NYC – BOWLS Takes Manhattan!
NYC – BOWLS Takes Manhattan
NYC – BOWLS Takes Manhattan
After returning from an extended stay in New York City, I am finally having a chance to reflect on what actually happened over the last nine days. We had a chance to return to the East Coast and a city that has given our company and our family so much, and truly do something special. It also allowed us to collaborate with a collection of wonderful and amazingly talented people to create a project bigger than just us.
We set off to New York for the International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show to share with the world our concept, BOWLS – Food That’s Good For You!, which won the 2014 Foodservice Pioneering Concept of the Year, and was being showcased at the Javits Center. For the show, we were able to bring our team who we worked together with to create the award-winning concept; Steve Carlson of Robert Rippe & Associates, our Kitchen Planner/Designer, Peter Cooper, VP of Middleby Corporation, who provided the equipment for the concept and Jef Salazar, who created the Graphics Package for the concept. At The Nyman Group, we were responsible for creating the original idea behind BOWLS, which we always felt was perfect for the changing tastes of America and the demands of diners, whether it be in an Urban setting, a Hotel or even an Arena. Prior to the show, a video was put together to showcase the concept and our team that developed BOWLS.
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Starting on Thursday, November 6th, we began working with the team on three days of food prep for the concept launch, following up on our menu testing held the previous month in Los Angeles, where we vetted out our recipes and determined what we were going to showcase in New York. With the help of a wonderful collection of Culinary students, we assembled our Dressings, Sauces, Proteins, Salads, Vegetables, Fresh Fruit Cider and ingredients overall which would be served at BOWLS. By Saturday afternoon we were ready to go; all of our food was prepared and we were organized by day, with all of our flavors set to share.
For the show, the IHMRS built us a working model (roughly an 80% version of the concept) on the floor of the Javits Convention Center that we were to show off. The fantastic thing was that the Booth/Concept was right at one of the two the entry points to the show, so almost every attendee had to walk by us when they arrived to the show. Amazing, right? We had some great support from the team at VGS with our video menu boards to the outstanding installation by EcoWalls with their Chef’s Garden to the brand new LightFalls lighting installation by 3M.
The first day of the show was on Sunday, November 9th, when we had a chance to really introduce BOWLS to the world; hosting demos in our booth that morning and afternoon. From the first BOWL that was served that day to the last, we knew we had a winning concept on our hands; people couldn’t get enough of the fresh flavors, different combinations, healthy element of the concept and flexibility of what we had created, plus a taste of our Magic Bar for dessert!
Over the next three days we were able to showcase BOWLS to a tremendous amount of people, from students at Culinary Schools and Hospitality Programs, to decision-makers from hospitality organizations to various equipment manufacturers who were at the show. BOWLS was truly the highlight of the IHMRS experience and people took notice overall. We even had the chance to host an awards ceremony in the booth and our President, Robert J. Nyman was able to give an interview to Beth Lorenzini, Editor of Foodservice Equipment Reports who is writing a feature story on the concept.
Where do we go from here? Well, we are continuing to develop BOWLS internally with the desire to have a concept that we can bring to market and make a reality. Whether that is with a hospitality organization at one of their hotels or at a hospital, BOWLS will become a reality. We are looking towards the future with our team and serving our BOWLS guests.