Baum + Whiteman has been a restaurant consulting group since the ’70s. The dudes know a few things about the hospitality biz, so when the company releases its annual food and dining trends for the coming year, restaurateurs tend to listen. (Or razz B+W for predicting “tongue” meat would become huge.)

Restaurateurs may want to hide under the covers after reading the No. 1 predicted trend for 2010: New priorities for beaten-up consumers.  Check out this strong language:

Too many restaurant and hotel execs are grappling with pre-recession consumer issues, while people today are expressing entirely new – and more complex — sets of concerns. These concerns might tamp down consumer spending for another five years – and are difficult for hotel and restaurant professionals to deal with. Why? Because what worries people today no longer reflects abstract and idealistic pre-recession issues. Now people are focusing inward. Their concerns are personal, emotional and ethical. For example:

NEXT YEAR’S HOT BUTTONS

Economic survival

Reassurance

Intimacy & friendship

Feeding my knowledge

Feeding my emotions

Artisan, hand-made

Neighborhood, local

Authentic, real

Comfort & safety

Hotel and restaurant people who make a big deal about powering  their trucks with used frying fat, or switching to green detergent, or printing menus on recycled paper may be addressing the wrong issues. Millions of people are in danger of losing their homes and unemployment is still rising; people are plain scared … and they’re looking for a “safe harbor.” So hotels and restaurants should be luring these hunkered down consumers from their psychological storm cellars by (and we’re being metaphoric here) replicating the “campfire experience” – building emotional ties and connecting to communities. They need to audit their businesses based on the hot-buttons listed above … because, we believe, these issues will remain on the table for years to come.

Many of Baum + Whiteman’s other predicted trends follow on that opening theme of consumer fear and survival, including how restaurants can cater to the emotions that surround those fears. In other words, the prognosticators say, look for more sharable small plates, more upscale comfort foods, more offal meat, and more fried chicken. Y&H can live with that.

You can read the full list here in PDF form.

Jeffrey Buben is a glass act.

Jeffrey Buben’s an old pro at examining every inch of Vidalia and Bistro Bis to find cost savings. He’ll review phone bills, ordering imbalances (too much product for too few customers), and overtime costs, anything to save cash and keep his staff employed in a bad economy. But one trick he’s currently using really caught my attention: It’s a contest to encourage the staff to be more careful with glassware.

As in please, please, please don’t break those long-stemmed wine glasses that can cost $4 each to replace.

The game goes like this: If the morning team makes it though a shift without breaking a wine glass, beer mug, Champagne flute, or any other glassware, Buben will throw a piece of paper with each employee’s name from that shift into a jar. Same goes for the afternoon team. At the end of the month, the five employees with the most entries in the jar receive some sort of prize. It could be a bottle of wine or a gift certificate for dinner at some other restaurant with which Buben has established a trade out.

“If we cut glass breakage in half…that’s huge,” Buben says. “We can save a couple of hundred a month.”

The only drawback is that Buben can’t do the contest every month. Why not? It seems the game loses its import and meaning if done constantly. Buben can only put the contest to use about twice a year, he says.

Times are tough all around, right? Almost. Sure, you’ve watched your salary stagnate and your 401K disappear. The banks are bust, war is everywhere, and, heck, add a global pandemic to the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for real, lasting despair. If that makes you want to crack a beer, you’re in luck. The beer industry is doing alright and, true to the populist spirit of the age, it’s craft beer that’s growing the most.

From the Downers Grove Reporter:

The Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association defines craft brewers as those with annual production of less than two million barrels, that have less than 25 percent ownership by a non-craft alcohol beverage company, and that avoid the use of adjunct ingredients to lighten flavor.

The industry has enjoyed steady growth over the last five years, as craft beer’s share of the $100 billion U.S. beer market rose from 2.7 percent in 2003 to 4 percent in 2008. The Brewers Association estimated craft beer sales last year at $6.3 billion in 2008, up from $5.7 billion the previous year…

Craft beer sales appear to be holding up during the recession, boosted by customers’ strong demographics…

For the 52 weeks that ended on March 9, craft beer sales rose 12.6 percent from the previous 52-week period, compared with 3 percent for all beer, according to data from market researchers the Nielsen Company.

So fear not. As bad as things might still get, it doesn’t appear you’ll be caught without some hoppy relief… so long as you can pay for it, that is.

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from dullhunk.

In my wallet right now is a quartet of familiar faces: one Washington, four Lincolns, a Hamilton, and a wow, how-did-this-get-here Grant.

Although increasingly scarce in these hard times, the four still effortlessly come to mind when conjuring currency: the one-dollar Washington with that iconic wig (or is that really his hair?); the five-dollar Lincoln, with that craggy face and jawbone beard; the ten-dollar Hamilton, less recognizable because he’s less known; and the fifty-buck Grant, all save-the-Union stern with his just-this-side-of-Castro beard.

All four gaze out seriously in shades of faded green.

Also in my wallet is a fifth face, instantly recognizable, to be sure, but less familiar as far as greenbacks go. Everything is different about this guy. First off, unlike the others, he’s smiling. Second, unlike the others, his likeness is in color, his background a pale blue, his shirt white, his suit black. Third, very much unlike the others, he is not white.

Yes, we’re talking President Barack Obama.

And, no, we’re not talking about actual money. This semi-greenback is a sign of the times: an American City Diner “Stimulus Buc.”

Patrons get one of the Obama dollars for every $10 purchase at the eatery on Connecticut Avenue NW. Each stimulus buck is worth a dollar toward a meal at the diner.

Now, if only Citronelle or CityZen or Komi would follow suit. ‘Course, theirs would have to be a Stimulus Benjamin.

The Best of D.C. issue dominated readers’ attention this week on Young & Hungry, including my mea culpa about Best New Restaurant. It’s nice to see that teeth-gnashing confessionals haven’t lost their power to attract attention.

1. Best of D.C.: A Confession About Best New Restaurant
2. Best of D.C.: Which New Restaurant Deserves Top Honors?
3. Things Just Not Flowing at H Street Country Club
4. Best of D.C. Food & Drink Now Online
5. Bourdain: Recession Will Cause An ‘Apocalyptic Shakeout’ of Nation’s Restaurants

According to the New York Times, Americans seem to be coping with the economic downturn by gobbling down obscene amounts of Necco Wafers and other sugary treats. I read this piece with great interest, since my own candy intake appears to be rising. ‘Course, I blamed it on blogging, which is probably worse on your health (and the environment) than red meat.

Reports the Times:

The recession seems to have a sweet tooth. As unemployment has risen and 401(k)’s have shrunk, Americans, particularly adults, have been consuming growing volumes of candy, from Mary Janes and Tootsie Rolls to Gummy Bears and cheap chocolates, say candy makers, store owners and industry experts.

Theories vary on exactly why. For many, sugar lifts spirits dragged low by the languishing economy. For others, candy also provides a nostalgic reminder of better times. And not insignificantly, it is relatively cheap.

Given this information, Y&H wonders if other restaurants will follow the lead of Liberty Tavern and replace their brunch dessert bars with candy ones.

Leave it to Anthony Bourdain to cut through all the PR crap about the economy’s effect on restaurants. He tells Nation’s Restaurant News that the recession is a serious wake-up call for operations that still think they can soak diners with overpriced wine and liquor. Says Bourdain:

On the other hand, there’s going to be a very rude awakening for a lot of types of restaurants if they’re not aware yet how drastically things have changed.… There is going to be an apocalyptic shakeout. On the plus side, the bullsh** will be the first to go.

In the same interview, Bourdain also splashes some cold water on all those culinary school grads who think they’re going to be the next Mario Batali, getting fat on their group of high-end restaurants and line of designer cookware.

The backbone of the cooking business has remained the same: immigrants. But there’s been an enormous influx of trained culinary students, fairly educated middle-class kids, for whom cooking is a viable lifestyle option. That was not the option when I started. Some unscrupulous culinary schools are cranking out huge numbers, with massive student loans, and they might have unjustifiable expectations about how much money they will make. Do they know they’ll be making $10 an hour?

Photo by Neeta Lind

Easier solution: A late edition of the roundup.

• Capital Spice gives some love to Sidamo, which is one of my absolute favorite coffee shops in the District. I really hope the ugly street construction down there doesn’t do to H Street NE businesses what it did to some along P Street NW near Dupont Circle.

• Mouthing Off reminds us that Saturday is National Corn Dog Day, which can mean only one thing: Many of us aren’t going to feel so good on Sunday.
• Slashfood tells us about Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, a Tennessee moonshiner who apparently killed himself rather than report to prison.  There’s got to be a joke about sour mash here somewhere, but I don’t have the heart to make it.
• Diner’s Journal has the details on Per Se’s concession to the recession: a limited a la carte menu in the lounge. Has the economy made Per Se more Pas Se?
• DCFud wants brunch to become a daily habit, not just one reserved for the weekends. Hmm, Y&H smells a smackdown with Jule Banville over this subject.

Sometimes Y&H doesn’t know how he ever lived without food blogs. How else would he learn about the rotten-egg alternative to Viagra or read with fascination one woman’s campaign to avoid meat for five weeks? You’re not gonna find this stuff on CNN, people!

• Gut Check surveys the meat mongers popping up in Northern Virginia. Must…control…breathing…lest…I…hyperventilate…

• The Feisty Foodie chronicles Week 2 of her five-week campaign to go meatless, which would be more impressive if she actually excluded fish, too.  Mmmm, Cheez Doodles for breakfast.
• Epi-log tries to get a grasp on whether the recession has increased sales of small kitchen appliances as cash-strapped families stop eating at restaurants. Do remote control beer pagers count as appliances?
• EatWashington suggests an alternative to Viagra: eating stinky egg sandwiches inside a running car.  Lubricant already available.
• Sauce on the Side deconstructs the Cointreau pearls that float in Champagne at Adour at the St. Regis hotel. Sounds so much classier than Cointreau poppers.

Photo by dullhunk

The specter of “recession pounds” is a concern weighing on health professionals, who point to numerous studies linking obesity and unhealthy eating habits to low incomes.

They fear that as people cut food spending they will cut back on healthy but relatively expensive items such as fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and whole grains, in favor of cheaper options high in sugar and saturated fats.

“People … are going to economize and as they save money on food they will be eating more empty calories or foods high in sugar, saturated fats and refined grains, which are cheaper,” said Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“Things are going to get worse,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “Obesity is a toxic result of a failing economic environment.”