Zagateers Prefer Pizza

From our Department of Suspicions Confirmed: The “2000 Zagat Survey” of Southern California restaurants is out this week and, for the first time, the editors reveal how many ballots were turned in for each restaurant. In other words, where do those volunteer restaurant critics really eat?

It probably won’t be a surprise to learn that the five most popular restaurants among Zagat’s voting public were, in order: California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, Jerry’s Famous Deli, Koo Koo Roo and In-N-Out Burger.

In fact, of the 50 restaurants rated tops for food (led by Matsuhisa, Sushi Nozawa and Chinois on Main), only one was among the 20 most visited--Campanile. Definitely a case of “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Village Cheese Co. in Vermont.

Starbucks’ Applecino Having hit it big with coffee-flavored milk shakes and sugary milky teas, Starbucks is gearing up for another assault on your sweet tooth. This week it’s rolling out a new cider-based drink it describes as tasting like “a mug of hot apple pie.” Made with steamed apple cider and cinnamon syrup, it is topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel. “The Caramel Apple Cider tastes like it was baked in a Dutch oven,” says Peter Gibbons, a Starbucks exec who obviously wouldn’t know how to make a pie if his double-decaf low-fat latte depended on it.

Don’t Forget to Eat Our Cereal Two popular breakfast cereals are heading down different paths in an attempt to increase sales, says Advertising Age magazine.

The first, Total, is a hit with adults. But maker General Mills is planning to “wow baby boomers” further by introducing a version of the cereal flavored with oats and sweetened with brown sugar. It joins existing versions: whole grain, corn flakes and raisin bran.

Even a casual watcher of “Seinfeld” won’t be surprised to learn that adults eat a lot of kids’ cereals. In fact, baby boomers consume 30% of all breakfast cereal. “Total stands alone as the healthiest cereal in the category,” the magazine quotes one grocer as saying, “and now it’s actually going to taste good.”

Perhaps because they couldn’t figure out a way to cram more sugar into Honeycomb, Kraft Foods is going the Pokemon route in promoting that cereal. It’s hiding 1,300 U.S. Mint gold coins in selected boxes. Calling it the “Gold Rush” edition, Kraft is packaging the cereal in special gold foil boxes for the promotion. It is also introducing a new spokes-character with ratty hair and bulging eyes called simply “The Craver.”