The Willows is a fairly new fine dining establishment located at 900 Culver Ave in Utica. My wife and I decided to head there on the last Saturday in March to celebrate the end of another long, snowy, cold, snowy, dark and snowy upstate winter. Turns out we were a bit premature in our reasoning, [...]
If you are growing a substantial food business, there will come a time to sell. This might come early, when you sell off a portion of your company to investors for cash to fuel your growth. Or this might come late, when you’ve taken things as far as you want to and it’s time to [...]
My wife and I are a bit crazy about movies. With two kids it is hard to keep up like we did when we were younger, so when awards season rolls around we are always way behind. Conveniently, the run up to the Academy Awards generally coincides with Valentine’s Day and my in-laws are kind [...]
In preparation for my upcoming trip to Paris, I’ve been reading a book on the rise of French cuisine, looking for an explanation of why French food is so influential in world cuisine. I will spare you the details of what I’ve learned so far (I will probably do a book review for the blog [...]
So, when most people start drinking beer, their initial challenge is to decide whether or not they like “beer flavor”. I’ll admit, when I first tried beer as a youth, I did not like “beer flavor” as represented by mass-market American lagers. It wasn’t until I discovered craft beer that I actually became a beer [...]
If you are serious about your business, you have a website. Even if you don’t really sell or advertise on the web, a website is an important tool that people use to check out your business and see if you are real. In the craft food & beverage space, your brand can be won or [...]
By Ethan Durham, Local Food Advocate (and Sous Food Geek at Eat Drink Law) Oh Chobani, I have a confession, I love you so for so many reasons. Let’s start at the beginning. I've never been a yogurt fan. Check that, not since probably grade school. And honestly at that point I didn't have much [...]
I was invited to speak at a SlowMoney NYC gathering in Manhattan earlier this week. There were a number of other folks that I wanted to connect with as well in the city, so Ethan and I decided to make a day of it. It was a beautiful, if a bit chilly, day and seemed [...]
Guest Blog by John L. Barone The Fracking Ban! 2014 ended on a high note. It was a momentous year for food and drink entrepreneurs who tirelessly advocated for the ban of fracking over the past decade. Previously I wrote that New York State was the legal battleground over permitting this highly controversial industrial activity. [...]
It’s the end of the year and time for a showdown, IP-style. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know that trade secrets can be pretty important for food businesses. Most recipes, formulations, and manufacturing processes are held as trade secrets. You can learn how here. But once in a while, a food entrepreneur [...]
