Academic literature on the topic 'Upscale ethnic restaurant'

Since the 1970s, certain types of upscale restaurants, cafés, and stores have emerged as highly visible signs of gentrification in cities all over the world. Taking Harlem and Williamsburg as field sites, we explore the role of these new stores and services (“boutiques”) as agents of change in New York City through data on changing composition of retail and services, interviews with new store owners, and discursive analysis of print media. Since the 1990s, the share of boutiques, including those owned by small local chains, has dramatically increased, while the share of corporate capital (large chain stores) has increased somewhat, and the share of traditional local stores and services has greatly declined. the media, state, and quasi–public organizations all value boutiques, which they see as symbols and agents of revitalization. Meanwhile, new retail investors—many, in Harlem, from the new black middle class—are actively changing the social class and ethnic character of the neighborhoods. Despite owners’ responsiveness to community identity and racial solidarity, “boutiquing” calls attention to displacement of local retail stores and services on which long–term, lower class residents rely and to the state's failure to take responsibility for their retention, especially in a time of economic crisis.

Appreciation is an ingredient that is essential for enhancing customers’ postconsumption service evaluations; nevertheless, few studies have explored its role in the context of ethnic restaurants. This article aims to examine appreciation’s effects on customers’ behavioral intention by first considering the cultural effects. This study develops and empirically tests a research model based on 488 questionnaires collected at an upscale ethnic restaurant in Macau. The result shows that utilitarian value, hedonic value, and cultural motivation affect appreciation positively, which in turn affects behavioral intention positively. Utilitarian value and hedonic value also affect behavioral intention directly and positively. The mediation roles of diners’ utilitarian value, hedonic value, and appreciation are also discussed. This article contributes to hospitality management theory by providing an additional insight into appreciation and suggests that, in practice, using appreciation as a business strategy could change customers’ choice.

Globally, there is a growing demand for food away from home as a result of higher incomes, changes in consumption patterns, changes in household composition, and the time pressures created by dual-working families. The foodservice industry has become highly competitive as the number of foodservice outlets has increased to meet the demand. In order to succeed in such a competitive industry, restaurant operators need to understand the factors (and their relative importance) that influence restaurant patrons’ decision when selecting a restaurant. The demand for ethnic foods has also increased, in New Zealand and worldwide, due to the influences of ethnic diversity, overseas food and cultural experiences, and media exposure. Despite the importance of restaurant choice criteria and a growth in popularity of ethnic foods, published research on consumers’ restaurant selection behaviour that focuses on the ethnic segment is relatively limited. Furthermore, there are no published empirical studies on ethnic restaurant choice behaviour in New Zealand. This research aims to fill these gaps in the literature by empirically identifying the factors that influence a decision to dine at an upscale ethnic restaurant, their relative importance, as well as their relationships with dining occasion and consumer characteristics. Focus group discussions and the literature review helped identify a set of restaurant choice factors. A mail survey was used to collect the data. Factor analysis was used to refine the restaurant choice factors, and logistic regression analysis identified the five significant factors that influence consumers’ decision. These are: Dining Experience, Social Status, Service Quality, Food Quality, and Value for Money, listed in order of their importance. The results of t-tests and ANOVA suggested that consumers perceived the restaurant choice factors differently based on their demographic characteristics. The results of this study contribute to the marketing theory by providing an empirical framework of consumer selection behaviour in New Zealand upscale ethnic dining establishments. The study will also assist marketing practitioners and operators of ethnic restaurants to develop their strategies and offer the attributes that attract and retain customers.

As cities have gentrified, educated urbanites have come to prize what they regard as "authentic" urban life: aging buildings, art galleries, small boutiques, upscale food markets, neighborhood old-timers, funky ethnic restaurants, and old, family-owned shops. These signify a place's authenticity, in contrast to the bland standardization of the suburbs and exurbs. But as Sharon Zukin shows in Naked City, the rapid and pervasive demand for authenticity--evident in escalating real estate prices, expensive stores, and closely monitored urban streetscapes--has helped drive out the very people who first lent a neighborhood its authentic aura: immigrants, the working class, and artists. Zukin traces this economic and social evolution in six archetypal New York areas--Williamsburg, Harlem, the East Village, Union Square, Red Hook, and the city's community gardens--and travels to both the city's first IKEA store and the World Trade Center site. She shows that for followers of Jane Jacobs, this transformation is a perversion of what was supposed to happen. Indeed, Naked City is a sobering update of Jacobs' legendary 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Like Jacobs, Zukin looks at what gives neighborhoods a sense of place, but argues that over time, the emphasis on neighborhood distinctiveness has become a tool of economic elites to drive up real estate values and effectively force out the neighborhood "characters" that Jacobs so evocatively idealized.