Even casual readers of FE&S have probably realized that I am no fan of name-dropping. While it may feel good for me, in the moment, to mention that I have been out to dinner with an industry luminary or at a conference with them or talking one on one to someone, I understand that it really has no intrinsic value for you, the reader. In virtually every instance it would detract from our editorial purpose and probably cheapen the very relationship that I was attempting to highlight.

Any realistic look at how far away the end of the tunnel is has to begin with an honest appraisal of where we are at right now. The most recent jobs reports show large-scale losses in the hospitality and restaurant space.

January 2021 has arrived … thankfully.

The present is always a good time to have a discussion about the restaurant of the future.

To call 2020 a challenging year is a bit like calling World War II a serious misunderstanding. It would be difficult to overstate the impact of this year on all of our lives. At this point in the pandemic, given its pervasive global reach, there are very few of us who do not, at the very least, know someone who has been directly affected by COVID-19. For anyone who operates a business, works for a living, has children, parents, grandparents, siblings, co-workers or friends to worry about — I think that about covers all of us, right? — this has been a year we will never forget and one that we would surely like to.

For those of you who were able to tune in to our FED Lunch & Learn series on Tuesdays in October, you no doubt garnered a slew of great takeaways from our array of esteemed presenters and panelists. Their ideas about the transformative nature of the time we find ourselves in and the changes we are likely to see next in the world of foodservice equipment and design were both thought provoking and timely.

There are many versions of the old adage “When one door closes, find a window,” all with the same meaning.

It’s difficult to peer through the fog of uncertainty surrounding our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic to see exactly what the post-crisis world will look like. Even the most fundamental aspects of our lives, like school and work, are subject to profound changes as a result of the upheaval that we have all experienced.

For years businesses large and small have extolled the virtues of thinking outside the proverbial box of conventional wisdom. Business leaders have lauded nimbleness in the face of rapidly changing competitive landscapes and oftentimes fickle consumer habits.

As the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to watch a grand experiment unfold with a patchwork of varied responses based on class, economics and politics. Opinions about where this will all lead are as varied as the number of opinion-makers out there, and individual responses seem to be mostly based on the sources of information that people are choosing to rely on.

Well, it is good to know that the appeal of cat videos and quarantine parodies has its limits as many industry professionals refocus at least some of their attention to the post-pandemic foodservice landscape.

Boston Market promoted Randy Miller, a 25-year company veteran, to president.

Normally, in May, we are gearing up for the annual FE&S Dealer of the Year and All Industry Awards Gala in Chicago. This year, that event is the furthest thing from our minds.

 I love the hospitality industry because I think it attracts the best people.

It’s hard to contain our excitement here at FE&S as we begin a new year and embark on our second decade as Zoomba Group. We have so much planned for 2020, and all of it is designed to make you the best-informed foodservice professional in the equipment and supplies industry.

For many years now, I’ve been telling you just how wrong I’ve been about predicting the eminent demise of printed directories.

Well, that’s the goal, right? This time of the year, businesses large and small peer into their crystal balls for a look at the future to form an idea about what the coming year will hold.

A special thanks goes out to everyone who made FE&S’ inaugural Tour the Trends event a big success.

Having worked in both foodservice operations and as a distributor sales rep, I’ve heard my fair share of complaining about health inspectors. They never showed up at a good time, their grievances — expressed as points on a checklist — always seemed trivial and I remember everyone viewing their presence as an unwelcome hassle in an already overwrought day.

The great national experiment toward the legalization of cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes continues to gain steam. In January of 2020, Illinois will join the growing (sorry, not sorry) list of states where recreational use is no longer a crime.

A special shout-out this month to Editorial Director Joe Carbonara and the entire Zoomba Group team for establishing a new high-water mark for FE&S’ professional recognition. In May the American Society of Business Publication Editors recognized this publication with seven of its national Azbee awards for design and content excellence.

Welcome to the May 2019 issue of FE&S magazine. We hope that you will enjoy the fresh look and feel of the latest redesign.

One way we measure ourselves against our quest to deliver fresh and interesting new content is by regularly submitting our work to associations that judge us against business-to-business peer publications. The result is the list of our awards that appear on the masthead of our magazine. We are proud of these awards because they highlight the depth of talent that we plumb to produce a magazine that you tell us is worth reading month in and month out.

Well, I’m not sure that having fun was all that we wanted to do at The NAFEM Show 2019 in Orlando, Fla., but I can tell you that we certainly had some. (Yep — another reference to Sheryl Crow, who I would like to thank for tossing me her guitar pick.)

FE&S’ Dealer of the Year and All Industry Awards Gala celebration at the Four Seasons Hotel-Chicago on May 18th is shaping up to be a special one. Of course, every year is special to us and made even more so as we reflect on the roster of past winners. This year will be extraordinary, because the 2019 DOY, TriMark USA, is made up of so many — five to be exact — past winners.

Welcome to the first edition of FE&S for 2019 in what should prove to be an exciting and eventful year.

So … you haven’t decided whether to be a nanoinfluencer or a macroinfluencer in the foodservice industry in 2019. No matter, either way the FE&S  2019 Equipment & Supplies Directory serves as a great place to start your foodservice equipment and supplies-related research.

 What exactly is meant by the term “pay to play” and why do we at Zoomba Group avoid it?

It isn’t every day that you earn the kind of praise that makes you want to blush, but such was the case after our recent confab in Chicago, the Foodservice Equipment & Design Global Thought Leadership Summit.