New years are odd ducks, no matter how they look.
We eye possibilities, prognosticate … perhaps even be so bold as to plan—as if it were only up to us, and ever with an élan both carefree and careless, born of equal parts dreamy hope and determined forgetfulness.
We take a greener eyeshade approach at the Business Journal, witness our 2018 previews: Retail & Marketing (this page), Technology (page 4), Finance (page 6), Real Estate (page 8), Healthcare (page 10), and Hospitality & Tourism (page 12).
And while New Year’s fond festivities around the county might include dewy-eyed memories of the year-just-past, our previews focus on what is actually going to, you know, happen next year—along with a recount of how big Orange County players, people and companies did in 2017—and how we did in saying they would.
Give, Give, Give
In telling you here what we can’t tell you there, we once again call out charitable giving, which we think will get renewed vision—and more coverage—in the coming year.
We’re so sure of this, in fact, that one of our new lists next year is all about big local givers: It hits Jan. 15.
If that sounds like a plug, it is.
What better to plug than people who stand in the gap?
2018 marks a decade since the real estate meltdown and Great Recession. Key sectors of the OC economy will be active with a capital A in 2018—see those previews if you doubt us—and we’d make a case to a whole ’nother capital A out there—paging Amazon.com—that gosh, darn it, OC folk are just plain nice.
Food, Food, Food
A second segment we’d flag for you is restaurants.
Fast-casual is even older than memories of the meltdown, so folks are starting to look for the next trend.
We’re hearing, for instance, that untried ethnic eateries are edging their ways into public consciousness—and consumption—whether one-and-done or fusion concepts.
We’ve done the street tacos, and Mediterranean may get some traction—OC’s own Panini Kabob Grill began franchising this year to give the latter concept a wider go.
Is Filipino fusion next?
A so-far one-and-done example might be Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice, which claims 6,000 locations in China and opened its first U.S. location in Tustin in September.
It’s decidedly minimalist—in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, call it simplicity—in that it offers one dish (it’s in the name) in three ways: regular, authentic and spicy.
We’re not sure, but you might even have to bring your own beer.
And be assured that on that note, and on that beat, our new Executive Dining columnists, Christopher Trela and Catherine Del Casale, will be on the trail, sniffing—and tasting—the best noshes OC can offer.
Yes, two. It took that many to replace the late and irreplaceable Fifi Chao.
Late, Late, Late
As the late Ed McMahon might tell the late Johnny Carson, you hold in your hands, or an electronic extension of them, the last Business Journal issue of 2017.
We’d tell you to take the next week off, but the Book of Lists ships to subscribers, so stick around.
Still, as the late Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” counts down the end of the year as we know it, let’s relax, at least a little.
See you bright and early in January.
