Awards

Food Management Magazine April, 2005

2005 Best Concepts Award Winners

Top-quality food. Cutting-edge design. Innovative marketing programs.

The idea behind FM's annual Best Concepts awards competition is to recognize readers whose operations demonstrate both leading edge thinking and bottom-line results.Our editors pored over scores of entries to select the winning concepts and organizations that follow.

Best Special Event

Let the Argentines Roll!

UGA's theme event found an unusual subject with a great food tie-in

• What: Tango Argentina
• Where: Bolton, Oglethorpe and Snelling Dining Halls, University of Georgia at Athens
• Project Team: J. Michael Floyd (director), Jeanne Fry (assistant director), Susan van Gigch (manager-Bolton Dining Commons), Paul Oesterle (Bolton chef), Henry Green, Gregg Hudson, Richard Bohannon

The Big Idea: Theme events can easily get into a repetitive rut, but UGA Dining found a fairly unusual hook — marrying an Argentine "gaucho" theme with a dance instruction event (teaching the tango) and a dinner of Argentinian food. The fairly unique combination more than satisfied the requirement of any theme event in a college dining hall—getting the customers curious, interested and excited to attend. The theme allowed the planners to use original decorations and props centered on gauchos (Argentine cowboys) and the tango, while the tango lessons and subsequent dancing gave participants something to engage in beside simply eating. The food, meanwhile, highlighted the culinary staff's imagination and expertise, with exotic fare such as milanesas (thin, fried cutlets), chorizo sausage, flan and roasted goat.

Floyd & Food Services win Community Champion Award

J. Michael Floyd, department head of Food Services, received the 2003 Community Champion Award for his involvement with the Full Plate Food Recovery program. Food Services donates leftover food to homeless feeding sites in the northeast Georgia area. The award was presented to Floyd at the Georgia Community Action Association's 2003 Human Rights Day Conference in Atlanta.

Floyd has also worked on combating hunger on a national level, serving as the liaison for the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) to the Council for Noncommercial Food Services' Hunger Program. He received the 1994 Richard Lichtenfelt Award from NACUFS for his work on this project.

INTERNATIONAL FOODSERVICE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION

History of the Gold and Silver Plate Awards

2002 marks the 47th anniversary of IFMA's Gold and Silver Plate Awards. For 47 years these awards have acknowledged, with highest tribute, the most outstanding operator talents in our $411 billion foodservice industry. Since its inception in 1955, the Gold and Silver Plate program has followed the tradition of "recognizing excellence to encourage excellence."

As the highest possible honor in the industry, the Gold and Silver Plate Awards program has grown and evolved in response to the rigorous demands of an industry which itself has experienced continued growth and evolution. In this way, the Gold and Silver Plate Awards program has reached and maintained its coveted position as the most significant and widely-recognized tribute in our very demanding, complex and ever-growing industry.

Perhaps it will be of interest to you that when this traditional event began in 1955, and for the next thirteen years, it was exclusively a Gold Plate Awards program, where one award was given annually - - the Gold Plate Award. (In 1958 and 1959, three Gold Plate Awards were granted simultaneously.)

By 1968, it was apparent that one award could not justly represent the various management skills of the many diverse segments making up the total foodservice industry. How could a restaurant operator, for example, be fairly compared to a military, hospital or university foodservice operator? The analogy of comparing apples to oranges was a sound argument.

So, beginning in 1968, seven categories representing the full spectrum of the foodservice industry were delineated, and the outstanding operator from each segment was awarded IFMA's newly created Silver Plate Award. Then, from that pool of seven Silver Plate recipients, the Gold Plate Award winner, or "Foodservice Operator of the Year" was selected.

In 1973, the number of Silver Plate Awards was increased to eight when the category previously called Commercial Restaurants was divided to form two new categories: Full Service Restaurants and Fast Service Restaurants.

Several years later, a task force was formed to evaluate the nomination form once again. At that time, a ninth category was added: Independent Restaurant Operator. And, the Public Institutions and Military category was incorporated into the Health Care category. Business and Industry (another new category) took over this slot.

In 1989, the Gold Plate Awards Task Force met once again to analyze the nomination process and incorporate any changes needed. The Task Force voted and decided on the following nine categories: Independent Restaurant Operator; Chain Full Service; Chain Fast Service; Health Care; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Colleges and Universities; Contract Food Management; Business and Industry; Hotels and Lodging.

In 1994, the category structure was revamped again only slightly: the Business & Industry and Contract Food Management categories were combined to make a single category. Also, a new category, Specialty Foodservices, was created to include operator segments (such as clubs, off-premises caterers, correctional institutions, military foodservice, leisure and theme parks, stadiums and sports arenas, airlines and cruise ships) that had not previously fit within the awards category structure.

Today the Silver Plate Award is granted in the following nine categories:

1. Independent Restaurant Operator
2. Chain Full Service
3. Chain Fast Service
4. Health Care
5. Elementary and Secondary Schools
6. Colleges and Universities
7. Contract Food Management
8. Business and Industry
9. Hotels and Lodging

Judging for the Gold and Silver Plate recipients always has been a matter of utmost seriousness and integrity although, like the Gold and Silver Plate program itself, the Awards Jury has undergone a number of changes.

The very first Gold Plate recipient was judged by a jury of five university professors and in subsequent years, foodservice publication editors made up the Jury, with one editor acting as chairperson. In 1978, we added to this group the previous year's Silver Plate recipients as well.

Nomination forms for the Gold and Silver Plate Awards are disbursed widely throughout the industry, being sent to all trade publications, IFMA's individual manufacturing members, associate and allied members, nonmember manufacturers, chain operators and sister trade associations.

Every winter, the Gold and Silver Plate Awards Jury convenes for a day-long meeting where each of the nominees in every category is considered on the basis of these criteria:

1. Foodservice management and operating techniques
2. Employee training programs, motivation and expansion of career opportunities
3. Membership and participation in professional foodservice organizations
4. Other contributions to the prestige and public image of the foodservice industry, including participation in civic, community, charitable, educational and other affairs which illustrate social responsibility

Once the nine Silver Plate winners are selected, the Jury goes on to choose, by secret ballot, one of the nine as "Foodservice Operator of the Year," the Gold Plate Award winner, on the basis of the same criteria. A representative from Price Waterhouse collects and tallies the ballots. By the nature of the secret ballot, not even the Jury members know the name of the Gold Plate recipient unit it is revealed at the Gold and Silver Plate Awards Banquet in May.

The IFMA Gold and Silver Plate Awards Banquet, which annually recognizes the new class of Silver Plate Award recipients, is a showcase of the foodservice industry and one of the most prestigious culinary events of the year. Over hundreds of foodservice notable gather to pay tribute to the award winners and to enjoy an evening of outstanding cuisine. The multi-course menu is painstakingly developed by the Chicago Hilton's Chef and banquet staff and is taste-tested by IFMA's President and a panel of invited guests before final approval. It is a measure of the foodservice industry's immense talent and creativity that such a banquet can be successfully presented to such a large group while still consistently maintaining the high quality, flair and essence of hospitality that is an integral part of the industry.

Restaurants USA, May 1998

SIMPLY THE BEST

A complete list of the 1998 Great Menu Design Contest winners

Institutional Foodservice

• First Place: Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., New York, NY
• Second Place: The Morris Inn Dining Room, Notre Dame, IN
• *** Third Place: University of Georgia Food Services, Athens, GA
• Best of Show: Big Bowl, Chicago, IL

Grand Prize Winners

• First Place: Obachine(Dinner Menu), Santa Monica, CA
• Second Place: 301 (Wine List), San Francisco, CA
• Third Place: Damon's (Dessert Menu), Columbus, OH

Restaurant: Average Check Under $8 Per Person

• First Place: Bulldog Deli, Inc., Starkville, MS
• Second Place: Wrapsody, Dayton, OH
• Third Place: Bixby's Bagels and Eats, Edina, MN

Restaurant: Average Check $8 to $15 Per Person

• First Place: River Wildlife, Kohler, WI
• Second Place: Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, Newark, DE
• Third Place: Holiday Inn Hotels (Breakfast Menu), Atlanta, GA

Restaurant: Average Check Over $15 Per Person

• First Place: Long Ridge Tavern, Stamford, CT
• Second Place: Bistro-An American Cafe, Bismarck, ND
• Third Place: Arroyo Grille, Philadelphia, PA

Banquet Catering

• First Place: Hotel Pattee, Perry, IA
• Second Place: Mary Brady's Catering, Novi, MI
• Third Place: Dayton Convention Center, Fine Host Corporation, Dayton, OH

Specialty

• First Place: Sazerac, Seattle, WA
• Second Place: Friday's American Bar (Beverage Menu), Dallas, TX
• Third place: T.G.I. Friday's (Dessert Menu), Dallas, TX

Most Unusual

• First Place: Obachine(Lunch Menu), Santa Monica, CA
• Second Place: Altos, Phoenix, AZ
• Third Place: McGuffey's Restaurant, Asheville, NC

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Looking for examples of exemplary menu design?

Look no further.

By Emily Arnoult

A careful blend of form and function in a menu produces the perfect vehicle to convey the essence of your restaurant to the customer. Like aromas that kindle the senses, a good design and a well-communicated theme spark the imagination-and higher sales. The winners of this year's Great Menu Design Contest show that it is possible to have a bill of fare that is functional while still having flair.

Best of Show, Big Bowl Chicago

"We take the attitude that [the menu] is a guide to a new journey," says Kevin Brown, president of Big Bowl, a Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises restaurant. For this journey, the menu advises guests to "travel light," an approach that the contest judges felt comes through in the menu's clean design and simplicity. "We wanted a combination of user-friendly and readable, but at the same time, we wanted it to be used like a guided tour. Our servers are guides. Our menus are educational, with the history of the food, and explain to what degree we go to produce fresh Asian cooking." Fortune-cookie-like directions to life encourage readers to "smile frequently," "talk slowly," but "think fast" and to "slurp freely" and "see clearly."

The menu is part of an integrated approach to presenting the Big Bowl image. Warm honey-colored woods, deep greens and earth tones are used in the restaurant. The menu echoes the color scheme and the simplicity of the restaurant interior by using a single wooden chopstick on the cover and cream-colored pages accented with red italics and floating, wavy descriptions on the inside.

Although the format of the menu makes changes a little more difficult, and the investment was bigger than initially planned, Brown says he believes that the menu has been a great marketing tool and that guests get a lot of excitement from it.

"We want to make sure the customer has a complete experience when they come in. We want them to feel the excitement that we have about the food and the warmth of the restaurant. And we can put this in their hands to help them see that — and, of course, to help them decide [what to order]."

First Place Grand Prize Obachine [Dinner Menu] Santa Monica, California

The list of requirements for Obachine's new menu was long, says Frank Guidara, president and CEO of Wolfgang Puck Food Company. "We wanted our menu to be artistic and to carry the Asian theme, and we wanted it to tell a story about the concept and include the Oba leaf — the inspiration for the name of the restaurant."

Emphasizing the family-style items and offering wine selections were other considerations. They also wanted to describe, reflect and effectively complement the pieces of Asian art decorating the walls. Coping with so many demands, they knew that they would have to be careful in the design stage so that they would end up with an all-inclusive yet intriguing menu.

The painstaking process began with the custom design of a font that had an Asian but readable look to it and the search for the perfect paper. Guidara says it was Seth Anderson who really brought everything together. "He was part designer, part printer, part everything," Guidara says.

"It's been a labor-intensive production," he says. The paper is handmade and the brass plate is individually made and applied. Producing the gold die-cut is an intricate process, Guidara admits, but he says the overwhelmingly positive results make the effort worthwhile.

When they were finished, they knew they had a striking design-so striking that they expected some of the menus might be stolen. They have been pleasantly surprised that a few menus have been returned. "People have just appreciated them that much," says Guidara.

Second Place Grand Prize 301 [Wine List] San Francisco

The idea for the wine menu at 301 was to echo the look of the restaurant and the different textures used throughout, says Jim Brophy, a graphic designer with Off-Center Design Group in Wheaton, Illinois, which designed the menu. The building that houses 301 is narrow and small. Light woods and soft greens dominate the color scheme, with accents of gold and other colors. The cover of the menu echoes those colors and the square patterns that are used throughout the interior of the restaurant.

"We wanted to give the menu a bit of an Asian flair but not overdo it," says Brophy. The initial designs used woods of varying thickness, which gave the menus a heavy feeling. The resulting design — narrow, folded, corrugated cardboard tied with a moss-green ribbon — is softer and easier to handle and better reflects the comfortable look and feel of the restaurant, he explains.

"People buy things based on how they look and feel, and a good menu is really an extension of that," says Brophy. "Because wine lists are the counterparts to main menus, they often do not get as much design attention, but this would be something that people would want to pick up and see."

Third Place Grand Prize Damon's International [Dessert Menu] Columbus, Ohio

Michael Branigan, vice president of marketing for Damon's International, describes himself as a "nostalgia freak." He says that as he watched the reintroduction of songs and toys that he once played with, the idea for Damon's dessert menu came naturally to him — a View-Master with images of the restaurant's dessert offerings. "Nostalgia is about comforting things from childhood that are very memorable. No one has bad feelings about a View-Master."

The uniqueness of the toy, and the staying power of memories surrounding it, were in tune with what Damon's wanted from a menu. "In the merchandising world, a menu needs to be unique, and it needs to be memorable," says Branigan. As a father who logs a lot of time at toy stores, Branigan says he is struck by the inherent intelligence of children's toys. "I look for different ways to use them," he says. The nostalgia evoked by the View-Master and the customer interaction it inspires at the table are among the phenomenal outcomes of the menu's debut, explains Branigan.

To keep the menu fresh and new to customers, the photos on the image wheels are changed periodically, just as any menu would vary selections from time to time. Photos for the wheel require special setup, and wheel production requires a long lead time. Although the production process is difficult, the extra preparation is well worth it to bring nostalgia to the table, Branigan says.

First Place, Institutional Foodservice Sony Music Entertainment, Inc. New York City

New York City-based Restaurant Associates produces menus for all of its clients, but few have offered the creative outlet found in designing the menu for Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., says John Harding, vice president, director of marketing.

Harding came up with the idea to use the "jewel boxes" (as the plastic compact-disc containers are called in the industry), and in-house art director Doug Newton helped to design them. The artwork for the menu is taken from photographs by Lou Manna of three-dimensional murals displayed in cafeterias at Sony. The murals portray different ethnic foods, particularly those found in the New York City area.

The jewel boxes were very inexpensive — about 3 cents each — and Sony, of course, had plenty of them on hand. About 2,000 menus were made and distributed to employees through interoffice mail. "The menu has been very effective in increasing office-catering sales at Sony," says Harding.

Harding has been pleased with the response, and he says the menu has effectively conveyed a message. "We offer our foodservice accounts the excitement, the quality and the programs that people would expect to find in any fine restaurant. Wraps, sushi, anything you'd find in a New York City restaurant. Part of that is the menu — we bring that same excitement to foodservice," he says.

First Place, Specialty Sazerac Seattle

Jewel-toned baubles dangling from the artisan-made chandeliers in Sazerac inspired Niki Leondakis, vice president of The Kimpton Restaurant Group, to design the winning drink-and-appetizer menu for Sazerac. With such an artistic basis, the rest came easily to Leondakis, who designed the menu with the help of graphic designer Pat Walsh. "The actual idea development was a five-minute process," says Leondakis. "I wanted the same whimsical and fun ideas of the decor of the restaurant to be evident in the menu." A huge copper ribbon wrapping over the restaurant's entrance also proved to be a rich source of inspiration. It is reflected in the copper dangling star and the copper binding on the menu.

Colored beads on curling copper wires that twist out of the binding also give a nod to the restaurant's Big Easy basis. "Our chef, Jan Birnbaum, has spent a great deal of time in New Orleans, and the first thing you think of when you think of New Orleans is Mardi Gras and Mardi Gras beads," says Leondakis.

The restaurant's roots also run deep in the menu's offerings. Handcrafted cocktails that offer tastes of the South are listed in fun fonts and accented with clever descriptions-cocktails like "Sazerac," described as "The Traditional Cocktail of New Orleans"; "El Nino," which the menu says is "making everybody weird"; and the "Side Car," which, the menu claims, "Your grandmother drank them — and she knew what she was doing." The flip side of the menu reveals Sazerac's selection of "tasty morsels," "perfect little bites" and items "for the sweet tooth."

The menu is designed to sit atop the bar so customers can read either side. "It inspires impulse buying, because it is so eye-catching," says Leondakis. "We've had a great response."

National Restaurant Association © Copyright. All rights reserved. Reprint with permission only.

Emily Arnoult is a staff writer at the National Restaurant Association.

©Copyright 2004 National Restaurant Association

1200 17th St., NW Washington, DC 20036 202-331-5900

Restaurants & Institutions Magazine presents the 1995 Ivy Award to J. Michael Floyd and The University of Georgia Food Services Staff - May 1995

"True leadership stems from professionals who preserve the traditions of excellence even as they achieve success. By their eminence, they lend direction to the world of service. Restaurants & Institutions salutes restaurants of distinction, selected by the most critical judges, their colleagues and competitors."

The History of the Ivy Award

Restaurant criticism is not an exclusive profession. All Americans who eat away from home believe themselves qualified for the job. To some extent, they are correct. Since the dining experience is very personal, there is no right or wrong taste. Nevertheless, nearly every newspaper and TV station has its restaurant expert who advises readers on the best places to eat. Bookstores are filled with publications that rate restaurants. Every city magazine contains a restaurant guide.

In each of these cases, the judgments are made by people who are restaurant customers-- people who make no attempt to determine whether the restaurant meets the highest standards of professional operation.

In 1970, Restaurants & Institutions decided that the industry deserved something more. It needed a way to honor its own. We felt that the most important recognition should come from other professionals in the same business. Only professionals understand what it takes to adapt excellence to the reality of business.

And so the Ivy Award was born.

An Ivy Award winner is a member for life, part of this most prestigious society and welcome each year to attend the award dinner. Each year it is past Ivy Award winners who nominate a new slate of meritorious restaurants, hotels and institutions to join the Ivy Society. And then it is the readers of our magazine, via a special ballot circulated to all 162,000 of them, who vote on which they think are most deserving of this high honor.

The result, not unlike the Academy Awards, is recognition by one's peers that is unsurpassed anywhere else in the food service industry. The winners represent the very best our industry has to offer.

People often ask me how an Ivy winner is measured.

Is it financial success? The quality of the food? The caliber of service? The decor? Cleanliness? Creativity?

The answer is that it is all of these--and something more.

As you travel across the country, I know you will enjoy visiting our Ivy Society members, whether you are an amateur gourmet or a food service professional.