At Shea, we've always believed in small. Shea's designs often seek to be comfortable, tight, energetic, even within larger areas, to instantly invite and appeal to consumers. Smaller is now becoming even more of a trend in everything from retail to restaurants to hotel. See the latest articles on why small is the next big thing:
Why Traveling “Small” Is Trendy
From May 2009 Travel and Leisure
Downsizing is the order of the day. T+L considers our obsession with intimate restaurants, “boutique” hotels, and other decidedly little gems.
By Peter Jon Lindberg
“And here we have the salmon belly with ginger and micro cilantro,” our waiter announces as he sets down a tiny plate. The previous dish, maguro tuna, was adorned with micro greens. Our potato-chip nigiri came with micro celery. To drink? A bottle of Koshihikari Echigo, touted by our waiter as “a rare microbrew from Niigata, Japan.” We’re at Boston’s 37-seat restaurant O Ya, enjoying an altogether excellent meal, but all this small talk has us trading amused looks. In the end, only the check is outsize.
If any trend has defined the recent trajectory of travel—and of consumer culture in general—it is the cult of the very small. While most Americans still supersize anything they can, a determined (and increasingly influential) minority seeks refuge in a modest scale. They champion the unsung little guy over big-time behemoths—the pint-size bar over the 20,000-square-foot club complex, the intimate trattoria over the multilevel theme restaurant. They fill their little black books with diminutive discoveries—the tinier, the better. How many times have you heard a fellow traveler rave about “this fantastic little pensione” or “this adorable little wine bar”? Hardly anyone goes rhapsodic over “this fabulous factory-size cheese shop.”
The obsession went viral with the please-make-it-stop trend of the boutique hotel, which originally meant “a small hotel.” But just as every beer wants to be a microbrew—hello, American Ale from Budweiser!—every corporate hotel now wants to be a boutique. Even a 250-room Hyatt can qualify, so long as it has hot bellboys and a cool logo.
In air travel, too, there’s a movement toward scaling down. While Airbus was busy inflating the new A380—an airplane the size of an airplane hangar—Boeing took off on an opposite heading. The 787 Dreamliner, arriving in 2010, will carry between 210 and 330 passengers (the A380 can hold up to 853). Its design emphasizes quality of experience over quantity of seats: a quieter cabin; better air and light; bigger windows. No doubt someone will label it the world’s first boutique airliner.
But nowhere is small-mindedness more pervasive or persuasive than in the food world. Tastemakers are enthralled by anything minute: small farms, small producers, and—now appearing on every last menu in America—small plates. These appeal for both their price points and, for indecisive diners, the prospect of ordering without anxiety: To hell with it, we’ll just take the whole menu.
Foodies have long traded whispers about the seven—count ’em, seven—Jersey cows that churn out all the butter served at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry restaurant, in Napa Valley, and his Per Se, in New York City. The fabled herd lives at the speck-size Animal Farm, in Orwell, Vermont, and produces just 300 pounds of butter a month. Animal Farm owner Diane St. Clair told the New York Times in 2005: “The reason I’m not big is because I’m a perfectionist.”
If, as St. Clair reasons, something good must be small, then conversely, something small must be good, right? Connoisseurs will gravitate to small things even if they’re inconvenient—especially if they’re inconvenient. Some years back a coffee-snob friend in San Francisco dragged me 30 blocks out of our way to the teensy Blue Bottle kiosk, in a tiny garage off a tiny back alley in Hayes Valley. Not only was it undersize, but it was also understaffed: we waited 25 minutes for our espresso. Was it worth it? Best coffee I’ve had in years. The stand’s diminutive dimensions only heightened the sense that we’d found something special, something rarefied. Last January, Blue Bottle finally opened a proper, full-size café, though my purist friend insists “it’s just not the same.”
This affection for the minuscule is right in tune with that of Europe, home of the Smart car and the three-bite container of yogurt. While the megastore has made inroads, European life still revolves around the neighborhood épicerie or abacería, where little old ladies with mesh bags buy single rolls of paper towels no thicker than a forearm. In Europe tiny is not a choice or a value; it’s a way of life. So it is that in America, home of the Monster Truck and the Big Gulp, teeny things (like cramped hotel rooms) are said to feel “European” and as such carry an aura of sophistication.
Curiously, other cultures don’t share the little-is-better creed. In China, for instance, not only is there no stigma against the vast and over-the-top, both are actively encouraged. The most successful and critically lauded restaurants are often huge, banquet-hall–style monstrosities seating 1,000 or more.
For smart consumers who favor smaller footprints, scaling down at least appears to be the sensible choice. It also carries the illusion of frugality, though in fact the opposite is true: given economies of scale, little generally costs more to produce and distribute than big. Although outsize entities seem especially vulnerable these days—big banks, big automakers—small things, unless they’re exorbitantly priced, offer narrower profit margins. But fortunately for sellers, people will pay a lot more for something there’s less of.
And so savvy entrepreneurs are downsizing—big time. While the chains cash in with 20-story “let’s-call-them-boutique” hotels, others are taking small-chic to extremes—with three-room, two-room, even one-room hotels, such as the One Hotel Angkor, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the six-month-old Room Number One, in Helsinki. The latter, a 320-square-foot, funkily appointed suite in the scrappy Kallio district, is the first venture from the Finland-based Hotel Room collective, which plans single-unit properties in cities around the globe.
Restaurants, too, are shrinking. At many of the nation’s hot spots you couldn’t swing a pickled ramp without whacking every head in the joint: places like Atlanta’s great, bite-size Holeman & Finch gastropub, or Chicago’s Avec, which serves, yes, small plates at five communal eight-seat tables. I live in New York, and together my favorite haunts could probably fit in your garage: the 30-seat Prune restaurant, in the East Village; the closet-like Smith & Mills bar, in TriBeCa; and the Zibetto espresso counter, on Sixth Avenue, at which maybe seven adults can stand at one time. Of course, in Manhattan puny spaces are more a matter of necessity. It is surprising to see them pop up in places like Texas, given the cheaper square footage and big-and-brash tastes. Among the trendiest restaurants in Fort Worth is the pocket-size Nonna Tata, with all of 21 seats.
Chefs, for their part, work better in small settings. Scaling down allows for more control and more freedom to experiment. Dennis Leary is one of San Francisco’s more talented cooks, yet chances are you’ve never had his food—because Canteen accommodates only 20 people. Leary makes almost every dish himself; he also shops, preps, and occasionally takes orders when the lone waitress is busy. In an apparent effort to spend all 24 hours of his day in a kitchen, Leary recently opened the Sentinel, where he serves breakfast and lunch.
Leary’s food is terrific, but what’s most striking is how much fun he seems to be having. It’s clear why even big-name chefs who can afford to open (and can fill) a 300-seat restaurant are opting to work on a smaller scale. The toughest reservation in New York right now is Momofuku Ko, a 12-seat-counter dining spot where David Chang, Peter Serpico, and their sous-chefs cook for, and serve, each guest directly. Meanwhile, Tom Colicchio has returned to the stoves with Tom: Tuesday Dinner, held every other Tuesday in the private dining room of his Manhattan restaurant Craft. For $150 a person, Colicchio will prepare a 10-course meal for you and 31 other lucky souls.
Okay, it is a little strange that it’s a novelty to have a restaurant’s own chef cooking your food. But such is the way in this big abstracted world. Small things and small places, by contrast, promise a return to a (likely apocryphal) age when our cars, our televisions, our restaurants, and our waistlines were all modestly sized, and when all experiences, not just those of the rich, were intimate and personalized: each element made by hand, each space cozy and inviting, each patron of equal stature and taste.
Which makes you wonder: how much of the appeal of undersize things is about the promise of quality, authenticity, intimacy, and a personal touch, and how much is simply the thrill of being a member? Is “small” really a kinder word for “exclusive”? (Consider the website asmallworld.net, private chat room of the well-bred and well-traveled.) In a time when wealth and privilege might prefer a low profile—mindless excess is so gauche these days—small places and things convey status more discreetly. Why book the Presidential Suite at the grand 400-room hotel when you can book the entire one-room property next door and receive the same attentive service (and feeling of entitlement) without the ostentation? Why pay through the nose to be one of 200 people eating at a celebrity chef’s place when you can be one of 20 diners the chef cooks for personally? Why haggle your way into the VIP room at the splashy new megaclub when you’re on the list at the far cooler bar down the block—the one with no sign, just two stools, and a bartender who knows your name?
The funny thing is, such intimately scaled, exclusive experiences are no longer so very exclusive. At least they’re not so hard to find—or to afford. What we’re seeing is not just the proliferation but the democratization of small-scale experiences. Like heirloom tomatoes, they’re everywhere now. And anyone can take part.
Seizing on the affordable zeitgeist, Colicchio recently spun off his Tuesday Dinner concept with Damon: Frugal Friday. This casual weekly dinner from executive chef Damon Wise is held in the same space at Craft and has small plates with prices to match: skewers of escargots and savory bacon for $4, smoky beef tartare with cumin-dusted flatbread for $5. Wine tops out at $10 a glass. It’s a bargain compared with a regular meal at Craft, where a tab for two can quickly exceed $300. Indeed, the couple at the table next to mine couldn’t stop marveling at the prices: “Look, a cocktail for just four bucks!” When’s the last time you overheard that in Manhattan?
Then again, every person I saw was ordering five or six cocktails and a dozen or more dishes, so the whole “frugal” thing sort of lost focus by the end, and the room turned into a noisy bacchanal with an Allman Brothers sound track. Which is to say I loved it. Unfortunately, so does everyone else: on a typical Friday the wait for a table can stretch to two hours, and the bar is basically a clown car from 5:30 p.m. until closing. It’s been weeks since I was able to drop in and order a $4 cocktail, much less score a coveted seat.
It’s enough to convince me that, just this once, a little bigger might be better.
Tanya Spaulding
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Businesses find bartering as a tool to get what is needed in these times
Bartered Digs
Forget cash. How two firms swapped a site build-out for a site on line.
By Katie Harholdt
http://www.tcmag.com/
Forget cash. How two firms swapped a site build-out for a site on line.
By Katie Harholdt
http://www.tcmag.com/
"A lightbulb went off in my head," says Nancy Lyons, president of interactive marketing firm Clockwork Active Media. And without planning to, she found herself making a proposal a year ago to the company on the other end of the phone: Clockwork would bid to design a new Web site for Shea, Inc., a branding and interior design firm that was looking to do a Web upgrade, if Shea would bid on the new office build-out that Clockwork needed and consider working on a barter basis.
Deal, said Shea’s communications director, Andy McDermott, though it took a little more effort to fully hammer it out.
Lyons says Clockwork had outgrown its offices and needed to move. It had found space nearby on Hennepin Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis – a former car repair shop that was the perfect backdrop for Clockwork’s funky style – but the interior needed to be redesigned. Her lightbulb was partly just plain need.
“Basically, what we were looking at was this economy kind of hanging by a thread,” she says. “We didn’t want to overextend ourselves.”
For Minneapolis-based Shea, barter was a new experience, but the idea was appealing. McDermott says he didn’t understand the time and effort needed to make a high-caliber Web site, and was surprised at how the costs had risen in the few years since Shea last redesigned its site.
To cement their deal, each firm estimated the hours it would spend and the cost for its services. Then McDermott and Lyons agreed on a common dollar amount for both projects, and on what and how much they’d be able to do for that amount. Any work that fell outside that agreed-upon limit would be paid for in cash.
“Because we were proceeding in different time frames and we wanted to keep records of everyone’s time…, we ended up passing bills back and forth to each other,” McDermott says. But the bills mostly canceled each other out and were more of a formality, he adds.
Would either firm barter again? Both McDermott and Lyons say yes, and in fact, Lyons has. Her firm bartered with two local artists – Web design for conference-room art.
Setting clear expectations up front helped the Clockwork-Shea deal go smoothly, Lyons says. And both she and McDermott agree that their creative firms’ similar work styles and shared emphasis on branding made it easy and fun to work together. Lyons says, “We’re proud of the trade.”
Deal, said Shea’s communications director, Andy McDermott, though it took a little more effort to fully hammer it out.
Lyons says Clockwork had outgrown its offices and needed to move. It had found space nearby on Hennepin Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis – a former car repair shop that was the perfect backdrop for Clockwork’s funky style – but the interior needed to be redesigned. Her lightbulb was partly just plain need.“Basically, what we were looking at was this economy kind of hanging by a thread,” she says. “We didn’t want to overextend ourselves.”
For Minneapolis-based Shea, barter was a new experience, but the idea was appealing. McDermott says he didn’t understand the time and effort needed to make a high-caliber Web site, and was surprised at how the costs had risen in the few years since Shea last redesigned its site.
To cement their deal, each firm estimated the hours it would spend and the cost for its services. Then McDermott and Lyons agreed on a common dollar amount for both projects, and on what and how much they’d be able to do for that amount. Any work that fell outside that agreed-upon limit would be paid for in cash.
“Because we were proceeding in different time frames and we wanted to keep records of everyone’s time…, we ended up passing bills back and forth to each other,” McDermott says. But the bills mostly canceled each other out and were more of a formality, he adds.Would either firm barter again? Both McDermott and Lyons say yes, and in fact, Lyons has. Her firm bartered with two local artists – Web design for conference-room art.
Setting clear expectations up front helped the Clockwork-Shea deal go smoothly, Lyons says. And both she and McDermott agree that their creative firms’ similar work styles and shared emphasis on branding made it easy and fun to work together. Lyons says, “We’re proud of the trade.”
Friday, April 24, 2009
THE GROOVY TWIN
Minneapolis as an Arts Powerhouse? We've known it for years! And MARK ELLWOOD of the New York Post has finally taken notice with his article The Groovy Twin as copied below. We at Shea have loved working on great project such as the Chambers Hotel (discussed below) and our staff can often be found at one of the great jewels this city has to offer listed at the end of the article. Sir Tyrone Guthrie chose Minneapolis for his theater for a reason: It's a great place to call home!
HOW MINNEAPOLIS BECAME AN ARTS POWERHOUSE
--
WHEN telling someone to meet you at the upstairs lounge at Minneapolis' Chambers Hotel for a drink, make sure you know you can get away with using the bar's actual name: "Red, White and F-----g Blue."
The bleep-worthy bar was personally named by owner and avid art collector Ralph Burnet, an homage to the neon artwork by Brit bad girl Tracy Emin that dangles from its main wall.
Bullishly charming -- and himself often Emin-style profane -- Burnet is a real estate developer by trade but has become Minneapolis's homegrown answer to Charles Saatchi.
Much of his blue chip collection -- heavy on British YBAs like Sarah Lucas and Gary Hume, as well as New York mainstays like Jude Tallichet -- festoons the walls of his all-white boutique hotel, Chambers. There's a well-respected gallery tucked just off its lobby, showing rotating exhibitions, and Burnet even screens video art in the corridors -- the raunchier stuff's relegated to after 9 p.m. -- allowing interested guests to dial up the sixty odd works directly on their in-room TVs.
"People invest money here instead of wearing it," he laughs.
His love for the arts isn't just a pose: politically active Burnet spearheaded the 'Yes' vote on the constitutional amendment that Minnesota's voters passed at the last election.
Economy be damned, Minnesotans agreed to up taxes, raising an extra $80m a year: some of the windfall's earmarked for the environment but the rest will be spent on the arts. If only they could pick a senator as decisively.
Burnet's electoral success was significant in many ways. New York may boast about Broadway, big concerts and BAM, but slipping a tax like that past the voters in the Big Apple is all but unthinkable.
Voters' enthusiasm in Minneapolis is the clearest sign that the city's reputation as a countrywide cultural HQ isn't all hype and hot air. Many cities outside New York claim that the arts thrive in their regenerated downtowns, but few can back up the claims (take that, Miami).
Minneapolis is a very large exception. Playwrights and script mavens have often used it as a base and backdrop, from Sam Shepard and Diablo Cody to the Minnesota-born Coen Bros. Prince and Flyte Tymee - the svengali producers who string-pulled for Janet Jackson when anyone still cared -- are local legends.
When a study commissioned by Central Connecticut State University touted a rundown of the most literate cities in America recently -- a study cooked up using bookstores per capita and other ad hoc data -- Minneapolis was a clear first place (twin city St Paul snagged third.) "The Lion King" tried out here in the summer of 1997 at the Orpheum Theater, and most of its cast transferred to Broadway with the show later that year. It's clearly the stuff of local lore: One person boasted, a little too precisely, it was 92 percent of the actors.
But unlike New York, with its galleries hunched together in Chelsea and official Theater District, the arts scene in Minneapolis is unassuming and scattered. Galleries and theaters are all too easy-to-miss in that humble, Midwestern way. Strolling around, first impressions of the city are architectural: a slew of well-preserved red brick buildings downtown, so many clock towers that are a holover from the railway heyday and amid the gleaming new skyscrapers downtown, the bizarre but beautiful Foshay Tower. It's a 28-story, deco-era ego trip thrown up by the namesake businessman who promptly went bankrupt and had to sell the pile (it's just been rejigged into an endearingly retro W hotel -- owned by Ralph Burnet, of course).
But tucked away amid the soaring buildings there are world class arts institutions, two above all that anchor the city's claims.
Originally, the Guthrie Theater and the Walker Center shared a common site, but three years ago the former decamped to a brand new purpose built pile on the waterfront, just after the Walker had unveiled its enormous expansion by Swiss starchitects Herzog and DeMeuron.
The Walker, with it 385-seat theater, 40,000 sq foot gallery spaces and 11-acre sculpture garden, is a catch-all monolith that produces dance, performance, plays, films and art shows year-round. The entire operation has just been taken over by a new director, having lured rising star Olga Viso from the Smithsonian last year (Ralph Burnet helped with that, too) Tall, elegant and raved-about by even her rivals, Viso is about to reinstall the entire collection at the end of this year to try to make the Walker even more high profile. She, too, was amazed that Minneapolis's reputation as an arts hub wasn't undeserved. She still marvels at how involved and supportive the local community is.
"The Walker is deeply held and understood by the community," says Viso. "They may not always like what they see, but they believe it's important for artists to experiment."
That live-and-let-live Midwestern-nessess has allowed experimental spaces to thrive here aside from the Walker. John Rasmussen runs Midway Contemporary Art, housed in a low-slung building skulking on a side road in a residential 'hood north of the river; it's a combination art book and magazine library plus contemporary gallery space.
Rasmussen was born locally, but worked at a gallery in New York before returning to set up the center in 2001 -- like "The Lion King" transfer, he and his fellow Chelsea-trained galleristas underscore how the Minneapolis arts scene is a feeder for the bigger budgets and egos in New York (no wonder one local nickname for the city is the Mini-Apple) New York looms as large for Tim Peterson, who runs another non profit space on the south side, the Franklin Arts Center.
He laughs when recalling how PS1 xeroxed one of his shows six months after it was mounted at the Franklin but gave his team no credit (in the last three years alone, Peterson's sent work from here to the Whitney and Brooklyn museums, as well as pesky PS1). Peterson was another Minneapolis native who decamped elsewhere for training before coming home to the quirky, isolated arts hot house here.
"Minneapolis is a cultural island. We have our hands waving in the air, saying 'Look at us!' It's part of that crazy Midwestern ethic of 'everybody does well'", he chuckles.
But after three days pounding the sidewalks and galleries here, it's evident that Minneapolis's reputation for arts isn't undeserved; but what's harder to Braille is why.
One simple reason is money. Dozens of blue chip corporations - more than 40 NYSE members alone -- are headquartered here, and most are famous as companies-with-a-conscience, like Target, Aveda and 3M. Their founders' names (the Target-owning Daytons more than anyone) are plastered on arts projects and plaques across the city.
It dates back to the mid-20th century, when those atomic-era cashed-up industrialists felt a civic responsibility to tithe their good fortune back to the city.
What's more, arts funding here isn't conditional and money's given without strings, which not only means that more experimental -- read: shocking -- art can be bankrolled (remember Burnet's R-rated Emin) but also that museums' operating costs, from cleaning to staff salaries, can be offset that way.
Months after arriving, the Walker's Viso is still stunned at the support her museum enjoys.
"I didn't realize how deeply the commitment to creating world class things in a smaller city went, that it wasn't surface. And culture is valued so deeply in a mass way -- it's not just a small group of elite people."
For example. Viso's Walker is among the top 5 most visited museums in America, though the city's population doesn't break 400,000. (To be fair, the metropolitan area, which includes St. Paul, tops 3 million.) Population is also crucial for its thriving arts scene: just small enough for there to be easy access to the mayor but large enough to reach critical mass.
Ironically, though, the real reason Minneapolis has a boast-worthy arts scene may be down to the one thing it's already famous for: terrible weather. Video artist Nathaniel Freeman moved here with his writer wife Emily and he sums it up best.
"Everyone knows everyone and attends each other's events. They're so supportive. The weather sucks in the winter, which keeps people in their studios, but come spring, the weather is good and the days are so long people want to come out."
Translation: six months stuck inside means artists will create things, while six months mingling helps them hype it and make connections over cocktails. No doubt, "Red, White and [Expletive] Blue" is a favorite hangout.
SERVICE ON THE SIDE
There are dozens of must-see arts sights in Minneapolis -- but these are the top 10.
1) First Avenue (www.first-avenue.com)
A top notch rock venue that attracts every impressive mid-career act that pitstops in Minneapolis - this month, that includes Lily Allen. It's also where the Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum and Atmosphere got their starts.
2) Franklin Art Works (www.franklinartworks.org)
Opened in 1999 in a onetime porn theater, this 9,000-sq foot building has three exhibition spaces. It specializes in premiering work, with a skew towards black artists like Wangechi Mutu and Kehinde Wiley.
3) The Guthrie Theater (www.guthrietheater.org)
Founded in 1963, this hotbed of top tier drama is now housed in a purpose-built gleaming black spaceship idling on the side of the Mississippi river designed by Jean Nouvel. The upcoming season, just announced, includes productions of "Macbeth", "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a special stage adaptation of Noel Coward's iconic movie, "Brief Encounter". This summer, the disappointing onsite restaurant is set to be replaced by a Danny Meyer-at-MoMA-like café.
4) The High Point Center for Printmaking (www.highpointprintmaking.org)
Founded by husband and wife Cole Rogers and Carla McGrath, this is part exhibition space, part workshop. The printmaking complex offers studios for local artists, walk-in sessions for amateurs and an onsite gallery where boldfacers like Carlos Amorales can display their print-making collaborations with the High Point team.
5) The Loft Literary Center (www.loft.org)
For more than 30 years, the Loft has hosted creative writing classes, readings and bookish events with everyone from Salman Rushdie and James Fenton to the late Allen Ginsberg.
6) Midway Contemporary Art (www.midwayart.org)
Come here for first exhibitions from emerging artists, both local and national, as well as the chance to browse a raft of arts books and magazines in the roomy library.
7) Playwrights Center (www.pwccenter.org)
Run by Polly Karl, this lures playwrights and directors to Minneapolis from across the country -- to workshop together in writing labs, and through philanthropy-funded fellowships for specific commissions. There are regular, staged public readings of new plays.
8) The Walker Arts Center (www.walkerart.org)
The category-killing arts center, it stages high profile visual arts shows - currently, the Elizabeth Peyton round-up that debuted at the New Museum - as well as dance (Merce Cunningham's 'Ocean' project last year in a granite quarry) and experimental theater. A bonus: average ticket prices for performances is only $20.
9) The Weisman Art Museum (www.weisman.umn.edu)
Housed on the campus of the University of Minnesota in a signature twisty silver Frank Gehry building - it was one of his first museum commissions and he's about to build an extension - this impressive, if smallish, museum has rotating shows as well as displays from a permanent collection that includes Chuck Close, Sol Lewitt and Andy Warhol.
10) Radio K (radiok.cce.umn.edu)
And don't miss alt-rock Radio K, run by the University of Minnesota, which hopscotches between three different frequencies daily - most think it's thanks to budget problems.
HOW MINNEAPOLIS BECAME AN ARTS POWERHOUSE
--
WHEN telling someone to meet you at the upstairs lounge at Minneapolis' Chambers Hotel for a drink, make sure you know you can get away with using the bar's actual name: "Red, White and F-----g Blue."
The bleep-worthy bar was personally named by owner and avid art collector Ralph Burnet, an homage to the neon artwork by Brit bad girl Tracy Emin that dangles from its main wall.
Bullishly charming -- and himself often Emin-style profane -- Burnet is a real estate developer by trade but has become Minneapolis's homegrown answer to Charles Saatchi.
Much of his blue chip collection -- heavy on British YBAs like Sarah Lucas and Gary Hume, as well as New York mainstays like Jude Tallichet -- festoons the walls of his all-white boutique hotel, Chambers. There's a well-respected gallery tucked just off its lobby, showing rotating exhibitions, and Burnet even screens video art in the corridors -- the raunchier stuff's relegated to after 9 p.m. -- allowing interested guests to dial up the sixty odd works directly on their in-room TVs.
"People invest money here instead of wearing it," he laughs.
His love for the arts isn't just a pose: politically active Burnet spearheaded the 'Yes' vote on the constitutional amendment that Minnesota's voters passed at the last election.
Economy be damned, Minnesotans agreed to up taxes, raising an extra $80m a year: some of the windfall's earmarked for the environment but the rest will be spent on the arts. If only they could pick a senator as decisively.
Burnet's electoral success was significant in many ways. New York may boast about Broadway, big concerts and BAM, but slipping a tax like that past the voters in the Big Apple is all but unthinkable.
Voters' enthusiasm in Minneapolis is the clearest sign that the city's reputation as a countrywide cultural HQ isn't all hype and hot air. Many cities outside New York claim that the arts thrive in their regenerated downtowns, but few can back up the claims (take that, Miami).
Minneapolis is a very large exception. Playwrights and script mavens have often used it as a base and backdrop, from Sam Shepard and Diablo Cody to the Minnesota-born Coen Bros. Prince and Flyte Tymee - the svengali producers who string-pulled for Janet Jackson when anyone still cared -- are local legends.
When a study commissioned by Central Connecticut State University touted a rundown of the most literate cities in America recently -- a study cooked up using bookstores per capita and other ad hoc data -- Minneapolis was a clear first place (twin city St Paul snagged third.) "The Lion King" tried out here in the summer of 1997 at the Orpheum Theater, and most of its cast transferred to Broadway with the show later that year. It's clearly the stuff of local lore: One person boasted, a little too precisely, it was 92 percent of the actors.
But unlike New York, with its galleries hunched together in Chelsea and official Theater District, the arts scene in Minneapolis is unassuming and scattered. Galleries and theaters are all too easy-to-miss in that humble, Midwestern way. Strolling around, first impressions of the city are architectural: a slew of well-preserved red brick buildings downtown, so many clock towers that are a holover from the railway heyday and amid the gleaming new skyscrapers downtown, the bizarre but beautiful Foshay Tower. It's a 28-story, deco-era ego trip thrown up by the namesake businessman who promptly went bankrupt and had to sell the pile (it's just been rejigged into an endearingly retro W hotel -- owned by Ralph Burnet, of course).
But tucked away amid the soaring buildings there are world class arts institutions, two above all that anchor the city's claims.
Originally, the Guthrie Theater and the Walker Center shared a common site, but three years ago the former decamped to a brand new purpose built pile on the waterfront, just after the Walker had unveiled its enormous expansion by Swiss starchitects Herzog and DeMeuron.
The Walker, with it 385-seat theater, 40,000 sq foot gallery spaces and 11-acre sculpture garden, is a catch-all monolith that produces dance, performance, plays, films and art shows year-round. The entire operation has just been taken over by a new director, having lured rising star Olga Viso from the Smithsonian last year (Ralph Burnet helped with that, too) Tall, elegant and raved-about by even her rivals, Viso is about to reinstall the entire collection at the end of this year to try to make the Walker even more high profile. She, too, was amazed that Minneapolis's reputation as an arts hub wasn't undeserved. She still marvels at how involved and supportive the local community is.
"The Walker is deeply held and understood by the community," says Viso. "They may not always like what they see, but they believe it's important for artists to experiment."
That live-and-let-live Midwestern-nessess has allowed experimental spaces to thrive here aside from the Walker. John Rasmussen runs Midway Contemporary Art, housed in a low-slung building skulking on a side road in a residential 'hood north of the river; it's a combination art book and magazine library plus contemporary gallery space.
Rasmussen was born locally, but worked at a gallery in New York before returning to set up the center in 2001 -- like "The Lion King" transfer, he and his fellow Chelsea-trained galleristas underscore how the Minneapolis arts scene is a feeder for the bigger budgets and egos in New York (no wonder one local nickname for the city is the Mini-Apple) New York looms as large for Tim Peterson, who runs another non profit space on the south side, the Franklin Arts Center.
He laughs when recalling how PS1 xeroxed one of his shows six months after it was mounted at the Franklin but gave his team no credit (in the last three years alone, Peterson's sent work from here to the Whitney and Brooklyn museums, as well as pesky PS1). Peterson was another Minneapolis native who decamped elsewhere for training before coming home to the quirky, isolated arts hot house here.
"Minneapolis is a cultural island. We have our hands waving in the air, saying 'Look at us!' It's part of that crazy Midwestern ethic of 'everybody does well'", he chuckles.
But after three days pounding the sidewalks and galleries here, it's evident that Minneapolis's reputation for arts isn't undeserved; but what's harder to Braille is why.
One simple reason is money. Dozens of blue chip corporations - more than 40 NYSE members alone -- are headquartered here, and most are famous as companies-with-a-conscience, like Target, Aveda and 3M. Their founders' names (the Target-owning Daytons more than anyone) are plastered on arts projects and plaques across the city.
It dates back to the mid-20th century, when those atomic-era cashed-up industrialists felt a civic responsibility to tithe their good fortune back to the city.
What's more, arts funding here isn't conditional and money's given without strings, which not only means that more experimental -- read: shocking -- art can be bankrolled (remember Burnet's R-rated Emin) but also that museums' operating costs, from cleaning to staff salaries, can be offset that way.
Months after arriving, the Walker's Viso is still stunned at the support her museum enjoys.
"I didn't realize how deeply the commitment to creating world class things in a smaller city went, that it wasn't surface. And culture is valued so deeply in a mass way -- it's not just a small group of elite people."
For example. Viso's Walker is among the top 5 most visited museums in America, though the city's population doesn't break 400,000. (To be fair, the metropolitan area, which includes St. Paul, tops 3 million.) Population is also crucial for its thriving arts scene: just small enough for there to be easy access to the mayor but large enough to reach critical mass.
Ironically, though, the real reason Minneapolis has a boast-worthy arts scene may be down to the one thing it's already famous for: terrible weather. Video artist Nathaniel Freeman moved here with his writer wife Emily and he sums it up best.
"Everyone knows everyone and attends each other's events. They're so supportive. The weather sucks in the winter, which keeps people in their studios, but come spring, the weather is good and the days are so long people want to come out."
Translation: six months stuck inside means artists will create things, while six months mingling helps them hype it and make connections over cocktails. No doubt, "Red, White and [Expletive] Blue" is a favorite hangout.
SERVICE ON THE SIDE
There are dozens of must-see arts sights in Minneapolis -- but these are the top 10.
1) First Avenue (www.first-avenue.com)
A top notch rock venue that attracts every impressive mid-career act that pitstops in Minneapolis - this month, that includes Lily Allen. It's also where the Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum and Atmosphere got their starts.
2) Franklin Art Works (www.franklinartworks.org)
Opened in 1999 in a onetime porn theater, this 9,000-sq foot building has three exhibition spaces. It specializes in premiering work, with a skew towards black artists like Wangechi Mutu and Kehinde Wiley.
3) The Guthrie Theater (www.guthrietheater.org)
Founded in 1963, this hotbed of top tier drama is now housed in a purpose-built gleaming black spaceship idling on the side of the Mississippi river designed by Jean Nouvel. The upcoming season, just announced, includes productions of "Macbeth", "A Streetcar Named Desire" and a special stage adaptation of Noel Coward's iconic movie, "Brief Encounter". This summer, the disappointing onsite restaurant is set to be replaced by a Danny Meyer-at-MoMA-like café.
4) The High Point Center for Printmaking (www.highpointprintmaking.org)
Founded by husband and wife Cole Rogers and Carla McGrath, this is part exhibition space, part workshop. The printmaking complex offers studios for local artists, walk-in sessions for amateurs and an onsite gallery where boldfacers like Carlos Amorales can display their print-making collaborations with the High Point team.
5) The Loft Literary Center (www.loft.org)
For more than 30 years, the Loft has hosted creative writing classes, readings and bookish events with everyone from Salman Rushdie and James Fenton to the late Allen Ginsberg.
6) Midway Contemporary Art (www.midwayart.org)
Come here for first exhibitions from emerging artists, both local and national, as well as the chance to browse a raft of arts books and magazines in the roomy library.
7) Playwrights Center (www.pwccenter.org)
Run by Polly Karl, this lures playwrights and directors to Minneapolis from across the country -- to workshop together in writing labs, and through philanthropy-funded fellowships for specific commissions. There are regular, staged public readings of new plays.
8) The Walker Arts Center (www.walkerart.org)
The category-killing arts center, it stages high profile visual arts shows - currently, the Elizabeth Peyton round-up that debuted at the New Museum - as well as dance (Merce Cunningham's 'Ocean' project last year in a granite quarry) and experimental theater. A bonus: average ticket prices for performances is only $20.
9) The Weisman Art Museum (www.weisman.umn.edu)
Housed on the campus of the University of Minnesota in a signature twisty silver Frank Gehry building - it was one of his first museum commissions and he's about to build an extension - this impressive, if smallish, museum has rotating shows as well as displays from a permanent collection that includes Chuck Close, Sol Lewitt and Andy Warhol.
10) Radio K (radiok.cce.umn.edu)
And don't miss alt-rock Radio K, run by the University of Minnesota, which hopscotches between three different frequencies daily - most think it's thanks to budget problems.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Restaurants take to Twitter to grow following
Eyeing diners, restaurants take to Twitter
By Lisa Baertlein
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKTRE53I11Z20090419?sp=true
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kogi, a duo of Korean BBQ-inspired taco trucks in Los Angeles, has "Tweeted" its way to international stardom and is inspiring restaurateurs seeking new ways to tempt diners during a deep recession.
Twitter, a free social networking site, is a vital ingredient in Kogi's success. As Kogi's example shows, the service that started as a way for people to follow the 140-character "tweets" of friends and celebrities is quickly becoming a powerful new way for businesses to talk directly with customers.
Because Kogi's trucks visit locations all around Los Angeles, brand director Mike Prasad wanted to create a single place where fans could gather.
"We had to create a home for them. Twitter was a natural fit," said Prasad.
The plan worked. Since launching in November, Kogi has attracted more than 15,000 followers on Twitter(http://twitter.com/kogibbq).
IGNORE AT YOUR PERIL
"There is nothing faster for communicating than Twitter," said Aaron Allen, chief executive of restaurant consulting firm Quantified Marketing Group. "You have to be a complete moron to ignore it."
The Twitter conversation "cloud" can give businesses an early read on consumer sentiment, said Shiv Singh, global social media head at advertising and marketing firm Razorfish.
"It serves as a bellwether for mainstream blog conversations," said Singh, who added that frequent tweeters tend to have extreme views and to be influential.
And negative tweets, like bad news, can travel fast.
Domino's Pizza Inc, the latest victim of bad Web publicity, recently launched a Twitter account at twitter.com/dpzinfo as part of its response to a widely viewed employee prank video that showed, among other things, an employee putting cheese up his nose before adding it to a sandwich. Domino's also fired the employees involved.
While Twitter is free and easy to use, experts say success does not come without putting in some sweat equity.
"It does take time and effort and care and feeding," said Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing company. "If you go silent it shows. It's like not answering the phone."
TWEET ME
Starbucks Corp has more than 140,000 followers on Twitter.
"It's a way for us to answer questions and connect," said Brad Nelson, who oversees the activity on Twitter.
McDonald's Corp and Burger King do not yet have corporate Twitter accounts. Representatives for the companies said explorations are ongoing. Meanwhile, Burger King -- which is among the restaurant industry's most technology-savvy operators -- said the company keeps in touch with the operator of fan page twitter.com/theBKlounge.
Michael Breed, senior marketing manager at Brinker International Inc's Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant, has attracted more than 3,000 followers since mid-February with help from small giveaways.
In Los Angeles, restaurants are looking for ways to stand out from the growing pack.
Quinn Hatfield, of Hatfield's restaurant in Beverly Hills, tweets the ins and outs of creating dishes, punctuated with the occasional mouth-watering picture.
In another part of town, Tender Greens' co-owner Erik Oberholtzer uses Twitter to keep tabs on hardcore fans and to take online marketing to the next level.
Rush Street's Nick Kaufman likes to reward people who tweet while they are dining at the Culver City eatery with things like free drinks.
"It's kind of like I'm the man behind the curtain," said Kaufman, who handles the restaurant's online marketing. "People realize if they follow us they may get something out of it."
By Lisa Baertlein
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNewsMolt/idUKTRE53I11Z20090419?sp=true
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kogi, a duo of Korean BBQ-inspired taco trucks in Los Angeles, has "Tweeted" its way to international stardom and is inspiring restaurateurs seeking new ways to tempt diners during a deep recession.
Twitter, a free social networking site, is a vital ingredient in Kogi's success. As Kogi's example shows, the service that started as a way for people to follow the 140-character "tweets" of friends and celebrities is quickly becoming a powerful new way for businesses to talk directly with customers.
Because Kogi's trucks visit locations all around Los Angeles, brand director Mike Prasad wanted to create a single place where fans could gather.
"We had to create a home for them. Twitter was a natural fit," said Prasad.
The plan worked. Since launching in November, Kogi has attracted more than 15,000 followers on Twitter(http://twitter.com/kogibbq).
IGNORE AT YOUR PERIL
"There is nothing faster for communicating than Twitter," said Aaron Allen, chief executive of restaurant consulting firm Quantified Marketing Group. "You have to be a complete moron to ignore it."
The Twitter conversation "cloud" can give businesses an early read on consumer sentiment, said Shiv Singh, global social media head at advertising and marketing firm Razorfish.
"It serves as a bellwether for mainstream blog conversations," said Singh, who added that frequent tweeters tend to have extreme views and to be influential.
And negative tweets, like bad news, can travel fast.
Domino's Pizza Inc, the latest victim of bad Web publicity, recently launched a Twitter account at twitter.com/dpzinfo as part of its response to a widely viewed employee prank video that showed, among other things, an employee putting cheese up his nose before adding it to a sandwich. Domino's also fired the employees involved.
While Twitter is free and easy to use, experts say success does not come without putting in some sweat equity.
"It does take time and effort and care and feeding," said Chris Brogan, president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing company. "If you go silent it shows. It's like not answering the phone."
TWEET ME
Starbucks Corp has more than 140,000 followers on Twitter.
"It's a way for us to answer questions and connect," said Brad Nelson, who oversees the activity on Twitter.
McDonald's Corp and Burger King do not yet have corporate Twitter accounts. Representatives for the companies said explorations are ongoing. Meanwhile, Burger King -- which is among the restaurant industry's most technology-savvy operators -- said the company keeps in touch with the operator of fan page twitter.com/theBKlounge.
Michael Breed, senior marketing manager at Brinker International Inc's Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant, has attracted more than 3,000 followers since mid-February with help from small giveaways.
In Los Angeles, restaurants are looking for ways to stand out from the growing pack.
Quinn Hatfield, of Hatfield's restaurant in Beverly Hills, tweets the ins and outs of creating dishes, punctuated with the occasional mouth-watering picture.
In another part of town, Tender Greens' co-owner Erik Oberholtzer uses Twitter to keep tabs on hardcore fans and to take online marketing to the next level.
Rush Street's Nick Kaufman likes to reward people who tweet while they are dining at the Culver City eatery with things like free drinks.
"It's kind of like I'm the man behind the curtain," said Kaufman, who handles the restaurant's online marketing. "People realize if they follow us they may get something out of it."
Monday, April 13, 2009
The latest in High-Tech Grocery Shopping
High-Tech Grocery Shopping Touts Savings, But Hasn't Hooked CustomersBy LYNN DOAN
The Hartford Courant
High-tech grocery shopping started with a cashier who scanned your groceries with a laser reader and bagged them for you.
Then stores installed self-serve stations where you could scan and bag groceries yourself.
Now, a new technology has unleashed the grocery scanner, allowing customers to walk through the aisles, scanning and bagging food as they go.
Stop & Shop has introduced the new hand-held scanners in several of its Connecticut stores. The purple devices allow customers to keep a running total of the groceries they've scanned
and then pay at a self-service station at the end of their trip without having to take everything out of their shopping baskets again.
Modiv Media Inc., which manufactures the Scan It! system, claims that the portable scanners can shave an average of 12 minutes from a trip to the grocery store, but might also increase the number of times people shop. And as customers browse the shelves, a screen on the scanner alerts them to manufacturers' discounts for items on those shelves. Some of the offers — similar to coupon savings — can only be redeemed by using one of the devices. The discounts are tallied when the item is scanned.
and then pay at a self-service station at the end of their trip without having to take everything out of their shopping baskets again.
Modiv Media Inc., which manufactures the Scan It! system, claims that the portable scanners can shave an average of 12 minutes from a trip to the grocery store, but might also increase the number of times people shop. And as customers browse the shelves, a screen on the scanner alerts them to manufacturers' discounts for items on those shelves. Some of the offers — similar to coupon savings — can only be redeemed by using one of the devices. The discounts are tallied when the item is scanned.
"The people who are using these are happy to take control and do this stuff themselves to save that extra time," said Paul Schaut, the company's chairman and chief executive officer. "We, as a culture, are actually happy to do more stuff that, in the past, the store would do if we're getting some benefit from it."
Dottie Stone used a scanner during a recent trip to a Stop & Shop store in West Hartford with her husband, George.
"I think it's terrific," she said. "It makes shopping kind of fun. You've got this high-techy thing to play with."
As she weighed some apples and scanned a bar code for them, a "ka-ching" rang out from her Motorola scanner to alert her to a manufacturer's offer. During an average grocery trip, a self-scanning shopper will hear the "ka-ching" about a dozen times.
"To tell you the truth," she said of the coupons, "I don't pay any attention to them."
But the scanners weren't winning over West Hartford shopper Marilyn Harmon during her recent trip to the store. She described the scanners as "cumbersome" and "a hindrance."
"It's just one more thing you have to focus on," Harmon said, as she waited her turn at the Stop & Shop deli. "To me, it's just another thing to slow you down."
Naturally, the scanners pay benefits to both Modiv and to the supermarkets. Modiv sells the systems to supermarkets for about $100,000 each and makes the bulk of its profits from manufacturers who pay to advertise on the scanner screens.
Supermarkets stand to get more business. Shoppers buy an average of 10 percent more during every visit and increase the frequency of their visits by another 10 percent when using the scanners, Schaut said. At that rate, he said, the system pays for itself in a year.
"The stores make the investment," he said, "and we give them a good return on that investment."
The self-serve scanners were attracting little attention on a recent morning at West Hartford's Stop & Shop. In a half-hour span, only one of the scanners had been checked out for use. Schaut said that about 10 percent of shoppers choose to use the scanners when they're available.
A "greeter" promoting the new system at the entrance to the West Hartford store said that the scanners tend to receive more attention toward the end of the day.
The scanning systems don't seem to be catching on at other Connecticut stores, at least for now.
A spokeswoman for Big Y said that the chain has been exploring hand-held scanners, but that it is still determining whether the devices are worth it for the customer. A Shaw's Supermarkets spokeswoman said that the company is "examining whether new technology makes sense for business and customers."
Price Chopper spokeswoman Mona Golub said that the chain is not considering the new scanning
technology, although she said the company is "exploring other technologies that currently have more potential."
Maureen Cox, customer service coordinator at Whole Foods Market, said that the company is sticking with its traditional cashier lines.
Alison Mochizuki, a spokeswoman for Trader Joe's, said that the company also plans to stick to the "traditional approach" of ringing people up.
"We like to have customer interaction," she said. "We have a conversation with our customers, and that's going to continue."
If interaction isn't your thing and neither is self-scanning, there's always a fourth option — online
grocery shopping and delivery. Some grocery stores also allow you to order your groceries online for pickup.
Internet grocer Peapod has an agreement with Stop & Shop stores in Connecticut to deliver groceries to homes for a $7 to $10 fee, and possibly less if you're flexible with delivery times and payment methods.
Peg Merzbacher, Peapod's marketing director, described the service as "the online equivalent of Scan It!" in that — like Scan It! — it displays a running total of the groceries you've placed in your virtual shopping cart.
"It's not good for us because you're not impulse shopping," she said, "but it's great for people trying to spend on a budget because it's a very planned transaction."
People are buying more Prepared Foods than before
Consumer quest for 'quick-fix' dinners boosts markets
Sandra Pedicini
OrlandoSentinel.com
Avoiding restaurants but unwilling to do more cooking, budget-conscious Americans are shelling out more money to supermarkets and discount stores for prepared meals.
Many companies have responded by offering an increasingly wide array of such dishes, sometimes in expanded deli sections. It's part of a trend that has helped increase sales at grocery stores in general.
And it's not just rotisserie chickens anymore. Consumers can pick up Asian dishes, soups, refrigerated pizzas and fried fish.
According to a 2008 study by food-industry consulting firm Technomic, 25 percent of consumers reported buying more prepared meals than they did a year ago. Sales are expected to keep growing as grocers continue innovating and improving their prepared items, said Sara Monnette, who helped write Technomic's report.
"It's the quick fix," said Daisy Sanchez, a sporting-goods department manager at Walmart, who was picking up garlic-and-lemon-pepper rotisserie chickens from her employer's deli after work. "It's just one, two, three." Sanchez, 47, says she and her family eat ready-made meals about once a week, "when I'm tired."
The Walmart on Turkey Lake Road, where Sanchez works, has seen a higher demand for prepared items during the past few months, assistant store manager Greg Getz said. As a result, more refrigerated meals are out on the shelves, and the store hired an employee specifically to assemble sub sandwiches. Some newer supermarkets have devoted huge sections of their stores to items requiring minimal or no preparation. Technomic calls it the " Whole Foods effect" — a reference to the upscale grocery chain.
A Whole Foods Market that opened last year in the Dr. Phillips area has hot bars with Asian, Indian, Latin, Italian, continental and American-style foods. Its offerings also include a pizza bar and three selfservice soup bars.
The store has expanded its sandwich station because of heavy demand, particularly from tourists.
Even before that, Publix opened a pilot store in Lake Mary with 4,500 square feet devoted to items such as Asian dishes, slow-cooked meats and soups. A salad bar is set to open in July.
And a recently remodeled Winn-Dixie store in Casselberry has a deli that includes a sandwich and sub shop, salad bar, gourmet olive cart, wood-burning rotisserie and wing bar.
All of this has helped grocery-store sales, which increased 6.75 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year, according to Sageworks Inc., which provides financial analyses for companies.
Some of the prepared items might cost more than making dishes yourself. But even during a recession, many people simply don't want to cook, said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst and vice president of research firm The NPD Group.
"I can't find more people who are looking to cook more," he said.
NPD said in its recent report on the trend that the supermarket industry can lure diners in several ways, including offering discounts and drive-throughs.
Restaurants have taken notice and are fighting back.
"I think it's a concern, and rightly so," said Pamela Parseghian, executive food editor of Nation's
Restaurant News, who moderated a panel discussion on the topic at an industry event last year.
"The prepared food you can get at a supermarket at a fraction of the price can be quite good and
convenient."
Restaurants are offering more prepared meals of their own, although they often sell theirs in grocerystore frozen-food aisles or in meal kits requiring some prep time. Last year, TGI Friday's started offering frozen skillet meals, allowing people to cook dishes such as firecracker sesame chicken in less than 15 minutes.
Parseghian said restaurants are also trying to improve their takeout offerings, working on packaging so meals hold up better during long rides home and trying to offer items that can easily be reheated.
But they also need to promote what makes a night out at a restaurant special, Parseghian said. They're not just providing a plate of food.
"They're able to serve it in a lovely atmosphere, at the right temperature, the right texture and flavor," she said. "And then the other little side benefit is, people don't have to clean up after."
Sandra Pedicini
OrlandoSentinel.com
Avoiding restaurants but unwilling to do more cooking, budget-conscious Americans are shelling out more money to supermarkets and discount stores for prepared meals.
Many companies have responded by offering an increasingly wide array of such dishes, sometimes in expanded deli sections. It's part of a trend that has helped increase sales at grocery stores in general.
And it's not just rotisserie chickens anymore. Consumers can pick up Asian dishes, soups, refrigerated pizzas and fried fish.
According to a 2008 study by food-industry consulting firm Technomic, 25 percent of consumers reported buying more prepared meals than they did a year ago. Sales are expected to keep growing as grocers continue innovating and improving their prepared items, said Sara Monnette, who helped write Technomic's report.
"It's the quick fix," said Daisy Sanchez, a sporting-goods department manager at Walmart, who was picking up garlic-and-lemon-pepper rotisserie chickens from her employer's deli after work. "It's just one, two, three." Sanchez, 47, says she and her family eat ready-made meals about once a week, "when I'm tired."
The Walmart on Turkey Lake Road, where Sanchez works, has seen a higher demand for prepared items during the past few months, assistant store manager Greg Getz said. As a result, more refrigerated meals are out on the shelves, and the store hired an employee specifically to assemble sub sandwiches. Some newer supermarkets have devoted huge sections of their stores to items requiring minimal or no preparation. Technomic calls it the " Whole Foods effect" — a reference to the upscale grocery chain.
A Whole Foods Market that opened last year in the Dr. Phillips area has hot bars with Asian, Indian, Latin, Italian, continental and American-style foods. Its offerings also include a pizza bar and three selfservice soup bars.
The store has expanded its sandwich station because of heavy demand, particularly from tourists.
Even before that, Publix opened a pilot store in Lake Mary with 4,500 square feet devoted to items such as Asian dishes, slow-cooked meats and soups. A salad bar is set to open in July.
And a recently remodeled Winn-Dixie store in Casselberry has a deli that includes a sandwich and sub shop, salad bar, gourmet olive cart, wood-burning rotisserie and wing bar.
All of this has helped grocery-store sales, which increased 6.75 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year, according to Sageworks Inc., which provides financial analyses for companies.
Some of the prepared items might cost more than making dishes yourself. But even during a recession, many people simply don't want to cook, said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst and vice president of research firm The NPD Group.
"I can't find more people who are looking to cook more," he said.
NPD said in its recent report on the trend that the supermarket industry can lure diners in several ways, including offering discounts and drive-throughs.
Restaurants have taken notice and are fighting back.
"I think it's a concern, and rightly so," said Pamela Parseghian, executive food editor of Nation's
Restaurant News, who moderated a panel discussion on the topic at an industry event last year.
"The prepared food you can get at a supermarket at a fraction of the price can be quite good and
convenient."
Restaurants are offering more prepared meals of their own, although they often sell theirs in grocerystore frozen-food aisles or in meal kits requiring some prep time. Last year, TGI Friday's started offering frozen skillet meals, allowing people to cook dishes such as firecracker sesame chicken in less than 15 minutes.
Parseghian said restaurants are also trying to improve their takeout offerings, working on packaging so meals hold up better during long rides home and trying to offer items that can easily be reheated.
But they also need to promote what makes a night out at a restaurant special, Parseghian said. They're not just providing a plate of food.
"They're able to serve it in a lovely atmosphere, at the right temperature, the right texture and flavor," she said. "And then the other little side benefit is, people don't have to clean up after."
The Ups and Downs in the Food Recession
Who's Winning--and Losing--in the Food Recession
By Anne Lee
Upscale restaurants and gourmet labels may be hurting these days, but mega-manufacturers with a variety of brands (like Kraft and Nestle), along with club stores like Costco, are benefiting from the recession as at-home dining is on the rise. "It's not doom and gloom across food markets," says Bill Patterson, a senior analyst at consumer market research firm Mintel.
UP: Sandwich materials 
The so-called sweet spreads--jams, jellies and peanut butter--are forecast to grow 26% by 2013, in spite of the peanut-salmonella scare ("That's largely behind us now," Patterson says). Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are perfect for brown bag lunches, and also feed into the need for comfort food in rough times.
The so-called sweet spreads--jams, jellies and peanut butter--are forecast to grow 26% by 2013, in spite of the peanut-salmonella scare ("That's largely behind us now," Patterson says). Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are perfect for brown bag lunches, and also feed into the need for comfort food in rough times.
DOWN: Restaurants
The National Restaurant Association predicts an all-over decline of 1%, with fine dining taking the biggest hit. However, the "fast casual" sector, which includes chains like Panera and Subway, is projected to be up by 5% this year.
The National Restaurant Association predicts an all-over decline of 1%, with fine dining taking the biggest hit. However, the "fast casual" sector, which includes chains like Panera and Subway, is projected to be up by 5% this year.
UP: Instant Food
If you can't cook but need to eat at home to save money, frozen entrees, canned goods, and other easy-to-prepare dishes are convenient and less expensive than dining out. Frozen meals jumped 4.5% last year, and side dishes like beans and mac and cheese grew more than 5%--also attributed to the "comfort food" factor. It hits the spot when people are "feeling at home or feeling miserable," says Patterson.
If you can't cook but need to eat at home to save money, frozen entrees, canned goods, and other easy-to-prepare dishes are convenient and less expensive than dining out. Frozen meals jumped 4.5% last year, and side dishes like beans and mac and cheese grew more than 5%--also attributed to the "comfort food" factor. It hits the spot when people are "feeling at home or feeling miserable," says Patterson.
DOWN: Organic Food
The higher-priced organic food market has had growth rate of 15-20% over the past few years, but is predicted to see no growth to a decline of up to 1% this year. However, Patterson thinks it will bounce back by 2010, calling it a "big hiccup" and "temporary blip."
The higher-priced organic food market has had growth rate of 15-20% over the past few years, but is predicted to see no growth to a decline of up to 1% this year. However, Patterson thinks it will bounce back by 2010, calling it a "big hiccup" and "temporary blip."
UP: Coffee
With more people brewing at home, retail coffee products grew 6% last year.
With more people brewing at home, retail coffee products grew 6% last year.
DOWN: Coffee Houses
At-home brewing will give the $4 latte a run for its money. (Starbucks, as if planning for just such a cafetastrophe, already introduced a new instant coffee.) Non-coffee shops, likes McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, will also benefit from selling specialty drinks at much lower price points.
At-home brewing will give the $4 latte a run for its money. (Starbucks, as if planning for just such a cafetastrophe, already introduced a new instant coffee.) Non-coffee shops, likes McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, will also benefit from selling specialty drinks at much lower price points.
UP: Salty Snacks
With more people staying at home, hosting at home, and renting DVDs, salty snack consumption was expected to rise 4% last year, but actual figures are coming in closer to 6%.
With more people staying at home, hosting at home, and renting DVDs, salty snack consumption was expected to rise 4% last year, but actual figures are coming in closer to 6%.
DOWN: Movie Theater Concessions
The high markup at the stand means moviegoers are being more sensible and spending less. "People have realized that what they're paying is so much more than what they'd be paying on the same foods if they didn't go to the movie theater," says Patterson.
The high markup at the stand means moviegoers are being more sensible and spending less. "People have realized that what they're paying is so much more than what they'd be paying on the same foods if they didn't go to the movie theater," says Patterson.
UP: Butter, Margarine, and Oil
More home-cooking means more use for basics like shortening, butter and mayo, whether it's for that sandwich or some homemade cupcakes. The fats and oils are expected to grow almost 4% annually through 2013.
More home-cooking means more use for basics like shortening, butter and mayo, whether it's for that sandwich or some homemade cupcakes. The fats and oils are expected to grow almost 4% annually through 2013.
DOWN: Bakeries
In-store bakeries--ones in supermarkets, Wal-Marts and other places--aren't projected to post losses, but growth is anticipated to slow to 5% to 6%, compared to the 7% to 8% of past years.
In-store bakeries--ones in supermarkets, Wal-Marts and other places--aren't projected to post losses, but growth is anticipated to slow to 5% to 6%, compared to the 7% to 8% of past years.
Monday, April 6, 2009
David Shea interviewed for IDS Tower
An architect's experience with the IDS
Produced by Troy Melhus
Reporter Rick Nelson interviews Minneapolis architect David Shea, who was just beginning his architecture career when called to play a role in the development of the IDS center.
Follow link below to watch the podcast:
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/42484527.html?elr=KArksUUUU
Produced by Troy Melhus
Reporter Rick Nelson interviews Minneapolis architect David Shea, who was just beginning his architecture career when called to play a role in the development of the IDS center.
Follow link below to watch the podcast:
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/42484527.html?elr=KArksUUUU
Friday, April 3, 2009
Restaurants turning to Bars to keep alive
Bar Wars
To attract cash-strapped diners, restaurateurs from Alain Ducasse to Daniel Boulud are making dramatic bids to ramp up their bar business -- even if it means serving hot dogs and deviled eggs.
To attract cash-strapped diners, restaurateurs from Alain Ducasse to Daniel Boulud are making dramatic bids to ramp up their bar business -- even if it means serving hot dogs and deviled eggs.
When chef Eric Greenspan opened the Foundry, a $1.3 million restaurant in Los Angeles, two years ago, he created a menu of high-end cuisine, showcasing the culinary skills he had honed at some of the world's top restaurants. Three months ago, Mr. Greenspan turned the restaurant into a lounge with nightly live bands, cocktail waitresses and promotions such as "fried-chicken-and-waffles night." The dining room has been banished to a back patio.
"The lounge is keeping us alive," he says.
Around the country, proprietors are turning their restaurants -- or significant parts of them -- into glorified bars. They're ripping out dining-room tables to make more bar space, applying for late-night and cabaret licenses and adding the word "bar" to their names. Top chefs are serving up bar snacks like grilled cheese sandwiches and hot dogs.
The reason: While consumer spending at restaurants is falling precipitously, drink orders, particularly for cheaper drinks like beer, are barely dropping off. For restaurants, it's now proving more cost-effective to serve lower-priced dishes that diners can munch on as they buy drinks.
Alain Ducasse's Benoit bistro in New York recently rolled out a bar menu that includes sliders and $1 deviled eggs. Daniel Boulud, the Manhattan chef behind one of the city's most formal restaurants, Daniel, plans to open DBGB Kitchen & Bar, featuring 24 beers on tap and homemade sausage and hot dogs, in May or June. Christophe Émé, chef and owner of Ortolan in Los Angeles, has begun calling about 100 customers a week to tell them about his new bar menu.
Even Thomas Keller's Per Se restaurant in Manhattan, where the only dinner option has been a $275, nine-course prix fixe menu, launched an a la carte menu for its lounge area last week. Unlike the main dining room, where dinner tables typically book up two months in advance, the lounge doesn't take reservations. Diners are seated around coffee tables.
Per Se's a la carte menu is pricey by most standards -- a small entrée of white polenta agnolotti in a green garlic sauce is $28 and a slab of sautéed foie gras with sunchokes and watercress is $40 -- but diners can spend far less than they would on the prix fixe. On a recent night, the restaurant also offered diners complimentary tastes of signature items such as gougères and salmon cornets. The bar tab can add up quickly: Red wine by the glass starts at $19 and runs as high as $40.
The morphing of some of the nation's top dining rooms into bars and lounges with food demonstrates how dramatically and quickly consumer behavior has changed since the economy plummeted this fall. Technomic, a Chicago restaurant consultant, predicts that this year fine dining sales will plunge at least 12%, after falling 4% last year.
Meanwhile, analysts are predicting a less painful contraction in alcohol sales: Technomic predicts a 1.6% decline in sales of alcohol consumed where it is sold.
"Historically, consumption of alcohol tends to outperform compared to other parts of the economy in a recession," says Brian Sudano, managing director of BMC Strategic Associates, a New York consultant to the beverage industry.
Selling alcohol, and cocktails in particular, is typically a better business than selling restaurant food because the margins are higher. While ingredient costs may account for as much as 35% of the price of an entrée in a high-end restaurant, they typically only account for about 14% of the price of a cocktail or 25% of the price of a glass of wine.
Bar snacks, which often include inexpensive items like pizzas, can also have better margins than fine-dining dishes with expensive proteins such as filet mignon or organic lamb. Since restaurants are already paying to run a kitchen, selling additional, easy-to-make food is simply an extra revenue stream.
Beyond thrift, there is a social component to noshing at bars. Restaurateurs say patrons seem especially eager to rub shoulders with one another at the bar, rather than isolate themselves at dining-room tables.
"People want to socialize and be out; they don't want to be miserable at home," says Chris Douglass, co-owner of three Boston-area restaurants, including the 32-year-old fine-dining restaurant Icarus, which Mr. Douglass says he would like to either sell or turn into a "gastropub" -- a bar that serves high-quality food -- if he can find buyers or investors.
Seven weeks ago, he began beefing up the bar scene in his seven-month-old Boston restaurant Tavolo, by applying for a late-night license that would allow him to stay open two hours later, until 1 a.m., as well as an entertainment license, which means he could have a DJ. He also ordered three more taps in order to serve more draft beer.
Last Thursday, friends Kat Garcia, a 27-year-old television publicist, and Quinn Doan, 34, a hotel publicist, sat perched on stools in the bar area of L.A.'s Ortolan. Over the course of the evening, they spent about $150 including tax and tip, on wine, Champagne, four appetizers and two desserts -- about $100 less than what a meal in the dining room might have cost. Ortolan's bar-only dishes include langoustine ravioli in consommé for $9, compared with $19 to $25 for appetizers and roughly $40 for entrées on the dining-room menu.
"You could go to any other place and buy a $7 to $10 appetizer and you might get a bowl of fries," Ms. Garcia said.
Both the restaurant and bar area were nearly empty at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Emé says the restaurant's drop-off in traffic spurred him to roll out the bar menu, which he says is still getting off the ground.
The same night at 8 p.m., the Foundry was over a third full, mostly with patrons in their 20s and 30s. The bartender cheerfully made small talk with customers and Mr. Greenspan, the chef, worked the room. The bar and the lounge tables all sported peculiar glass tanks with spigots. A hostess explained the contraptions were for dripping water onto a sugar cube placed on a spoon over a glass of absinthe; an absinthe company had sponsored the jazz music that night.
Informal dining is increasingly popular, and some of the restaurants launching bar menus and lounges will likely keep them even after the economy bounces back. But when consumer spending loosens up, Mr. Greenspan plans to convert the Foundry back into a regular restaurant, he says.
"I want to be able to go back to what I am known for and what I do really well," Mr. Greenspan says.
Around the country, proprietors are turning their restaurants -- or significant parts of them -- into glorified bars. They're ripping out dining-room tables to make more bar space, applying for late-night and cabaret licenses and adding the word "bar" to their names. Top chefs are serving up bar snacks like grilled cheese sandwiches and hot dogs.
The reason: While consumer spending at restaurants is falling precipitously, drink orders, particularly for cheaper drinks like beer, are barely dropping off. For restaurants, it's now proving more cost-effective to serve lower-priced dishes that diners can munch on as they buy drinks.
Alain Ducasse's Benoit bistro in New York recently rolled out a bar menu that includes sliders and $1 deviled eggs. Daniel Boulud, the Manhattan chef behind one of the city's most formal restaurants, Daniel, plans to open DBGB Kitchen & Bar, featuring 24 beers on tap and homemade sausage and hot dogs, in May or June. Christophe Émé, chef and owner of Ortolan in Los Angeles, has begun calling about 100 customers a week to tell them about his new bar menu.
Even Thomas Keller's Per Se restaurant in Manhattan, where the only dinner option has been a $275, nine-course prix fixe menu, launched an a la carte menu for its lounge area last week. Unlike the main dining room, where dinner tables typically book up two months in advance, the lounge doesn't take reservations. Diners are seated around coffee tables.
Per Se's a la carte menu is pricey by most standards -- a small entrée of white polenta agnolotti in a green garlic sauce is $28 and a slab of sautéed foie gras with sunchokes and watercress is $40 -- but diners can spend far less than they would on the prix fixe. On a recent night, the restaurant also offered diners complimentary tastes of signature items such as gougères and salmon cornets. The bar tab can add up quickly: Red wine by the glass starts at $19 and runs as high as $40.
The morphing of some of the nation's top dining rooms into bars and lounges with food demonstrates how dramatically and quickly consumer behavior has changed since the economy plummeted this fall. Technomic, a Chicago restaurant consultant, predicts that this year fine dining sales will plunge at least 12%, after falling 4% last year.
Meanwhile, analysts are predicting a less painful contraction in alcohol sales: Technomic predicts a 1.6% decline in sales of alcohol consumed where it is sold.
"Historically, consumption of alcohol tends to outperform compared to other parts of the economy in a recession," says Brian Sudano, managing director of BMC Strategic Associates, a New York consultant to the beverage industry.
Selling alcohol, and cocktails in particular, is typically a better business than selling restaurant food because the margins are higher. While ingredient costs may account for as much as 35% of the price of an entrée in a high-end restaurant, they typically only account for about 14% of the price of a cocktail or 25% of the price of a glass of wine.
Bar snacks, which often include inexpensive items like pizzas, can also have better margins than fine-dining dishes with expensive proteins such as filet mignon or organic lamb. Since restaurants are already paying to run a kitchen, selling additional, easy-to-make food is simply an extra revenue stream.
Beyond thrift, there is a social component to noshing at bars. Restaurateurs say patrons seem especially eager to rub shoulders with one another at the bar, rather than isolate themselves at dining-room tables.
"People want to socialize and be out; they don't want to be miserable at home," says Chris Douglass, co-owner of three Boston-area restaurants, including the 32-year-old fine-dining restaurant Icarus, which Mr. Douglass says he would like to either sell or turn into a "gastropub" -- a bar that serves high-quality food -- if he can find buyers or investors.
Seven weeks ago, he began beefing up the bar scene in his seven-month-old Boston restaurant Tavolo, by applying for a late-night license that would allow him to stay open two hours later, until 1 a.m., as well as an entertainment license, which means he could have a DJ. He also ordered three more taps in order to serve more draft beer.
Last Thursday, friends Kat Garcia, a 27-year-old television publicist, and Quinn Doan, 34, a hotel publicist, sat perched on stools in the bar area of L.A.'s Ortolan. Over the course of the evening, they spent about $150 including tax and tip, on wine, Champagne, four appetizers and two desserts -- about $100 less than what a meal in the dining room might have cost. Ortolan's bar-only dishes include langoustine ravioli in consommé for $9, compared with $19 to $25 for appetizers and roughly $40 for entrées on the dining-room menu.
"You could go to any other place and buy a $7 to $10 appetizer and you might get a bowl of fries," Ms. Garcia said.
Both the restaurant and bar area were nearly empty at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Emé says the restaurant's drop-off in traffic spurred him to roll out the bar menu, which he says is still getting off the ground.
The same night at 8 p.m., the Foundry was over a third full, mostly with patrons in their 20s and 30s. The bartender cheerfully made small talk with customers and Mr. Greenspan, the chef, worked the room. The bar and the lounge tables all sported peculiar glass tanks with spigots. A hostess explained the contraptions were for dripping water onto a sugar cube placed on a spoon over a glass of absinthe; an absinthe company had sponsored the jazz music that night.
Informal dining is increasingly popular, and some of the restaurants launching bar menus and lounges will likely keep them even after the economy bounces back. But when consumer spending loosens up, Mr. Greenspan plans to convert the Foundry back into a regular restaurant, he says.
"I want to be able to go back to what I am known for and what I do really well," Mr. Greenspan says.
—Juliet Chung contributed to this article.
Write to Katy McLaughlin at katy.mclaughlin@wsj.com
Write to Katy McLaughlin at katy.mclaughlin@wsj.com
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Shea-designed Melly opening this week in Galleria Edina
Congratulations to Melly which opens in their new space in the Galleria Edina today!
Check out the full press release from our marketing department on our website:
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