Mr. Stox -  Anaheim, CA. This family-owned restaurant boasts a great menu and a wine list with over 1000 selections!    Located near Disneyland, it is one of California’s premier fine dining establishments, featuring innovative American cuisine.  For Father’s Day, Mr. Stox offers a special T-Bone Steak, Kobe Flat Iron Steak, and a Prime New York steak.     Fathers will enjoy Mr. Stox’ ambiance and decor, with rich mahogany molding, a wonderful collection of fine art, and old world porcelain from Italy.

Fluke Wine Bar & Kitchen -  Newport, RI. Located in the downtown of Newport, Rhode Island, this restaurant overlooks Bowen’s Wharf and Bannister’s Wharf, offering breath-taking views of the harbor.  Fluke’s is rightfully considered one of the best restaurants in the Newport area.  The restaurant features seafood dishes, prepared with the best local, seasonal ingredients, including famous New England lobster.  For Father’s Day, Fluke is offering fathers a complimentary beer or Stone Fruit Whiskey Smash – one of restaurant’s many famous innovative specialty cocktails made with fresh pressed juices.

Abe and Louie’s – Boca Raton, FL. This upscale steak house offers the finest cuts of prime meats, fresh seafood, and a great wine list.  The restaurant features Hollywood-style booths, grandiose bronze chandleries, and the gold leaf barrel vault ceiling, creating an intimate, yet sophisticated atmosphere.   For Father’s Day, Abe and Louie’s will serve delicious chef specialties, such as its famous Louie’s Carpetbagger Steak – a tender filet mignon stuffed with seasoned fresh oysters.

Nicholas – Red Bank, NJ. This highly acclaimed restaurant is located just steps away from Red Bank’s downtown area.  The restaurant is known for its “Grand Tasting Menu” with a chance to go behind the scenes and see the Four Star chef at work.     For Father’s Day, Nicholas offers a number of prix fixe dinners, including 3 course Prix Fixe dinner at $59 per person, 6 course menu $79/per person, and even a child menu at $28/child.

Oceanaire Seafood Room – Denver, Co. At an Oceanaire Seafood Room, guests can relax in the lounge area, enjoy the oyster bar, or recline in a horseshoe booth.  Menu favorites are all seafood dishes, including Alaskan Steak-cut halibut, Copper River salmon, Dover Sole, or Blue fin Tuna.  The freshest seafood is flown in daily from around the world.    On Father’s Day, Oceanaire is an incredible way to treat fathers to great seafood dishes and spectacular marine views.

Churrasco -  Chicago, IL. This classic Brazilian steakhouse is notorious for its do-it-yourself concept, with guests carving individual portions of roasted meats from long skewers.    Many of Churrasco’s meats are open-flame roasted over a glowing bed of hardwood embers.  For Father’s Day, the restaurant features their traditional 3-course menu, which includes unlimited salads and unlimited meats and a guest’s choice of dessert at a special Father’s price of only $31.99.

Festive Brunch. Brunches are so popular on Mother’s Day; they often get sold out well before the actual holiday. Providing your diners with a great Mother’s Day brunch experience will not only increase your sales – it will ensure future strong bookings and increased customer retention. Make Mother’s Day brunch an enjoyable and relaxing experience for your patrons by proper planning and preparation. Decorate your restaurant, using flowers, centerpieces, ribbons, and other decorative items. The brunch menu can contain traditional items, such as waffles, pancakes, omelets, French toast, or Eggs Benedict. You can also offer an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet, with carving stations and complimentary Champagne. Alternatively, you can offer 3 or 4 course brunch, including more sophisticated items, such as oysters, Eggs Benedict Florentine, prime rib, or King Crab.

Mother’s Day Dinner. Depending on your restaurant concept, Mother’s Day dinner can be made into an intimate and relaxing event, or it can be a grandiose experience. Restaurants usually offer three-course dinner menu for a fixed price, while also providing an option of a full dinner menu. Traditional Mother’s Day dinner items include popular choices, such as duck, filet mignon, salmon, halibut, and scallops. Provide wine pairings and treat your guests to complimentary glasses of Champagne. Popular desserts are chocolate or lemon soufflés. Some restaurants offer dinner specials, such as free desserts or Mother’s entrée for free for large parties of guests.

Decorations. Decorate the restaurant with flowers and scented candles to create an especially inviting and relaxing, home-like atmosphere. Use a variety of spring flowers, including daffodils, tulips, and iris. Don’t be afraid to mix colors, utilizing a wide color range, from white to yellow to red. Arrange some of the flowers in a vase in the center of each table. You can also display flowers in short glasses, or make a centerpiece with stems from different flowers. Use festive table linens to match the flowers. You may also use beautiful tall candles on tables to further enhance your restaurant’s atmosphere on Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day Drinks. Be sure to add special drinks to your menu on Mother’s Day. Some of the most popular drinks are Bellinis, Mimosas, Cosmopolitans, and Martinis. Mothers will love fruity drinks, such as cranberry, raspberry or strawberry Flirtinis. Serve these classic drinks in festive champagne glasses, flutes, or martini glasses, rimmed with sugar and orange slices. Mix Champagne with various fruit drinks, frozen juices, or even ice cream, to create original festive drinks.

Kids Menu. Many restaurants create kids-friendly special menus on Mother’s Day in line with a growing trend that mothers or grandmothers bring kids or grandkids with them to celebrate Mother’s Day. Create a special dinner menu for kids, or provide a reduced fixed price option. Consider creating a fun kids’ drink station, which will dispense juices and festive kids-friendly mixed drinks. To make it even more fun, decorate kids’ drinks with orange slices, maraschino cherries, using toothpicks and festive drink umbrellas.

A Voice Columbus, New York City, NY. The restaurant is located within Time Warner center in New York City, in the vicinity of major shopping areas, theaters, hotels, and other restaurants. A Voice Columbus offers contemporary Italian cuisine, with executive chef utilizing seasonal ingredients and adding a modern twist to traditional Italian dishes Menu offers classic Italian meals, such as ravioli, cavatelli, pansotti, and pappardelle, among many. For Mother’s Day, this restaurant offers three-course prix-fixe special brunch menu.

Bluehour, Portland, OR, is a premiere modern cuisine restaurant, which offers both the elegant dining room and the casual café and bar. The menu is printed daily, and the signature dishes include bacon wrapped sea scallops and potato gnocchi with black truffle. Bluehour offers an innovative Mother’s Day brunch menu, which includes breakfast pizza and eggs Sardou with spinach and hollandaise.

The Grape, Dallas, TX, has been one of the most popular eateries in Dallas for over 35 years, featuring contemporary American cuisine. Famous for its exceptional brunch menu, The Grape has been recently named “Best Brunch, Best Fries, and Best Calamari” restaurant by Dallas Observer. On Mother’s Day, the restaurant offers a full a la carte brunch menu plus daily specials.

The Boheme, Orlando, FL, will greet its diners on Mother’s Day with live jazz music and an extensive brunch buffet. Mothers will also be treated to complimentary mimosas. This traditional steak and seafood restaurant is famous for classic dishes, such as Angus steaks and fresh lobster, as well as its famous dessert – “Bohemian” Trio of Hand Made Sorbets. The restaurant boasts an extensive wine collection, including a great selection of sparkling wines and champagnes, which will be really handy for Mother’s Day!

Lockwood, Chicago, IL, offers a brunch buffet on Mother’s Day, including fully-equipped prime rib carving stations and wonderful entries, such as pan-seared salmon, especially recommended for Mom. The Mother’s Day lunch buffet will be open to guests from 11 am to 4 pm, with a price of $55 per person.

Michael’s, Santa Monica, CA is famous for its lush indoor/outdoor setting and elegant meals paired with wines from all over the world. The restaurant features fine dining Californian and French Cuisine, utilizing fresh seasonal ingredients. Mother’s Day brunch menu will include oysters, Big-Eye Tuna Crudo, Alaskan halibut, and many other sophisticated dishes.

Panzano, Denver, CO, offers contemporary Italian cuisine, with Chef Elise Wiggins utilizing local, organic and sustainable ingredients. On Mother’s Day, Panzano will feature Antipasti/Dessert Buffet and your choice of entree for $29.95 per adult. The restaurant will also offer Bottomless Bellinis, made from natural peach puree and Prosecco.

Annual James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony is one of the food industry’s biggest parties, celebrating fine cuisine and James Beard’s birthday. It is held on the first Monday in May, and the ceremony honors the best restaurants, chefs, cookbook authors, restaurant designers, and food-related journalists. The ceremony culminates with a reception, during which participants can taste signature dishes of James Beard Foundation’s best chefs. James Beard Foundation just released the list of 2010 nominees for the most outstanding restaurants in the nation. Read on about several of such nominees.

Babbo, NYC, NY. One of James Beard’s nominees for the outstanding restaurants awards, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca was opened by Mario Batali in 1998. It is a fine dining Italian restaurant, which already received one James Beard award in 1998. The menu utilizes fresh seasonal produce, Italian cheeses, organic meat, and sustainably sourced seafood. Typical Italian ingredients are widely used for preparing dishes, including fine Italian olive oils, traditional balsamic vinegars, and Italian cheese. The restaurant also boasts an extensive and high quality wine list.

Bouchon, Yontville, CA. One of many Tom Keller’s fine restaurants, Bouchon is a French bistro food restaurant. It is a more casual version of Tom Keller’s French Laundry – which is considered to be one of the very best restaurants in the world. The restaurant’s menu features typical bistro items, such as steak frites, quiche with bacon and onions, or oysters with a glass of champagne. All cooking done at Bouchon is rooted in French tradition, and the restaurant is incredibly popular among Napa Valley residents and visitors.

Delfina, San Francisco, CA. Delfina is located in San Francisco’s Mission District. The restaurant features Italian cuisine, uses seasonal ingredients, and the menu is inspired by the trattorias found throughout Italy. The chef changes the menu daily, driven by offerings of local producers. Restaurant is famous for its daily-made fresh desserts, made from locally sourced ingredients. Restaurant’s wine list is exclusively focused on Italian and Californian wines, featuring mostly boutique wineries and pure varietal wines.

Vincent on Camelback, Phoenix, AZ. Vincent Guerithault, restaurant’s chef and owner, has a background in classically prepared French haute cuisine. His Phoenix restaurant features dishes fusing classic French cuisine with southwestern ingredients. He introduced a hybrid cuisine based on French techniques with utilization of local ingredients, such as chile peppers, corn, cilantro, and jicama. This restaurant presents the flavors of the Southwest in a truly new way. Vincent’s menu includes many unique items, such as, for instance, Corn Ravioli with White Truffle Oil, or Lobster Chimichanga (deep fried Southwestern burrito) with Basil Beurre Blanc and Avocado Corn Salsa.

Restaurant Pagers. Pagers enable restaurants to create an organized way of communicating with guests about when their tables are available. With the help of pagers, restaurants can keep better track of their waiting customers. Most popular type of restaurant pagers are handheld pagers; whenever the table is ready, appropriate pager number is entered into the pager system keypad by a restaurant host, and a guest’s pager begins to vibrate or beep. One drawback of this type of pagers is that the distance the customer can wander is quite limited. The other type of restaurant paging is done via text-messaging on cell phones. In this case, the restaurant host either uses the cell phone paging system keypad to send a text message to a customer when his table is ready; or alternatively, special software is used to text-message the customer. This provides customers with flexibility to wander around much further than with conventional pagers and explore the vicinities of the area while waiting for the table.

Financial Software. More restaurants are utilizing financial software to organize data and create accurate reporting systems. Instead of relying on paper and filing, financial software for restaurants allows restaurant owner/operator to keep track of inventory, customer purchases, expenses, and payroll information. Financial software is widely used to create period reports, such as profit and loss statements. Some software is tailored exclusively to restaurants, while others are popular general software, such as QuickBooks or Peachtree.

Entertainment Systems. Restaurants also utilize technology to create the right entertainment environment for their guests. This includes using various surround sound systems, satellite radios, or video screens. Restaurants also utilize sophisticated lighting systems to create just the right light and desired ambiance in the dining areas.
Internet Technology. Finally, internet has become a great marketing tool for restaurants. It has enabled individual restaurants to organize marketing campaigns on par with larger chains. Internet allows restaurants to target specific customers, organize promotion campaigns, inform customers about changes in the menu, specials, and so on. Restaurants widely use social media websites, online reviews, blogs, and sites such as Yelp, UrbanSpoon, Twitter, or Facebook.

Regular Liquors. The most basic and versatile liquors are vodka, rum, tequila, gin, brandy, scotch, whiskey, and bourbon. Depending on the style of your restaurant, you may opt for the cheapest brands. Some restaurants offer only the highest quality liquor. In most cases, restaurants should have a little of both – some cheap liquors, some high-end ones, and some – in between. Depending on your drinks menu, you might want to stock more on certain liquors vs. the others. For example, if you serve a lot of mai tais, daiquiris, or pina coladas, consider buying larger quantities of rum. It is always smart to buy large bottles of vodka, as it is the most common liquor used for a variety of drinks, including martinis, screwdrivers, vodka & tonics, or White Russians.

Sweet Flavored Liqueurs. The market offers a large selection of flavored liqueurs. It all depends on your own personal taste and your desired drinks menu. For a full stocked bar, always have a wide range of sweet flavored liqueurs on hand to make various cocktails and signature drinks. The very minimum should be triple sec, coffee liqueur, amaretto, crème de cacao, Irish cream, dry and sweet vermouth, orange liqueur, and apple liqueur. Triple sec (or Cointreau) is the most popular orange liqueur used for making many cocktails, such as Cosmopolitan, Long Island iced tea, or margaritas. Sweet vermouth is used for Manhattans, while dry vermouth is the basis for European martinis. Other “must-have” liqueurs are Curacao, maraschino liqueur, anisette, crème de cassis, and schnapps.

Wine. If your restaurant does not have a separate wine cellar and a separate wine list, consider acquiring a basic assortment of wine. Have several varietals available, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and so on. Feature a couple of different wine regions, including Napa Valley, Oregon wine country, French and Italian wine regions. Have an assortment of red, white, sparkling, and rose wines. Also provide some fortified wines, including sherries and ports.

Beer. Purchase at least a couple of cases of beer, and keep several bottles refrigerated at all times. It is always nice to offer your guests locally brewed beer, if available. It will add a nice touch and will start many conversations with your patrons.

Mixers & Garnishes. Garnishes and mixers add that final special touch to many drinks, and it is something each bar should have to improve overall presentation of the drinks. At the very basic level, purchase sour mix, lime juice, lemon juice, tonic water, club soda, tomato juice, grapefruit juice, pineapple juice, coconut milk, and cream. Orange slices, Maraschino cherries or brandied cherries are an excellent addition to many mixed drinks. Limes and lemons are versatile garnishes that can be applied to a vast majority of cocktails. If you serve dry martinis, make sure to have olives, cocktail onions, and other relevant garnishes. Another recently popular mixer is grenadine – it is a pomegranate-flavored syrup, used for making drinks, such as tequila sunrises and Shirley temples.

Start a Conversation. Be proactive in using Twitter by constantly initiating communication with customers. When tweeting, follow “tweet” etiquette, such as being thankful for Retweets. Follow those tweeters who follow you. It is also important to structure your tweets in the way that engages potential customers instead of just “talking over them”. Use a little humor. Ask a question. Challenge tweeters to respond to you or engage in a conversation. Treat Twitter like a conversation tool. Use Twitter for instant feedback from your customers.

Handle Customer Complaints. With real-time complaints, it is easy to get carried away and become defensive. Beware of this pitfall when using Twitter, and be polite with your replies. Answer customer complaints or questions promptly to demonstrate superb customer service and respect for your customers. Look at the positive – you have this great tool that brings you unbiased views about your restaurant, the tool that will help you discover some problems or issues related to your staff or food quality that you would otherwise have never known about. Twitter could be an amazing tool to discover areas for improvement that will eventually result in better operations and more customers.

Build Reputation. Restaurants can tweet anything they want to convey to their followers. Use Tweeter to inform your customers about daily specials, coupons, free offerings, changes in the menu or wine lists. Announce food and wine pairing dinners, share recipes. Some restaurants even use Twitter to find new employees. Twitter is a great tool to build customer loyalty, to make your customers feel like they are part of family. Even when you’re not in the restaurant, you can still use the tool and keep in touch with your guests or potential customers.

Create a Great Brand in a Short Time. Restaurant is a highly competitive business, with a lot of establishments located close to one another all offering seemingly equal food, wine lists and service. Sometimes it is really hard for customers to differentiate one restaurant from another. Twitter provides you with an opportunity to reveal to your followers what your restaurant is all about, what makes it special, what differentiates it from others, why guests would want to choose your restaurant over the others, and so on.

Increase Your Competitiveness. In a restaurant industry, service is one of the most important aspects. Bad customer service will overshadow food quality. If you’re effectively using Twitter and effectively handling customer complaints, you’re getting an enormous competitive advantage over restaurants that don’t do that, because Twitter enables you to take customer service to a whole new level.

Energy Usage. Most types of equipment used in a restaurant use a lot of energy. Thus, selecting equipment that has even a small differential in its energy consumption compared to other units will result in huge savings over time. One way to find out about the energy efficiency of the potential piece of equipment is to check Energy Star information or purchase equipment marked with Energy Star for Food Service Industry. Often, the energy efficient types of equipment cost more; however, there are significant cost savings down the road.

Size and Volume. When buying new equipment, consider the trade-offs between the size of the equipment, the amount of energy it will consume, the restaurant needs, and the restaurant’s growth potential. On the one hand, the large piece of equipment will produce more volume. On the other hand, larger piece of equipment will result in much higher energy expenses, as you ramp up to full capacity. Besides, larger capacity might not be necessary for the restaurant. The other pitfall to avoid is buying equipment that has a small capacity. Equipment with small capacity will get overused, which will decrease the lifespan of such equipment because the unit will never get a downtime required. Lastly, figure in your restaurant’s growth potential when determining the capacity of equipment.

Labor Efficiency. Before buying new equipment, always find out how easy it is to operate the unit. If it takes too much time and effort to have the unit running, and if the market offers more operator-friendly units produced by other manufacturers, gear towards equipment that is easiest to use. Restaurants usually have a high turnover rate for their workforce, making it important to select such equipment that requires least amount of training. Equipment that is hard to operate will reduce your labor efficiency and slow down your output. A good piece of equipment over time should only improve your employees’ efficiency, not slow them down.

Safety. Consider the safety features and make sure the equipment does not increase the chance of safety hazards. Having an unsafe equipment will increase your insurance costs and increase an occurrence of work-related injuries. Provide appropriate training to your employees. Consider the main safety hazards in most restaurants, such as, for instance, fire, and make sure your equipment does not increase the occurrence of such hazards.

Service and Parts Availability. Check what kind of service programs are offered for your equipment, find out how easy it is to repair equipment if it breaks, check if it is easy to find spare parts quickly, and if there are special warranties or repair programs. Find out how quickly and how cheaply (or costly) you can repair your equipment, and if you can do it locally. Being aware of the service and repair programs, parts availability and warranty options will reduce the downtime of the equipment and the resulting loss of income.

Beer. Stout is a traditional Irish beer. It is usually dark, strong, and dry-tasting, with relatively light alcohol content. Stout often has an almost coffee-like taste and chocolate flavors. Irish stout is also called “black ale”. One of the most famous examples of stout is Guinness beer, produced in Ireland. Other two popular brands of stout produced in Ireland are Murphy’s and Beamish. Porter is another traditional type of Irish beer: it is made by blending stout and pale ale.

Other Alcohol Drinks. One of the most traditional Irish cocktails is a Black Velvet, or beer cocktail. It is made from stout beer (Guinness) and white sparkling wine (Champagne). This drink is usually served in an elegant tall glass, such as a champagne flute, halfway filled with stout beer with sparkling wine floating on the top of the stout. Due to their different densities, both liquids remain as separate layers in a glass. Another super popular Irish drink is Irish Cream. It is an Irish whiskey and cream based liqueur. Arguably, the most popular brand of Irish Cream is Baileys, made by Gilbeys of Ireland. It is a liqueur that can be definitely drunk by itself over ice, without any other mixes. It can also be drunk as part of the cocktail, most commonly with coffee added to it. Irish coffee is, perhaps, the next most famous Irish drink. It is made using hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar, and topped with thick cream.

Alcohol-Free Drinks. Milk and tea are two most favorite alcohol-free drinks in Ireland. Irish tea is usually mixed with milk and sugar, but never with lemon. Irish tea is typically made by blending several black teas; it has a pretty strong taste and is usually drunk on its own (without milk).

Ireland’s Traditional Cuisine. Some of the most popular Irish foods are corned beef, cabbage, lamb stew, potatoes, and a Shepherd’s pie. Potato is one of the main staples of Irish cuisine: there is almost no meal that goes without potatoes. Traditional Irish-style potatoes can be served in all sorts of ways, including being cooked wrapped in foil or put directly on fire. Mashed potatoes, mixed with garlic and cabbage, are also popular. Another Irish dish, called Champ, is made by blending eggs, scallions, and mashed potatoes. Stews are also trademark food in Ireland. They are usually made by cooking beef or lamb together with potatoes, onions, and carrots until the stew becomes thick. Another traditional meal is Irish Shepherd’s pie that is typically made using potatoes, sour cream, eggs, and beef or lamb. It is customary for Irish cuisine to use beer when cooking. Beer often adds richness and earthy flavors to meals, and meals come out more malty and toasty. For dessert, Irish people like to serve a sundae of Guinness ice cream, or whisky caramel based desserts.

Utilize Green Color. Use your imagination and utilize green color for St. Patrick’s dinner. For instance, bright green hues can be added to dishes by using ingredients, such as broccoli, spinach, or avocados. Pasta dishes can get more “green” by using spinach-based pasta, or pesto-based sauces.

Cooking Utensils. Cooking utensils include anything from knives, cutting boards, forks & spoons, mashers & slicers, and so on. Knives are often an important item both for the kitchen and diners. When selecting knives for the restaurant’s kitchen, buy a variety of them, including the right kind of chef’s knife – it should have gentle curves, making it easier to cut in a rocking motion. When selecting knives, the higher the percentage of carbon steel in a blade, the better it holds its edge. Most quality knives are made of high-carbon stainless steel. The very best knives are made of forged steel. Lesser quality knives are cut out of thin sheets of steel in a cookie-cutter fashion. For more information about other types of utensils, please visit this page for a large selection of cooking utensils, designed specifically for restaurant use.

Skillets, Pots & Pans. Frying pans come in a variety of sizes and are used for frying, sautéing, and braising. A skillet is basically the same item as a frying pan with sloping sides. Larger sizes of pans and skillets are generally preferred in order to avoid overcrowding the food – to ensure that food actually browns, when needed, instead of just being steamed. Consider what metal the pans, pots, or skillets are made of. Copper is the best conductor of heat, which means that it heats up the fastest and cooks the most evenly. However, copper can be expensive and hard to take care of. A good alternative to copper is a copper skillet lined on the cooking surface with tin (tin-lined pans or skillets). Yet another type of pan or skillet is cast iron, which is much cheaper than copper pans. Cast iron needs more heat than copper to do the same job; however, it retains heat well.

Blenders. Blender is an important piece of equipment that whips cream, eggs, and sauces, makes puree for vegetables and soups, crushes ice, and produces various kinds of desserts. There are many types of blenders, but vast majority of them have a motor ranging from 400 to 600 watt and the canister with a typical capacity of 40 to 60 ounces. Blender’s canister is usually made of glass, plastic, or stainless steel. Immersion blenders are also gaining popularity; they are used to puree soups or blend sauces right in the pot.

Microwave Ovens. Microwave ovens are irreplaceable these days: they cook the food in less time than a traditional oven or a stovetop does; the food tends to stay hot longer; and microwaves don’t heat up the kitchen the way the conventional ovens do. Microwaves are an excellent tool to cook vegetables and maintain their nutrients (which are usually lost when vegetables are boiled). Microwaves are also great for melting stuff, such as butter and chocolate. They also do an excellent job of cooking fish and fatty foods, like bacon. For more information on microwave ovens, click here.

Toaster Ovens. More multifaceted than toasters, toaster ovens perform many functions of conventional ovens. Toaster ovens take up less space, use less energy, and don’t heat up the kitchen compared to conventional ovens. Today’s toaster ovens are big and powerful, capable of many features, with a large capacity; they cook food faster and more evenly. Toaster ovens often have sensors that monitor the temperature and adjust it, if necessary. Many of them have a broiling feature, making toaster ovens an efficient substitute to conventional ovens.