You’re reading this already—you’re doing something right!

Here at the Louisiana Restaurant Association, we love to pass on the knowledge to our members because it’s important that you stay up-to-date on the latest information about the foodservice industry.  The difference between an informed and uninformed restaurant operator could transform into a competitive advantage. Whether it’s through Facebook posts, Twitter tweets or stories from our blog, we aim to send you news you can use, as much as possible. We do this with you, our members, in mind.

You might ask: where do we get a lot of our topics of conversation? Well, that’s easy to answer—we read—a lot. Part of our job is stay informed so we keep you informed. National trends translate differently across the country and it’s our job to let you know about that here in Louisiana and open the discussion about how these happenings affect you, whether it’s helping, challenging and/or hurting your business. Sometimes it’s a combination of all three. If you own a restaurant, you know how important it is to be able to roll with the punches, and we hope we give you strength to keep fighting.

Every day, we read through the restaurant and hospitality industry’s headlines and pull out what’s relevant right now for our members. However, there’s so much information that we couldn’t possibly share it all. We can reveal what we read, though, and encourage you to pick up where time constraints force us to leave off. Maybe you’ll find something interesting that we haven’t seen or been able to let you know about.

Below are some sources for our industry news. We encourage you to spend a few minutes each day scanning the headlines. Tips, techniques, legal issues, politics and trends found in these resources may be just the thing to spark your curiosity, solve that burning problem or help you save more on the bottom line.

The National Restaurant Association News Hub- similar to the LRA blog, these daily posts cover news, with a national focus in mind.

 

Nation's Restaurant News- Subscribe to their free e-newsletter to dig deep, on a daily basis, into a particular industry segment and learn about the newest products and trends.

Restaurant Management/RMGT- This platform-neutral, digital publication is designed to service restaurateurs and executives with the daily news and insights they need.

American Express Restaurant Briefing- This is a restaurant business newsletter with 35 years of history in the industry. It’s a unique blend of best practices and expert insights that continues to help restaurateurs compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Restaurant SmartBrief- Sign up for this free daily briefing on top stories for restaurant and foodservice professionals. They also offer e-newsletters on food service, travel and hospitality, business and leadership.

Food Sections of Local and National Dailies- Nola.com (formerly the Times-Picayune) and the websites of Baton Rouge’s The Advocate (now with editions exclusively for New Orleans, Acadiana, the River Parishes and the Florida Parishes), The Lafayette Advertiser, and the Shreveport Times, just to name a few, have food sections with local food news. Seek out your local paper. National newspapers such as USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal all have dedicated restaurant and food sections that highlight our industry at a broader level. Becoming familiar with these papers’ websites and journalists could go a long way in becoming more informed.

Business Publications and Alternative Weeklies- The non-traditional newsprints cover news differently than daily news organizations, and often their insights are more specialized and content rich. Some publications to check out are the websites of New Orleans’ CityBusiness and Gambit, Baton Rouge’s BusinessReport and 225 Magazine and Lafayette’s The Independent, just to name a few.

Social Media Feeds- A great source of late-breaking news, happenings and inspiration can be found in the news feeds of your social media platforms. Who doesn’t scroll through Facebook news feeds and Twitter posts multiple times a day? Follow and like the right people and companies (many of the publications mentioned here all have Facebook and Twitter pages) and you will be among the first to know the news. And don’t forget about Pinterest. Although you won’t read any news on the site, you can get fantastic ideas and inspiration from various pinboards. Try it out! But be warned—you could get lost in all the glorious and aspirational photos posted.

Are we leaving any one out? Are there publications out there that you absolutely can’t get through the day without checking out? Let us know!

 

 

LRA shares industry trends at America's Small Business Development Conference

Steve Pettus,
Managing Partner of
Dickie Brennan & Co.
will discuss trends
in the restaurant
industry affecting his
three French Quarter
restaurants.

This week, more than 1,000 consultants from America's Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) are convening in New Orleans to learn more about the challenges and opportunities facing business. As a partner with the Louisiana SBDC, the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) regularly relies on the knowledge base of these state-funded offices to provide further support to its members. 

The Gotta Come Back Restaurant Experience: Trends and Tools Used by Successful Restaurateurs panel, led by LSBDC Restaurant Specialist Dianne Sclafani, will also feature speakers such as Wendy Waren, LRA VP of Communications, Steve Pettus, Managing Partner for Dickie Brennan and Co. and Jay Nix, owner of Parkway Tavern and Bakery in New Orleans. 

“It was extremely important to me that the restaurant industry be part of the conference program,” said Sclafani. “I’ve been working with restaurants for years on developing business plans, identifying funding sources for opening or expansion and assisting them in addressing trends in the industry head on to help them become more profitable.”  

Wendy Waren, LRA VP of
Communications will
discuss three trends and
the impact on restaurants.

The discussion will focus on trends that are challenging restaurants including meeting the customer expectations, expansion into multiple products and services, and how technology will continue to shape the way restaurants operate both internally and externally. To meet these new demands, restaurateurs will need to change some of their operational activities in the areas of marketing, operations, finance and human resources. 

“Meeting these demands takes time, which is limited for the restaurateur,” said Waren. “Often times, it may result in the need to hire an interactive service business, but in independent restaurateurs may mean using family and existing staff to meet this demands or having the owner maintain these aspects in addition to other tasks.”

Waren said that the three biggest trends impacting the restaurant industry today and in the future are rising food costs, attracting millennial diners and the increase in the use of technology by consumers.