Eva Zeisel with her son John in the late '90's
Design icon Eva Zeisel passed away the other day. She was 105. Having emigrated to the United States from her native Hungary via Germany, Eva Zeisel went on to become arguably the single biggest influence in tabletop dinnerware design for both the home and the hospitality tabletop business in the 20th century. A self described "designer of useful things" Zeisel designed for a number of ceramic firms such as Rosenthal, Hall China, Red Wing, and Castleton China. Eva Zeisel's obituary from the New York Times can be read by going here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/31/arts/design/eva-zeisel-ceramic-artist-and-designer-dies-at-105.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hpw&adxnnlx=1325359783-KGzXsbZXaKgRIF9sa07KeQ
 Rogue24 photo by Angie Salame We keep saying that the hospitality industry is a tremendously generous and giving group. And you keep proving us right. Here's the latest example with other chefs stepping up to guet chef and help Chef RJ Cooper of Washington, DC's Rogue 24 restaurant while he undergoes heart surgery. Bryan Voltaggio of Volt Retaurant stepped up first.. nice! To read the entire story get the details, go here: http://www.welovedc.com/2012/01/02/rogue-sessions-celebrity-chefs-rally-to-support-rj-cooper/Well Done to All Involved.  ROGUE 24 is an interactive culinary experience where the kitchen is at center stage and diners experience a progression of 24 courses created by James Beard Foundation award winning Chef RJ Cooper. Chef Cooper’s vision is to remove traditional barriers to dining and showcase seasonal flavors in novel textures and presentations served directly from the creators. Diners are also treated to hand-crafted cocktails and sodas created by Derek Brown, the acclaimed mixologist behind Columbia Room, and his team.
Our CONNECTIONS page seems to have hit a good note as many of you are checking it out daily. If you haven't been yet, TabletopJournal tries to post job openings that it finds interesting and that would be of interest to our readers. We have no vested interest any of these jobs and receive no compensation for the listings we post. Nor are we interested in compensation for these postings. Our only goal is to help others who are equally passionate about hospitality tabletop and bring the tabletop community together. Job openings include chefs, food & beverage, operations and sales & marketing for tabletop suppliers, dealers, and more. To visit, simply go here: http://www.tabletopjournal.com/connections.htmlSo, if you haven't checked out CONNECTIONS yet, take a look. If you see an opening that a friend might be a great candidate for, pass it along. TabletopJournal updates this page on a regular basis, so you may want to check back frequently.
We continue to be reminded about what a giving community the hospitality/tabletop industry is. A while back, Delta's SKY magazine did a piece on San Francisco Chef Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats. Seems Chef Farr is a long time supporter of a non-profit organization - CHEFS - that teaches professional kitchen skills to former addicts, parolees, and the homeless. Farr is quoted as saying " Even though I was an instructor, I always felt like I was the student." In the meantime, Chef Farr has developed quite a culinary reputation at 4505 Meats, which started as a home business, making chicharrones ( pork rinds). SKY Magazine's article spoke of locals clamoring for such 4505 Meats delicacies as bacon-studded hot dogs and juicy cheeseburgers made from grass-fed, dry-aged beef and served on homemade Parmesan-scallion-sesame seed buns. Stories about the giving-back from the hospitality industry abound and TabletopJournal is only too happy to help tell the stories of these acts of kindness and the individuals that do them. Well Done, Chef Farr. Well Done. To learn more about Ryan Farr and 4505 Meats, go here: http://4505meats.com/
Can you give a guy a hand? Check out an interesting design site: http://www.facebook.com/designaholic
We continue to have more and more of you checking in with us on your smartphones and we like the imagery that our site provides. Like the overall tabletop category itself, we recognize the importance of the visual impact. Tabletop is such an sensory experience.....whether on the table or on the smartphone!
Speaking of smartphone, here's an interesting table:
Google's Android ystem continues to grow, primarily at the expense of RIM/Blackberry.
How long before the Google/Android and Apple/iPhone smartphone platforms are the only two dominant ones left?
 TabletopJournal's CONNECTIONS page - Helping good people find one another. One of the more interesting things we're noticing lately is how many of you are going to our CONNECTIONS page. For the past several months, it's been one of our fastest growing pages in terms of visitation. CONNECTIONS was originally meant to be a page to connect product lines with reps and reps with product lines. However, it has morphed into a page on our site where we post jobs that might be of interest to tabletop people: restauranteurs, chefs, food & beverage folks, manufacturer sales reps, dealer sales reps, sales managers of all types, and so on. Seems like a growing number of our readers find this page quite interesting. On our CONNECTIONS page our goal is simple: to help good people find other good people. So, if you're looking for a postion in a good company, check out CONNECTIONS. If you're a good company looking for another good person to add to the team....send it along and we'll see what we can do to help.
It's 28 degrees here ths morning....the 3:30AM wake ups have got to stop (2 in last 5 days)......thankful for the java.....headed off to do 13.1 ....then, Irish rock bands and beer!
Oh....would like to thank whoever gave me the great cold at the show in New York. I'll think of you throughout the entire race.
According to the National Restaurant Association, the U.S. restaurant industry continued to show job growth during the month of October, according to the latest figures released by Bureau of Labor Statistics. "This sustained growth within the restaurant industry reflects a gradually improving overall economic environment, said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the association's Research and Knowledge Group. "Obviously employment growth is not uniform, due to localized economic infrastructures, but the trend is headed in the right direction."
To read the entire article, go here: http://www.restaurant.org/nra_news_blog/2011/11/industry-posts-more-job-growth-figures-show.cfm
 Whether its manufacturers, dealers, or sales reps, strategic alliances can make a lot of sense. In a move that comes under the heading of "why aren't there more of these...it makes perfect sense", Equipment Solutions, Inc. (ESI) and One Source Hospitality (OSH) two of the top rep groups in the Washington/Baltimore markets have formed a strategic alliance which will serve to enhance each other's sales efforts by way of leveraging existing relationships and sales opportunities. "Each remains wholly owned and an independent company to maintain its own identity yet able to share resources, best practices, and leads to help grow both organizations sales volume," said Bill Stat, Principal with ESI. "It's a great opportunity to help one another since we have so many synergies sharing the same distribution client base, but do not directly compete with one another since we have such different line portfolios", said Mike Miguelez, President of OSH. "leads and referrals generated and passed from one company to the other offer so much value because they are qualified and come from a different segment where we may never have had the chance to pursue without this strategic relationship," said John Coates, Principal with ESI. It seems like these types of alliances could be of great benefit to people in our industry -particularly tabletop companies and tabletop manufacturers reps. However, takes forward thinking professionals who are willing to share, work together, and trust their alliance partners. Often, but not always, these "alliances" are the precursers to outright mergers or acquisitions with alliance partners having the ability to learn more about one another and find out if a merger or acquisition would make sense. Both ESI and OSH are experienced foodservice professional rep organizations. Congratulations and best of luck to both!
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