2015 was a shake-down year for the restaurant industry. Technology is moving at an increasingly, and dizzyingly, rapid pace. Labor issues have been a hot topic. Environmentally friendly and sustainable movements are making waves in the agricultural industry, while craft, small-batch and artisanal movements are changing the landscape of food and beverages. So what is the next frontier?
Small-batch, craft beverages such as beer and cocktails look to have moved beyond trend and are becoming a foundation of any good restaurant. We don't predict that moment will slow any time soon, as a new crop of passionate restaurant-industry types look to explore even more fresh options. Speaking of fresh, local sourcing of ingredients saw a few hiccups (
ahem, Chipotle) this year, but with growing concerns about the long-term impacts of conventional farming, we have a feeling that the local food movement will see more forward movement in 2016.
The next area that seems to be on the verge of becoming really big? Consumer facing technology. Smartphone adoption is higher than ever, and as these devices replace traditional computers, more and more consumers are going to expect to use them to
communicate and interact with their favorite restaurants and bars. 2015 seemed to be the year of
on-demand delivery, with services such as DoorDash becoming ever more popular with consumers. Mobile payments, i.e. paying with your smartphone,
seems to be picking up steam as well with Apple, Google, Samsung and others making major pushes to get people to adopt their respective systems. With the newly implemented chip credit cards, now seems like a prime time to migrate customers towards using mobile payments.
2015 also brought us smart technology, such as devices that can test
food for the presence of gluten. The name of the game here is
transparency. With the internet giving a voice to literally everyone (
hello social media), restaurants are going to have to stay on their toes. Small incidents can becoming huge faux pas very quickly, so restauranteurs and other hospitality business owners are going to have to continue to pay very close attention to their online reputation.
What would you like to see happen in restaurants in 2016? Restauranteurs, do you have any big plans for the new year? Let us know via Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Image Credit:
Tony Hisgett (Flickr)
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