John LoGioco.com

Yankee Pier, Disrupting Seafood Restaurants with Sustainable Strategy

I had the distinct pleasure of eating at one of the finest examples of a sustainable seafood restaurant last week.  It was dinner time as I cleared the security check point in the San Francisco airport terminal and across the aisle from the checkpoint is a place called Yankee Pier.  The decor caught my eye as it was clearly a seafood establishment as fishing rods hung on the wall as well as other nautical memorabilia.  But seafood in an airpport?  Right, I had my doubts too, but I went for a closer look at the menu.  Although the menu did not have salmon, which I was in the mood for, it did have some other interesting choices and the place was packed so I went in. 

Upon sitting down I notice that on every table there is a small "Sustainable Seafood Guide" card published by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium for guests to review.  Upon opening the three page guide I was delighted to see 3 lists detailing what kind of fish to avoid, eat or consider based on sustainability.  The idea being that fish to avoid are not being harvested or farmed in ways that harm the environment or other marine life.  To my great pleasure the bluefin tuna was on the avoid list.  Then upon opening the menu I see that this restaurant prides itself in serving only sustainable seafood and from a marketing perspective "sustainability" is their main message and positioning.  How cool!  Upon further review the items on the menu were things like Artic Char, Petrale Sole, Sturgeon etc.  I asked for salmon and the waiter said no salmon here (because farmed salmon is harmful to the environment and the wild caught Alaskan salmon was not in) but that Artic Char is highly recommended and tastes just like salmon.  So I took his recommendation.

As I am waiting for my entree I notice that this place is full and the people were really enjoying their dinners.  Sounds of mmms, and facial expressions of tasteful delight filled the room.  So my entree comes and it looks wonderful.  In fact it looks just like salmon.  If they said this was salmon I would have never known.  Even before my fork sliced the fish I could see that it was fresh and cooked perfectly.  On the first bite I joined the legions of other guests with a few moans of mmmms and head shakes.  The Artic Char was absolutely delicious as were the vegetables.  Then the manager (Meredith) appears asking if all was OK.  I promptly gave my compliments on the dish but also extended praise for the sustainable seafood positioning of the restaurant.  I told her about my concern for the bluefin tuna and about my site savethebluefin.  We'll this was a match made to happen because Meredith was eager to tell her story.  She was equally excited to talk about sustainable fishing, the future of our oceans and her responsibility as a seafood purveyour to act responsibly.   All this while delivering on the promise that great sustainable seafood can be had in an airport.  Believe me she is delivering on that promise.

Evidently the owners, Lark Creek Restaurant Group,  believe in only serving sustainable seafood and that educating guests is an important aspect of the practice.  Simply put this is the future of seafood restaurants.  The movement of eating sustainable seafood has begun and this organization will prosper for being an early adopter and leader in the space.  In a way it seems the seafood restaurant business will undergo a disruptive period where those restaurants that "re-tool" to borrow a phrase from the automotive industry will win.  "Re-Tooling" a seafood restaurant most likely means a significant overhaul in buying, cooking, marketing and above all awareness and desire.  It certainly is not cheaper to run a sustainable operation so I would be most interested to interview folks at Lark Creek about what the challenges are to maintain a sustainable policy.

Further, the passion and good will of serving sustainable seafood was clearly evident in the passion exhibiting by Meredith.  I work at a startup and know passion when I see it, and Meredith had that kind of passion speaking about her place in the terminal and the overall mission of the Lark Creek Group.   She cared about the details and it showed not only at my table but at the table adjacent to me which she was conversing with as I left.

If you live in San Francisco or travel near any of Yankee Pier's other three locations in Larkspur, San Jose or Lafayette choose Yankee Pier for a quality "sustainable" seafood lunch or dinner.  I will choose Yankee Pier over another seafood restaurant because of their commitment to sustainability and the fact that their food is so delicious.  I think this is the tip of the spear for a much larger movement that is beginning to take shape.  Yankee Pier is a shining example that we can still enjoy the fruits of the oceans without doing unnecessary or irreparable damage to the natural resource from which it comes.  Kudos to Meredith and the folks at Lark Creek for executing and carrying out the message that great sustainable seafood can be had anywhere, even in airport terminals. 

Useful Tips:
On Twitter:  Follow Yankee Pier, Save The Bluefin
Add Widget to your site or blog in support of saving the bluefin tuna.
Bookmark Monterey Bay Aquarium's "Seafood Guide" to make better choices when eating out or buying seafood.

"Link Out" to Other Great TypePad Blogs With Outbrain

Over at outbrain we have released the fruits of a partnership with Six Apart by making the outbrain recommendation widget available from within TypePad.  The great aspect of this integration is TypePad bloggers now have an instant way to add a smart "link out" strategy to their blog.  The main benefit here is for TypePad bloggers to 1.) show their readers great links to either their own blog or other great TypePad blogs, 2.) increase traffic by having their links eligible to be shown on other TypePad blogs as recommended reading.  Clicks on your links appearing on other TypePad blogs will boost your page views and hopefully most of the new readers that come to your blog from other  TypePad blogs will convert to be subscribers either through rss or email subscriptions.  So more traffic and new readers are great benefits to adding outbrain to your TypePad blog but that's not all.  It's about how your readers actually want external links and what that means for you as a publisher.

The process of "Linking Out" is taking the publishing industry quietly by storm.  "Linking Out" is not anything new as sites like the Drudge Report have been linking out and prospering for years.  But now every large publisher is shaping a formal "link out" strategy, (I know because I spend my days interacting with publishers for outbrain).  But what's intriguing to me is that the same mechanics apply to long tail bloggers as they do with large media sites - and that's the principle of maximizing the precious time readers spend with your content.  Readers will leave your site - so the opportunity is to give them relevant pathways off our site but also a way to get back.  outbrain does just that by serving links to relevant content but upon clicking opens a new window.  So readers can link off your site,  consume what they are interested in, but then close the new window and return to your site.  Done correctly, this can lead to an increase in time spent on your site as well the good will from readers that you are serving the best links, even if they point out.

Small bloggers aren't to worried about tracking the financial metric of CPW or Cost Per Word but  larger publishers do.  And in this case, smart "linking out" is an extremely economic way to enhance your reader experience without incurring the cost of creating and serving the content from scratch.  Just look at the success of the Drudge Report and the recent move by many large publishers to start publishing links and abbreviated content from outside sources like blogs and other publishers for deciding if "linking out" is right for your blog.   The answer is that's if right for every blog, no matter  the size.

All this sounds great and it is, but the next metric in evaluating a smart link out strategy is real estate requirements.  How much real estate do I give to external links?  The answer is as little as possible to achieve your goals and that's where outbrain shines above all other recommendation widgets or technologies.  Since outbrain is designed to serve recommendations on a personal basis, outbrain does not require large real estate to splash as many links as will fit in a side rail box hoping to catch the interest of the reader.  All other recommendation technologies like Sphere, Inform, Aggregate Knowledge etc. will take as much space as you will let them, in an attempt to guess at what your readers might like.  With outbrain, the best recommendations are selected on a personal basis and served withing a few lines under each post.  No large side rails full of links, no hogging of space, just a few good, clean relevant links.  And if outbrain doesn't have anything good to show, the space is not used.

So if want to adopt an instant smart "link out" strategy for your blog you can install outbrain here or from within TypePad and then enjoy the satisfaction that you are using the same technology that some of the largest publishers in the world are also using to "link out" & prosper.

Tag A Giant's Bluefin Tuna Data Now In Google Earth

   

The Tag A Giant Foundation (TAG) which is dedicated to helping save the bluefin tuna has teamed up with Google to provide features in the new version of Google Earth 5.0 where users can follow tracks that tagged bluefin make in the oceans.   One of the most amazing features of the new version is that users can dive beneath the surface of the ocean to not only see ocean topography but also to follow along the tracks of tagged animals like the giant bluefin tuna.  Google presents small "tuna" icons that are clickable and will display the tuna's tracks in the ocean as well as additional content about the tuna itself and the efforts underway to conserve and protect them.  The key element here is that the "tracks" actually come from data transmitted from satelitte tags that are attached to live tuna by the TAG Foundation.  These tags transmit data to satellites that is then collected and analyzed by the TAG scientists. 

This is actually the start of a larger project where Google is teaming up with TAG scientists and others to track a variety of large predatory animals.  A new site titled Global Tagging of Pelagic Predators was recently launched and will serve as the hub for this exciting new project.  Those of you who caught National Geographic's special on blue whales last Sunday saw how useful tagging data can be.  If we don't know where the whales, tuna and other large predatory fish swim, how can we protect them?

Aside from these advances and increased access to data on tagged animals through Google Earth, the team also has to be careful to not release data that can then be accessed and used by those with commercial or illegal fishing interests for locating and catching the tagged animals.  This will be a concern on a go forward basis as I am sure the teams have this in mind at all times. 

These are exciting times and as someone who works in technology, it is amazing to see the advances leveraged for the benefit of animals like the bluefin tuna.  Let's hope all these tools can help fuel a movement to change people's thinking on a global basis that animals like the bluefin tuna are worth saving. 

To support the amazing efforts of the TAG Foundation you can donate here.

To install Google Earth 5.0 on your computer go here.

Doug Perrine's Captures Great White Sharks Like You Have Never Seen

My friend Guido over at SeaWay ("your daily source of water") posted this photo of 2 great white sharks like I have never seen them before - naturally feeding without being harassed by human activity.  The image belongs to and was taken by Doug Perrine founder of Seapics which is the leading stock house for high quality marine imagery.  If you are looking for creative ways to liven up your office or home, take a look at some of Doug's prints as they are beautiful and unique. 

In fact, if you read this Doug and want to feature any images of tuna on SaveTheBluefin ping me at jloginyc(at)gmail.(com).  I would be happy to feature your work to help raise awareness that the bluefin tuna is worth fighting for. 

Most humans don't have the chance to see something like these two sharks feeding naturally - so images like this can accomplish what sometimes takes thousands of words - as you can plainly see the grace and beauty of these white sharks in their natural environment.  The bait fish are sardines which shoal in the waters off South Africa every year in great numbers.  These sardines are vital to every part of the ocean ecosystem from the smallest of creatures to the apex of the food chain which are featured in this image.  The imagery of the sardines is also quite amazing as they shoal close together for protection. 

Thanks Guido for the post and Doug for your great work. 

btw - you can also grab this image as a wallpaper for your computer from NatGeo.

I Was Music Dumb Before Guitar Hero

I now realize that before I had Guitar Hero I was kind of music dumb.  After playing GT and reveling in the challenge and concentration it takes to move from one level to another, I now hear and appreciate the music I have so long loved much differently.  I hear more notes, understand transition and can now link what I hear to actual finger movements that make sense.  I realized this the other day when I was driving and listening to a Led Zeppelin song and unconsciously noticed my fingers stringing the notes rather smartly on the wheel.  Simply put - pre GT my brain did not have the synapses connected to hear/see music differently. 

I am proclaiming that GT is the official killer of the commonly seen "air guitar" gesture.   I look to myself (post GT) and my five year old as proof.  Without guitar lessons and pre GT most people had no idea what it means to play - thus the idiotic "air guitar" simulation.  Now, when my five year old son simulates himself playing on GT, his movements are smooth, fingers moving with purpose and at reasonable speed.  There is no foolish stance, hands rushing or general sense of music dumbness about it.  For me the same - when I simulate playing GT (when I am driving) the movements are smarter than before.  If you play GT, you have an idea of what it means to actually pull off a song and the physical requirements to do so.  I know this is a long way from the real thing but for someone who was becoming sort of deaf and dumb to the medium, GT has been a great door opener.

So here is a quick list of how Guitar Hero has changed me:

1. Hear music better and differently - overall.
2. Appreciate guitar notes and how to manipulate i.e. strumming.
3. Hear and appreciate transition and what it takes to execute them.
4. Reengaged my left pinky finger from being neglected and a second rate digit.
5. Re-appreciation for songs and parts of songs I have always known and liked but grown somewhat deaf to.
6. Hand eye coordination better.

How about you?  How has Guitar Hero changed you?  Feel free to light up the comment box:)