We're packing up our boat and heading to Chicago for the 2019 National Restaurant Association Show. This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the famed event, but we don't want our Florida friends to get too hung up on the word "restaurant."
One of the things we've seen in foodservice over the last several years is a blurring of the lines, an industry where one type of operation considers becoming more like another type of operation in order to increase traffic and ultimately profits.
Consider the c-store that becomes more like a quick serve restaurant or a coffee shop. Consider a coffee shop that doubles as a cocktail bar at night. Or even consider a school district that decides to develop a food truck program to keep students on campus during the week and raise money as a catering service during the weekend. All of these ideas are not "restaurants" in the classic sense of the word, but they're all types of operations that can benefit from seeing the latest and greatest at this year's NRA Show.
For us, that's an easy question. As you may know, we were recently honored with representation of the entire Middleby Corporation suite of brands. Yes, this is exciting for us as Eaton Marketing, but what's really great is our new arrangement allows us to better serve Florida foodservice operators with an entire package of solutions to your biggest challenges.
Basically, we'd suggest checking out the Middleby booth, or rather, the Middleby campus.
This year, they're trying something a little different. Going back to what we were saying about this show not just being about restaurants, the Middleby campus will be set up to display solutions, not by brand, but by operation type.
From c-stores to fast casual, grocery to industrial, we invite you to stop by the Middleby booth to learn more about how this full collection of solutions can benefit your operation.