You gotta love a good solid pop culture backlash.

Seems a club called Republic in New Orleans has had enough of beefy fish-witted dudes, with way to much greasy product in their hair and those ridiculous “to-tight” T-shirts with all the wavy-swirly pattern nonsense printed all over them showing up every night to get their energy drink & vodka freak on (and then get in fights).

They’ve posted a sign that says, “If It’s On The Jersey Shore It’s Not Coming Through The Door.”

Specific brands mentioned include No Affliction and Ed Hardy, but Thomas [Nick Thomas, Director of Programming] clarifies that, “The dress code isn’t limited to those brands, those are just the most obvious of the Jersey Shore-esque attire.” He includes “any other knock bedazzled tee shirts or hideous foil inks. The dress code isn’t about the brands, but the people that wear those brands. If a big beefy guy, over worked-out with way too much hair gel is copping an attitude at the door or anything within that realm, he’s not getting through. Ultimately if the clientele in the club isn’t starting fights or disprespecting women, everyone in the venue can have a good time.”

[via Huff Post]

Here’s a question for business owners, especially those in the service industry: Are you on Yelp yet? Chances are, you’re customers are. And the content producers among them may have posted reviews of your shop, bar, hotel or restaurant.

According to c|net News.com, Yelp is introducing a service for business owners to help them manage their identity on the site.

Called “Yelp for Business Owners,” the section of the site lets business owners register for special Yelp accounts, which they then need to verify by phone. Once registered, they have access to some analytics (namely to see how many people have been viewing their business page), receive e-mail alerts when they have new reviews, update public data like their hours of operation or contact information, and message the users who have already reviewed their business.

Yelp is the creation of Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons. The pair once worked at PayPal and are part of the so-called PayPal Mafia, a group of serial entrepreneurs and investors that made their money when PayPal sold to eBay.

For a true coffee fan, there’s nothing worse than a bad cup of java. On the heels of complaints about hit or miss service at Starbucks, the company has decided to close its doors Tuesday, February 26th, for a massive retraining effort.

According to The Seattle Times:

“We will have all new standards for how we create the drinks,” said spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil. “They will be trained in creating the perfect shot, steaming the milk and all the pieces that come together in a drink.”

More than 7,000 Starbucks locations will be shut down for the three hour sessions later this month. They start at 5:30 p.m., so coffee fans may have to forget about heading out for an after dinner espresso. But maybe they’ll be able to look forward to better quality coffee down the road. Now if Starbucks could just switch back to manual espresso machines…

A recent Arbitron study of bars and nightclubs found the average brand recall was 43% for an ad on the Ecast platform, an out-of-home ad-serving network available on 10,000 digital jukeboxes across the country.

“What surprised us was the number of people who use jukeboxes themselves or watch someone like a friend using one,” Diane Williams, Arbitron’s product manager for custom research, said. “They interact with it like they would ads on the internet.”

[via Advertising Age]

There’s a common belief on both coasts of this nation that culture resides near the ocean. It does, but it’s not limited to these watery places. Far from it.

According to The New York Times, culinary culture is thriving in places like Kansas City, St. Louis, Minneapolis and other Midwestern cities.

“There has always been great food outside New York and California but now it’s getting recognized,” said Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet. “Food has become part of our popular culture, and you have a whole generation that was raised to think food is interesting and exciting. We’ve become more confident eaters. We’ve become more interesting eaters.”

Dean & DeLuca, based in New York, reached a similar conclusion about Kansas City a decade ago when it opened a store in Leawood, Kan.

The bulk of Dean & DeLuca’s Kansas City sales is in prepared food like lasagna Bolognese. In fact, the store sells more prepared food than the company’s five other retail stores, said the general manager, Josh Hodapp.

When you work in beverage marketing, there are a multitude of conferences to attend each year. But few appear as enticing as Tales of the Cocktail, a cocktail and culinary festival that celebrates the history and culture of dining and drinking in New Orleans.

Headquartered at the legendary Hotel Monteleone, the event–now in it’s fifth year–runs from July 18 – 22. The event’s components include Spirited Dinners, a Seminar Series, Cocktail Hour, Cocktail Luncheons, walking tours of the French Quarter, and classic and contemporary cocktail parties — all presented by the country’s hottest chefs, authors, bartenders and cocktail experts.

Colleton River marsh

South Carolina’s Council on Competitiveness, also known as New Carolina, has “declared independence from mediocrity.”

We, the tenacious people of New Carolina, declare independence from mediocrity. We will reach beyond past mistakes and build on historic successes toward a bright future that lifts our families, our schools, our businesses. From this day forward, we will demonstrate a new will and forge a new way. With tireless passion, bold leadership and decisive action, we will silence the nay-sayers, the doubters, the cynics. We will encourage the innovators and teachers, and celebrate the courageous. In doing so, we will become a leader in public education, entrepreneurial success, personal income and quality of life. Each day we will reach for, and push each other, until one day the world will acknowledge us as ‘The New Land of Opportunity’. New energy. New ideas. New action. New Jobs.

While platitudes typed in the dark of night won’t get the job done, recognizing real world opportunities will.

Kirsten Singleton, reporting for Bluffton Today, points out that New Carolina claims there are immense opportunities in travel and tourism throughout the Palmetto state. This, I’m inclined to believe.

In a report commissioned by New Carolina, Marion Edmonds, director for South Carolina’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism said, “In almost every geographic area of the state there are some tourism products that could be developed that would strengthen the tourism appeal of that area of region. The state has vast natural and cultural resources that offer opportunities for development—as yet unrealized.”

Among the recommendations for Hilton Head Island and the rest of Beaufort County (where BFG is headquartered): access road improvements, Bluffton urban regeneration, Palmetto Bluff Resort development and expanded ecotourism.

More than 10.5 million visitors come to Beaufort County annualy—an average of 28,972 people a day. Tourism accounts for a whopping 60% of Hilton Head Island’s economy, providing $1.5 billion in revenue annually.

Susan Thomas, vice president of the area’s Visitor & Convention Bureau believes the area needs to put greater emphasis on the Gullah story. It’s also important to use environmentaly friendly building methods in hope of preserving the natural beauty that brings people to the Lowcountry in the first place, she said.

It’s no surprise that preppies like to drink liberally, although a feature on the topic in Sunday’s New York Times might come as a bit of an eye-opener, for preppies also value their privacy.

The article is about a new project from brothers and Middlesex grads Anthony Martignetti, 28, and Tom Martignetti, 26. They opened Bar Martignetti, a two-level restaurant and nightclub on Broome Street in SoHo last November, and now it’s the talk of the investment banking set.

We learn that Theodore Cleary, 25, likes to drink here. And that he went to Friends Academy and Haverford College. So does Natasha Iran who went to St. Mary’s High School and Trinity College. A man known as the bar’s “jester,” (Peter Sculco) went to Horace Mann School and Princeton.

Mr. Cleary said, “For some people who see the pink shirts, they ostracize, they say it’s uncool. But just because you went to Princeton doesn’t mean you’re a jerk.”

The SINdustry Standard is a Business 2.0 blog about the business of vice. It looks at the strategies and tactics used by companies that sell alcohol, tobacco, junk food, and other sinfully profitable wares. It’s written by Sidra Durst, a reporter at Business 2.0 magazine. Before joining Business 2.0, Durst, a 2003 graduate of Brown University, worked as a freelance writer and a public health worker in Latin America.

Her Halloween entry was, appropriately enough, on candy.

Capitol Hill rag Roll Call just ran a story about the battle between the candy industry and the sugar industry–and it looks like candy is losing.

The article explains that between the recent influx of cheap foreign sugar and bad harvests driving up prices for U.S. sugar farmers, confectioners have been forced to use what they consider to be lesser-quality Mexican sugar.

What these candymen (and candywomen) want is for the government to subsidize the domestic sugar industry, in much the same way that corn and cotton are treated. That way, confectioners can use the higher-quality American sugar they prefer, but for a sweet, low price. With the Farm Bill up for reauthorization in 2007, candy lobbyists are starting to push hard for said subsidies.

Durst’s political slant is evident in her writing on the blog. I think it’s useful in this context. Good blogs are often opionated affairs.

[FULL DISCLOSURE] BFG works with Masterfoods, a big league candy maker.

According to Brandweek, Starwood Hotels & Resorts is entering the extended stay hotel category with a new brand called Element.

Starwood’s stable includes full-service brands like Westin, Sheraton and W but not an extended-stay lodging where guests—typically business travelers like consultants, engineers and relocating executives—stay for weeks at a time. About one million customers who stayed at a Starwood hotel during 2005 also spent nights at another brand’s extended stay lodging.

“That was a huge wake-up call for us,” said Susan Brush, svp at Westin Hotels & Resorts. “Consider that the average Element property would have 123 rooms, we could fill up 150 hotels right there.”