A rguably the most common sight at the North American Association of Equipment Manufacturers (NAFEM) show in Atlanta earlier this year was not ovens or refrigerators or flat-tops or whisks or robots. It was screens. Screens on devices that would not otherwise have screens, such as fryers or any of the aforementioned equipment, have be - come so commonplace they’re expected. “There’s a lot of stainless-steel boxes with screens,” said Aaron Thomas, director of engineering and robotics for Yum Brands, the owner of Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger. The issue with those screened boxes is what they do for the companies that use them. “There are a lot of screens now, but what are they doing for us?” Thomas said. The challenge in the coming years, said those at the show, is to make sure all these screened kitchen devices talk with one another. And then the challenge is to figure out what to do with all the data these devices generate. “No one has a north star,” said Simon De Montfort Walker, EVP, Central Industry Solutions, with Oracle Restaurants. “There are some super impressive products that do remarkable things. But there’s no north star with where we’re going.” That said, all this data and connectivity could eventually solve a real problem: How to balance all these orders coming from all these different ordering channels. That’s proven to be an issue even for a brand as tech-forward as Starbucks, where mobile ordering has created enormous headaches. “We all live in a world where we have this omnichannel front-of-house,” said Dan Simpson, CEO of the fast-casual franchise Taziki’s Med - iterranean Grill. “Guests are choosing the path of how they engage with us, walking in the door, on the app or third-party ordering. There are many channels coming at us and they hit the kitchen at the same time.” “We have to have better technology that enables us to say yes to the guest, with dynamic load balancing that allows the technology to shine.” Here are some other takeaways from NAFEM.
GAS VS. ELECTRIC? At 10,000 feet above sea level, gas loses effi - ciency and doesn’t work as well as it does in lower elevations. But that doesn’t keep chefs at high-end restaurants in places like Vale, Colorado, from demanding gas stoves. “They still want gas,” said Chris Wair, design principal with Reitano Design Group. “They demand gas even though they’re not getting heat from it.” The gas-versus-electricity debate was in full view during NAFEM, as companies sell - ing induction-based equipment argued that their items were better than what you could achieve with gas. The issue took on a new meaning in recent years, after the American Public Health Asso- ciation labeled gas appliances a “public health concern.” There has also been sustainability questions. Neither appear to be keeping some chefs or others away from gas. “Gas is cheap. Gas equipment works,” said Stuart Davis, principal with Stuart Davis De - sign. “The chefs I work with, they want gas. Right now, gas is king in my world.” At the same time, however, there are clear benefits with electricity. Wonder, the deliv - ery-centric food hall chain, uses all-electric equipment. “There are no hoods, no flames,” CEO Marc Lore said. “It allows us to go places other restaurants can’t go.”
TARIFFS The NAFEM show attracted plenty of attend- ees, and there was a sense of some optimism this year, in part because the restaurant in- dustry is widely—if cautiously—expected to perform better than in the past. And if res- taurants and bars are doing well, that’s good news for equipment makers. But tariffs, or the potential of tariffs, cast something of a shadow over everything. NAFEM itself, for instance, is predicting a bet- ter year overall. But that might change if Pres - ident Trump ultimately follows through on his tariff threat. “They’re making our lives more exciting than we would prefer,” said Connor Lokar, senior economist with ITR Economics. “We’re not changing our outlook. But things could be very different 10 days from now.” Tariffs are taxes on imports and typically paid by import companies that pass them on to their customers, such as a Mexican chain im- porting avocadoes from Mexico or an equip - ment maker bringing in steel from China. Tariffs—25% on goods from Mexico and Canada, and 10% on top of Chinese imports— were set to go into effect on Tuesday. That will likely drive up the cost of a lot of fruits, vegetables, alcohol and electronics and other equipment.
RESTAURANTS VS. ECOMMERCE
Marc Lore first made a name for himself by building a website selling diapers, called Di - apers.com. He did it again a few years later with an ecommerce site called Jet.com that was later sold to Walmart. Restaurants, he said, are far more compli- cated. “The restaurant industry is way more complicated than ecommerce,” he said. “We used to think it was challenging to buy a box of diapers that doesn’t expire and you put in a warehouse to send it to Fedex with delivery. “Now we’re ordering food. The food is not always the same. It has an expiration date. You have to keep it cold. Then you have to cook the food and keep the food hot before delivering it to the customer. And you can’t deliver it too them too late otherwise it’ll lose it’s quality. It’s a whole magnitude higher lev - el of difficulty.” “THERE ARE MANY CHANNELS COMING AT US AND THEY HIT THE KITCHEN AT THE SAME TIME.”
“THE CHEFS I WORK WITH, THEY WANT GAS. RIGHT NOW, GAS IS KING IN MY WORLD.” Stuart Davis, principal with Stuart Davis Design
Dan Simpson, CEO Taziki’s Mediterranean Grill
APRIL 2025 RESTAURANT BUSINESS
9
Powered by FlippingBook