2017 trend: 24/7 dining
By Patricia Cobe on Oct. 17, 2016Foodservice 24/7 is becoming an expectation in more and more noncommercial operations. To meet the demand of students, healthcare workers, tech employees and other clockless diners, chefs are expanding snack offerings, all-day breakfast is on the rise and grab-and-go is taking off in new directions.
Expanded dining hours
“For K-12, we are expanding the made-to-order deli sandwich bar after lunch and before student athletes go to practice, from 1:45-3:45 p.m. We also set up a remote kiosk to reach students who are crossing campus for after-school activities and may need an additional sandwich to keep them satisfied until dinner.”
—Eli Huff
Salt Food Group
Gelato bar
“We recently launched a gelato bar with 12 flavors. Gelato now is one of our top snacks.”
—Shawn Dolan
UNC Health Care
Grab-and-go items
“We introduced a new line of grab-and-go items for snacking, which includes small portions of popular sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, nosh boxes, fresh juices and bakery items.”
—Tracey MacRae
University of Washington
Clean snacks
“Clean label, vegan and vegetarian are what we hear most about as snack requests, but chips and candy still outsell everything else.”
—Bill Claypool
Vanderbilt University
Delivery options
“We’re exploring delivery options for grab-and-go snacks and meals.”
—Kerry Paterson
Oregon State University
Hummus
“Roasted poblano hummus, bruschetta and fresh-fried potato chips with homemade French onion dip.”
—Darla Mehrkens
Carilion Clinic
Popcorn bar
“Create-your-own flavored popcorn bar, homemade granola bars and fruit kebabs.”
—Jennifer Leamons
Sodexo at Carolina Health Care
Trail mix
“Build-your-own trail mix station with dispensers.”
—Eric Eisenberg
Swedish Health Services
Bento boxes
'Cappi hour'
“We’re looking at adding a Cappi-hour to increase barista and dessert sales in midafternoon.”
—Daniel Skay
Castle Rock Adventist Hospital
Breakfast cycles
“We offer breakfast during traditional breakfast hours, breakfast bowls twice a cycle during lunch and have a breakfast-for-dinner concept every Tuesday night.”
—Carrie Anderson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Hand-held breakfast
“Our most successful launches this year were a whole-grain blueberry banana muffin and a chorizo and egg breakfast taco.”
—Brent Trudeau
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
All day breakfast
“Breakfast is always a huge moneymaker, so we run our breakfast menu all day long. Omelets are top sellers.”
—Pierre Genereux
Interlude Restorative Suites
Steak and egg sandwich
“Our chimichurri steak sandwich with fried egg will continue on the menu. It works for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
—Tracey MacRae
University of Washington