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Arts & CultureFood & Drink

Dining trends: Lehigh Valley ahead of curve in 2025 culinary forecast

2025 culinary trends
Culinary trends forecasted by the National Restaurant Association to take off in 2025 include sustainability and local sourcing, cold brew, Korean cuisine, hot honey, Vietnamese cuisine, hyper-local beer and wine, fermented/pickled foods, wellness drinks, creative spritzes and value deals. Pictured: A surprise bag handover, distributed by Too Good To Go; A holiday drink, contributed by Crave Nutrition Bethlehem; Hot honey and pepperoni pizza from Easton Wine Project, contributed by Ana Carreras Grundt via Facebook.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The National Restaurant Association has released its "What's Hot 2025 Culinary Forecast" — and the Lehigh Valley appears to be a step ahead of the curve when it comes to the nation's trends.

The association's Top 10 trends, in order, are:

  • Sustainability and local sourcing
  • Cold brew
  • Korean cuisine
  • Hot honey
  • Vietnamese cuisine
  • Hyper-local beer and wine
  • Fermented/pickled foods
  • Wellness drinks
  • Creative spritzes
  • Value deals

Southeast Asian foods appeared to top survey results, according to the report.

"More than 70% of U.S. counties boast an Asian restaurant," the report says.

"But where Chinese, Japanese and Thai have dominated, consumers are digging into the unique ingredients/flavor profiles, potential wellness benefits and serving styles of cuisines from Southeast Asia."

A handful of restaurants offering Asian cuisine opened in the Lehigh Valley over the past year.

A few examples are Kirin Oriental Cuisine in Wilson, Ume Asian Cuisine in Allentown, Yummy Bowl in Whitehall Township and La Kang Hot Pot in Hellertown.

KPot Korean BBG & Hot Pot in Whitehall is set to open soon, according to its website.

Korean Kimchi Hot Pot
Contributed
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Taylor Barkis
The Korean Kimchi Hot Pot from Hi Pot on 312 E 3rd St. in Bethlehem includes pork slices, Taiwanese cabbage, kimchi, dumpling, vermicelli, mini sausage, shrimp, enoki mushroom, kamaboko, tempura, clam, fuzhou fish ball, soft tofu, fried tofu skin, zucchini, imitation crabmeat, egg and scallion, according to the restaurant's menu.

The report also called honey "the bee's knees for 2025," naming hot honey, honey and seeds as popular flavors.

On the Lehigh Valley Food & Travel and The Brutally Honest Lehigh Valley Food Page Facebook pages, the flavor is mentioned numerous times in combination with other menu items — not just chicken wings — like Bar Torino's Bushwick pizza or Easton Wine Project's hot honey and pepperoni flatbread.

Sustainability and spending

Outside of physically crafting food, the NRA found that consumers also care about sustainability — both environmentally and financially. Both topics came in first (sustainability) and last (value deals) in the rankings.

"The Association team behind What’s Hot assumed customers are sensitive to restaurant value, and value deals came in second to sustainability as a Macro Trend," the report says.

In the latter half of the year, local businesses began popping up on Too Good To Go, an app that aims to fight food waste.

The Too Good To Go website says the app — developed in Copenhagen "by a group of young entrepreneurs who shared a dream of finding a solution for the massive amounts of food wasted by buffet restaurants in Denmark," — has "over 100 million registered users and 170,000 active business partners," throughout Europe and North America.

The app allows businesses to sell "Surprise Bags" — unsold food for a reduced price that would otherwise go to waste — and "Too Good To Go Parcels," but the parcels are only available in Europe.

Partners in the United States like 7-Eleven saved 63,429 meals in 2023, according to the app's annual report, which equated it to "30 passengers flown around the world" to Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Dubai and back to Frankfurt.

Over a dozen Lehigh Valley business locations are registered on the app. Discounted surprise bags can range from $3.99 to $9.99.

Those businesses include: Biaggio Pizzeria & Family Restaurant, Salvatore Ruffino's, Slice of Italy, Philly Pretzel Factory, Dino Sweets, Valley Prep Meal Prep, Broad St. Pizzeria, Dom's Westgate Pizza, Buona Cucina Italiano, Frey's Better Foods, Anthony's Pizza II, New York Bagels & Deli, Joe's Pizza, Little Cali Empanada and Arepa Bar, My New Place Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant, Mia & Maddie's Bakery and Pizzaville Italian Eatery.

bakery bag.jpg
Makenzie Christman
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LehighValleyNews.com
Whole Foods in Lower Macungie Twp. offers discounted mystery items through Too Good To Go, an app geared at reducing food waste. Bakery bags cost $6.99 and prepared food bags cost $9.99.

Just last month, Dom's Westgate Pizza, Anthony's Pizza II, Joe's Pizza, My New Place Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant and Buona Cucina Italiano joined the platform, with the first three already saving over 100 meals. Biaggio Pizzeria & Family Restaurant and Valley Meal Prep have both saved more than 1,000 meals having joined the platform for more than a year, with Whole Foods — recently joining six months ago — also saving the same amount of food waste.

"We are thrilled to be part of the Too Good To Go community," Caitlin Leibert, vice president of sustainability for Whole Foods Market, said in a July news release. "As part of our purpose to nourish people and the planet, we continue to invest in new and innovative ways to keep unsold food out of our landfills and empower our customers to make environmentally conscious choices.

"We're proud of the work we've done — just last year we donated nearly 34 million pounds of food to food programs across the country — but are so excited to expand that work with the help of Too Good To Go."

The National Restaurant Association report found that consumers are willing to splurge, but discounted food is still a factor that keeps consumers happy.

Last month, CBS reported that grocery prices are still high, despite inflation being down. Fast food and fast casual restaurants have already caught onto the trend, like the $5 meal deals from McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, and Panera Bread's value duets.

In February, Panera announced "a new era" and launched its new menu two months later in April, marking "the company's largest menu transformation ever," that "offers guests better value through enhanced portions and lower price points." The new menu featured more options below $10.

“Panera’s New Era is incredibly exciting, not only for our guests but also our associates, who will be able to renew their focus on our core menu and serve our guests more efficiently with enhanced portions and better value,” Debbie Roberts, Chief Operating Officer of Panera Bread said in its February 2024 release. “We are eager to get back to our roots within these core categories and unveil these delicious new menu innovations, all while providing an exceptional guest experience.”

Beverages, with a boost of community

Hyper-local beer and wine are also forecast to take off soon, according to the report.

The Valley is already home to numerous microbreweries, local wineries and even distilleries.

In East Penn, Weyerbacher Brewing expanded from Easton to Emmaus at Funk Brewing Company's former location at 518 Bank Street. Funk Brewing then relocated its Emmaus taproom to 19 S. 6th St., called Illumination Brewing.

Another microbrewery in Macungie, Rising River Brewery, has won awards from Breweries in PA since the opening of its brick-and-mortar in 2022. That year it won "Best New Brewery" from Breweries in PA's Reader's Choice Awards.

In 2023, Breweries in PA announced it also won "Best Taproom" and "Best Destination" — for the second year in a row. It came in second for "Best Music Venue" and third for "Best Beer Garden" and "Best Beer Can."

But Rising River Brewery owner Ron Beitler said he thinks the success of local microbreweries is from sticking to crowd-pleasing niches like live entertainment, atmosphere and, of course, beer quality.

"I've been in the industry forever, and [community] I think, is the main difference where breweries are killing it."
Ron Beitler, owner of Rising River Brewery

At the Lower Macungie Township brewing company, Beitler said he feels like he sees a culmination of the first two, which morph into a home-away-from-home for many returning customers. In terms of beer popularity, Beitler said during summer — Rising River's peak season — their top sellers include a blonde ale and Mexican lager.

Rising River distributes beer in small quantities to other local businesses like The Shelby, House and Barn, or Youell's Oyster House, Beitler said, but it's not a large-scale focus of his, compared to developing a community.

"We try to focus on being that third place," Beitler said.

The brewery serves as a meeting space and social hub for local organizations, pottery classes and its mug club, which has consistently grown in size each year — this year's mug club was made up of nearly 250 members. Although the additional two or three ounces the mugs that club members use could incentivize customers to join, Beitler said he thinks it's the group itself that makes it special.

Rising River Brewery
Makenzie Christman
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LehighValleyNews.com
At Rising River Brewery in Lower Macungie Twp, owner Ron Beitler said business -- especially customers interested in the brewery's mug club -- has steadily increased since opening in 2022. The National Restaurant Association's 2025 culinary trends forecast reports microbreweries and local wines as a top 10 incoming trend.

"I've been in the industry forever, and [community] I think, is the main difference where breweries are killing it," he said. "I see other places trying to replicate that, like restaurants, but it's the community aspect, it's the community-building."

That, and "a little bit of escapism," through the brewery's tropical decor for those who want to get away from everyday life.

As it stands, there's plenty of business to go around, with Beitler noting that the Lehigh Valley Brewers Guild allows local entrepreneurs to uplift one another rather than see each other as competitors as they find their niche. He finds there are three main areas to enhance beer quality: atmosphere/theme, distribution and community.

"There's a lot of good to great beer out there," he said. "So it's not enough anymore, just to have good beer, you really got to, I think, focus on one of those, yeah, one of those three areas."

Beer isn't the only beverage growing in popularity — so are wellness drinks.

Like Beitler, Gabrielle Marcantoni, owner of Crave Nutrition in Bethlehem, said the secret ingredient to her business is also community.

Marcantoni said she's seen an uptick in interest toward wellness drinks, especially between Crave Nutrition's energy teas or protein shakes, notably since the COVID-19 pandemic — again putting the Lehigh Valley ahead of the curve in culinary trends.

The health food restaurant has been in business for the past seven years, but Marcantoni said she's owned it for the past three years.

Teas from Crave Nutrition
Contributed
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Crave Nutrition
Crave Nutrition in Bethlehem sells health food items like energy teas, protein milkshakes and protein bowls.

Marcantoni said she's an Herbalife Nutrition partner, so the health food restaurant also offers workout classes, personalized nutrition plans, coaching and events unrelated to physical health like candle-making classes or a vision board night. She added that she feels most people walk through the door first looking for community.

"There's definitely more of these types of things popping up, for sure, even if they're Herbalife or not," Marcantoni said. "I think that people are also looking for community. What like stands us out between other places is that it's not just like a 'here's your product' and 'figure it out.' It's like, we come with the coaching so we bring the community."