This was my second year attending the national restaurant show, and as show attendee veteran. Here were my thoughts in no particular order.
- Holy hell is it a big show. I walked over 10 miles trying to cover the entire show. That was going up and down rows.
- The technology is getting more advanced. Last year we posted this video of the fry flipping robot. This year’s version was half the size, and it looked as if it could do more activities.
- Broasted chicken is so delicious.
- The Vienna Beef guys gave at over 16,000 full hot dogs at their booth last year.
- 3D printed edible sugar sculptures; they were beautiful.
- Start-up Alley was cool as there were a lot of great young companies with cool stuff.
- Including an automated salad machine that you can just put a bowl in and 20 seconds later a custom salad has been made and is ready to serve.
I’ve enjoyed attending both of these years, and if you are in this industry, I recommend that you try to get there one time to see how big our industry is and how much cool stuff there is for operators. Wear comfortable shoes!