The RESTAURANT SUMMIT: 2003 
A Susie Biehler & Co. Conference

 


The Day in Review

Community Servic Award Recipients
2000 Recipients
2003 Recipients

The Restaurant Summit, produced by Susie Biehler & CO and the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, kicked off Monday, March 10, with a gathering of more than 150 restaurateurs, chefs, general managers, pr/marketing professionals and restaurant vendors at the Grand Hyatt Ballroom.
The Summit was launched with a creative film by producer Doug Washington, restaurant veteran, depicting a very candid and realistic view of the city's restaurants in today's economy.
Keynote speaker, Ben McConnell, co-author of "Creating Customer Evangelists" surprised the group with Krispy Kreme donuts, using the famed company as an example of word-of-mouth marketing by your customers. McConnell went on to elaborate on the creative forces within a restaurant, posing solid information on building customer "evangelists" from existing customers.
Other notable speakers included Andrew Freeman from The Kimpton Group, Charles Phan, owner, Slanted Door, Adriano Paganni, President, & CEO of Pasta Pomodoro (26 restaurants, opening one tomorrow!) and Elizabeth Falkner, Citizen Cake and Loretta Keller, BIZOU restaurant.
Gene Burns, KGO Radio, moderated the event. Other media speakers included Chris Barnett, travel and business writer, GraceAnn Walden, SF Chronicle and Jan NEwberry, San Francisco Magazine. John Marks and David Bratton from the Convention Center gave the scoop on the status of the restaurant industry and Susie Biehler spoke about building and taking advantage of shared resources within the group.
The crowd included a range of restaurants from Aqua, Asia de Cuba, Fournou's Ovens, Left Bank, Absinthe, Bizou, Citizen Cake, Fifth Floor, Kuleto's, MoMo's, One Market, Zao Noodle Bar,Picante, Palio d'Asti, Pasta Pomodoro, Slanted Door to Cetrella in Half Moon Bay, Litte River Inn in Mendocino, Michi in San Jose and Wild Goose in Tahoe Vista.
The day culminated with the Community Service Awards, developed by San Francisco Food Bank and Susie Biehler & C0 and sponsored by VISA, honoring outstanding humanitarians in the industry: Traci Des Jardins from Jardiniere, Beth Casey from Bubba's, Steffan Terje from Scala's, Joyce Goldstein, and Meme Pederson from Taste Magazine.