With 2017 right around the corner, we thought we would provide you with a summary of Baum + Whiteman’s in-depth analysis of the latest F&B trend predictions in restaurant and hotel dining.

1. Falling food prices are killing restaurants.

  • Food prices are plummeting and restaurant prices are hiking due to “rising rents and wages, increasing healthcare costs, parental leave and other mandates”
  • Consumers are choosing to bring home made lunch and cook dinner at home rather than splurge at restaurants. With restaurant prices increasing rapidly, and diners eating home more regularly, it could look really bad for restaurants.

2. Restaurants without seats; seats without restaurants.

We are seeing many companies bombard the already very crowded restaurant start-up space including the following.

3. Cauliflower marches on. 

  • Vegetables will be reigning in 2017 with 26% of consumers reporting eating less meat.
  • Consumers are demanding foods to be even more transparent with: “clean labels using fewer ingredients, little or no processed food, pasture-raised meat, free-range chicken, traceability of food back to (if possible) a single animal, no additives, no chemicals, no “artificial” preservatives, etc."
  • Restaurants like Lady Bird and Nix in NYC are proving that vegetarian dishes can also be delicious.

4. Artisan butchers strike back. 

  • Butchers are pushing back on the veg craze by “glorifying great meat by marrying an artisan butcher shop to a restaurant.”
  • These chefs want to wow consumers with the “butcher-to-table” trend: “nose-to-tail butchery of humanely-raised (but nonetheless dead) animals that lend their pasture-grazed protein to all manner of charcuterie, innards and odd parts, and newfangled cuts of meat.”

5. Breakfast is becoming brunch.

  • Breakfast textures are changing from smooth and soothing (soft scrambled eggs, eggs Benedict, oatmeal) to aggressive and flavor-packed (fried chicken, Sriracha, crispy chorizo, chimichurri).
  • Luxe breakfast sandwiches: Eggslut in LA, Seatown in Seattle, Deep Ellum in Boston.
  • Fried chicken is approved for breakfast! Check out the The Big Nasty Biscuit topped with fried chicken, cheddar and sausage gravy from Hominy Grill in Charleston and the Chicken Biscuit topped with pimento cheese, bacon marmalade and scrambled eggs from Empire State South in Atlanta.

6. Hail kale and farewell.

  • Kale is disappearing from the snack aisle while umami packed “sea vegetables find new formats.”
  • The new “waste-not” economy is making vegetables that are most often discarded like “seaweed, beet greens, chard, turnip greens, mustard greens, carrot tops” more desired— they are often times pickled and turned into condiment.

7. Fast-casual growth: Is there no end?

  • The fast-casual industry is growing exponentially and as this continues, it will be difficult to “differentiate one chain from another” as all fast casual restaurants become more homogenous with the same beliefs of: “…local, sustainable, farm-to-table, mindfully sourced, natural, artisan, eco-friendly, authentic, healthy, humanely slaughtered, meaningful, seasonal, vegetable-forward, mission-driven, chef-driven.”
  • How will they try to reinvent themselves to be different?

8. Bowls, they said.

  • Bowls will continue on the rise from açaí to poke to ramen and now bibimbap…? It’s convenience and efficiency is the reason for its popularity both with consumers and producers.

9. Oddball ice cream heating up.

  • Freakshake is on the rise, thanks to Black Tap NYC. What is a freakshake? It is a “freestyle milkshake topped ice cream, as much sauce and whipped cream as possible and then surmounted by insane quantities of cake, cookies, donuts, ice cream sandwiches and various candies … until the concoction threatens intellectually and physically to topple.”
  • Rolled ice cream is becoming more and more trendy and perhaps it’s goodbye for froyo!

10. Restaurants surrounded by wolves. 

11. Ramping up the spice ... and then offsetting it. 

  • People are loving it spicy! We will see flavors like “chilies, tamarind, lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, coriander/cilantro, cardamom, kaffir lime, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, caraway, mustard seed, shrimp paste, sharp citrus juices and zests” become increasingly popular in food and in cocktails

12. Innovation. 

  • “In 2015, the top five consumer packaged goods firms lost $13 billion in sales much of that to food startups” dedicated to producing creative food products like “insect bars, seaweed noodles, vegetable yogurts, bone broth pouches” and more.
  • Older giant food corporations like “General Mills, Kellogg’s, Campbell’s, Danone, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola” are creating “their own venture capital arms, incubators and startup accelerators” to buy these small startups for fresher ideas since “the giants are too large to overcome corporate inertia.”

13. Vegetables are the new comfort foods.

  • Vegetables are becoming the new comfort food: cauliflower is becoming a rice alternative and pasta is being replaced by spiraled zucchini/beets/carrots and more.