From the Rose Law Group Growlery
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer
year-and-a-half ago, I wrote: “Open any Valley newspaper and your bound to find everything from The Race to Become the Best Pizza Joint in Town to the opening of three new quiche lorraine drive-thru restaurants.
“We are hooked on food and news about it.”
When I began a news career, it was unheard of to write stories about new businesses or anything that smelled of commercialism. The attitude was businesses had to buy advertising to make themselves known.
Needless to say, times have changed. Business news is a major portion of today’s news coverage, and restaurant news is big in the Valley. The majority of front-pages for ‘The Republic’s’ zone editions feature photos of food. (Photo)
Like wine snobs, there are food and restaurant snobs.
I also noted surveys show most Americans still cook at home most nights. CBS reported 43 percent cook six or seven nights per week, including 31 percent that cook at home every night.
Restaurant bubble?
In the spirit of balanced food news, I include highlights of a column about the restaurant business by Ilana Lowery, editor in chief, Phoenix Business Journal entitled “Dining out has become Phoenix’s greatest pastime”
Most of you probably are aware of the restaurant explosion — and perhaps the near bubble-like atmosphere — we are seeing.
[T]he average millennial eats out five times a week. More than half of millennials (54%) eat out at least three times a week, compared to roughly one-third of Generation X-ers and baby boomers.
A recent MarketWatch story said the number of phone and internet orders for restaurants surged 18 percent last year to 1.9 billion. The growing popularity of online ordering makes getting food and avoiding supermarkets easier than ever. Data released in March by New York-based research firm NPD Group found that people younger than 35 and those with higher household incomes are among above-average users of digital ordering with apps such as Grubhub and Uber Eats.
No wonder some restaurant is opening on what seems to be every available parcel across the Valley.
The bar has been raised and people are eager to try new restaurants that offer good food and an even better atmosphere. Some industry analysts, however, caution the trend may be short-lived as restaurant over-saturation in the Valley is a real possibility.
