This is the tantalizing phrase that Jackie Rodriguez, senior manager with Technomic, uses to describe the growing trend towards taking foodservice to on-the-move consumers via smaller, highly focused outlets. This emerging category includes a variety of outlets such as food trucks, kiosks, micro-marts, and even high-tech vending machines. The aim is a marriage between creative high-quality food offerings and convenience, and the early adopters tend to be younger consumers who are more accustomed to eating on the run.

The first thing that you should understand is that Joe Carbonara, our chief editor, does not give up the reins easily. Especially when it comes to the things that Joe loves to do, like the tabletop judging that he oversees each year for FE&S.

An unofficial theme pervades this issue of Foodservice Equipment and Supplies magazine and I can describe it in one Hawaiian word that packs a lot of meaning: Kina'ole. This single word roughly translates into "doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, in the right place, with the right person, with the right feeling, the first time."

A huge responsibility naturally accompanies naming a particular brand Best in Class across each category of commercial foodservice equipment and supplies each year.

The headline to our piece on the Field Museum in Chicago might have been, "The Best Things in the Field Museum are no Longer Confined to the Basement." 

Although I am no expert on sustainability, it seems to me that that the best kind of recycled glass is that made from the shards of a glass ceiling.

Innovation is, without question, one of the most prominent buzz words in our vocabulary today. Business leaders and politicians alike cite the need to innovate when addressing what ails a company, industry or even a government. When pledging to improve things for their employees or constituents, these leaders promise to become more innovative in their approach, each with varying degrees of success.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. If that is true, and I think it is, then competition has to be considered at least the older sibling of growth and innovation. Recent advancements in healthcare foodservice represent a prime example.

Quick...what do the years 1983, 2002 and 2014 have in common? And, no, they do not correspond with the years my favorite blazer has been in style.

One doesn't need to know a lot about foodservice design to realize that for such a phrase to exist, it must refer to someone who is not only highly regarded but who has attained the pinnacle of peer recognition and respect.

The unvarnished truth can be a difficult thing to deliver sometimes. It's in our nature to want to soften harsh facts with language that makes the message we're trying to relay more palatable. Take the ad in this issue about FE&S' upcoming Best in Class study. In the ad we tell you that filling out the questionnaire is "fast and easy."

In this issue of Foodservice Equipment and Supplies we proudly showcase the results from the magazine's 2014 Performance in Tabletop Awards.

Plato famously said, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention."

A s we get set to shift our attention to 2014, it’s a great time to reflect on all that’s happened during the course of this year. Here at FE&S, it has been a remarkable year highlighted by the celebration of our 65th anniversary. I would like to personally thank all of our readers, advertisers, and industry contributors who helped make this the best year in this publication’s illustrious history as measured by any metric that you choose.

A gainst a backdrop of unprecedented dysfunction that includes the government shutdown and the novel threat of U.S. debt default playing out as bargaining strategies before a world of bewildered onlookers, it's good to know that at least in the business world people can still work together for the common good.

From cronuts to 3D printing, it's hard to turn on your android device without some new fad, craze, or trend forcing its way into the modern lexicon. The pace of change seems unrelenting. And we are left to decide what is real and what is virtual, what will last and what will turn out to be a temporary diversion.

The recent sales of the Washington Post and the Boston Globe to successful entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos and John Henry, respectively, provide me with an opportunity to talk with you for a moment about our business philosophy here at Zoomba Group and what it means to you, our reader.

As a former operator and distributor sales rep, I understand the critical overlap between these two vital roles in the successful implementation of a foodservice plan of action.

That's how Chef Kevin Hickey of The Four Seasons Chicago referred to FE&S' Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala while addressing the crowd at this year's event.

Wow! It is hard to believe that this issue of FE&S marks the halfway point of 2013. Joe Carbonara and the entire editorial team have managed to bring you stories from all over the United States, giving you our take on the people and projects making a difference in the foodservice equipment and supplies community.

I was re-reading several past Parting Shot articles written by a variety of industry insiders, including dealers, manufacturers, operators, service agents and consultants. Not surprisingly, this feature consistently ranks among our most widely read sections of the magazine. The wisdom and passion that your peers express on the last page of Foodservice Equipment & Supplies often contains the most thought-provoking ideas that we print each month.

Or, customer engagement in an age of virtualization. Sometimes there is just no substitute for meeting with a customer or business partner face to face.

As the foodservice industry evolves, the way professionals within the industry educate themselves will continue to evolve as well. A big part of our editorial mission at FE&S is to continue to play an important role in that evolution. 

Funny thing about anniversaries...their significance often depends on the relative success of whatever person, place, or thing, is being celebrated or remembered. For a failing sports team, for instance, crossing the century mark might go by as uneventfully as that Mayan End-of-the-World Calendar that we couldn't hear enough about last year.

Restaurant folk are a resilient lot.

As the incomparable Yogi Berra once said, "...making predictions is hard, especially when they're about the future." Before you Google that...if he didn't say it, then he should have, because it's a pretty good line and more than a little true.

Wow! We owe a huge thank you to the record number of FE&S subscribers who participated in our 2012 Best in Class study. Completing a comprehensive study of this this type is no small task. So please know that we truly appreciate all of you who took the time and made the effort to ensure your voices are heard.

If there is one lesson that I have learned well through my association with FE&S over the years, it is the tremendous value of peer recognition. I have listened spellbound as award winners from DSR of the Year to Hall of Famer to Top Achievers to Dealer of the Year have graciously accepted their place among the very best in the industry at the FE&S Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala.

In a world full of me-too competitors, it is sometimes difficult to recognize true innovation. I was struck by this thought as I read this month's facility design project, which profiles Danforth Dining Hall. Much of what this University of Rochester project features will seem somewhat familiar to you: open prep areas, vegetarian and vegan options, Mongolian grill, and air conditioning. (It's OK to smile if you hadn't realized that there were still places in the continental United States that, up to this point, thought they could get by without air conditioning.)

We are especially excited to bring you this July edition of FE&S. Inside you will find a photo recap of this year's Dealer of the Year and Industry Awards Gala. We enjoyed a record turn-out this year and feel particularly good about that fact given the change in date necessitated by NATO's visit to the Windy City.