Food trends, influencer marketing, and Red Lobster’s future Extra Serving: A restaurant industry podcast

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Bret Thorn spoke about food trends.
Senior food and beverage editor Thorn spoke about the latest food trends at chains and independents. Throughout the week on First Bite, Thorn covered some of the latest trends, including the “swicy” combination and the rise in sauces. The team gets into some other trends on the episode.
Check out the episodes of First Bite here:
·     Adding this to your restaurant menu can boost sales with Gen Z
·     Analyzing the ‘swicy’ trend on restaurant menus
Next, the team talked about how celebrities — and now influencers — are changing the landscape of restaurant marketing. While those partnerships are far from new, it seems like the industry has been hitting the gas. With the influencer economy, such partnerships have become more accessible for smaller brands.
Finally, the team talked about music and restaurants. Applebee’s campaign with Walker Hayes in 2021 was a success and now it seems like Red Lobster is trying to emulate the success, for much less money. Is this low-hanging fruit for the struggling brand, and is it culturally relevant?
This week’s guest is Chris Eichfeld, director of supply chain for District Taco.
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