Michael L. Atkinson's Blog (161)

Remembering Katrina

It's hard to believe it's been five years. I trend to mark the calendar each year, and have since my wife Kim and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in a Mash-style restaurant build as part of the relief effort at Pass Christian. It was like being in a war zone. Boats and cars in trees. Houses blocks from where their foundations were. A bank vault alone, without a bank. It was a life changing experience. This was a 10 days reality check and we all changed. One can't go through someth… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on August 30, 2010 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Commitment

It's what we all want. It's what we all need. It's what drives achievement and connects the dots to success. Commitment is dedication and in business, without it, you are dead in the water. Three years ago this October, I committed my full time and a fair amount of resources to create FohBoh. My goal was and still is, to connect all industry stakeholders so we can be a stronger, more successful industry. Shared experiences, collaborative thinking, collective intelligence. Powerful stuff. My

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on August 18, 2010 at 8:39am — 2 Comments

The Power of an Acronym

We all use them and in some cases don’t even realize it. The military, I think, invented them. I particularly love SNAFU (Situation Normal, All 'Fouled' Up). As a kid, I heard my Uncle Jack, a WWII veteran, used this one a lot with a slightly more aggressive verb. He never had -- I think I drove him crazy. We all know what AWOL, and HQ mean, but what about SPAAG? “Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun”

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on July 20, 2010 at 6:30pm — 13 Comments

Austin City Limits

I am just visiting Austin for business and pleasure this weekend and was given the grand tour by good friends and passionate locals. We are all foodies and restaurateurs, so this was a tour of hot spots, up-and-comers, legends and opportunities. My first observation was how strong the indie restaurant market is here. This is a city of one-offs with funky imagination and no fear. It helps when there are buildings with character and Austin sure has one shortage of those. But, really, I am most imp… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on June 27, 2010 at 8:16am — No Comments

Fear, Greed and Popcorn

Greedy people really bug me these days. How can a person can talk about team, yet be entirely focused on his or her own agenda? What’s best for them is, well, all that matters. I’m not talking about taking care of your family or planning your retirement. I mean being solely focused, with maniacal passion, on one’s self-importance.

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on May 11, 2010 at 11:30pm — 10 Comments

Service and customer awareness is still King

Just ran out for a quick meeting and stopped by Specialty's in Mt. View, California. Beautiful restaurant located near Hwy 101 and Ellis in the heart of Silicon Valley. It's on my list to visit more frequently. Why?

1. Free Wi-Fi and it's posted on the door as an inv… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on May 5, 2010 at 5:20pm — No Comments

Reed Publishing shutting down Restaurants & Institutions, Chain Leader Magazines & Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, among others

Reprinted from :

Sorry to hear that Reed was unable to find qualified buyers for Restaurants & Institutions, Chain Leader, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies trade publicat

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on April 16, 2010 at 5:02pm — 1 Comment

Heard on The Restaurant Street

image credit: Time Inc. I caught Jim Cramer’s act on Mad Money Monday night. I was particularly interested when he was announcing his 10 bull markets. I heard “retail” and my ears perked up. Then, the “restaurant sector." What? Although restaurants fall into the category of retail… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on April 7, 2010 at 5:02pm — 4 Comments

Napa Valley + French Laundry = Oh My!

I am not a restaurant reviewer but I am a pretty experienced diner. I am guessing most of you are too. But, this isn’t a restaurant review. It’s more, well, sharing my personal and professional impressions about dining at one America’s finest restaurants located in one of the world’s most beautiful areas.

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on March 24, 2010 at 8:38pm — 11 Comments

Why Are Restaurant Operators Such a Hard Sell?

Ask any vendor who sells into the foodservice industry and they will tell you, operators are just “hard to reach”. Ask any technology purveyor the same question and they say “tough, tough sell, slow adopters and hard to sell-they want everything for free.” Ask almost any service provid… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on March 10, 2010 at 10:17pm — 25 Comments

FohBoh Technical Matters

So, 14 days ago we discovered a bug on the FohBoh.com server. It was a nasty bug that (a) no one knew existed; and (b) couldn't easily be fixed. It basically prevented users from editing posts, posting comments (sometimes) swapping out photos and rating videos. It prevented our Fohbohist feature from being posted and limited your ability to invite new members, among other issues.

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on March 10, 2010 at 12:34pm — No Comments

International Networking- The FohBoh Member Map

The Restaurants Association of Ireland is the representative group for the Irish Restaurant Industry. The Association has over 600 members and provides a wide array of benefits and services to restaurant owners. They have a… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on February 16, 2010 at 10:19pm — 2 Comments

All the Buzz buzzing makes my head, well, buzz a bit

Seems like there is a lot of buzz about buzz, buzzing everywhere these days. The world moves so fast already; why are we making it move even faster? One would think that after growing up and working in Silicon Valley, and after a stint working in NYC, I would be used to a fast pace. Well, I am. We move pretty quick around here at FohBoh. But last week, I took a pause and felt a bit winded by all the new stuff; the new ideas, the new media, all the new social media tools and networks, technologi… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on February 13, 2010 at 1:35pm — 6 Comments

Restaurant Leadership

You may have noticed that FohBoh is promoting and advertising the upcoming Restaurant Leadership Conference April 19-21. You may also have heard that FohBoh was selected by CSP (owners of the Restaurant Leadership Conference) as its exclusive partner for social media; basically powering the event and providing pre-conference promotion, at-conference thought leadership and post-conference, continuing education and community management for the new… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on February 1, 2010 at 11:57am — 2 Comments

Finding Influencers and Getting Your Social Media Game On

This can be a very long discussion, so I promise to keep it short, because I want this message to be concise, almost a mantra: The goal of all this discussion, energy and activity regarding social media is to do one thing and one thing well - find your key influencers… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on January 29, 2010 at 11:28am — 5 Comments

Apple Tablet PC Think I-Pad

Tablet PC's are not new. But for Apple to create one, well, that's news. I pray those ugly PC-type boxes sitting on host stands will be tossed in favor of something as cool, efficient and sleek as the proposed Apple Table. My only concern is how easy these devices will be to steal. I sure hope there's a way to chain it to the desk, or a third-party creates a secure docking station (desk or wall mounted) so "guests" with sticky fingers don't take your reservations book with them!… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on January 21, 2010 at 4:25pm — 1 Comment

Great Start to 2010!

I sure hope your January is going as well as our January. Already, it seems to be just what we intended it to be - a fast start to a great year at FohBoh. It’s year three for us, and we are ready for action. And it seems others are too. It’s a new, fresh year and we feel the energy and excitement in the conversations we have. In the first two weeks of 2010, we already able to announced two major partnerships for FohBoh: California Restaurant Association selected FohBoh as their social media par… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on January 20, 2010 at 8:26am — 4 Comments

Sign of a Bad Service Experience

Ok, I couldn't wait to share this one. I am a service hound, so serve me over-cooked Salmon, but please, give me good service. Bad, or in this case, no service, is unforgivable. I guess this customer was just tired of waiting.

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Added by Michael L. Atkinson on January 19, 2010 at 5:16pm — 4 Comments

Haiti; how you can help now, and help later too

FohBoh intends to work with Share our Strength to help facilitate a foodservice industry response. Many of you, lead by Jeffrey Kingman, want to help with this disaster. Until this can be organized, I encourage you to visit SOS for information by… Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on January 19, 2010 at 4:02pm — 1 Comment

What's on the Restaurateurs' Plate in 2010

Re-post A friend forward this article and it deserves being re-posted with full credit to Rob Reuteman - FOXBusiness For more than 15 years, Denver-based restaurant consultant John Imbergamo has come up with a year-ahead trends-and-expectations list for the restaurant industry in the U.S. FOXBusiness.com asked him to share his insight as to what’s on the menu for 2010. … Continue

Added by Michael L. Atkinson on January 10, 2010 at 7:33pm — 3 Comments