ThinkFest: Fried Chicken And Kale Smoothies

Check out the video from the "Quick Serve Revolution" panel at today's ThinkFest.

Today at Thinkfest, we put Nicole Marquis (HipCityVeg), Justin Rosenberg (Honeygrow) and Steve Cook (Federal Donuts, Dizengoff)–three of the most successful fast-casual operators in the city–together on one stage and let Danya Henninger grill them (see what I did there?) for an hour about their businesses. The big question was how the quick serve/fast casual business model is revolutionizing and drastically re-shaping the food scene in Philly and beyond, but along the way they also got into some other issue. Like what the original name was for HipCityVeg (The Veggie Queen) and how companies like Apple and Starbucks informed the branding, naming and, ultimately, the creation of all these restaurants.

And sure, some of it played out like a contest to see who could use the word “Chipotle” the most, but that’s to be expected. After all, everything in the world is the Uber of something else these days–except in the food world, where if you ain’t the Chipotle of Korean tacos, you’re missing the zeitgeist or something. But honestly, if you’ve ever been interested in how a quick serve concept goes from the planning stage through regional expansion, these are three people you REALLY need to listen to.

You can check out the entire video below.

And if you’re interested in even more really smart people talking about really interesting stuff, we’re posting all the Facebook Live videos at the link below.

Philadelphia Magazine/ThinkFest 2016 [Official]