ELISSA ELAN
NEWS &
TRENDS:
Guests’ appetite
for value likely
to persist
pg. 4
Gender-based hiring invites scrutiny
Restaurants can avoid lawsuits, inquiries with proactive policy modifications
BY LISA JENNINGS
FINANCE:
Earnings roundup
shows cost
cutting has
positive P&L
effect
pg. 9
PHOTOS.COM
Chefs use hibiscus for its
flavor, but it also has a
healthful reputation.
PASADENA, CALIF. — When
the Tam O’Shanter Inn
opened in Los Angeles in
1922, the company that later
gave birth to the Lawry’s The
Prime Rib and Five Crowns
restaurants began a tradition
of hiring women to serve food
— a bold move given the role
was more typically held by
men at such high-end restaurants of the era.
Ironically, now seven
decades later, the same con-cept-defining tradition
snagged the Pasadena,
Calif.-based multiconcept
operator in a discrimination
lawsuit with the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission.
Tradition, attorneys say,
can sometimes get restaurant operators in trouble.
Over the past few years,
chains such as The Palm,
which avoided an EEOC lawsuit by instituting proactive
policies, Dallas-based Razoo’s,
and a Hooters franchisee in
Texas have faced discrimination charges based on traditions of hiring by gender.
Though EEOC lawsuits
against restaurant companies are rare for such hiring
practices, attorneys say other restaurant companies
with longtime traditions
should take note.
Discrimination in the
name of tradition is “never
going to work as an argument for the EEOC,” said
Anna Park, EEOC regional
SEE TRADITIONAL, PAGE 18
EQUIPMENT/
OPERATIONS:
Tesar’s versatile
kitchen gear
turns out menus
with variety
pg. 12
Hibiscus
blossoms as
a food, drink
ingredient
BY PAMELA PARSEGHIAN
Hibiscus has gained buzz recently for its healthful reputation and potential medicinal properties, but chefs long
have prized the flower’s full
flavor, deep red color and its
heritage as an ingredient
used around the globe.
“I’ve used it hundreds of
times over the years,” says
Joshua Skenes, the 29-year-
old chef of Saison restaurant
in San Francisco, who most
recently offered a hibiscus
granité. Before that he prepared a hibiscus-seasoned
squab.
“Hibiscus is kind of tart
and floral,” he says. “It goes
well with the unctuous,
meaty bird. It is a good contrast.” He included both
dishes on eight-course tasting menus that sell for $70.
SEE BUDDING, PAGE 25
PHOTOS.COM
Pay attention or pay the price Pay attention or pay the price
NRN and HVS Executive Search partnered to create an industry-leading
chain restaurant compensation report. The study, excerpted here and
available in its entirety for purchase, will become an annual report providing
benchmarking and best practice analysis of industry compensation.
MARKETING:
Guests report
greater
willingness
to recommend
QSR brands
pg. 14
BY SARAH E. LOCKYER
As the stalled economy
forces chain executives to
focus on cost cutting, fine-tuning operations and chasing elusive sales, they are
spending less time on matters like executive compensation, benefits and total re-
wards packages — and that
will come back to haunt
them, according to search
experts.
When more jobs become
available during the
rebound, many companies
will risk losing their best
talent to competitors that
maintained their employee
focus, said recruiting consultant David Mansbach at
HVS Executive Search.
“So many companies are
in survival mode right now,”
Mansbach says. “They are
focused on the critical components like ops or sales,
but one area that some people lost sight of is their
internal customers, their
employees.”
To document the changing landscape of executive
compensation at chain
restaurant companies,
Nation’s Restaurant News
and HVS Executive Search
partnered earlier this year
