Two St. Petersburg businesses, Cassis American Brasserie and the Chihuly Museum, will be featured Thursday on the Food Network show, Emeril’s Florida. 

You can watch Emeril Lagasse visit these locations at 9:30 a.m. Thursday on the Food Network. 

"Chef Emeril’s travels highlight the vibrant flavors Florida has to offer,” said Carol Dover, President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, in a news release. “We hope this show gives viewers a taste of the Sunshine State and encourages them to visit some of our favorite places along the Gulf Coast.” Continue

Miamiherald.com - A much-touted South Beach Thai restaurant has sued its former celebrity chef, accusing him of stealing its recipes, employees, customers and even publicity photos when he quit last month to return to his family-owned eatery.

But the chef, Piyarat Potha Arreeratn — better known to Thai food fans as Chef Bee — said through his attorney that the Khong River House is trying to subject him to “a Vulcan mind-wipe to obliterate 20 years of cooking experience.” Continue

Fastcasual.com - Corner Bakery Cafe today announced plans to open more than 50 new franchised units across the country. Plans call for nine cafes in San Diego, seven in Oklahoma, 10 in Northeast Florida and 21 throughout the Boston area, according to company press releases.

"Corner Bakery Cafe has a clear understanding of their brand vision, which is consistently demonstrated by the way they bring to life their core values in everyday business," said San Diego Franchisee Ben Eramya, owner and operator of FEAST Foods LLC. "The leadership team has a great understanding of how dynamic quality food is important to attracting guests to the brand. And the leadership team clearly has an understanding of how important it is to involve and embrace its franchisees in efforts towards bringing their brand vision to life, which will surely enable the brand to remain relevant in the guests' eyes forever." Continue

Denverpost.com - A federal judge in Denver ruled late Tuesday that Colorado's long-awaited first Steak 'n Shake restaurants — one in Centennial and another in Sheridan — must stop operations immediately, favoring the national chain's request for a preliminary injunction to shut them down.

The ruling takes effect the moment Steak 'n Shake files a $50,000 bond with the court, which is expected by Thursday. In the meantime, both restaurants were operating normally Wednesday, offering Steak 'n Shake menus to customers. Continue

Onlinewsj.com - An updated tax rule is causing restaurants to rethink the practice of adding automatic tips to the tabs of large parties.

Starting in January, the Internal Revenue Service will begin classifying those automatic gratuities as service charges—which it treats as regular wages, subject to payroll tax withholding—instead of tips, which restaurants leave up to the employees to report as income. Continue

NRN.com - 82% of restaurant operators are concerned about the implementation of the affordable care act. This new white paper addresses these uncertainties and explores the preparations operators are making for the groundbreaking legislation, including such issues as:

• Deciding on the right look back period
• Adjusting employee hours
• The role of technology in managing compliance
• Making changes to business fundamentals.  Continue

StaffMarket has PEO and employee leasing programs available for Restaurant companies across the United States. Over 10,000 companies have engaged StaffMarket to provide single point access to the entire Professional Employer Organization (Peo) industry.

Your Restaurant company is in business to make money. As a business manager your goals should be simple. Increased revenue (sales), decreased costs (expenses) equals more profit. However many times the administrative aspects of running a Restaurant business can overwhelm even the hardest working owners and managers. Spending precious executive time handling these tasks often means that a focus on revenue growth gets shortchanged. Engaging a PEO to handle these non-revenue producing activities can improve your Restaurant company’s opportunity for success and profit.

What can a PEO do for your company?

Payroll Administration

While many payroll services options are available for Restaurant companies, a professional employer organization (PEO) will take it one step further. In addition handling all payroll calculations for wages, taxes and benefits deductions, a PEO will also directly remit amounts due to the taxing authorities (state and federal) and also provide all insurance premiums to the carrier. Your company avoids the risk of fines for late payments. A PEO will ensure that your Restaurant company employees get advantageous tax treatment (section 125) so that any deductions for health insurance get deducted prior to tax calculations.Learn more about PEO payroll services.

Work Comp Insurance Administration

PEOs offer a great workers’ compensation insurance program for Restaurant companies. Obtaining competitively priced coverage is part of the program when you join a PEO. A Peo will provide your employees with work comp coverage (mandated in all states except Texas). In addition a PEO will help establish or improve your Restaurant company safety program. All claims are against the policy of the PEO and they will work to ensure claims are administered fairly and in a timely fashion. All PEO programs are “pay-as-you-go” and eliminate the need to make a large insurance deposit in order to get coverage in place.Learn more about PEO workers compensation insurance.

Health Benefits

Finding a PEO that provides the “best-fit” employee benefits program for your Restaurant company can be challenging. PEOs offer a wide variety of coverage plans and administrative options for managing your employee benefits plans. As the cost for health insurance has increased, PEOs have worked hard to keep costs in check. Contact StaffMarket for more information about PEO benefit plans available for your Restaurant company.Learn more about PEO Health Insurance and Employee Benefits.

HR Support

Using a PEO can help administrate your Restaurant company workforce. PEOs offer a full suite of HR related services that ensure your company is following the best practices available for your workers. The HR area can be a mine field of risks for the managers with out formal HR training or on-call expertise.Learn more about PEO HR Administration.

Please call, or visit our website to learn more about PEO's, and get competitive quotes.

For more information contact Ken Roberts: 

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772-231-5826

Businessweek.com - When McDonald’s (MCD) introduces a new menu item, the entire food industry feels it. The company added apples to its menu and became one of the country’s largest apple buyers. It put cucumbers on its new McWrap and now expects to buy 6 million pounds of cukes this year.

1. Mighty Wings are coming back. From Sept. 9 through November, McDonald’s is expected to sell a grand total of 250 million wings, and some analysts say McD’s wing-buying spree for this promotion last year drove up wholesale prices. Continue

NRN.com - Chains in The Next 20 are tracked by NRN as part of its Top 200 research. Brands qualifying for Next 20 inclusion have never been ranked in the Top 200, as former Top 200 qualifiers that have dropped in ranking because of declining sales are not eligible. This year, Next 20 chains booked U.S. systemwide sales below the $134.4 million threshold for this year’s Second 100 ranking. See here who made the cut!

Restaurant.org - As the Internal Revenue Service looks at revising its voluntary tip agreements to improve tip-reporting rates in restaurants, the National Restaurant Association is urging the agency to simplify the agreements and provide employers and employees with greater protection from audits.

Some of the tip agreements – the IRS currently offers four -- are now 20 years old. The IRS announced this spring it’s looking into revisions across the board, especially to the Tip Reporting Alternative Commitment (TRAC) and Tip Rate Determination Agreement (TRDA). Thousands of restaurants have signed these agreements, but the agency maintains tip income remains significantly under-reported.

Restaurant employers who enter an IRS agreement generally agree to take on a bigger role in educating employees about tip reporting and taking steps to ensure more accurate employee tip reporting. Continue