Chasin' The Next Big Thing . . . It's not a Bang!
I meet with people from time to time whose goal in life is to create that next great food idea that will revolutionize the industry as we know it. Most of the time, these would-be builders of the better mouse trap end up cobbling some other concepts together and slap new or improved on it. Independent copycat operators rarely out-think, cook or mange their larger and more successful brethren. The food business tends to be more about evolution than revolution. I dare say there are a few concepts, however, that are converging and could . . . if all the moons align . . . create the next big thing. Don’t just Talk Fresh to Me. The concept of fresh is becoming the dog everyone wants to chase. Several industry experts even suggest that fast casual’s version 2.0 incarnation is "fresh casual". Customers react favorably to fresh concepts and the mounting evidence does suggest they will open their wallet a bit wider for it (although i am not sure anyone c...