Theodore Barber & Co., well-known consultant firms and longtime collaborators, are merging into a new firm: RJS|Barber Associates. The new company will offer integrated foodservice design and advisory services. Its core segments include hotels, casinos, education, sports and entertainment and specialty restaurants.RJS|Barber will be headquartered in the former RJS offices in Old Lyme, Conn., and…

With a number of operator indicators improving in the last quarter of 2011, we thought we’d check in with the two major groups that forecast operator sales—Technomic Inc. and the National Restaurant Association—to see if the outlook for the coming year has changed. Not in any significant way, it appears. While NRA won’t release its…

Wholesales food prices fell in December for the second time in three months, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices at all three production stages tracked by the BLS posted declines. The National Restaurant Association’s average of wholesale food prices was 0.5% lower for the month. Still, average prices…

State tax revenues continued to improve in the third quarter of 2011, according to preliminary data from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, based in Albany, N.Y. Data from 48 early-reporting states show an overall 7.3% nominal gain over the third quarter of ’10, with only three states reporting falling revenue. It is the seventh straight…

While most of the economic data from the last quarter of 2011 was better than many economists anticipated, the outlook for the coming year and the first forecasts for ’13 remain muted. The consensus forecast for real growth of gross domestic product during ’12 in the U.S., as compiled by Blue Chip Economic Indicators, remained…

Chicago’s operators will be coming clean, on their own, under a new self-certification plan. Recently inspected restaurants with no history of foodborne illness will be able to police themselves and send inspection reports to city hall, freeing the city’s 32 field inspectors to focus on high-risk establishments. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan would apply to restaurants…

In a move that cuts costs but raises concerns about food safety, the U.S. Agriculture Department announced Jan. 9 that it will close 259 offices, labs and facilities nationwide. The plan, which will save $60 million, affects USDA headquarters in Washington and operations in 46 states. Seven foreign offices also will be shut.Some of the…

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