Now that 2022 is coming to end, let's look back at the most popular articles of the year! The following seven online stories were read the most often, based on Google Analytics:
1. Coffee on Your Menu? Think Mexican: Practically every Mexican/Latin restaurant serves coffee, but most probably just order whatever brand their distributor recommends. Fernando Diaz, whose grandfather owns a coffee farm in Oaxaca, thinks the coffee decision should be made more thoughtfully.
2. 2022 Multi-Unit Report: COVID Has Not Slowed Growth: COVID affected lots of aspects of the Mexican/Latin restaurant business, but it did not stop the growth for many multi-units. In fact, our research shows that the number of units operated by the largest 50 multi-unit brands has steadily climbed since the pandemic hit, from 15,811 units in 2020 to 16,702 units this year.
3. 2022 Managers of the Year Contest Winners! When Luis Solano found a job at Felipe’s Taqueria in New Orleans in 2014, he wasn’t seeking a restaurant career. The single father of three children had worked in construction until that time and was really just looking for a job.
4. The Taco Syndicate: Web of Restaurants Keeps Taco Lovers Happy: Soon after Chris Cheeseman arrived in San Francisco in 2008, he discovered Tortilla Heights, a Mexican restaurant four blocks from his apartment. He was already amazed by the West Coast taqueria culture, something he had not experienced in his home state of Connecticut.
5. Set Sail with Seafood: One look at the globe reveals why seafood is beloved in Latin American cuisine. Nearly every country in the western hemisphere meets the sea, whether flanked by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea.
6. Now Blooming: Plant-based Menus: The Google reviews are in. And many of the rave reviews of the cuisine at Chicago’s La Esperanza Restaurant tout its vegan cuisine. “Solid vegan menu with tons of variety...the flautas with vegan meat are my personal favorite with a side of nopales...” “Better vegan fare than more vegan restaurants in Chicago...Ask for the Plant-Based Menu.” “Had the vegan pozole with jackfruit, it was delicious!”
7. Tropical Fruit on the Menu: Ask Chris Fernandez, corporate executive chef for Red Mesa Restaurant Group in St. Petersburg, Florida, about the role tropical fruit plays on the menus he creates for the group’s Red Mesa Cantina, Red Mesa Mercado and Red Mesa Restaurant, and he is quick to respond.