On the Front Burner

Maryland bill would require restaurants to have an allergy expert
A bill being considered in both houses of the Maryland Legislature this session would require restaurants to designate a person to become well-versed in food allergies and help diners with allergies select the right dishes. At One Dish Cuisine in Ellicott City, owner Maureen Burke already color-codes each dish on the menu and operates four ovens to keep dairy and soy separate. Capital News Service (University of Maryland) (2/22)

Restaurant News

Domino's makes the most of global pizza joy
Domino's Pizza became one of only eight restaurant chains worldwide to boast 10,000 restaurants when it opened a location in Istanbul last year. While the toppings may change from one market to the next, the universal love of bread, sauce and cheese is driving sales higher both at home and abroad, said CEO J. Patrick Doyle. Forbes (3/9)

Other News

Leading Voices

Sushi brand finds success at the grocery store
Genji Sushi launched in 1997 and today operates 165 units, all of them located inside Whole Foods Markets. The partnership of the separately owned brands has proven profitable for both, but such arrangements also come with challenges, said consultant Gary Stibel. "You lose a lot of freedom, but you do it because it’s good for your business. If you do a deal like this, the freedom lost is worth the benefits you gain." QSR Magazine (3/2013)

McDonald's exec talks social, celebrity tweets
"We're tracking 2.5 [million] to 3 million-plus conversations each month, and it's sometimes difficult to see a little bubble before it turns into a major trend for us," McDonald's Social Media Director Rick Wion says in this interview. McDonald's uses Radian6 and Sprout Social to get a handle on all the social chatter and works with an internal legal team to react in real time to celebrities appearances at restaurants via Twitter. "As it turns out, celebrities go to McDonald's. When a celebrity tweets, we can retweet their original tweet. We don't add to it." eMarketer (3/8)

Q-and-A: Costa Vida CEO Sean Collins
After five years as Costa Vida franchisees, Sean Collins and Dave Rutter bought the fresh-Mex chain in 2009 and have since grown from 23 to 49 units. Same-store sales growth has increased each year. "Ultimately, it was a situation where we knew we could use our past experience within the food industry and as entrepreneurs to grow Costa Vida into a much larger brand," said Collins, who plans to expand the chain to 500 units by 2016. FastCasual.com (3/8)

Culinary Spotlight

Research chefs play integral role in food product development
Food manufacturers, aware of consumers' growing culinary savvy and interest in authentic ethnic meals, have hired chefs to help produce new products to release to their entire market or tailored for specific customers. "I'm actively involved in bringing new product concepts from my research, dining experiences or from experimenting in the test kitchen," said Joe Ascoli, research chef at Kettle Cuisine Inc. "I then take the lead in shaping those concepts into bench-top prototypes for testing and evaluating, and am an active participant in gathering operator and consumer feedback." Food Processing (3/8)

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Editor's Note

SmartBrief's inside look at #SXSW
SmartBrief is attending the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, with tweeting @SmartBrief and blogging at SmartBlogs. Here's some of our coverage so far.

• Live at #SXSW: 6 innovation lessons from the world of standup comedy
• Live at #SXSW: How the WWE became the social champion of the sports world
• SXSWedu Snapshot: What's changing in education?

Food for Thought

Let me listen to me and not to them." -- Gertrude Stein, American writer and feminist Share: