On DishKebab, delicious bites of dining news are peppered with opinion, stacked high and served hot! Written by frequent diners, DishKebab samples tastes and trends through the eyes (and mouths) of dining program members and fanatical foodies.
Rewards NetworkSM powers North America’s leading frequent dining programs, enabling millions of members to earn miles, points and other rewards just for dining out! Read on and discover insights from the most frequent of frequent diners—or head to the Hot Plate section for tips from Rewards Network HQ. Happy dining!
Do you like your meals served with a side of green? iDine is the Reward Card dining program from Rewards Network. Connect with iDine on Facebook or Twitter!
A toast: To you, dear readers!Thanks, dear readers, for joining us this year on DishKebab! We launched in May of 2010 as a space for obsessive foodies and members of Rewards Network dining programs to share their culinary field notes. It's been a great year!
Our New Year's resolution is to keep dishing up great dining news and notes, much of it from the 10,000+ restaurants, bars, and clubs that participate in Rewards Network programs. We hope 2011 is just as delicious as 2010. See you next year!
The DishKebab team wishes diners everywhere a very happy holidays. Thanks for joining us online this season to share in our favorite family and culinary traditions. See you back here Monday for more delicious dining dispatches from throughout the iDine network and Rewards Network family of dining programs!
Here at Rewards Network HQ in Chicago, we have the good fortune of sampling many of the new restaurants that join our dining programs. This past Friday at the monthly Taste of iDine Luncheon, we enjoyed catering from Hearty, located in the city's Lakeview neighborhood. In celebration of the start of football season, our lunch featured a Bears theme. Speaking as a vegetarian, I generally shy away from tailgate fare--but with sophisticated sides like watermelon, feta, and tarragon salad (unexpected and delicious), Hearty did not disappoint! Here's a quick look at what it's like around our office....
If you’ve ever wondered where drinking straws come from, how many varieties of cocktail stir sticks there are, or where you can find a motorcycle in the shape of a giant prawn, this year's National Restaurant Association Show had all your answers. With almost 2,000 exhibitors and an annual attendance of about 50,000, the event is the largest restaurant and hospitality trade show in the western hemisphere. This year's show ran from May 22-25, and the Rewards Network team was in attendance.
Yvette Montague, Director of Client Marketing, and Katie Kaminsky, Account Executive, at the Rewards Network booth.At the show, now in its 91st year, you can find every product imaginable—from rubber floor mats to beautiful china and flatware, high-tech espresso machines, and comfy shoes for chefs. If you’re a restaurateur, it’s the place to come to research everything you’ll need to outfit your business.
Rewards Network was stationed in the technology pavilion, where our account executives and marketing team were on hand to talk to potential clients. We met a lot of great restaurateurs who were interested in learning about our services and offering rewards to their diners.
I had a chance to walk down the seemingly endless aisles of the show yesterday, surveying some of the products and services typically visible only to industry insiders. (Who knew they manufactured underwater pagers? If a table opens up while you’re scuba diving, you just might need one!) Here are a few snaps from the show floor:
Chefs and other industry professionals also hit the dance floor yesterday morning during what may have been the first-ever "Foodie Flash Mob," featuring the music of Lady Gaga:
While the NRA Show is full of big names like Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Bush, there were also quite a few independent entrepreneurs working the four-day show. Three of them took a moment to tell me about their innovations.
Jesse Chehayeb of San Gabriel, Californiais the inventor of Falafel Chips. I sampled the spicy variety with a side of cool hummus. If I can’t get to Taste of Lebanon on Foster (my favorite place for falafel in Chicago), I would gladly snack on these at home. Gluten-free, organic, vegetarian, kosher, and halal—these chips are bound to please just about anyone. They were a big hit when I took them back to our booth!
Sandra Bagan of Thousand Oaks California showcased off her Purse Butler a handy, go-anywhere hook you carry with you in your bag. I’m always looking for a place to set my bag at bars or restaurants (preferably not on a beer-stained floor), so this product definitely caught my eye. I gave it a test-drive back in my cubicle, and it works like a charm!
Sid Martinez of San Antonio, Texas invited me to try his Original Mexican Fortune Cookie. This wafer-thin, taco-shaped cookie has a hint of cinnamon and comes with a bilingual message inside. My fortune? No mire un caballo de regalo en la boca. That’s, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” In a show filled with freebies and handouts, a good tip to remember!
Hello, and welcome to DishKebab, where we serve up fresh and delicious dining news daily! Each of our bloggers brings to the table their own take on dining, so whatever your tastes may be, you’ll find something appetizing. DishKebab is self-serve—so grab a plate and fill up!
You might also want to add some sides—extras like airline miles, hotel and retail points, and cash back that you can earn just for dining at some of the restaurants, bars and clubs mentioned here. At DishKebab, we live to eat above all else—but we also enjoy eating to earn.From time to time, we zero in on restaurants, bars and clubs that participate in the nation’s leading frequent dining programs, listed at the bottom this page.
We hope you’ll enjoy the daily updates from our foodies in the field. If you’re hankering for a spot near you, just use the search box on the upper right corner of the site.
Looking forward to seeing you back at DishKebab soon.
DishKebab 
A toast: To you, dear readers!Thanks, dear readers, for joining us this year on DishKebab! We launched in May of 2010 as a space for obsessive foodies and members of Rewards Network dining programs to share their culinary field notes. It's been a great year!
