Can companies drive social change?
NEW YORK • Corporate America is not known for advancing deep societal change.
Roy Weathers is trying to fix that.
The U.S. vice-chair of accounting and advisory giant PWC is spending most of his time these days heading up CEO Action for Racial Equity, a group of more than 100 prominent firms and chief executives trying to move the needle on social issues.
After an emotional year in which the Black Lives Matter movement drew increased attention to injustice, Weathers is focused on leveraging the skills, dollars and influence of corporate America to bring about societal change. Where communities of colour have been left behind in areas like education, health or economics, Weathers is assembling a strike force to attack those gaps.
First up: a fellowship program, in which each member company devotes at least one employee to work fulltime on these efforts and start cementing change in public policy around the country.
Reuters spoke with Weathers about what has divided the United States — and how to bring it back together. Edited excerpts follow.
❚ The New Amazonian Superfruits
America will see a lot more of camu camu and buriti, two high-nutrient fruits from the Amazon fighting to be this year’s moringa and sea buckthorn, and if all goes well, the next açai.
Buriti juice has the golden colour of mango juice with a high concentration of vitamins A and C and minerals such as iron and calcium. Camu camu, which has been sold as a powder, is now also being sold as a juice; it has 50 times as much vitamin C as an orange. As a bonus, Amarumayu, the Peruvian company that’s now importing the juices, is working with Indigenous communities from Pacaya Samiria National reserve Park and using regenerative agriculture to stop rainforest deforestation.
Soy Sauce Will dominate the Condiment Space
restaurants that doubled as grocery stores have been one of the pandemic’s smartest adaptations, giving consumers direct access to chef-approved olive oil and tinned fish. Now premium soy sauce, the kind only connoisseurs were familiar with, joins the list.
Among the well-made versions that go beyond the wall of salt of supermarket varieties: Momofuku’s recently launched twofer of tamari and regular soy sauce, made with organic ingredients and infused with kombu for an expected saline hit.
New york’s fast casual Chinese spot Milu sourced a line of elegant Taiwanese soy sauces including a smooth, lightly sweet wood-fired black bean version.
The online marketplace MTC Kitchen has just begun selling its restaurant-designed products to the public, including Kishibori soy sauce, made with sun-dried sea salt. drinking Clubs Expand Online drinking clubs based on a monthly subscription provide a steady source of income for individual bars — one of the hardest hit areas of hospitality — and give customers a chance to feel like regulars.
In Los Angeles, the bistro Pasjoli now offers a French Spirits Club as well as a “wine collective.” In Brooklyn, the new Nightmoves Cocktail Club is a rotating selection of cocktails that changes monthly: Eight bottled drinks go for us$99 a month.
Over in Manhattan, the sophisticated Italian restaurant Benno is introducing a Cocktail Club, with mocktails and a dealer’s choice of bottled cocktails.
The experiential drinking game will also expand in 2021. Chicago-based sommelier Belinda Chang made Virtual Boozy Brunch a Sunday event, enlisting out-of-work bartenders to make specialty drinks and registering over 2 million views in the process. This year, Chang will move her focus to female winemakers, hosting tastings in their homes.
“We had been trying to do virtual versions of the real thing we miss in a wine tasting,” she says. “We want to make it experiential, truly inviting people into homes.”
America’s Power dining Epicentre: Miami
For years, Miami has welcomed high-profile restaurants, feeding hotel guests up and down Collins Avenue. But in 2021, as South Florida sees an influx of new residents and Goldman Sachs Inc. plans to relocate divisions, several of New york’s most high-powered dining rooms are making it their priority.
“It is going be a very big year for restaurants in Miami,” says Jeff Zalaznick, co-owner of the Major Food Group.
He says that while his company had plans to expand prior to 2020, the pandemic “certainly caused us to focus more on that market.” And unlike the rest of the country’s top dining destinations — New york, San Francisco, Chicago, L. A. — restaurants in Miami have stayed open during the pandemic with few restrictions.
Zalaznick adds: “There is incredible energy, and the people and the city of Miami have been very welcoming to new businesses, especially restaurants.”
He has four restaurants coming to the city this year, starting with the powerhouse Carbone in Sofi (South of Fifth), opening this month. Major Food Group will also launch a sushi spot in March in the design district; in the fall it will add a “new Italian concept” to the neighbourhood and a steak house in Brickell.
Another steak house, New york’s popular Korean-accented Cote, is finally opening in the design district in February, while the dim sum specialist redfarm will arrive in Coconut Grove in the second half of the year.
restaurateurs outside New york see the attraction, too. Spain’s famed chef dani Garcia will have two concepts at the SLS Brickell Miami this year; Salvaje, the trendy Japanese restaurant with branches in Bogotá and Madrid, has also just landed an outpost in the city. Chefs Team up to Survive Operators continue to forge partnerships as a way to combine resources and attract broader audiences amid rolling shutdowns.
In Philadelphia, the cult Curiosity doughnuts have taken over the bar ITV because owner Nicholas Elmi saw it wasn’t financially viable to serve drinks. Elmi learned to make the doughnuts in house; he gives Curiosity doughnuts owner Alex Talbot a portion of sales.
In Chicago, ryan Pfeiffer, a chef at the now-shuttered Blackbird, opened a collaboration sandwich shop, Big Kids, in the late fall, with specialties such as fried bologna. In Los Alamos, Calif., a collaboration between the bistro Bell’s and Priedite Barbecue has been so successful, Bell’s co-owner Gregory ryan says they’re taking over space to make it permanent this spring.