Getting attention is the name of the game in the ultra-competitive restaurant industry, and Krispy Kreme has been doing quite a bit of that lately. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Dave Skena, the global chief brand officer for the doughnut chain. Skena’s job is to get attention for a well-known brand and the company has been doing some interesting things lately to accomplish that, sometimes taking a few risks in the process. That includes last year’s...
Aug 24, 2022•30 min
Pumpkin spice season comes earlier every year. Why? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features RB Senior Editor Pat Cobe, who joins me to talk about what’s on the menu at fast-food chains. We speak first about the recent news that Taco Bell has a partnership with the dessert concept Milk Bar . The two are launching the Strawberry Bell Truffle at a limited number of locations, two Milk Bar units and one Taco Bell. We discuss such ultra-limited time offers. We al...
Aug 17, 2022•27 min
How is the restaurant industry dealing with the difficult operating environment? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features an interview with Michelle Korsmo, who took over as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in May. Korsmo discusses her career to date. She has worked in public policy at the state and federal levels and most recently was chief executive of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America before taking over the top post at the association...
Aug 10, 2022•29 min
Why would you leave a 1,800-unit chicken wing chain for a salad upstart? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive seeks to answer that question. It features Charlie Morrison, now the CEO of the nearly-60-unit Salad and Go. Morrison is the now-former CEO of Wingstop, which he led for nearly a decade, growing it from 500 locations to about 1,800 units and helping to turn it into a powerhouse, one that would spawn dozens of competitors during the pandemic. We asked him a...
Aug 03, 2022•26 min
How was Taco Bell able to get its latest prototype from idea to operating in less than two years? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Mike Grams, the chief operating officer for the Mexican fast-food chain, to talk about a variety of topics, from franchising to the reaction to its Mexican Pizza. That includes its fancy new Defy prototype, the one that features four drive-thru lanes, three of them for mobile orders. The prototype was opened this summer le...
Jul 27, 2022•27 min
Shahpour Nejad came to the U.S. to get his college degree. Instead he became a pizza guy. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Nejad, the CEO and cofounder of the Sacramento-based Pizza Guys, who discusses his personal history, the formation of his chain and its growth strategies. Nejad’s parents sent him to the U.S. in the late 1970s when he was just 16, so he could go to school. The Iranian Revolution kept him here, and he ended up working with a pizza ...
Jul 20, 2022•29 min
Subway has made yet another massive change to its menu. Will it work? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Pat Cobe, the senior menu editor for RB, in a discussion about Subway’s latest menu chane. Subway last year overhauled its menu with an “eat fresh refresh,” an upgrade of numerous ingredients, including its bread. Some longtime operators who recall the chain’s decision in the late 1990s to go with a more traditional split bread approach—rather the tr...
Jul 13, 2022•34 min
How do you turn a well-loved local restaurant into a hot national concept? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Garrett Reed, CEO of Layne’s Chicken Fingers, to talk about his efforts to take that step. Layne’s was founded near Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, in 1994. Reed and a partner later purchased the brand, intending on turning it into a franchise. The company currently has nine locations but has deals for many, many more. Reed discusses th...
Jul 06, 2022•28 min
Everybody talks about having a good corporate culture. But what does that mean? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features James Pogue, the CEO of the leadership consulting firm JP Enterprises, to talk about culture and inclusivity. Pogue is a former researcher and administrator who now works with companies—including many restaurants—to help them attract and retain younger employees. We speak with him because we’re curious about what it means to have a good cor...
Jun 29, 2022•30 min
How does a mall concept do well in stand-alone locations? With chicken wings. This week’s episode of A Deeper Dive features Charley’s Philly Steaks President Candra Alisiswanto, who talks about Charley’s growth strategy. Charley’s operates 670 locations. Most of those have traditionally been in mall settings. But more recently, the company began expanding outside of those shopping centers and into stand-alone locations, many of which have drive-thrus. It has done so in part with an expanded menu...
Jun 22, 2022•27 min
How many restaurants does Subway need to close? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Trevor Haynes, president of North America for the Milford, Conn.-based sandwich giant, to talk about the chain’s future. Subway remains the largest chain in the U.S. by unit count. But it has been shrinking for years. Franchisees have closed about 6,000 locations since the brand peaked at 27,000 restaurants in 2014. Restaurants have low unit volumes and franchisees on ave...
Jun 15, 2022•33 min
How do you create a restaurant concept when so much about the business is uncertain? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jack Gibbons, the CEO of concept incubator FB Society, to talk about concept development and the industry’s future. FB Society, formerly known as Front Burner Brands, is known most for creating Velvet Taco, which has since been sold—though FB still has an interest in the chain and is a licensee. The company has created several other fu...
Jun 08, 2022•29 min
How do operators overcome rapidly shrinking profit margins? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jim Balis, managing director with the investment firm CapitalSpring, to talk about the rising cost environment and how operators can overcome these problems. Labor costs are soaring right now, with wage rates up more than 13% over the past year. But food costs are up even more, rising more than 16% according to federal data. Add in the higher prices for constr...
Jun 01, 2022•29 min
What is the state of the restaurant industry this year? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Lance Trenary, the CEO of Golden Corral and chairman of the National Restaurant Association, to discuss the general state of restaurants. Trenary joined the podcast from the association’s recently completed show, the first one in three years. The show was held just days after Congress could not muster enough votes to approve a package that would have provided $40 ...
May 25, 2022•31 min
Why are grocery prices going up so much? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Christine LaFave Grace, the executive editor of RB sister publication Winsight Grocery Business, to talk about last week’s consumer price index data. The CPI rose 8.3% in April. Food prices have soared, rising 9.4%. That includes 7.2% at restaurants. But at grocers, prices are up 10.8%. This affects restaurants in two ways. First, it increases overall costs for the base consumer...
May 18, 2022•26 min
Restaurants aren’t the only businesses with labor problems. Distributors have their own challenges that are also driving up costs for operators. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Terry Walsh, the president of small California distribution company Southwest Traders, to discuss the impact of the labor shortage on distributors and how that affects restaurants. A lack of truck drivers has been an increasing problem for distributors for years but was worsen...
May 11, 2022•32 min
How did Crumbl Cookies go from an off-the-wall idea between two cousins into one of the country’s fastest-growing restaurant chains in just five years? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jason McGowan, the CEO and cofounder of the fast-growing cookie chain, to talk about its history and its growth. McGowan founded the brand with his cousin, Sawyer Hemsley, in 2017. The brand has since grown to more than 400 locations that largely sell just cookies (as w...
May 04, 2022•32 min
What can operators do to avoid raising prices too aggressively? Or should they? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features John Gordon, a restaurant consultant out of San Diego, to talk about the industry’s historic level of menu price inflation and whether consumers will ultimately respond. Restaurants are raising prices at historically high rates, including 6.9% year over year in March, continuing a high run of price inflation. Restaurants are doing this beca...
Apr 27, 2022•30 min
How did a small hot dog chain handle a sudden rush of customers after the pandemic? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features J.R. Galardi, the CEO of the Galardi Group, parent company of Wienerschnitzel, Tastee Freeze and Hamburger Stand. Galardi was named CEO earlier this year but had been president and chief operating officer before that and has grown up with the concept, which was founded by his father and later run by his mother after he passed away. He t...
Apr 20, 2022•28 min
What chains recovered the most from the pandemic? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Joe Pawlak, managing principal with RB sister company Technomic, to talk about the latest Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. The 500 largest restaurants grew sales by 18% in 2021—and more than 8% over 2019, effectively recovering from the pandemic. They generated $361.2 billion in total sales. Pawlak talks about why they’ve been able to grow more quickly than anybody an...
Apr 14, 2022•29 min
What are consumers getting when they order from a virtual kitchen? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features our editors speaking of their recent taste test of a handful of virtual brands. The project was spearheaded by Senior Technology Editor Joe Guszkowski, who wrote about the experiences in a piece last week . We are joined by Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo and Senior Independents Editor Heather Lalley. The brands we tried were MrBeast Burger, Man Vs. Fries, ...
Apr 06, 2022•26 min
Wendy’s has some big plans to add a lot of restaurants. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Abigail Pringle, the president of international and chief development officer for the burger chain Wendy’s. She talks about the chain’s numerous expansion strategies. Wendy’s has a lot going on. The company has a deal with Reef Kitchens to expand into 700 ghost kitchen locations around the world. Pringle talks about the potential impact that deal will have on the ...
Mar 30, 2022•24 min
Restaurants’ supply chain headache has evolved into a migraine. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Keith Anderkin, the chief supply chain officer for the fast-casual chicken chain Zaxby’s. Chains have been increasingly giving c-level status to their top supply chain officers. Anderkin took his position last year, and we wanted his insights into the challenges with the supply chain—why costs are going up so much, and what the company is doing about it....
Mar 23, 2022•27 min
The pandemic has changed restaurants’ deals with beverage companies, maybe forever. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Tim Harms, CEO of the consulting firm Enliven, to talk about the market for beverages at restaurants. Enliven works with restaurants and other clients to negotiate their beverage contracts. Harms was recently named the firm’s CEO. He discussed the state of beverage deals on the podcast, and how much the pandemic changed demand for res...
Mar 16, 2022•30 min
Despite a number of challenges, there remains plenty of demand for restaurants on the open market. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast, A Deeper Dive, features Robin Gagnon, CEO and cofounder of We Sell Restaurants, to discuss the secondary market for restaurants. That market remains strong. There are more buyers than there are sellers, driving up the price. This is especially true for quick-service restaurants. But there is plenty of demand for all kinds of concepts. The dema...
Mar 09, 2022•30 min
How does a small growth chain expand when the operating environment is so difficult? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Jason Morgan, CEO of the 17-unit Original ChopShop, to talk about it. Original Chop Shop is a better-for-you fast casual chain. The company has done quite well during the pandemic and has some significant growth plans, but it has faced some challenges on that front.
Mar 02, 2022•28 min
How has life changed for Portillo’s since the brand went public? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Michael Osanloo, CEO of the hot dog and Italian beef chain, to talk about life as a public company. Portillo’s has been a fast-growing chain of massive quick-service restaurants. It went public last year in what now looks like some bad timing. Stocks have struggled due to inflation concerns and the promise of higher interest rates. And investors have be...
Feb 23, 2022•29 min
What happens with third-party delivery from here? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” attempts to answer that question. Joe Guszkowski, RB’s senior technology editor, joins the podcast to discuss the service and some interesting data and trends. Third-party delivery took off during the pandemic. It provided a lifeline for many restaurants. Yet it remains in flux.
Feb 16, 2022•28 min
Everybody wants a drive-thru these days. And that has an impact on the prices for real estate that can accommodate that wish. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Barry Wolfe, senior managing director of investments for the real estate investment firm Marcus and Millichap, to talk about the demand for drive-thru sites.
Feb 09, 2022•27 min
What is 2022 going to be like for restaurants? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Hudson Riehle, SVP of the research and knowledge group with the National Restaurant Association, to talk about the group’s recent State of the Restaurant Industry report. The report is an annual compilation of data and surveys on the industry and provides a snapshot of where the business stands and where it’s headed during the coming year.
Feb 02, 2022•27 min
