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Su Entertainment News potete leggere un articolo dal titolo: "Restaurants think lean in tough times".

Questa è la versione tradotta in italiano con il traduttore automatico di Google.

Now that the American economy in beginning to show some "green shoots," speculation in the restaurant world is turning toward what lasting impacts if any the recent downturn is likely to have. It's certainly too early to make definitive pronouncements, but several trends are emerging.

Going lean -- a number of major chains and countless independents are rethinking every aspect of their business, trying to squeeze out costs and inefficiencies wherever possible.

Starbucks Corp., with 11,000 U.S. stores, has hired a "Vice President of Lean Thinking," an executive who's extensively versed in time-and-motion studies.

Scott Heydon travels from location to location, using a Mr. Potato Head doll to train Starbucks store managers in organizing work. His job is preaching maximum efficiency in a company whose culture is traditionally anti-establishment.

Value menus -- once confined to the fast food world, value menu deals are now entrenched in dining venues both casual and upscale.

Twenty- and thirty-dollar multicourse, fixed priced menus are being supplemented by offerings at the budget friendly five-dollar mark. High-end operations in many markets have begun offering five-dollar deals on appetizers, small plates, and luncheon specialties in an effort to capture new business and hold onto existing traffic.

Pop-up eateries -- rather than opening a restaurant of their own, with all the associated investment and risk, young chefs are piggybacking their skills onto existing facilities to create "temporary" restaurants.

The idea's a simple one. A chef-entrepreneur strikes a deal with an establishment that's not normally open evenings -- a downtown breakfast-lunch spot, for instance.

He thus occupies the facility "after hours," bringing in his own food supplies along with a production and service crew, to create a signature dining experience.

A pop-up's "run" can be a limited engagement or an ongoing thing. If a particular idea doesn't make money at one location it can be transferred to another or abandoned all together with minimum financial exposure.
The pop-up approach also offers a chef the option of quickly reworking his restaurant experience in response to changing market conditions.