From the Editors
Posted by estiator at 10 January, at 08 : 07 AM Print
A New Step Forward
Every new year is welcomed with fanfare and celebration—with hopes, goals, and visions for something better than the year that has passed (and for all previous years past). It goes without saying that this is even more true of 2021. And while the fanfare and celebrating will be done from a safe social distance, the rejoicing in putting 2020 behind us will be wholehearted, whole-bodied, and whole-spirited. Enough with pandemics and politics. Let’s move on, with one giant new step forward!
To get the biggest bounce from that step, Estiator explores the industry predictions and trends expected for coming year. “A Look Ahead,” by editor and restaurant consultant Constantine Kolitsas, studies the reports and interprets the coming trends, and in “Starting Over,” contributor Michael Kaminer speaks with a diverse group of industry insiders (from celebrity chefs to restaurant group CEOs) to get their take on how restaurant operators should position themselves for 2021.
For pizzeria operators in most markets, 2020 may actually have been their best year ever because they were so well-positioned to serve the public during the pandemic. In “The Year of the Pizza,” Estiator catches up with three operators to study their business’s product mix reports and to see where customer preferences lie.
And this month’s Managing for Success column, Constantine Kolitsas takes a look at the takeout segment of the business, arguing that it’s here to stay and urging operators who hope to maintain strong takeout sales as we move out of pandemic to make their systems error-free, or “bulletproof.”
At the end of the day, it makes no matter that the carnage of 2020 has set a low bar to surpass for most of our businesses. The only thing that matters is what we’ve learned that will help us to navigate what comes our way in 2021.
And toward that end, we wish all a healthy, happy New Year, and surely a better one than the last.
The Editorial & Publishing Staff
