When looking for efficiencies in full-service restaurants, especially fine dining concepts, operators are always careful not to impact the customer experience that has come to define their brand. One big reason customers return to their favorite restaurants is because of how they have been treated every time they visit.

Whether you’re talking about the expected (resorts, private clubs, hotels) or unexpected (eatertainment, anyone?), the term “high-end” becomes a common way to describe a variety of properties these days. But just because a place calls itself “high-end,” doesn’t make it so.

How to make a dream come true? Edwin Bosso, Myrtle Consulting Group’s CEO, and his wife Edith wanted to open a restaurant and bar in Houston’s River Oaks Shopping Center, and they wanted it to equal the finest restaurants they had experienced while living in Paris.

Some may view a table in a restaurant simply as a place to enjoy a meal with clients, family and friends, with knives, forks and plates just serving a basic purpose.

Menus expand with fusion mash-ups, plant-forward elements build, and operators seek equipment efficiencies now more than ever.

Shifting demographics, ingredient challenges and pricing impact fine-dining restaurants.

Like so many other hospitality providers, hotel restaurants have undergone an identity shift.

While there may be a more relaxed dress code and fewer white tablecloths at fine dining establishments today, the quality of service and the menus remain in the upper echelon of dining.

Chef Paul Adair dreamed of opening his own restaurant in the Jackson, Miss., area near where he grew up. In 2019, he found a location in a space previously occupied by a high-end restaurant in the Fondren Place neighborhood, which offers shopping, restaurants, art galleries, eclectic architecture and charming homes.