Restaurant AI & Technology Report

With millennial coffee consumption up 41% this year, according to Foodable Labs, it only makes sense that the world's first enhanced RTD coffee drink is lead by millennials themselves: brothers Jordan, Jake, and Jim DeCicco.

On this episode of The Barron Report, Paul Barron discusses with Jordan the specialty beverage market, and how he provided a solution to a gap in the specialty beverage market at such a young age.

On this episode of The Barron Report, Jen VanDewater, Vice President of Health and Authenticity at Rich Products Corporation, sits down with our host Paul Barron to discuss how a large company like Rich’s is addressing concerns over clean labeling and authenticity in their products, among other topics.

On this episode of The Barron Report, Paul Barron speaks with CEO, Kim Sanchez Rael and Chief Creative Officer, Ron Silver of Azuca, on how their company’s unique technology is developing the latest CBD Trends.

On this episode of The Barron Report, our host Paul Barron speaks with Jordan Gaspar, co-founder of AccelFoods, and Susan Chen, CEO of Soozy’s, a frozen, gluten-free baked good product company that has partnered with the female-led venture capitalist group in order to grow its business.

After a quick stint at law school, Hunter Pond decided his true passion laid with the restaurant business.

“I just felt this gravitational pull to the industry and it was strong enough... [that] I dropped out of law school after one semester,” said Pond. “...It was a rough three months trying to convince everybody that this was the right move for me.”

On this episode of The Barron Report, our host, Paul Barron, sits down with Hunter Pond, CEO of East Hampton Sandwich Co. to learn how this concept came to be and made its way to become the top Sandwich Innovator concept from our free Top 50 Sandwich Innovator Report.

On this episode of The Barron Report, Paul Barron analyzes the aggressive move Amazon is making in the foodservice industry.

Amazon plans to open up to 3,000 of its cashier-less Amazon Go convenience stores by the year 2021, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. The tech giant's brick-and-mortar concept Amazon Go currently has three stores open, two in Seattle and one in Chicago.

When the meal kit first came into existence, customers lined up to try this new and innovative system that fulfilled the desire for a high-quality meal without the restaurant price tag. Once the idea gained popularity, meal kit companies began popping up, claiming to have the best meal kit on the market. Slowly but surely, these companies starting shutting down as the market became oversaturated.

The 'FairKitchens' movement is a response to cultural issues that we have seen spotlighted in recent months in our industry. But the truth is a lot of these issues have been around since the beginning.

“[Consumers] expect the exact same product that they would get if they sat down in the restaurant when they get it delivered to their house… so packaging is really important,” says Diana Schaefer, Associate Customer Marketing Manager for Rich Products. “If you have a sauce or dressed product you want to make sure it’s just as fresh when it gets to the customer.”

According to the National Restaurant Association, it is estimated that 70 percent of customers will be ordering food off of restaurant premises by 2020. Foodable Labs has identified that catering order interest has increased 32.5 percent in the past year with the Top 100 restaurant chains. In this episode of The Barron Report, host Paul Barron sits down with Diana Schaefer to explore the latest catering trends to make sure foodservice operators are not missing an opportunity in the category of catering.

Lexington Wolff is a restaurant employment lawyer with a story. After representing a number of restaurants in employee lawsuits, she began to see a pattern. Many of the lawsuits could have been easily avoided had the restaurant just been better informed about their obligations.

But as Lexi says, once you’re in a penny, you’re in a pound. Basically, it won’t matter whether or not your practices are legal. If your employees feel slighted or misunderstand a policy, they may take you to court which is costly whether or not you are at fault.

On this episode of the Barron Report, Paul and Lexi break down the hiring process and everything you need to know about how to approach candidates.