The Fish Bowl Effect

Good evening Indianapolis! I hope this finds you having a great week and enjoying this beautiful weather! May is by far one of our busiest months, but I'll do my best to keep this updated!

I decided to write this week because I realized an interesting thing the other night; I decided to bring my GoPro Hero4 in to work and take some footage and pictures. I set it up during our dinner rush, and just recorded. What I want to write about though has nothing to do with the actual footage/pictures - what I want to write about has everything to do with psychology and how people react to certain things.

Once the staff realized that my GoPro was a camera, and that I was recording, the mood change was palpable! Everyone became more excited, more upbeat, and ultra aware of the camera. What I find surprising, especially in this day and age, is the reaction - they were surprised and excited at the thought of being on camera...and yet they (teens, young adults, etc.) post pictures and videos several times throughout a normal day.

So what was it about this camera that made them react differently? Was it the fact that they could actually see it and that it was out of the norm?

I don't know, but it was entertaining to say the least. Everyone wanted to become "famous" via our social outlets with the video/pictures I took. Overall, it was a great night and I'm glad that such a small, simple act can improve morale. It reminds me of a Kiss Cam or something similar - we know we can be caught on video or in a picture at any moment, but its the more obvious ones that we react to!

Quick event updates for the Dashboard Diner: We will be down on the circle Saturday for the 500 Festival Kids Day this weekend! Other than that, we have events all over the place and just about every day, so stay tuned to our social sites for locations

I hope you all have a great week, and as always, we'll see you soon!

Dashboard Diner Media Outlets:
Facebook: @dashboarddiner
Twitter: @dashboarddiner
Instagram: @dashboardddiner

Technology - Good or Evil

Good morning! I find it amusing that the last time I wrote a blog post, it was raining...and it's raining again today! I hope that everyone had a great weekend, and a solid start to the week - despite the rain.

I've been reading a lot of articles lately about the advancements in technology that we've been enjoying, and are going to enjoy. But it reminded me of an article a read a few months ago about the seemingly unstoppable advancement of technology and how it is changing the landscape of the world; the article discussed how many restaurants, and chefs, are not allowing people to be on their phones when dining. Some have gone as far as to ask for their patrons to leave their phones at the front desk. To some of us, that seems extreme, but to others it makes a lot of sense.

I know that I have written about this before, but there were so many things that I have read here lately that I felt like it could be touched upon again. Technology is an amazing thing - from printers that can print food to the possible ability to perform a head transplant, what we are able to do often astounds me. The thing that nags at the back of my mind though, and I'm sure there are plenty others out there, at what point will we take a step back and say enough?

Towards the end of the summer, I wrote a post about the loss of human interaction, specifically in the service and sales industries; technology is now making it possible for a salesman to never have to leave his office - everything is automated or done via mobile phone or computer. Do these kind of tech advances streamline the job? Sure. Less hours of shoe leather to pavement, for the same job, means more production, more money, etc. But at the cost of the human relationship between the salesman and his client. We should be looking to create more relationships, not taking them away.

Some places have taken certain steps to try and instill a sense of community in their establishment by using communal seating. This type if seating is designed to "make" people sit with others that they probably don't know. There are arguments to both sides of this, but I for one like the idea.

Think about the last time you sat down for a meal with someone close to you - a friend, significant other, etc. - did you talk and interact with each other or were one/both of you busy on your mobile device or watching TV? Our world has changed - Wake up, work, play, sleep, repeat; given, this has been the recipe of life for some time, but there are many differences to the recipe years ago versus today.

In the past, families would at least all sit down and have dinner together - the whole family, with no distraction. No TV, no phones, no iPods, etc. Just the Father, Mother, Son, Daughter (and sometimes even the dog) sitting around the table, breaking bread, and enjoying each other's company. Can you remember the last time you actually did that with your family?

All in all, I think the advancement of technology is great; it will propel us to the future. But I think we should be weary, be careful, of the direction it takes us. We should be careful to not let ourselves become lost in the virtual world, only to let the real one fade and eventually die.

So the next time you go out to eat or sit down for dinner, make a conscious effort to put away your distractions, and have a real connection with the person across from you.

As always, have a great week and we hope to see you soon!

Information Overload!

Good afternoon Indy! I hope you are all having a great day, despite the wet weather! It has been awhile since our last post, and I'll try to keep this short, but this post will be jam-packed with quality information!

* First and foremost - our debut of Kids' Night! From this week on, we will be offering Kids' Eat Free on Tuesday nights! Here is how it breaks down: with the purchase of a sandwich combo OR dinner (chicken strips, fish, shrimp) two kids can eat free. So, if you come in with your two kids and buy a sandwich combo or dinner, your kids can eat free!

With each sandwich combo or dinner purchase, you receive two kids meals free. Basically a buy 1, get 2 deal.

Here are the limits: Only 2 kids meals per combo or dinner purchase, kid must be 10 or under, Dine In Only, and only after 4 pm!

Each week, we will have a coloring contest with the winner receiving a FREE sundae on their next visit, their picture displayed on the front counter and the website and social media pages!

* We have received our newest run of growlers and mugs - with a new design! Also, we have EDI sweatshirts available for purchase!

* Our spring car show, the Custom Classic Revival, will be June 13th! Day of Registration will begin at 9 am and end at Noon. Awards will be between 2 and 3 pm. Details and information can be found via this handy dandy flyer: 

I hope that you have a great week, and we cannot wait to see everyone out and about this summer! As always, we'll see you soon!

Spring, Summer, and Car Shows!

Good afternoon Indy! Isn't this weather wonderful? I hope that it stays this way going forward! It's amazing what a pop in warm weather does for us...our curb lot has been booming this week! Thank you for turning out in force!

With warmer weather comes a reminder of important dates coming up!

Our first car show this year will be in June - Saturday June 13th, 2015. This show will be just like last year's - we have partnered up with Custom Classics for their Custom Car Revival Show. This show was huge last year, and we expect it to be just as big if not slightly bigger this year! It was a beautiful day, and I hope we get the same weather this year!

Though I don't have specific dates, I know that there are some graduations coming up soon! If you're not sure what to do for food, remember our Dashboard Diner food truck has done some of these in the past! You can fill out an event request on our website, under Dashboard Diner (Link: www.edwardsdrivein.com/dashboard-diner ).

Have you seen our new look on the website? What are your thoughts?

Another thing in the works, down the pipeline, is possibly putting on a Sock Hop Dance; I asked about this a couple of years ago via Facebook, and the response was outstanding. I have been wanting to get one put together, but have been unsuccessful in the past. Thanks to a new manage starting, this project has new life and is being driven forward. You'll have to stay tuned for more details as we get them hammered out!

We've also been making a few changes to some looks and our menu...we now offer healthy kids' meal options for the sides: you can now get mandarin oranges, mac&cheese, or fries with a kid's meal! If you've been into the lobby recently, you probably noticed the large TV screen where the marker board used to be...we will be playing a video that will show our story as well as specials and menu highlights. We hope you enjoy it - you can learn a little history about us as well as see the weekly specials and any menu highlight specials we may be running while you wait!

The Dashboard Diner is preparing for this summer in a big way - we were super busy last year, and expect the same this year. Remember, if you would like to book us for an event there is no such thing as booking to early, the earlier the better!

I'll do my best to keep you all informed of events and special dates as they come up. I hope you have a great week, and we'll see you soon!

Then vs. Now: Quality vs. Cheap & Fast

Good evening Indy! How beautiful was this day? I sincerely hope that the weather stays in this range instead of plummeting back down to the frigid!

As the title states, this post is all about the changes that have been made, specifically in the restaurant industry, but across the board as well, as time marches on. I don't have specific time tables, so I will generalize to the best of my memory, but here we go!

Think back ten to fifteen years ago...got that in your mind? Now, think about how things were made and where they came from; fifteen years ago, most restaurants would get their product from a local supplier - you were literally eating beef, chicken, and pork from the farm just down the road. Business was good, for all involved. If you had a question, or an issue, you could drive ten minutes down the road and get an answer. It was great for all parties involved.

Now, the best you can do is know the name of the supplier...and not much better. We "want" farms and suppliers to produce product as fast as possible for as cheap as possible, and it's not just the restaurant industry that is doing this. It's everything. Gone are the days of superior quality and standards, gone are the days that human interaction was needed to get most things done.

As time passes and technology becomes more and more powerful, we continually move away from the one thing still needed to make it all work - human interaction. We have replaced the hard working, sweat and blood giving people with automated machines and robots. Sure, some of these machines have taken the job out of a person's hands because the job itself was super dangerous, and that is great, but we shouldn't be automating the things that don't necessarily need automated.

WE ARE HUMAN. This means we need human interaction!

Alas, I wandered off topic there for a second...

Most large supply companies use giant, corporate farms to get their product now - these farms are huge, and more often than not consist of giant buildings within which animals are filed over and over again. Bring them in, feed and grow them, send them out; wash, rinse, repeat. For the most part, gone are the days when animals were raised under the sun, in a grass field, without any medicinal help; now, they're cooped up, fed special mixes of food to make them bigger and meatier, and filled with drugs that do the same thing as the feed.

Ultimately, that's all well and good, but what has changed that it is necessary? Is there really such a high demand for more "perfect" food, or is the reality the fact that our great country is rather gluttonous - and we don't want to wait? We are consumers...consumers that have been groomed that everything should be and is quick service.

All in all, if nothing else, this is food for thought. What do you think?

As always, we hope to see you soon! Make sure you get out and enjoy the jump in temps this week!

Keeping it Fresh

Good Morning Indianapolis! Today is shaping up to be a gorgeous day, and we hope that everyone can enjoy some part of it!

Today I want to talk about the trends and flows of a restaurant - I'm not talking necessarily about the steady upswing in business throughout the summer followed by the downswing in the winter, but more the flow of food trends. When you really start to look at it, it seems maddening at how a certain item or food can be super popular one week or one day, and then by the next week be old news. For example - when the State Fair, and fairs in general, come around the hot topic is what can we deep fry and how delicious will it be? At the beginning of the summer, you see an upswing in light and fresh foods - things like salads, lite pastas, and fruits. Towards the end of summer, you see a slight uptick in baked goods - especially things with pumpkin!

When you really think about it, it is amazing for certain places to be as successful as they are with a "set" menu; they have their base/core menu and instead of trying to highlight specialty items they focus on executing their menu to near perfection. There is applause to be given to the places that do this; focusing on a set menu, throughout the entire year, can be very difficult. For example, a lot of our food is deep fried and can be greasy - there are times in the summer when it is so hot that something heavy like that just doesn't sound good, and that is understandable.

What is amazing to me, even on those super hot days, we still tend to see a crowd coming through the front door, and that crowd is still ordering our go-to menu items - Breaded Tenderloin, Onion Rings, and a frosty mug of homemade root beer!

We pride ourselves on our tenderloins and onion rings, and really the entire menu; we strive to make these items to the very best of our ability to provide our guests with the absolute best food that we can. Even though we focus on our main menu items, we do provide "special" items throughout the year, especially in the winter. For example, we will run a couple of different soups once the weather turns frigid and if we have a big catering that we don't cook all of the food, we will use it to create a special of the day.

Its the little things like that, a new soup or a special of the day, that can change it up for our guests that just aren't feeling a tenderloin today.

At the end of the day, we will continue our 56 year old focus on our tenderloins, onion rings, and root beer, and we'll be here every day to serve up your favorites!

Have a great week and weekend, and we'll see you soon!

Events, Events, TV Show, Heavy Business, and loving life!

Good evening Indianapolis! I, in fact, do realize that it has been waaaaaay to long since I last posted something, and for that I apologize; the last several weeks have been a crazy wave of frenzied busyness that has kept me away from the computer - and when I had a chance to sit down the words just wouldn't flow!

At this point I have worked for Edwards a little over a year (nearing 1.5) and I am still amazed at what we do and what comes to us; this past week was filled with events that our food truck, the Dashboard Diner, was a part of. The beginning of the week started fairly normal for us, and Thursday we attended the farmers' market at the Statehouse - which is always a great time! Friday began the true madness, with our first shift for GEN CON 2013!

We were grateful to the Westin Hotel for inviting us to be a part of this huge weekend; we got to see some awesome costumes on our first shift: 

Friday night we were set up on Capital Street in front of the convention center, and it turned out to be a beautiful night! Saturday morning we found ourselves invited back up to Fanimation in Zionsville for their annual celebration and car show!

It was a great time, with some awesome cars and bicycles, and we look forward to getting invited back again next year!

Saturday night found us back at the Westin for the PM shift; this was our last shift for GEN CON 2013, and we were visited by a very special person: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Cfy58-zPU

We had a lot of fun blasting the original 1960s theme song for them! We called it a night for GEN CON a little earlier than normal, electing to give our team a chance to catch their breath. Sunday morning, we traveled out to Avon for their annual World War II Memorial Car Show, which is always fun!

Though it was an early morning, we had a lot of fun and enjoyed getting to see the cars. That was the end of the week for the Dashboard Diner and its team, and we were all grateful to get a day of rest!

We were equally busy at the restaurant this week as well - though competing with the State Fair can be interesting! We featured State Fair brand corn dogs all this week (and probably will for awhile) and they seemed to be a huge hit! 

The biggest news that came through on the restaurant this week was the airing of the Indianapolis episode of Fandemonium! Though we didn't get our name dropped, we had a lot of fun working with Adam Richman again and loved the looks of surprise we got as we brought out our biggest tenderloin yet!

We were pretty excited for the episode to air, and it was pretty awesome when it did!

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/adam-richmans-fandemonium/episodes/indy-500

Even though school has started again, and a lot of people have gone back to school/work, we still look forward to the crowds that we will see from now until next summer, and you can bet that we will be cooking up some new things over the winter!

I will be sure to get weekly posts back up and running, and let the rock and roll get you through the week!

Oh, and PS, if you would like to challenge yourself and/or your friends, you can purchase this 13# tenderloin (which will feed 10-12 people) on an 18" bun for $79.99! We appreciate as much notice as you can give us to make it for you (we can't just make them appear out of thin air!)!