We board our train at the Gdansk station at 10 a.m. after worrying that we wouldn’t board the right train or at least the right car. Meanwhile, I discover I left my notebook in the hotel room. My notes of the trip – gone. No way to call the hotel to tell them. When the […]
Read MoreDue Diligence’s New Normal
This article appears in the July 2019 issue of Restaurant Finance Monitor. Have you ever seen word clouds for restaurants made from social media ratings? They’re cool, often featuring words—friendly, delicious, super, love, clean—restaurant operators like seeing. But it’s investors like CapitalSpring’s Erik Herrmann, head of the firm’s restaurant investment group, who have lately been […]
Read MoreAre Trays the New Nostalgia?
This week alone my food at two local eateries arrived, surprisingly, on heavy metal trays (see below). These are places that might otherwise have used good plateware given their style and relatively steep menu prices. Yet instead they employ an item that likely reminds people of the school cafeteria, prison or mess hall. Maybe trays instead of […]
Read MoreThe wedding tasting
I probably should have taken a picture or two of the food served yesterday at Marigold Catering. But the moment didn’t seem right. Kathy and I were sitting alongside Mary and Tom — the groom’s parents — sampling the food our daughter and Brian picked for their June wedding. Tom and Mary are lovely people, […]
Read MoreWorld Cup: England win!
Clever animation: England beats Italy in its first game 1-0. Well, this is merely an animation, but a hopeful one that made me laugh. The side should be so lucky today.
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