Judi Window's List: #RestaurantLife

"“Consumers are trading down like crazy … leaping from full-service restaurants directly to fast-casual formats,” "

"Ten Sales Building Games That Will Encourage Teamwork, Productivity, and Morale:"

"Problem: Increasing sales through customer acquisition is the most expensive and least productive method for driving profits. It is a restaurant’s own customers who are more likely to visit and spend money, yet most owners expend 90% or more of their marketing dollars in an effort to drive “new” traffic, which in most cases represents less than 10% of a restaurants growth opportunity."

Restaurant chains are marketing or adding better-for-you items in time to draw consumers who have made resolutions to lose weight and eat healthfully in 2013.

"Before John, my husband-to-be, and I started our food truck in 2010, I cyber-stalked food trucks on the West Coast and in New York City to find out how they were using Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. "

Graph Search, a new function Facebook rolled out in a beta test to a limited number of people on Jan. 15, allows users to find, among other things, pages of businesses, such as restaurants, that their friends like while using search criteria such as a city or state. In addition to restaurants their friends like, users also could find Facebook photos taken at restaurants or recent check-ins posted to friends' pages.

"If you’re marketing a restaurant online these days, you’ve got your work cut out for you. Aside from the website, you have to think about creating a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, and about a dozen menus and information for just as many review sites."

Tanya and her staff buzzed by greeting and serving the welcome cocktail guests who were still arriving. Gary, Andy, and Gustavo were all busy preparing for the start of the dinner. Andy asked everyone to take a seat. Let the show begin…

Many restaurants allot payout via a points system, in which tips are pooled, then distributed at the end of the night. Think that the extra amount you're penciling in goes into the pocket of helpful waitress Lauren or bartender Steve? Well, not quite.