Foodservice News presents the upper Midwest foodservice industry the tapas (small bites) of its community.

In every issue you'll find the expected—new openings, human resources and training articles, profiles on movers and shakers and advice on how to run your business better, but you'll also discover a pinch of lagniappe—a Cajun culinary term for an unexpected something extra.

Tara Rea and Ryan Nelson, CEO and president, respectively, of the Sample Circuit, which hosted recently an event at Chambers in Minneapolis.

The event as marketing
By Mike Mitchelson

Hey, you. Restaurant owner. Yes, you. Tapped for marketing ideas in these slow economic times? Got a great, proven product but need to remind diners that you’re still out there, churning out the good stuff day after day?

How about giving away menu samples for two hours on one of the restaurant’s slow nights during the week to a crowd of, oh, say, 150 snappily dressed people? Yep. Throw a party and give away food for two hours. What’cha think?

Yeah, it’s been done in some form or another through the years, with varied success and failure. But what if said party included the demographic you’d like as your regulars, who’d pass along tales of the great food they sampled from the event. And what if said party was advertised—no expense to you, other than the food you donate to the event—on local radio and television stations and in one of the fat, glossy magazines found at every grocery store checkout lane? And blasted out in e-mails?

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Our readership includes 20,000 foodservice professionals in Minnesota, Northern Iowa, Western Wisconsin and the Eastern Dakotas. We are the definitive source for information in the Upper Midwest for restaurant owners and chefs.

We focus our lens on the issues, the politics and the people who make up the foodservice community, from restaurant owners and managers to chefs and waitstaff to institutional food program managers to suppliers and vendors.

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