easier.
So while I'm squatting in front of her, helping her balance while she sits on the potty, I distract myself by thinking of things I'm grateful for in restaurant bathrooms, now that this is, you know, part of my job.
Cleanliness. Enough said. Little kids wait until the last, harrowing moments before notifying you they need a potty. There's generally not much time to locate and use seat covers. Please, restaurant industry, if you're not keeping your bathrooms sanitary for us adults, do it for kids—and those of us helping the kids.
Gimme room, lotsa room. Until kids are old enough to sit without falling in, we parents must practice a particular type of yoga aimed at keeping the child perched in place without offending the child's No, Mommy, I do it myself sensibilities. It is a delicate balancing act, and we need space in which to perform it, even if it means providing one less toilet. (I know, there are buidling codes and stuff. I'm just sayin'.)
Keep it stocked. It's a huge bummer for an adult with any sense of hygiene to find an empty soap dispenser or paper towel box. It's awfulawfulawful when you can't wash your child's hands after the potty. You have no idea the things they touch.
A stepstool at the sink. Have I not gone on about this enough already?
Thankfully, A. declared herself finished at that point, and shortly thereafter we rejoined the world of the cool with nary a red face. (Amazing how parenting changes you.)
What can you add to my list of restaurant restroom must-haves? Comment and let me know.
How clean are the hands serving your family's food?
Today at the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show in New York, Ecolab Inc. announced its new Clean Hands™ initiative to raise awareness of the importance of hand washing. The program—which Ecolab is supplying at no charge—also promotes compliance with CDC and FDA guidelines in the foodservice, hospitality, and healthcare industries and aims at reducing the spread of infection from unclean hands.
The company says each year there are more than 76 million foodborne illnesses, nearly half of which can be traced to poor hand hygiene. Those illnesses are particularly harsh on kids' young bodies. I can vouch for that: When I was five, I had a shigella infection traced back to a quick-serve restaurant called the Pak-a-Chick. (Yes, you read that name right.) I remember becoming horribly sick, so much that I couldn't stand up or even stay awake. My mom says there was one night I was lucky to survive. I certainly don't want Baby A to go through anything similar.
So I strongly support more hand washing awareness and support. A few thoughts:
• The vast majority of restaurant operators I've encountered are very strict about hand washing, if only for business reasons. Illnesss outbreaks traced to their restaurants would be devastating. Training and documentation rates are high.
• Many operators put their managers through the National Restaurant Association's ServSafe program, a national standard for hygiene and food storage.
• Gloves don't necessarily replace good hand washing technique and consistency. The best strategy might be a combination of the two.
In spite of it all, I'm sure we've all seen something unsettling happen. There's no perfect way to control what people do. What do you think? Do you see enough hygiene precautions being taken when you're at quick-serve restaurants? What else would you want to see done? Comment and let me (and the industry!) know.
There's a good post over at Blogging Baby about how retailers are increasingly catering to kids—and making it easier for parents to shop and eat in their stores.
Case in point: TWH is out of town, so Baby A and I headed over a local, funky quick-serve pizza shop for dinner. While she was ringing up our order, the cashier pointed out there was a supply of kid-entertaining things in a cabinet under the flatware and condiments. We checked it out, and sure enough, there were crayons and paper, some little books, and a few stuffed animals and dolls. Baby A got to pick out a few thing to take to our table, and it was enough to keep her relatively still and quiet until our slices and salads came.
Whew. Any little help, I'll gladly take.
The Blogging Baby piece notes that kids' spending now totals $700 billion annually. Sure, but who's driving the car? (smile)
We find it easy to feed Baby A at those giant soup-and-salad-bar restaurants. Our two favorites are Sweet Tomatoes and Souper Salad, although the salad bar at Jason's Deli is a frequent choice, too.
Now it looks like Souper Salad is joining the no-trans-fats trend.
The chain—the largest soup and salad restaurant chain in the Southwest, though there are locations in other states—announced today that it will be trans fat-free by December 12, 2006. Officials say the move to eliminate trans fat from every menu offering wasn't a simple one.
"This was not an easy process for us since we serve hundreds of recipes with a huge number of ingredients," said Hazem Ouf, president and chief executive officer of Souper Salad. "It was a massive undertaking that took more than a year to complete, but one we felt good about."
I feel good about that, too. Which chain will be next to axe the trans fats? Anyone care to guess?
Update: NPR's Scott Horsley reported on this on November 13. Go here to listen.
When Baby A was a few months old, I discovered a Starbucks with a drive-thru window, and I became a regular. I'd learned one of those things they don't tell you before you give birth: Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to get out of the car. (And caffeine is a must-have when you're up three times a night.)
It's not laziness, or overdependence on the car. On the contrary, it's the simple fact that once a baby goes to sleep, you really, really don't want to wake her up. Later comes the toddler corrollary: Once a whiny, fidgety toddler is strapped into her carseat, you really, really don't want to let her out until you're at your destination.
Wireless payment (or RFID or "contactless" payment) takes the drive-thru ease a step further. All you have to do to pay is wave a small wand in front of a reader. A third-party billing system relays the charges to your credit or debit card. Increasingly, quick-serve chains have been adopting this technology—McDonald's in the Chicago and Southern California areas were among the first to do it, some five or six years ago.
Now Jack in the Box says it's installing contactless card readers at all company restaurants, meaning guests can pay simply by holding their cards in front of a reader at the front counter or drive-thru window. No swipe required. And that's nice inside the store, too, when you're holding a wriggling kid and trying to fish out your wallet at the same time.
Contactless payment at Jack in the Box requires guests to have an American Express, Discover Network, MasterCard PayPass, or Visa Contactless card or device embedded with a chip that communicates with the reader via radio frequency.
JITB says installation of the readers should be completed by December 31. With the move, Jack in the Box will become one of the first major fast-food chains to accept contactless payment at all company restaurants.
Have you ever paid this way at a quick-serve restaurant? How well did it work?
How many times have you laughed (wryly, of course) about your toddler or preschooler's narrow range of dinner preferences? Chicken nuggets. Pizza. Tofu cubes. Repeat, ad nauseaum.
For the enterprising moms behind Planet Mom T-Shirts, such curiosities of life as a mom inspired a line of apparel embroidered with sayings that will make any parent (or grandparent) laugh. Check out the "Chicken Nuggets or Pizza?" at the right. Other great lines include "Whine? No. Wine? Yes," "Nanny Deprived," "Because I Said So," and one that might as well be custom-made for me: "Seeking Tall, Dark, Rich Cup of Coffee." Amen.
I love the tongue-in-cheekiness. I love the fact they're embroidered, not screenprinted. And I love that these tees are specially fitted for women's bodies. Boxy tees suck.
So long as we're guiding our Quicksies through the fast-food world, we might as well wear the right uniform. I plan to add a couple of Planet Mom's pieces to my wardrobe.
Already, quick-serve restaurant companies are gearing up for the holidays with special promotions and charity programs. Here are just a couple that launched November 1:
Little Caesars and Hasbro are teaming up to offer the "Bring Home Fun for the Holidays with Little Caesars and Hasbro Games" promotion nationwide. Today through December 31, 2006, a national online sweepstakes will run in conjunction with local in-store prize drawings at participating locations.
Visit this page to enter for a chance to win a grand-prize vacation for four to any Beaches Jamaica Resorts, with air travel provided by Air Jamaica. Other prizes include $500 in Hasbro Games and online shopping sprees, and Little Caesars Gift Certificates. The online sweepstakes runs from November 1 through December 31, 2006.
Visit any participating Little Caesars store to get an individual Family Game Bounceback (print piece applied to the pizza box top) while quantities last. Along with this print piece version of popular Hasbro games—Memory, Scrabble Jr., Trivial Pursuit for Kids, and Perfection—the bouncebacks include a coupon for 10 percent off Hasbro Games online.
Also, check your local Little Caesars for prize drawings. One winner from each restaurant will receive a Family Fun Pack that includes a Hasbro Games Prize Pack (Clue, Trivial Pursuit for Kids, Boggle, and Don't Break the Ice) and a Little Caesars Pizza Party.
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Here's a chance to feed the family and do some good work at the same time. The Steak n Shake Company is partnering for the fourth year with America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of food banks, to deliver Steakburger patties to the hungry this holiday season.
Beginning November 1, for every $5 in TakHomACard gift cards purchased, Steak n Shake will donate one Steakburger patty to one of the more than 70 of America's Second Harvest food banks. The program runs through December 25, 2006.
Last year, more than 1 million Steakburger patties were delivered to food banks; 75 percent of those donations went to people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
While you're there, consider treating yourself—and the kids, if they've been nice, not naughty—to one of Steak n Shake seasonal milk shakes: Egg Nog, Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate. Personally, I'm going for the Egg Nog. Mmmm. These flavors are available through December 25.
Baby A discovered a stepstool in the restroom of a quick-serve restaurant. What a wonderful sight! She was thrilled to "do it all by myself." I was thrilled not to have to hold her up to the sink and struggle to wash her hands. Even when they're dry, toddlers are wriggly, slippery, suprisingly strong little creatures.
I recorded the experience (sorry, again, for the low light and lack of sound...it's hard to shop for electronics when your child keeps running to the "Little Einsteins" DVD racks).
Hey! Everyone in the quick-serve industry! These stepstools cost maybe twenty bucks. I'll do that and more in business at your place in the course of a couple of months if you make life this convenient. Parents love little touches like this.
Really. It means a lot.
First came the job: founding editor of a magazine for fast-food industry executives. Then came marriage.
Then came the baby in the baby carriage—and a new perspective on the world in which that baby will grow up.
Now I'm using my fast-food (quick-serve) industry expertise to filter restaurant news and information to other parents. Join me as we figure out how to raise our Quicksies to make good choices in a world where fast food is part of life.