Membership-based business-growth restaurant consultancy comments on Winter Restaurant Week 2016 in D.C.
My Crown-Rio Foodservice Consulting, a business-growth menu & marketing firm serving restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area, has identified top 2016 meaningful food trends in D.C. Restaurant Week menus. Not only does My Crown-Rio Foodservice (crownriofoodservice.com) offer digital marketing and strategic growth solutions, it also recently added menu management, trend-vetting and profit optimization services for D.C.-area restaurants. Part of Trendystia MRC, the consultancy keeps track of top, published quarterly food trends across the country and in the D.C.-Northern Virginia-Suburban Maryland market (DC-VA-MD) to better assist its clients.
“What we’re seeing in the D.C. market, which is currently a top foodie destination and market in which celebrity restaurateurs from New York and Boston are setting up shop, is a validation of top food trends as exemplified by the Restaurant Week menus,” says Rick Zambrano, principal of My Crown-Rio Foodservice Consulting. “These special event menu items across the D.C. area are putting a spotlight on what restaurants are capable of and exposing foodie and non-foodie diners to top food trends that we’re already tracking.”
My Crown-Rio Foodservice Consulting identified the following food trends in its Restaurant Week sample:
- Seeds, seed oils and dressings
- Fire on fire (charring, grilling, roasting, and smoking)
- Fermented foods
- Superfoods of the Earth
- Savory dairy
- Upscaled soup
These D.C.-area restaurants were highlighted in its commentary:
- Seeds and fire on fire trend: At Vinoteca in the U Street Corridor, this starter plate was featured: Charred Kale [fire on fire] apple, fennel, red onion, feta, and pumpkin seed vinaigrett 1905 Restaurant in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood is offering Grilled Organic Chicken Breast with Cheddar-buckwheat, polenta, roasted collard greens, and a sunflower seed gremolata, a zesty, herb-based condiment served with veal or meat. 1789 in Georgetown has Pork bone-in chop, white grits, charred shishito peppers [fire on fire] and roasted [fire on fire] sunchokes as an entree choice
- Fermented foods: Water & Wall in Arlington, Va. is serving up a second course of Pumpkin Curry with apple, sweet potato, eggplant, basmati and pickled chard. Water & Wall makes all fermented preparations in-house at its restaurant or sister restaurant, Chase the Submarine. Additionally, as a first course, Water & Wall includes as a choice Crème Fraiche Wings—crème fraiche, oyster sauce and gochujang, a spicy, fermented red chili-paste condiment made with fermented soybeans
- Superfoods of the Earth: Restaurant Marvin in the U Street Corridor of D.C. is offering Skate, cosmic red & deep purple carrots, white satin carrot puree, lemon caper beurre blanc. The purple carrots, a throwback to carrots of yore from the Eastern hemisphere, are their color because of their anthocyanin content. There’s a set of research that suggests that anthocyanin helps the body fight cancer and can boost heart wellness and ward off heart disease, also boosting the immune system
- Savory dairy: Graffiato, in the Penn Quarter, is serving up Blistered Shishitos, pancetta, garlic, and basil yogurt
- Upscaled soup: From Indique in Cleveland Park, D.C., aims to warm up diners with its hearty Kerala Bisque—seafood soup with ginger, coconut & curry leaves
“When My Crown-Rio Foodservice was started, the idea was to bring menu management and customer engagement solutions that were Fortune 500 client-caliber and make them accessible for restaurants with sales volumes of $1M to $5M,” adds Zambrano. “Another thought was that by combining digital marketing, menu management solutions and coaching into one business-growth solution, it would help and appeal to restaurateurs that had previously needed to hire 3 or 4 specialists for the same work. Well, it has hit a sweet spot.”
To read about My Crown-Rio Foodservice’s complete portfolio of solutions and options that help restaurants succeed, view the web page: crownriofoodservice.com/success. Through the website, D.C.-area restaurateurs can also learn how the membership-based consultancy is unique, or they can follow My Crown-Rio Foodservice on Facebook or Twitter.
My Crown-Rio Foodservice Consulting provides an integrated sales and profitability growth solution that combines the best of marketing & menu advisory for the benefit of Washington, D.C.-area restaurateurs looking to build their businesses. The membership-based consultancy’s accessible marketing programs and affordable rates make it a top choice for independent, single- and multi-unit restaurant operators in the D.C., Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland neighborhoods. Customer engagement, digital marketing and loyalty strategy are just some of the services in My Crown-Rio Foodservice’s membership levels. My Crown-Rio Foodservice is part of Trendystia MRC, based in Rockville, Md., and an allied member of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.
