"atmosphere" news and stories

If you opt for a meal out at a restaurant, chances are, you'll have to deal with noise. Whether it's whimpering babies, clattering dishes, or raucous bachelor parties, it's gonna be noisy, and it will probably increase as the evening continues.

Last week, Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema published an article on this very controversial topic (NPR then interviewed him about the article, which you can listen to here).

Sietsema claims the main reasons that restaurants seem to have gotten noisier in the past few years has to do with both new technology and building design. In addition to diners chatting and typing away on cell phones and Blackberries, restaurant design trends are leaning toward hardwood floors and tall ceilings, with wooden and glass accents.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants Outback Steakhouse, Inc. to look into a method of chicken slaughter that is allegedly more humane, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Called controlled-atmosphere killing, the method basically gasses the birds, thus putting them "to sleep." PETA raised the suggestion at the annual Outback shareholders meeting this week in Tampa. How did PETA get their item on the table? They own 80 shares of Outback stock, enough to have an issue voted on at the yearly meeting. According to the TBBJ, PETA has put similar items up for a vote to Kroger, KFC and Hormel. Every time, the proposals for investigation of controlled-atmosphere killing have received more than three percent of the vote. While that isn't much, it's apparently enough to allow the issue to be submitted again next year.

[Via Restaurant News Resource]

The core market for Dunkin' Donuts is the segment of the population that feels uncomfortable with the word "panini." To accommodate them, the company changed the name of one of their new sandwiches to "stuffed melt," but this isn't the end of their push to make customers more comfortable.

In an article (subscription only) in the Wall Street Journal, the marketing and branding teams of Dunkin' Donuts revealed their research has shown there are two main groups in their potential customer base, dubbed "tribes." In the first tribe, there are people to frequent Starbucks. They like the atmosphere there and want their coffees with a couch; Dunkin' locations are too bare-bones for them. The second tribe is the Dunkin' tribe. These make up the core audience for Dunkin' donuts and are "bewildered and turned off by the atmosphere at Starbucks." When they do, perchance, wander into a Starbucks, they "don't get it." 

To keep the existing customers happy while bringing in new ones, Dunkin' Donuts is making some changes. In addition to renaming some of their products, they are bringing in new foods, like dough-wrapped pork and "Dunkin' Dawgs" to encourage customers to come in at lunch time, as well as cookies and other baked goods to bring them in in the afternoons. The pastry cases and espresso bars will be revamped to look flashier, but there will still be no couches. They don't want customers to feel too comfortable because it actually, according to their research, makes the Dunkin' tribe uncomfortable.