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So, what’s going to be big in food this year? Off the rip, we can see more iterations of the New York diner (following behind Kellogg’s Diner and B&L Diner), a return to simplicity over excess and more cost-effective menus to benefit diners and restaurant owners.
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For even more on the horizon, we tapped our December cover star, Jaeki Cho of Righteous Eats. Beyond dropping his favorite bites of 2024, here are Cho’s three predictions for the coming year.
Ethnic cuisines will receive their time in the spotlight.
“West African cuisines are going to continuously have moments. Thai food is going to have bigger moments going into next year. Whether it's EEM in Portland or everything Jen and her team at Fish Cheeks are doing in New York, Thai food is going to be represented in a diverse lens. Hopefully, we get to see Yemeni food and Palestinian food. I think we're gonna see more representation in that realm.”
More restaurants may fall in the middle…
“There's a thing called a barbell theory. You have Hermès and Louis Vuitton on one side. On the [other], you have Uniqlo, Zara and Shein. When the economy is not good, those two sides are only going to thrive more. People that can afford Hermès, just because the economy is bad doesn't mean that they can't afford it, they're gonna keep buying. People that used to buy something a little bit more in the middle, now have to resort to Uniqlo and Shein—affordable mass products, right? And I think that's the same thing in the food industry.
People that used to go to La Bernardin once a week, they'll be fine. Those fine dining establishments, you're getting world-class service experience, food sourcing—everything is top of top. You are paying for that service, that experience.
So if you are a restaurant in the middle, where you don't have the historical significance of a Katz Delicatessen, but you also don't have the experience of a Masa or you're also not as efficient as a 7th Street Burger, I think it's gonna be challenging.”
…so they need to focus on experience to set themselves apart.
“A kid in Minnesota who's never been to New York and wants to cook steak like Peter Luger, technically has access to the recipe by watching YouTube tutorials. Now, why does that kid still need to come to Peter Luger? Because you're gonna get that experience. You're gonna get golden coin chocolates thrown at you. You're gonna get five older Eastern European Romanian men to sing you “Happy Birthday” if you order the Holy Cow [sundae]. Even if you could cook the steak yourself, you're not gonna get that quintessential Luger experience.”