Jay Eats Worldwide

In Japan, today is Sushi Day. This morning, I was all set to have sushi for lunch in celebration of sushi day. Somehow, I got stuck on the phone all morning. While on the phone, I was checking Facebook and saw a picture of an awesome burger combo with fries from Honolulu's Burgers on the Edge. That's all I could think of... Since I was stuck on the phone, I had to scramble to get a few things done today. Now it's 3 pm and didn't have a chance to grab lunch yet. I described the awesome burger to my interim assistant and asked her to pick up lunch for me on the way back from FedEx. This is what she picked up for my lunch today... No burger combo for me today...She said that I would probably regret not having sushi on sushi day, since Jeff Nitta and I are launching "The LA Sushi Guys" site today. She then told me that she had no idea where to get the kind of burger that I described and didn't want to disappoint me. Solution: I just have to get on a plane and ...

I had a late night conversation with two restaurant owners. They’re trying to figure out how to promote their restaurants in a changing economy. I said that creativity and thinking outside of the box is necessary to survive in these tough times. They didn’t seem to have a promotion plan, so I gave them some ideas. Right now, everyone is looking for value. Have you noticed the “value meal” commercials on TV? Jack-in-the Box has a $2.99 value meal and KFC is promoting a $5 one. Each restaurant and menu is different, so you need to select your items carefully; it also needs to make sense to the customer. Social Media is a great way to promote your promotions and do special things for followers. Zippy’s in Hawaii gives special coupons for their fans on Facebook and The Counter has special deals for their Twitter followers at specific locations. This is an excellent marketing tool, but it needs to make sense for your customers. People like to feel special, so make them special for being a f...