Restaurants throughout the country are feeling the sting of the slow economy, just like you. In order to improve their bottom line and get families to eat out more often, many have initiated programs where kids eat free with the purchase of adult entrees. National chains, such as Bennigan’s, TGI Friday’s, and IHOP are promoting these deals, and local mom-and-pop restaurants are starting to do the same.
Read more here: 14 Places Kids Eat Free
Here’s an unappetizing thought: A review of restaurant food safety practices found that a typical kitchen worker cross-contaminates food with potentially dangerous pathogens about once per hour.
Among the risky behaviors cited were workers using aprons and other garments to dry hands, as well as using the same utensils and surfaces to prepare both raw and cooked foods, according to a review by a North Carolina State University researcher.
Both practices are considered health violations, said Ben Chapman, an assistant professor and food safety specialist who used video cameras in eight restaurant kitchens to monitor worker food safety habits.
Read more here: Researcher finds lax food safety in restaurants
George Prochnik’s recent piece in The Daily Beast explores the science behind restaurants’ loud music, booming echos, and clattering tables–or as I like to call those things, “Why I’m still hoarse after a night out despite the fact that I don’t smoke anymore.”
Read more here: 3 Reasons Why Restaurants Are So Loud
Not long ago, I found myself in a new barbecue restaurant in Manhattan. Though it was barely cocktail hour, the noise level was punishing. Music raged. Patrons howled. Obviously, the place was happening.
I was sitting in this particular emporium with one of the restaurant’s architects, a nice guy from the Rockwell Group, which has been responsible for projects ranging from Planet Hollywoods, to multiple Nobus, to a casino for the Mohegan Native American tribe. He was shouting to me about why the restaurant’s theme, which he described as being “like a garage in Harlem, where they’re cooking out of like the back of a garage,” worked so well at this moment in our public dining culture. A lot of what he had to tell me concerned sound and liberation.
Read more here: How Restaurants Get You Drunk
