It’s a fact. Restaurants across Canada are on the brink of reopening, whether to patio dining, in-restaurant meals, or both. Diners are understandably excited to return to their favourite culinary haunts. But what about restaurant staff, many of whom have been furloughed for part or all of the pandemic? How safe is it for them to return?

As Jeff Dover, principal of fsSTRATEGY Inc., says, “Very few cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as spreading in restaurants; this includes areas of the country where indoor dining has been allowed. In short, the restaurant industry was [already] doing a good job of keeping staff safe.”

“Very few cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as spreading in restaurants. In short, the restaurant industry was [already] doing a good job of keeping staff safe.”

Jeff Dover, principal of fsSTRATEGY Inc.

But keeping restaurant staff safe and having restaurant staff who feel safe are two different things. Canadian Restaurant Workers Coalition has been petitioning provincial governments to improve restaurant workers’ protections like paid sick leave and overtime pay. As reported in the Toronto Star, Not 9 to 5, a non-profit providing resources for mental-health well-being among hospitality workers, recently introduced the Mind Your Health project. The project includes a certification program on workplace safety from a psychological perspective, along with an online survey to collect data on mental-health well-being among hospitality workers.

Where to start

“The key for me is to ensure that staff wear masks and, even more so, keep six feet apart when possible,” advises Dover. “When staff have to be within six feet (e.g., taking orders, picking up food), the time of exposure should be limited. One of the primary challenges is tight kitchen spaces such as a line with multiple stations not six feet apart. Redesigning the menu to have fewer kitchen stations will help keep the staff safe. COVID-19 is more likely to be transmitted indoors and in close spaces. Redesign your workflows to eliminate or limit such interactions.”

Sanitize regularly. Tables, work surfaces, and other areas, both front and back of house. 

Reduce staff sharing. For instance, kitchen staff should never share utensils at back of house. 

Change your menuing. Other changes will need to be instituted to ensure the safety of both your guests and your employees. Reusable menus, for instance, may become a thing of the past. Many restaurants, says Dover, are putting QR codes on tables to limit contact with shared items. “When guests request menus, they should be provided with a single use copy. Condiments should not be kept on tables and should be sanitized before use. Cutlery should be rolled and brought to the table after the guests are seated. Simple adjustments like these will assist in limiting the spread of COVID-19 for both guests and staff.”

Appoint a COVID-19 point person. “I recommend having someone responsible each shift to ensure COVID-19 prevention practices are adhered to,” says Dover. “This person could also be the go-to for questions about practices being employed to keep customers and staff safe.”

Organize vaccination days. A number of restaurant chains in the US have said they are providing pay for staff to get vaccinated and are even helping their employees to book appointments. 

Offer paid sick days. This is key, says Dover. “You don’t want staff to come to work when they are not feeling well. Take advantage of federal and provincial paid sick day programs if you can. Paying sick days will be less expensive in the long run than having your restaurant closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak.” Should you experience an outbreak, make sure you have records of which employees worked when, along with info on your dine-in restaurant customers and who served them. Contact tracing is key.

Ramp up your communication. Let your staff know what you’re doing to keep them safe, and then inform your guests of the steps you’ve introduced to keep them — and your employees — safe. “If you are able to pay sick days, I would communicate it,” Dover advises. “The restaurant chains in the States paying staff (I heard two to four hours) to get vaccinated received great publicity. We have seen in jurisdictions that have opened up that there is significant pent-up demand. However, not all staff will be comfortable working and not all potential customers will be comfortable in dining rooms. Communication on the safety practices being employed will help alleviate any such fears.”

Your restaurant safety protocols checklist

Employee safety, testing and validation will be key to successful restaurant reopening. Healthcare and foodservice workers may be required to validate their health status before handling food in the post-COVID-19 environment. Here are some protocols you should initiate to ensure the highest level of safety:

• A Validated Body Temperature Check and Log for employees before they enter a place of work. These records will need to be maintained or even submitted to a higher authority on a regular basis, following the lead of most healthcare facilities.
• Food Safe Certification (or comparable) for all foodservice workers. 
• Face Masks. All food handlers (and maybe even service staff) will be required to wear a protective mask. Ensure you have masks available for all your staff.
• Hand washing. Training in proper sanitary handwashing must be demonstrated and followed frequently.
• Sanitary uniforms. Many restaurants require uniforms but leave them up to employee. Gone may be that favourite Che T-shirt as a uniform of choice, along with unwashed shoes, baseball caps, or cargo pants and shorts, as operators pivot to requiring uniforms laundered daily and professionally, and not left in staff lockers or change rooms. 
• Work surface sanitation protocol and records. Sanitizing of work surfaces, equipment and documentation of all protocols is recommended.
• HACCP enforcement. Temperature and travel logs must become second nature. HACCP (time temperature tracking) will become the most critical safety/sanitation issue in the future. 
• New procedures for clean dishes, flatware and glassware. Flatware must be free of contamination before menu items are plated and delivered to a guest. Discuss with your chemical service providers how to ensure products and equipment are safe for staff and guests.
• Health inspections. Develop a plan to interact more with your local health department. Involve chefs and managers to create a flow of information.
• Focus on safe distances between employees. The typical design of a restaurant leads to the smallest amount of kitchen space to accomplish the job — leaving more space for revenue generation out front.
• Seek opportunities for menu change or equipment location swap to increase safe distancing in the kitchen and service area. While 2 metre social distancing may not be possible at all times, plan to incorporate more space.
• Rethink your staffing. Use the opportunity to rehire as many of your good staff as possible, but also consider adding new and better hires with more experience. Will you be continuing to offer delivery? Make sure you have the right staff for your right jobs.

Should your restaurant be active on social media? Absolutely. Is it important also to have a website and mailing list? Even more so.

Why? Basing your marketing plan on social media alone is akin to renting without a lease. Websites and mailing lists, however, offer the control that comes with ownership.

Why you need a website and mailing list for your restaurant

Websites offer restaurants many benefits. Jenny Companion, VP eastern operations, and Nathalie Kent, communications coordinator, of hospitality consulting agency The Fifteen Group say, “Having a proprietary website provides more freedom to tell the story of your restaurant, control the narrative, share all pertinent information and maintain a certain look and feel. You can share your full menu in a large format […], offer easy access to make reservations or contact your team, share maps, and more.”

“Having a proprietary website provides more freedom to tell the story of your restaurant.”

Jenny Companion, VP eastern operations, The Fifteen Group
Nathalie Kent, communications coordinator, The Fifteen Group

Your mailing list is your most valuable digital commodity because it consolidates contact information for people who interact with you in many places. 

Companion and Kent say, “Building a mailing list is also beneficial as it affords restaurants more direct communication with their guests. Rather than posting a restaurant LTO or promotion on Instagram and hoping it gets seen, they can send a newsletter directly to their target audience’s inbox.”

“Building a mailing list is beneficial as it affords restaurants more direct communication with their guests.”

Jenny Companion, VP eastern operations, The Fifteen Group
Nathalie Kent, communications coordinator, The Fifteen Group

Why social media alone for your restaurant isn’t enough

Your community expects to find you on at least one or two social media platforms. This allows you to promote your brand and engage with followers. But each platform has both content and functional limitations.

Be mindful that what you build on any third-party platform like Instagram, Facebook or TikTok is somewhat precarious. Changing algorithms can limit who sees your posts, services can be converted from free to paid, and sometimes platforms even shut down (goodbye, Google+). 

Each social media platform has both content and functional limitations.

For Facebook Pages, which businesses use, ongoing algorithm changes favour paid posts over organic reach, meaning your posts appear less frequently in your followers’ feeds. If you have a Facebook page, no doubt you receive frequent nudges to “boost” your posts — for an advertising fee, of course.

On Instagram, posts used to appear in reverse chronological order. If you posted an enticing photo of your lunch special at 9 a.m., followers who used the app that morning most likely would have seen it. Now, the rules that dictate how your posts rank in followers’ feeds are far more complex, including factors like followers’ behaviour (e.g., the types of posts they engage with), the interactions between you and them, timing and more. It’s complicated.

You might not like it, but there’s nothing wrong with social media platforms changing the rules when they please. After all, they offer their services for free, but not out of altruism. They’re businesses prioritizing their interests. 

Again, just like renting that great space without a lease, basing your restaurant’s marketing plan entirely on social media doesn’t offer a lot of security.

The power of website ownership

Apart from the content, marketing, and operational benefits of having a great website, it’s yours to control. If you want to change up the design or integrate new functionality like a mailing list service, well, you’re in charge.

You own your domain name (like www[dot]bestrestaurant[dot]ca) and choose the platform to build your website on. By using a hosted website, you can focus on functionality, content, and SEO (strategies to help search engines display your site to would-be visitors) while your provider handles the nuts and bolts (think fun stuff like updates, security, backups, etc.). One website platform is Sociavore, which was developed for independent restaurants. 

Yes, you’ll need to pay for your domain name (URL) and platform fees, while your social channels are free. But you won’t be at the mercy of social media’s frequently changing rules and players, and visitors to your site will find everything they need in one place.

Making the most of an email list

Congratulations if you have scores of followers on social media, but do you know how to contact them outside the platform? Visits to your website may be booming, but do you know who those visitors are?

Creating a mailing list allows you to make the most of traffic to your website, social channels and restaurant. It’s your master list of everyone who’s said they want hear from you.

No matter what happens to your social channels or website, your mailing list is there for you. It’s your most powerful marketing and relationship-building tool, allowing you to communicate directly with your subscribers. Build it with care and treat it like gold.

“Those who sign up for your mailing list are, by definition, already engaged with and invested in your brand, so you’ll be able to capitalize on an active and interested audience to drive business.”

Jenny Companion, VP eastern operations, The Fifteen Group
Nathalie Kent, communications coordinator, The Fifteen Group

As Companion and Kent say, “Those who sign up for your mailing list are, by definition, already engaged with and invested in your brand, so you’ll be able to capitalize on an active and interested audience to drive business.”

Seven tips to maximize your restaurant email list

1. Offer multiple opportunities to subscribe — Put sign-up links on each social channel and your website, and provide paper forms and/or digital options on your premises. Always seek to expand your list. 
2. Offer incentives — It’s well worth providing special offers or promotions for people to join your mailing list.
3. Personalize email — A little thing like using subscribers’ names in email goes a long way toward relationship building.
4. Learn about subscribers’ interests — Polling subscribers about their interests means you can target content to them. Send the promo about your new meat lovers’ menu to the people who are happy to see it, not the vegan crowd.
5. Don’t flood subscribers’ inboxes — If you send too many emails, they may tune you out or, worse yet, unsubscribe. 
6. Remember, consent is key — Spam may have a place on some menus, but it doesn’t belong in your mailings. Learn more about Canada’s anti-spam legislation.
7. Use a mailing list service — You don’t have to manage your list alone. Services like MailChimp or Constant Contact support you in enrolling new subscribers, anti-spam compliance, sub-list creation, communication design, and analyzing impact.

Leslie Ewing, executive director at Plant-Based Foods of Canada, is bullish on plants. She represents 28 member companies who make or market plant-based products in Canada. In 2019, plant-based foods in Canada were worth $500 million, with an annual nominal growth of 16%. 

According to the National Research Council of Canada, annual global sales of plant-based meat alternatives have grown on average 8% a year since 2010, with projections forecasting that by 2040, 20% of all meat consumed will consist of plant-based and clean meat. Currently, global plant-based meat is sized at roughly $4B US. Between 2020 and 2027, global sales are estimated to grow at a compound annual rate of about 20%.

Projections forecast that by 2040, 20% of all meat consumed will consist of plant-based and clean meat.

National Research Council of Canada

Disruptors abound

The first question that foodservice manufacturers consider before committing resources to a new food trend is “why.” Based on the tier of players involved and the multi-billion dollar opportunity, there’s no question at this point that plant-based meat is happening. The issue for foodservice operators is to look at the questions of “what” and “how.”

Leslie Ewing notes that the plant-based meat market is about more than just soy-based versus pea-based. “(Many of our members are labelling their plant-based meat) GMO-free, or organic, or Certified Plant Based. But the reality is that a wide variety of factors go into most people’s food choices. That’s why we see this less about being a binary shift (soy to pea) but rather a diversification of new protein sources. That includes soy and pea, but also now includes new ways of using almonds, coconuts, cashews, and hemp.”

Established meat players and the primary plant-based market makers will increasingly be challenged by new disruptors seeking to carve out their slice of the market. Century Pacific Foods, a large integrated protein player based in The Phillipines, is poised to launch the unMEAT burger. Rather than being a me-too competitor, unMEAT is poised to change the foodservice game. unMEAT’s product cost is significantly closer to parity with animal-based protein. It is also non-GMO, 0% cholesterol & trans-fat, and carries an ingredient deck with half as many items that are more recognizable to consumers — soy protein, vegetable oil, onion, wheat, salt, vinegar, and soy sauce.

In its first year of operating, plant-based venture capital fund LIVEKINDLY Collective pulled in over $500M in capital to fund global expansion. One of the brands that LIVEKINDLY acquired was Swedish innovator “Oumph!” brands. Oumph has grown dramatically across the Nordic countries, and the UK. It’s poised to launch in North America in 2021. Oumph! has taken plant-based to the next level. Their “Epic Veggie Eating” products achieve near analogue flavour and performance to traditional animal protein. The plant-based line includes Sticky Smokehouse meatless ribs, flavoured kebabs, burgers, and sausages. Oumph!’s core protein chunk product ingredient deck is pure simplicity — water, soya protein, and salt. In the UK, Oumph! is sold at major retailers like Tesco, Asda, and Whole Foods Market, as well as regional chain restaurants, institutional caterers, and Hilton Hotels. 

Putting money where their mouth is

In 2020, the federal government announced $100 million of targeted financing for the development of plant-based foods by Merit Functional Foods in Winnipeg, Man. The company has built a state-of-the-art facility to create pea, canola and discruptive custom blended proteins, to be used in innovative plant-based protein solutions. This is a big bet, but it’s a safe one.

One of the fastest growing plant-based meat brands in the U.K., Meatless Farm Co., made a similar wager early in 2021, opening a Lovingly Made Ingredients facility in Calgary. The Calgary plant was established to manufacture textured plant-based proteins and starches. The location in the Canadian Prairies was conceived to use local crops close to source, consistent with the overall corporate goal of reducing the environmental footprint of the protein we consume.

Can’t stop the train — get on it

According to the SPINS/IRI retail tracking database, the plant-based meat trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plant-based meat sales in the U.S. exploded during COVID, and were 50% higher than animal-based meat sales during peak panic buying in 2020 in a trend being mirrored in Canada. 

Based on current modelling, the market is already anticipating one-in-every-five-pounds of protein sold being plant-based. But the train’s not stopping there. Using extrudable fat technology partially developed at the University of Guelph, Motif Foodworks will be launching multiple products in the next 12 months that will provide “veining and marbling” effects to plant-based meats. Adding this layer of fat texture will speed up adoption even more. It’s beyond time for foodservice operators to get on board with beyond-meat products that help grow restaurants’ bottom line.

Check out the huge spectrum of plant-based options

More and more manufacturers are getting into creating plant-based options that mimic the appearance and mouth feel of meat. Many restaurant diners continue to look for something that reminds them of meat without the guilt of actually consuming meat-based products. Major players like Maple Leaf are delivering, often with the help of food scientists.

Here are some of the major players adding plants to the growing menu:

Pea / Pulses

Supplier: Beyond Meat (U.S.)

Supplier: Sweet Earth – Awesome (Nestle — U.S.) 

Supplier: Raised & Rooted (Tyson — U.S.) 

Soy

Supplier: Impossible Foods (U.S.)

Supplier: Century Pacific Foods (Phillipines)

Wheat

Supplier: Loryma (Crespel & Deiters Group) — German wheat ingredient developer

Blends — Animal + Plant Protein

Supplier: Maple Leaf Foods

Here comes summer and, once pandemic numbers are under control and dining opens up widely, it will be time to get your grill on. Customers are raring to get back to outdoor dining, and nothing entices more than the smells wafting from a BBQ grill.

This year’s BBQ hot trends include flat plate grilling, high-end buns, layering, non-meat (plant-based innovations) grilling, and sauces and spices that take old favourites and present them in new and exciting ways. 

Light up your BBQ options

There’s nothing like cooking over live fire to really ignite the taste buds. If you have that option at your operation, you’ll be able to bring out the flavour in any number of grill dishes — from vegetarian to meat and fish.

Always go big on burgers

Burgers are here to stay, even with more Canadians choosing plant-based options. 

Nearly four in 10 Canadians eat at least one burger a week, and men eat even more burgers than women, according to data from Weston Bakeries, which studies burger-lovers’ habits. 

Here’s what really turns on burger lovers looking for a premium burger experience:

• The patty (63%)
• The bun (21%)
• Toppings (6%)
• Seasonings/spices (5%)
• Condiments and cheese (3% each)

For many Canadians, a burger is naked without cheese. Not surprisingly, cheddar is the cheese champion at 47%, followed by mozzarella at 35%, Swiss at 33%, and Monterey Jack at 25%. Sliced is chosen by 63% and shredded by 17%. 

Pile on the extras

Meat-topped burgers are trending… and going beyond bacon. Beef burgers are getting piled high with pulled pork, ham and beef brisket for a really meaty experience. They’re marketed as an indulgent, and ultra-savoury meat-on-meat combination.

Don’t forget the bun

Most Canadians like it simple and classic when it comes to buns, however new and exciting formulations are adding abundant new bun-opportunities. Here’s what Canadians traditionally look for:

• Sesame seed buns (31%)
• Cheese buns (22%)
• Garlic bread buns (19%)
• Onion buns (18%)
• Whole wheat and multigrain buns (16% each)

Innovation is certainly coming to buns. According to Technomic, which collects data from the Top 500 restaurant chains, the fastest growing buns are potato buns, sesame seed buns, and brioche. Even ciabatta buns are beginning to have their moment on the grill.

Beef still reigns as burger king followed by chicken, fish and turkey. Eight out of 10 prefer a grilled beef patty. But new grill contenders are ready to take their place. Think seafood skewers and grilled fish.

Kick up your spices a notch

Salt and pepper remain the most popular burger seasonings, however garlic salt, Worcestershire, peppercorn, and Cajun flavours are all gaining in popularity. 

Diners love barbecue, and that’s helping to propel burnt, charred and toasted flavours, Technomic reports. Smoky flavours are no longer limited to just meats and cheese but are also being paired with contrasting flavours such as sweet and spicy to add complexity. The espelette pepper, originating from the Basque region of France, helps deliver that smoky, sweet and mildly hot flavour that makes plancha-grilled food an exciting new trend.

The fastest growing condiments are chipotle aioli, garlic mayonnaise, honey, marmalade and jam, especially savoury flavours like bacon jam and pepper marmalade. 

Your restaurant may have a Facebook page and Instagram account, but do you have a website? In this time of soaring social media popularity, you may think a website isn’t necessary, but your online marketing strategy isn’t complete without one. 

Each component of your online presence has a role to play, but your website is the hub that brings them all together. Think of it as your one-stop virtual shop for your restaurant’s brand. 

Restaurant websites attract visitors and drive sales

Amina Gilani, co-founder and COO of Sociavore, a website building platform designed to meet the needs of independent restaurants, says, “Over 80 per cent of customers are going online first to discover a restaurant.”

Restaurants Canada likens your website to your front door. “Today’s diners are keen to learn as much as they can about your restaurant before they make a reservation, so they’ll visit your website to get information. There, they expect to find your menu, hours of operation and location, social media links, and maybe even a blog.”

“Today’s diners are keen to learn as much as they can about your restaurant before they make a reservation, so they’ll visit your website to get information.”

Restaurants Canada

With the COVID-19 pandemic in its second year, your website visitors want much more than information. They’re looking for a virtual guest experience to replace what they’ve come to expect from your physical location, and functionality that allows them to interact with you.

Your restaurant website can also drive sales. Technomic’s Industry Insights report of September 7, 2020 states, “Convenient online and app-driven ordering has been a lifeline during the pandemic,” and reports that 24 per cent of consumers who order food for off-premise do so using a restaurant-specific website.

Cindy Perri, brand guardian for Charcoal Group restaurants, which use Sociavore, says, “Not only does our website support all of our marketing efforts as the final destination in a long line of communication and storytelling, but it also functions as the technological bridge between the guest and restaurants for programs such as online ordering, gift cards, loyalty, feedback and takeout efforts, to name a few.”

Take control of your online presence

If you think your restaurant doesn’t need an online presence, think again: you already have one. 

Even without a website or any social media accounts, someone Googling your restaurant or your type of eatery will find plenty of information about you in the form of reviews (some of which may be negative) on sites like Yelp, personal blogs and even friends’ Facebook posts. 

Having a restaurant website helps you take control of your online presence. “You don’t want other people to build what your brand is online,” Gilani says. “You want to be able to do that for yourself, just like you do for your bricks and mortar experiences where so much care is put into that guest experience.”

Sociavore optimizes your site for search engines, something known as SEO. Simply put, making it easy for search engines like Google to find your site makes it easier for people to find you. 

The power of social media integration

Your Instagram account can convey your restaurant’s food and vibe through beautiful images, but the platform doesn’t allow for much information like hours and menus. Also, their hashtag-based searches make it challenging for someone who doesn’t know about your restaurant to find you when they’re looking for a new place to eat. While a Facebook page can include lots of information and photos, its busy format doesn’t lend itself well to showcasing your brand. 

“Websites are different from social media in that they hold more robust information that you can’t necessarily post on social media as easily, […] so it’s great to have that place guests can go to find out more,” says Perri.

One way to address these social media shortcomings is to direct people to your full-service restaurant website via links in your Instagram profile and Facebook “About” section and posts. Similarly, links from your website to your social channels encourage more followers there.

Sociavore also provides seamless integration between your website and social channels. For instance, you can automatically import your Instagram posts to your restaurant website, post to social media from your website and even schedule those posts. Social media management can be time consuming; Sociavore makes it more efficient.

Brand Points PLUS and Sociavore make it easy

Small restaurant operators may not have the level of resources and technical expertise of the chains, but with Sociavore’s no-technical-skills-required, drag-and-drop approach, you can easily build a highly customized, professional website that supports your operations and offers guests the functionality they’ve come to expect in the age of apps. With a Sociavore-powered website, they can make reservations online, order takeout or delivery, purchase gift cards, buy tickets for live or virtual events, and more.

Greenbridge Foodservice has aligned their Brand Points PLUS program with Sociavore to help you compete just like the big guys. They’re offering special pricing and an exclusive all-in-one plan where their teams build your website and update it quarterly for you. And you can use your Brand Points PLUS points to pay. Learn more at https://chefconnexion.com/digital-smarts-for-the-independent-restaurant-operator/.