(Austin, TX) May 05, 2023 — The COVID-19 national and public health emergencies, which have been in place since early 2020, are set to end on May 11, 2023.¹ This past year or so, the nation and the world have been carefully easing their way back into a pre-pandemic lifestyle. People are more cautious now, and behaviors have changed in the workplace, home, and social settings. Eating out has always been the perfect way to gather with family, friends, and coworkers and enjoy the food, drinks, atmosphere, and bonding experience. The pandemic took its toll on the restaurant industry, and it's been a long road back. Brian Duncan, President of me&u USA, a global leader in at-table ordering specializing in restaurants and bars, is optimistic about the resilience of restaurant owners, operators, and staff, especially with the increased adoption of innovative new technologies that are redefining, reinventing, and reinvigorating the experience of dining out.

In 2023, eating out is gathering steam. Americans are spending roughly $70 billion each month dining out; 34% of people gather at casual dining restaurants once a week, and 49% of food expenditures are spent on grabbing a meal away from home.² The National Restaurant Association has some bright predictions as well. Continued industry growth in 2023 is estimated to translate into $997 billion in sales. The workforce is expected to increase by 500,000 jobs and will actually surpass pre-pandemic employment numbers.³

This is all great news, but the transition has been a costly one. In 2021 the National Restaurant Association reported that food-service sales were $240 billion below pre-pandemic projections. Over 110,000 drinking and dining establishments closed temporarily or shuttered their doors for good.⁴ At present, 2 million jobs in the hospitality industry still remain unfilled,⁵ andrunaway inflation has increased the cost of food and labor. Surfing the breaks and swells brought on by circumstances beyond their control requires the restaurant industry to adopt a new way of thinking to adapt to the ebbs and flows.

Embracing the simplicity and convenience of smartphone technology, me&u's groundbreaking scan, order, pay technology delivers convenience without sacrificing human interaction. It's effortless. Guests scan a QR code with their smartphones, leisurely browse the interactive menu options, and pay and tip with one click.

And for an even more flexible dining experience, there's me&u flex, which offers a two-way ordering system where both customers and the server can order and add items to the table, enhancing the order flow and freeing up the server's time so they can focus on doing what they do best — delivering exceptional customer service. Diners can order together and eat together by seeing who at their table is ready to place their order. No orders are left behind, and meals are delivered together. Guests can pay their way with me&u flex; they can split the check without doing the math, and they can opt to pay the check through me&u or the server. Servers can boost their tips with me&u's automatic tipping feature, where restaurants control the default tip percentage.

Created to meet the needs of casual dining and premium table services, me&u flex is designed to transform the way restaurants do business and elevate the entire dining experience for guests. Faster payment increases table turnover and allows for more revenue and a higher volume of tips. It makes upselling easier with its purpose-built feature set to drive higher customer spending across food and beverage, increasing customer spend by as much as 30%. me&u flex enhances customer loyalty with integrated marketing tools to cater to each guest personally. The ordering experience is more fluid and friction-free, giving servers more time to build relationships with their customers without neglecting other tables.

Duncan affirms, "At me&u, we aim to build a better future for hospitality through innovation, leveraging technology to help restauranteurs work smarter, improve operations and maximize revenue. It's been a difficult time for the restaurant industry, especially dealing with labor challenges post-pandemic and the rising cost of goods associated with inflation. me&u flex was designed with customer service in mind as a true restaurant solution built to address the pain points and enhance the already amazing job we know you do as a restaurateur."

To find out more about me&u flex, watch our video here: https://vimeo.com/me&u flex.

Vancouver, BC (May 5, 2023) –  Botanist Bar, tucked inside Vancouver’s Five-Diamond Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel, was crowned the 19th best bar in North America by the North America’s 50 Best Bars Academy during a ceremony Thursday evening in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Botanist Bar, led under the guidance of Creative Beverage Director Grant Sceney, and spearheaded by Head Bartender Jeff Savage, is located in the award-winning Botanist restaurant. Inspired by the principles of botany, Botanist Bar celebrates the Pacific Northwest’s unique biodiversity in its approach; culinary-forward cocktails blend the union of science and nature together to deliver a sophisticated yet whimsical drinking experience with "living room hospitality."

“Working in hospitality for as long as we all have on the Botanist team, we’ve watched as bars we admire and adore make their way onto the 50 Best list, ” said Jeff Savage, Head Bartender at Botanist. “Now that the day has come, we count ourselves extremely blessed and honoured to be mentioned alongside superstars in our industry”

The 2023 ranking is reflective of the best bar experiences collated by a group of 260 anonymous voters, made up of cocktail experts, educators, authors, journalists, bartenders and bar owners from across North America. For this vote, the continent is divided into seven regions: Canada East; Canada West; USA Northeast; USA Midwest; USA West; USA South; Mexico and the Caribbean.

“Seven years ago, the concept of Botanist Bar was only an idea; to see it through the design and construction phases, to opening and now being recognized at these awards is incredibly humbling,” said Grant Sceney, Creative Beverage Director at Fairmont Pacific Rim. “It’s evolved into something greater than we initially expected and I couldn’t be more grateful for all of the people that have been part of its journey.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Botanist Bar’s recent recognition as the recipient of the 2023 Michter's Art of Hospitality Award; an award that was introduced by 50 Best in 2020 to recognize bars offering outstanding hospitality. This year, 260 members of North America's 50 Best Bars Academy voted on their single-best hospitality experience during the 18-month voting period, recognizing Botanist Bar.

“Since the inception of Botanist, we’ve always strived to create an experience that is entirely unique and unforgettable.” said Jens Moesker, Regional Vice President and General Manager at Fairmont Pacific Rim. “Our Botanist Bar team exemplifies this unwavering dedication through their craft, and we are proud that the teams’ efforts have been recognized by such a distinguished group of voters.”

For more information, please follow Botanist (@botanistdining) and Fairmont Pacific Rim (@fairmontpacific) on Instagram, or visit online.

(Brampton, Ontario) The first Canadian ever inducted into the North American Meat Institute Hall of Fame passed away on April 22, 2023 leaving a legacy that will be remembered for years to come.

Ralph Cator founded Cardinal Meat Specialists in 1966 after learning the butcher trade in his father’s retail butcher shop in Toronto. In 25 years at the helm, Cator turned Cardinal into one of this country’s leading suppliers of burgers, ribs and other products to restaurants, grocery retailers and the wholesale market.

Cator helped make Cardinal an industry leader known for its innovations. Among his many accomplishments, Cator installed Canada’s first cryogenic freezer for burgers. In 1986, Cardinal became the first company in the world to use the Tenderform patty forming equipment in food processing that produced a burger that was less processed and that has now become the industry standard.

In 1992, Cator was the first Canadian to ever serve as President of the North American Meat Processors (NAMP). A few years later, he was given the NAMP Angus Award, its most prestigious honour.

“My father had many expressions he used to guide his life,” says Brent Cator, Ralph’s son who is now President and CEO of Cardinal. He used to say, “no one of us is as smart as all of us”. And another I loved, “without a plan, any road will get you there. You just may not like where you end up.”

After he retired from Cardinal, Cator went back to school to pursue his passion for photography and became an accredited photographer. Ralph Cator was 87 and died after a short illness.

WASHINGTON (May 4, 2023) – Representation of women within hospitality leadership continues to increase, with women gaining some ground at the CEO and president levels, according to a new report commissioned by the AHLA Foundation and conducted by Penn State’s School of Hospitality Management.

The AHLA Foundation is a philanthropic organization that aims to inspire, support, and advance the hospitality workforce. The 2023 “Women in Hospitality” research report focuses on evaluating the state of women’s representation in leadership in the hotel industry.

The findings indicate that in 2022 the hospitality industry made steady, incremental progress toward women’s advancement to executive leadership roles, while underscoring areas of opportunity to further diversify representation across industry fields.

Key findings include:

Women now hold one in four of all chief-level positions at hotel companies, although mostly in human resources and sales/marketing roles.

At the director level, women now occupy an equal number of positions as men. Women have experienced gains in leadership positions in hospitality investment and development since 2019, going from one woman for every 10 men to one woman for every 7.9 men.

Women held 24% of the podium spots at hotel investment conferences, up from 16% in 2017.

On the main stage, 37% of prime speaking spots in 2022 went to women – up from 22% just a year earlier in 2021.

This is the sixth annual benchmark report commissioned by the AHLA Foundation. Researchers under the direction of Phillip Jolly, PhD, assistant professor of hospitality management at Penn State, reviewed publicly available data spanning more than 6,000 individuals from 701 companies and more than 7,000 hotel investment conference attendees.

“We want to see equity for women at the leadership level and across the hotel industry, and this progress is encouraging,” said AHLA Foundation President Anna Blue. “Representation is only the first step. We see growing efforts by our members to prioritize intersectional leadership, inclusion, and belonging for women in the industry.”

“Although we must continue to increase representation of women leaders in hospitality, it’s encouraging that the hotel industry is steadfastly working together to address longstanding inequities. This report shows that change is possible,” said Donna Quadri, PhD, Marvin Ashner director of the Penn State University School of Hospitality Management.

Click here to view the full report.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association and the AHLA Foundation are part of the Women in Hospitality Leadership Alliance.