This is the 26th year I've attended the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show at Chicago's McCormick Place. As an industry observer, I have the luxury of being selective about what aspects of this huge trade show to take in, since it's impossible to see it all.
On the first day, for example, I chose just one of the 25 education sessions to attend: Cornell Dean's Leadership Series: Insights from Top Innovators. Panelists discussed a wide range of subjects affecting their businesses. Dan Rosenthal, CEO of Chicago's Rosenthal Restaurant Group, made an impassioned case for sensible immigration reform, which has languished in Congress, and against some of the massive INS sweeps that have struck several restaurant companies. "We need to take action to be sure this problem gets resolved. Make the punishment fit the crime. To rip families apart doesn't fit the crime," he said.
Drew Nieporent of New York's Myriad Restaurant Group and Zachary Bruell of Cleveland's Parallax and other restaurants lamented a decline in the service aspect of many higher-end restaurants today. "The service and the experience is what makes the restaurant," Bruell said.
Asked why so many restaurants fail, Elizabeth Brau, a leading restaurant consultant in Las Vegas, said, "More restaurtants fail because of the economics of the lease than anything else."
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