Hungry for SF

In a few weeks, many of us will be heading to San Francisco for the Winter Fancy Food Show. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the world. I was lucky enough to have lived there--twice. But both times, the city failed to return my love in the form of an affordably priced apartment. Eventually, I developed a wandering eye and started looking for another great American city that would have me for a fraction of the cost of living in the Bay Area (I live in Denver now).

My return to SF is still three weeks out, and my mouth is already watering as I consider my list of must-eats while I'm in town. These are the foods that I dream about when I'm hungry--the foods that have made such a lasting impression on me that I can recall their wonderful aromas, flavors and textures as vividly as if I had eaten them this morning.

Most of my favs are nothing fancy, but they are all supremely delicious. Here's what I'll be eating in San Francisco later this month: The Marinated Hawaiian Tuna "Poke" with Fried Wonton Chips appetizer at Luna Park(www.lunaparksf.com). A vegetarian rice, black bean and green tomatillo salsa burrito at El Toro Taqueria in the Mission(www.eltorosf.com). Wheat germ pancakes at Bay Watch Restaurant in the Marina (www.Sfbaywatch.com).

 

Before I get in line at Tartine Bakery (www.Tartinebakery.com), I give myself a stern talking to that I will eat just one pastry. When I reach the front of the line, I have to bite my tongue because what I really want to say is: "I'll have one of everything, please."

 

Chicken pot pie at The Liberty Café in Bernal Heights. Flaky and delicious, these pot pies are made with roasted free range chicken (all white meat) potatoes, carrots, peas and pearl onions in a puff pastry crust (www.Thelibertycafe.com).

Oh, how I love the spaghetti with plum tomatoes, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and peperoncini at Delfina (www.delfinasf.com). It is simple and simply delicious.

 

Take my advice: Take a number and get in line for either mint chocolate chip or the Mexican chocolate ice cream at Mitchell's Ice Cream in the Mission (www.Mitchellsicecream.com).

I usually eat at Giorgio's Pizzeria once during every visit to SF, and then, because it's on Clement just off Geary on the way to SFO, I'll grab a last slice before heading to the airport(www.giorgiospizza.com). It's thin, crispy, NY-style pizza.

 

 

Toasting 2009

We've been working to bring new ideas and concepts to the table for 2009. Part of this movement is the combined forces of our editorial staffs with our sister publication Progressive Grocer - which has been serving and educating the grocery industry for over 80 years. Over the coming months you'll discover the talents of Meg Major, Joe Tarnowski and Bridget Goldschmidt who will be contributing their editorial specialties to our Web site and pages - from fresh product to retail technology to the latest news - we're pleased to have this stellar team working alongside Senior Editors James Mellgren and Jennifer Strailey.

We have a wealth of extraordinary changes to both our print edition and our Web site that will be introduced to you in the coming weeks and months beginning with a dynamic new look for our print edition in January. There's even more on the horizon - and I look forward to telling you about it in the days and weeks to come - right here on the TGR Blog.

Speaking of which, we're looking for a new name for the Blog - instead of Ask the Experts we're thinking Retail View - Retail Speaks - something that denotes the community we're building here at www.GourmetRetailer.com - so COMMUNICATE WITH US and post your thoughts. The winning title will receive two complimentary passes for our upcoming Retail 2020 conference this coming August in San Francisco. So start POSTING your ideas today! It's simple.

And Happy New Year!!!!!

Holiday Baking

I had plenty of advanced warning in order to prepare myself. My wife was staging a holiday cookie-baking party at our house. Prior to the house filling up with women - daughters, step-daughter, daughter-in-law, goddaughter, and various other female friends - I hurried off to steep myself in testosterone at the new James Bond movie and then to the pub to have a couple of beers and watch football. Is was Sunday after all. When I finally returned to the homestead the baking was still going on although most of the women were engaged in decorating. There were cookies everywhere, including sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, iced orange spice cookies, gingerbread cookies, jam cookies, cat's tongues, and the main event, Aunt Sophie's Nut Rolls (exactly who's Aunt Sophie we're not quite sure). The whole house, it seemed, had been transformed into a cookie-making factory. I of course, did my bit as quality control manager by tasting each variety of cookie I could find. In case anyone is interested, my favorites were the snickerdoodles and the iced orange cookies (my apologies to Aunt Sophie). What I couldn't understand is why my wife - who can't eat eggs and doesn't really have a sweet tooth - had suddenly gone cookie crazy?

It occured to me that the world of non-professional bakers is divided neatly in two - those who love the process of baking and those who love baked goods. As a kid, I started to bake quite early, learning some favorite recipes from Betty Crocker's Kids' Cookbook (my favorite was a yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting, again, just in case you want to know). My mother never kept "store-bought" desserts and snacks in the house. She baked from time to time and quite well, but she worked so her baking was more on weekends and holidays. If I wanted a treat after school I would often bake a batch of cookies or a cake that the whole family could later enjoy for dessert. It's not that I didn't enjoy the act of baking, but for me it was about the end result.

In the end, as much as I groused about the estrogen levels in the house and the mess that naturally ensued, I enjoyed coming home to a houseful of women bustling about making and decorating cookies. Of course, my wife's new cookie mania has a bright side. You see, I do have a sweet tooth and a particular affinity for cookies. Having a house full of them is probably not going to be great for my health, but then Christmas comes just once a year, and for me, the smell of baking cookies in a warm house is about as close to the kind of Norman Rockwell Christmas I remember as a child as I'm ever going to get. I guess it's time to get a tree.

Keep Up the Good Work

If you like the idea of making 2009 your best year for customer service ever, start planning now.

Last week, I shared an uplifting customer service experience I had at the gym. In my Holiday High Fiving post, I explained that the managers of my local gym have adopted the practice of high fiving those of us sweating it out on the elliptical machines, as a way of generating good feeling among the many new people who have joined the gym as the New Year, and its weight-loss resolutions, approach.

They are not unlike the many retailers who step up their customer service efforts this time of year, hoping to make a good first impression with the new faces shopping their stores.

This week, I got another high five at the gym, and it felt just as good as the first one. But now a precedent has been set. Will the managers continue to show me the love when I'm jonesing for encouragement in February?

It reminds me of the movie "When Harry Met Sally." Harry tells Sally that he never takes new girlfriends to the airport. "You take someone to the airport, it's clearly the beginning of the relationship," he says. "That's why I have never taken anyone to the airport at the beginning of a relationship."

Sally asks, "Why?"

"Because eventually things move on and you don't take someone to the airport, and I never wanted anyone to say to me, 'How come you never take me to the airport anymore?' "

In other words, once the gauntlet of thoughtfulness or customer service excellence has been thrown, there's no going back.

To keep your customers--both new and old--coming back for more long after the holidays, start planning for January 2 now with a few good reads on the subject of customer service:

1. Staff Training: Recognizing and Rewarding Great Service

Maggie Bayless, managing partner of ZingTrain and an expert on developing training tools that are easy for operational managers to implement, shares some sage advice about acknowledging stellar service.

2. Handling Customer Complaints

Learn the five steps Bayless and the other managers at Zingerman’s in

Ann Arbor

,

Mich.

, use to handle sticky situations.

3. Countdown to Customer Service: Applying the Golden Rules

Our own Michelle Moran reveals what it takes to be golden with customers.

Cleaning Up in the Kitchen

There is a standing joke in our house that although I am a professional food editor and author, my wife Sydney is a better cook than I am, routinely beats me at Scrabble, the book she is writing will no doubt trump both my books in sales, and I'll be lucky to get a mention in her bibliography. Her obvious superiority notwithstanding, I do consider myself a lucky man. You see, I eat very well and with little effort on my part at the stove. It's not that I don't know how to cook or that I don't like to cook. It's just not a passion with me, eating is. Sydney loves to cook, to try new things, and to constantly challenge herself in the kitchen, She's been known to see someone make some complicated dish on television in the morning - while she's busy sewing, mind you (she's a milliner) - and we'll sit down and enjoy it in the evening. I often comment that what we're eating could easily be served in a nice restaurant at a hefty price. I try to take it easy on that kind of talk however, because it only serves to fuel her desire to open her own restaurant. Just what I need! Anyway, aside from wielding a knife to help with the prep, mixing cocktails and opening wine, my job most evenings is the clean-up, or as the French say, faire la vaisselle, doing the dishes. In fact, whenever anyone asks if I have a dishwasher, I reply no, but my wife has.

The Oxford Companion to Food describes dishwashing as "a skilled business calling for a natural aptitude, a discriminating attitude to the various means available, and considerable practice." I like that. They even go on to liken the person doing the dishes at the sink, while the rest of the diners are lolling in their chairs around the table watching, to a "priest standing before the altar, the congregation seated, the timeless ritual unfolding for the thousandth time but charged with as much significance as on the first." This could all go right to my head.

I'm continually surprised by other men who say they actually enjoy doing the dishes. While enjoy might be too strong a word for the way I feel about it, I can't say I don't like it either. There is something satisfying about the whole routine of sorting, washing, rinsing, and stacking the various culinary accoutrement in the drainer. I find it to be a good time for reflection, and not just my own in the darkened window above the sink. While everyone else is chatting away, competing for their air time as it were, I can think about other things such as what I accomplished that day, what I intend to accomplish tomorrow, or maybe just go on a little vacation in my mind. Beyond reinforcing my antisocial behavior however, doing the dishes is actually an important part of the entire process of preparing meals. As Alan Davidson wrote in the OCF, "The purification of the utensils has to be the final, culminating stage of any meal, the stage which in effect sets the scene for the next meal and permits life's processes to continue." And so forms the symbiotic relationship between the cook and the dishwasher. In effect, one can't exist without the other, or to put it another way, one completes the other. Sounds like a marriage to me.   

I'm Dreaming of a Green Xmas

'Tis the season for this green gourmet to both give and receive (hint, hint) green. Gift giving doesn’t stop in a challenging economic environment; it just becomes all the more important for gifts to be meaningful and to go further. That’s why this year I’ve chosen to give my family and friends a few of my favorite sustainable and organic gourmet treats and earth-friendly kitchenware finds. These selections truly are the gifts that keep on giving -- to loved ones, the environment, a cause.

TOHI, Organic and Fair-Trade Chocolate
The Tohi 74% dark chocolate and milk chocolate recipes are gourmet, innovative and perfectly-blended: dark chocolate with hazelnuts and coffee, lemon and ginger, salted almonds or Earl Grey tea; milk chocolate with apple and cinnamon; and 74% dark chocolate and milk chocolate flakes for hot chocolate or any other culinary delight. In addition to being organic and fair trade, its fresh, attractive packaging is sourced from sustainably managed forests. www.tohi.be

Sea Stones Wine Bottle Stoppers
Those who appreciate both wine and nature will love the new Sea Stone Wine Bottle Stoppers. Made with stones that are hand-chosen from private New England beaches and rivers (taken with their owners' permission), the stoppers transform a bottle of wine into a simple yet elegant work of art. And since the artists want to leave the planet better than when they found it, for every smooth stone carried off, a rough one -- purchased from a quarry -- is thrown back into the water to tumble until it becomes a new sea stone. Adding to the organic look of the product, Solo Bases made of natural hardwood with the bark still on hold the stoppers when they’re not in a wine bottle, so it can perch on display on a windowsill or counter. www.sea-stones.com

Cuisinart Green Gourmet Cookware
Cuisinart's newest line of cookware is not only better for your health, it's better for the planet. Made from petroleum-free ceramic, the line uses PTFE/PFOA-free technology to allow for butter- and oil-free cooking without the toxic residue found in some nonstick cookware. The coating is water-based, unlike other nonstick coatings on the market, which are solvent-based. www.cuisinart.com

Honey, Aloha Style
Luxurious, delicious and healthy, Royal Hawaiian Honeys are produced on the Big Island of Hawaii. One hundred percent raw, they are spreadable due to a natural creaming process. They are the only domestically produced honey lines that are certified organic, and available in both 12-oz. glass jars and 44-oz. plastic containers. One hundred percent carbon neutral, from the production through the shipping of the honeys. Distributed by Tropical Traders Specialty Foods, LLC. www.tropicaltradersfoods.com

TSP Organic Spice Sampler
Spice up your Green Gourmet's kitchen with TSP Spices' Green Basics line. Each tin comes with six essential --and organic -- seasonings, including basil, dill, oregano, rosemary, tarragon and thyme. Each spice can contains 12 one-teaspoon packets. These flavorful organic herbs complement the global cuisines of today’s kitchen. www.tspspices.com

Proteak Edge Grain Cutting Board
Proteak’s rectangular Edge Grain Cutting Board, is made of rich teak from mature and young trees in the forests of the Pacific coast of Mexico that give it a diversity of color ranging from deep to light shades. Enriching both natural and culinary environments, Proteak assures the forests last as long as their products and work to renew the teak plantations. Besides being sustainable, I love how it’s constructed in a classic butcher block fashion, resembling the enormously thick butcher blocks found in old-style meat markets. www.proteak.com

Caldrea Essentials Set
Replace harsh cleaning supplies with this gift-worthy, all-natural Lavender Pine Cleaning Essentials Set from Caldrea. It contains everything you need to prepare your home for the upcoming season: All-Purpose Cleanser, Countertop Cleanser, Powdered Scrub, Dish Soap Liquid, Hand Balm, and Lint-Free Cleaning Cloths. Caldrea products are biodegradable and made from plant-derived ingredients. www.caldrea.com

Luxurious Organic Tea-Infused Truffles
The Tea Room Organic Tea-Infused Truffles feature premium organic chocolate from Europe infused with a wide variety of teas and spices from around the world. Indulge in flavors like Chamomile & White Honey Truffle; Red Raspberry Rooibos Milk Truffle; and many more exotic selections. www.tearoom.stores.yahoo.net

Cowgirl Creamery Cowgirl Deluxe Collection
What can be a better gift for a foodie than farmstead cheese from small-scale producer, Cowgirl Creamery? This collection has a sampling of some of my favorite artisanal cheeses: Triple-cream MT TAM; Washed-rind RED HAWK; and Herb-crusted PIERCE PT. Plus, June Taylor Handmade Preserves, Cowgirl Creamery Crackers and the Cowgirl Creamery Cheese Safe -- perfect for keeping cheese in good condition. www.cowgirlcreamery.com

Organic Eco-Friendly Gift Sets
Rishi Tea's Organic Gift Sets include two of the company's best-selling green, white or black teas along with a teapot or infuser mug specially selected to best reveal the tea's unique characteristics. Each set is packaged in a beautiful hand-woven gift box made with sustainable bamboo and paper made of 100 percent post-consumer waste. www.rishi-tea.com

Recycled Aluminum Bark Candlesticks
These stately recycled aluminum candlesticks from VivaTerra are molded to resemble tree branches. They provide all the reason you need to dine by candlelight every night. www.vivaterra.com

Eco-Friendly Gift Bags
Save the trees and do away with wasteful gift wrapping paper. Thankfully, Eco-friendly gift-giving is easier this year thanks to Nashville Wraps. The Distant Village -- Cogon Grass Cuff Top Gift Bags are handmade from Cogon grass fibers with twist handles. Heavy 150 gsm weight and hand tags. I love how these eco-friendly products are made by artisans in remote villages around the world, creating jobs and fair wages for hardworking communities. www.nashvillewraps.com

We'd love to hear what green or cause-worthy specialty food and kitchenware items are on your wish list this year?  What gifts are selling like hotcakes in your store?

Greece, old or new?

    I just returned from a working week in Greece. The 3rd Kerasma Conference, highlighting some of Country's' great staples: olives and oil, wine, cheeses and  farmed seafood. The Greeks are definitely in a world of their own: language, alcohol (ouzo and retsina), flavors (mastique) and "Boy", do they know how to throw a party!  The good Greek food we experienced, it's like Greek dancing- very deliberate, independent, no real rhythm, until the trance starts. An unnerving intensity begins to build, as the beat grows and the movements and music become one. We had some incredibly simple food with extravagant flavors- braised calamari with tomato, onion, red pepper and mint- tart green apple with cinnamon and almond halva- fresh mackerel grilled with coarse salt, lemon peel and EVOO or yogurt and za'taar charred chicken thighs. Most foods are cooked over wood charcoal, which adds a certain seared, deep character to all the flavors. Like the people you meet on the outer Islands hard, wind-streaked, sun checked and a comforting smile.

  Make no mistake; Athens is a big, bustling city- smog, traffic, police, pushing rush-hour crowds. All seem to fade to a background grumble as the sun sets. Fairy light sparked streets, outdoor tavernas and up above, the golden-amber hue of the brightly lit Acropolis; a testament to over 2000 years of Greek history, its shadows amongst those of The King George Palace and Grande Bretagne Hotels below.

How does this ancient society blend the commerce and activity of The City with its white-washed houses, "tomorrow's pace" and donkey drawn carts of the surrounding Islands?

An Open Letter

The last several years have been difficult for business and we think you would agree that so far, 2008 'takes the cake'.  But, during these less than optimum business times, our core customers, the small independent, family-owned gift shops, have done pretty well.  Of course, some have had to close their doors like many of the big box stores but the “Mom & Pop’s” of the world have been able to weather the storm because they have some important things in their favor.

These are the local merchants that, in many instances, not only know their customers by name but also know their customers’ taste in gifts and cater to them individually. These are businesses with “hands on” management/ownership that can adjust quickly to the times. They have become icons in their communities and provide a comfortable shopping environment along with service on a more personal level.

This segment of the retail population fully understands that their strength is not in their ability to buy at the lowest cost, but to provide attentive service at the highest level. Their packaging speaks volumes about the pride they take in their business, their products and the lasting impression they leave with their customer and the ultimate recipient of the purchased gift. By using coordinated packaging, these retailers have been able to brand themselves in their markets, offer a “gift“ presentation that rivals the Department Stores and have created a positive and lasting image of their establishments.

We know the retail environment will be difficult for some time to come. We are proud that we have historically had the independent giftware retailer as our core customer base and we believe that the future will prove the strength of their commitment to personal service wins out!

Warm regards,

Clyde Brownstone

President, Gift Box Corporation of America

Dave Spendiff

Vice President Sales and Marketing, Gift Box Corporation of America               

                      

Holiday High Fiving

I'm a sucker for good customer service. Mostly because it's often, well, unexpected. The reality is that I've spent countless hours in my professional life writing about excellent customer service, and much less time actually experiencing it.

Good customer service comes in many different forms. There's not one right way to deliver it. When you get down to it, it's really about making a personal connection with your customers. And that can be as simple as a high five…

Allow me to explain. Last night I was at the gym and it was absolutely packed. I'm there six nights a week (I know, I'm a lunatic), so I can say with certainty that there were many new people there--people working off Thanksgiving leftovers, working out stress over the economy, getting a jumpstart on 2009 weight loss plans, etc. The point is that there are many new faces at the gym these days, just like there are many new faces among the holiday shoppers in retail stores across the country.

Clearly, now is the season for winning over new customers by dazzling them with excellent customer service.

The folks at the 24 Hour Fitness where I work out, seem to have realized this, and what's more, that it doesn't take much to make people feel good about being one of their customers. My gym is nothing fancy, just a clean, well-equipped place to exercise, which makes my little customer service experience all the more special.

There's a long bank of elliptical machines at my gym, and last night every one was occupied, including the one I was using. Just as I was thinking that I'd knock off early and do 30 minutes instead of reaching my 45-minute goal, two managers came enthusiastically bounding down the line of ellipticals and high fiving each person working out. It may sound silly, but that made my workout and I wound up staying for the whole 45 minutes.

Just think of all the things your customers might buy if they lingered an extra 15 minutes the next time they're in your store.

I'm not suggesting that you and your staff start high fiving customers for their choice of cheese and chocolates out on the store floor--that definitely would be weird. But I am saying that it's the little things that go a long way in winning customers over.

In case you missed it, our Dispatch last week included Nielsen's "Top 10 Retailer No-Nos on Black Friday." While the timing of the list was in anticipation of Black Friday, these are 10 points to consider throughout the fourth quarter. Incidentally, Mistake No. 4 is "Leaving a Bad First Impression with New Shoppers." Click here to read all 10.

From the Mouths of Babes

As part of my job as Senior Editor, I receive and taste a lot of food and drink samples (my friends and family believe that is all I do), some for my own edification, others in order to write intelligently aboout them in the pages of our magazine. While this sounds like a dream job, and most of the time it is, there are difficulties inherent in the process. For example, what if I absolutely detest something? Or if it's a food that is very good for what it is but happens to be a food that I don't care for? I admit the latter is rare since I don't harbor too many food phobias and I'm not too picky. Typically, the foods that I don't go for fall into the category of gimmicky renditions of classic fare. Since I tend to be a purist when it comes to food, this can often be a daunting task, to taste through a batch of foods that I don't like. I won't name names but there are some strange combinations of flavors out there, mostly a result of the company having to come up with something new, not always the best incentive for creating new foods.

Lately, however, I have come to rely more and more on the tastebuds of my eight-year old grandson, in addition to my own of course. He is so wonderfully unfettered by pre-conceived notions of what something should taste like, how nice the person was who submitted the samples, the strangeness of the flavor combinations, or whether the sample was submitted by an advertiser (I wouldn't write favorably about a product just because it came from an advertiser, but if I really hated it I may not write about it at all). Also, since a good deal of the samples I get are either geared for children directly or could certainly be good for school lunches, afterschool snacks, etc., I feel it's good to have a child's opinion. JJ makes a great taster for several reasons. First, he's got a good palate, inherited no doubt from his mother and most especially his Nonna, my wife. Since we are his principal caregivers during the week while his mother works, he has grown accustomed to eating homecooked, mostly organic, shall I say it, gourmet food, mostly from his Nonna but also his mother who is turning out to be a first rate cook. The third factor in his resume is that he is almost always hungry (and still thin as a rail) and so is usually up for sampling anything that looks remotely fun and tasty. He loved the Tanka Bars, the Cinnamon Crumblettes, and the Banana Mango ice cream, for example; the chile infused chocolate ice cream and the fennel-flavored granola, not so much. I can usually count on him to have comments beyond whether or not he likes the product, but why he likes or dislikes it. His comments range from the terse, "Too spicy, Pa," all the way to, "Can we get more of this?" The latter is always a good sign.

Several years ago, when I was engaged in the business of importing and distributing Spanish cheeses here in the Bay Area, my soon-to-be stepson was at my apartment one day while I was cutting up samples to take out the next day. Huey was about eight at the time. As I cut, I would occasionally hand him a sliver of cheese which he would gobble up (he too, even now at 20, has always been hungry). I handed him a slice of Queso Majorero, a semi-hard, chalky goat's milk cheese from the Canary Islands that is totally unlike any goat cheese available in California at the time, or even now. He savored the cheese for a moment and then mused, "hmmm, it tastes like a goat cheese." I congratulated him on his excellent sense of taste and thought to myself, there is no way in hell I would have been able to identify it as anything but cheese when I was a young boy in the Mid West. Of course, at eight I had never tasted a goat's milk cheese or even a sheep's milk cheese for that matter. In fact, at that age my knowledge and experience with cheese was limited to big orange blocks of cheddar-like cheese that I consumed with relish, washed down, of course, by ice cold whole milk.

I guess the lesson to be learned here, if there is one at all, is that one should never underestimate children's opinions and what we can learn from them. I'll bet JJ will grow up to have a very sophisticated palate, just as his uncle Huey has. Oh sure, Huey still makes his occasional trips to Jack-in-the-Box, and loves a good burger and fries as much as the next fellow, and yet he swoons over his mother's stuffed zucchini blossoms, orange-and-honey glazed pork chops or her ricotta gnocchi. He and JJ are still young but I wager that whatever food purveyors get them as customers will be very luck indeed. Think about this next time you spot small children in your store and think, as Russ Vernon said to me once, "customers for life."