2011 Food And Restaurant Trends: Do You Agree With These Predictions?

Nation's Restaurant News reports on restaurant consultant firm Andrew Freeman & Co.'s restaurant and ingredient trend predictions for the coming year, and if they're accurate, restaurant patrons in 2011 are looking at the Year of Pie, along with a lot of neck meat, whey, kumquats and pimento cheese for good measure. For our money, many of these -- like soft-serve, high-end junk food, and bellies -- have already come and gone, or come and hung around, but let us know what you think will make an even bigger splash next year.

Click through the slides below to see the firm's complete set of restaurant and ingredient predictions for the coming year and vote on the right-hand side whether you see each prediction materializing in 2011. If you expect something else to be big in 2011, click "Add A Slide" below for it to become part of this slideshow.

For more on each prediction, check out NRN's article here.

 

Tell us your prediction for an upcoming food or restaurant trend.

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Comments

[six26studio llc]

11:52 PM on 11/30/2010

I think that having a pie restaurant with bite-size pies or option to have them blended into a shake is a great idea and could work well in the market.

[Vanessa Belle]

11:00 AM on 11/08/2010

Many of the predictions in my opinion are off.

[Smig Robustus]

08:21 PM on 12/05/2010

Can you expand on that definitive answer??

[James Caroline]

02:29 PM on 11/01/2010

Pie, Pretzels, and many of these have already been popular for a while in small hip areas where Mom and Pop can really have a go at making it. Petsi Pies in Cambridge, Ma has been around for years and Deep Elum in neighboring Allston has had soft homemade pretzels with beer cheese for as long...

[BaHa]

12:01 PM on 11/01/2010

"We're predicting a peanut butter restaurant"? There's been one in Greenwich Village for twelve years. Some prediction.

[Nicholas Rosenberg]

05:31 PM on 10/27/2010

Neck as a stand alone entree? Bellies? not in so cal u serve type fro yo is big

[BluebirdofUnhappiness]

11:06 PM on 10/26/2010

Hummus is a new trend? Where are these guys located--Peoria?

[justthebreeze]

05:55 PM on 10/26/2010

I hope not too many of these are new trends. I don't see much healthy here, excepting the vegetables. It is unusual to be served food with lots of vegetables where I am, and I'd be pretty pleased if a point were made to incorporate more.

Restaurants have become places for meals anytime rather than just special occasions, so I hope the trend is to serve things you'd like to eat to take care of yourself but you just don't have the time or gumption to do yourself. While it's probably okay to have pies and even junk food once in awhile, I'd stop going to a restaurant that wasn't offering a good variety of healthy food for the rest of the time.

[Smig Robustus]

08:31 PM on 12/05/2010

When healthy food is what rocks the bottom line of a restaurant, you will see healthy food.
Healthy FOOD is JUST BEGINNING to become popular. ANd this can be blamed on the fact that merer grilled feggies, a fantastically tasty dish is NOT what gets people excited. Instead of simply easting veggies with a more then healthy dose ov caloric dense olive oil, or lard or butter, "so called heallthy eaters, who are a touch away from food police, woud father you TAKE OUT items that are high in calories, or want a burger substitute, or a tufo turkey (a scourge of society). This is sheet. Eat veggies, lots of em. Grains, lots of em. DOn't skimp on butter, oil, salt, just eat veggies, eggs, and you will be fine. Instead we invent illnessess like Celiac....PLEESE!!!! Having an eating disorder is like having a status symbol, only A HELL OF A LOT MORE ANNOYING.

A restaurant will increase healthy choices when "COOL, IN iPHONE people, will stop just TALKING about how impportant healthy eating is and actually ORDER SOME. A few years ago, a sure death wish on a menu item was putting a little heart next to em.......not bad today, but.......how do you explain pork belly, fried chicken, pie, getting more popular while the sacred "organic" getting harder to find, more expensive and slowly on a death roll. Money rule and bullshit healthy wannabes are just full of fertilizer.

[alfred]

12:35 PM on 10/26/2010

Not that I've seen Raw Food in restaurants, or even think of it as a trend, but there is a lot to be said for eating food raw.

Side dishes and even a few main courses could add variety to the dining public's diet.

It could happen.

http://brigittemars.com/raw-food-recipes/

[sisterdebmac]

12:27 PM on 10/26/2010

There already is a peanut butter restaurant. Saw it on Food Network.

http://ilovepeanutbutter.com/

In fact a Google search yields more than one.

[kareemachan]

12:09 PM on 10/26/2010

Yogurt - a new trend? Huh?

[Susan Anderson Price]

11:18 AM on 10/26/2010

I'd try most of that, hummus included but pass on the pimento cheese, lol....however, I think my family would stage a protest if I tried to institute Meatless Mondays around here.

[JScott]

10:57 AM on 10/26/2010

Everybody likes pie-Spongebob Squarepants

[HopeGrenade]

09:43 AM on 10/26/2010

Um. So what's going to be popular in 2011 is...exactly what's popular in 2010. Nice going.

[Phil Drifter]

12:16 PM on 10/26/2010

By your logic we'd all be wearing bell bottoms.

Nice going.

[Perry Clease]

10:08 AM on 11/02/2010

I still wear bell bottoms. However, these days they are bell bottom shirts. :)

[GraceNotes]

09:24 AM on 10/26/2010

With regards to the multipurpose restaurant; that is not new. When I was a child in Birmingham 45 years ago, we had an excellant delicatessen which was one-half kosher grocery store and a room in the back where customers were treated to good sandwiches, hot dogs, and knishes. I don't recall an elaborate menu, but the food was very good.
I can, however, get behind any trend that includes pimiento cheese or pie.

[hereinlou]

09:18 AM on 10/26/2010

I think I would add 'casseroles' ... and 'soups' to this list...

This is the season for warm comfort foods.