QSR Uncut is a podcast from the editors of QSR magazine—the leading publication for foodservice owners and operators—that discusses the current state and future of the fast-food restaurant industry as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Made for restaurant executives, entrepreneurs, consumers, and leaders, each episode candidly shares expert advice from some of the industry's most insightful leaders.
On a special Thanksgiving week episode of QSR uncut , the team chats with Smashburger president Carl Bachmann for an inside look at what’s made the fast casual thrive over the years and during COVID-19, from menu innovation to technology to store design, and more. Also, what Thanksgiving foods are overrated, and what’s the best way to cook a turkey? Let's dive in.
As restaurants rebound from the pandemic, the opportunity to lean on customer data has never been greater. But how do you listen, and what really matters? Nihal Advani, CEO and founder of QualSights , joins the QSR team to talk about the future of foodservice, and why reviews don't begin and end with Yelp.
QSR editor Danny Klein catches up with industry innovator and change-marker Alex Canter, the CEO of Nextbite, to chat about all things virtual brands, and why COVID ushered in a digital era for restaurants that's just getting started.
A&W CEO Kevin Bazner discusses the biggest crisis facing restaurants today—where to find labor and how to keep employees from leaving. Also, cheese curds, the brand's famous root beer, and how the 102-year-old chain charted one of the most impressive turnarounds in fast-food history.
OneDine CEO and industry thought leader Rom Krupp joins the QSR magazine team this week to talk all things digital, and how COVID-19 ushered in a decade of innovation in 19 months. From QR codes to the real dangers of third-party delivery to a rash of IPOs, we take an unscripted look at the hottest topic in the restaurant industry's evolution today. Plus, Wendy's is roasting McDonald's (again).
In this week’s episode of QSR Uncut, QSR magazine editors Danny Klein and Ben Coley are joined by Joseph Szala, managing director of Vigor and author and marketing expert, to talk about everything from virtual restaurants—are there too many?—to brand relevance, marketing to employees amid a labor shortage, the return of the McRib, Golden Corral, Jersey Mike's, and Portillo's, and whether or not tater tots should be considered French fries (they shouldn’t). We answer reader’s questions, share som...
In the first edition of QSR Uncut, editors Danny Klein and Ben Coley discuss how Chick-fil-A could be the "slowest drive-thru in America," and yet also be the fastest. And Wendy's roasts McDonald's on Twitter yet again. Plus, Chipotle has some wild ideas about how to make ranch dressing.
Everything restaurants have been forced to go through in the last year has been unprecedented. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a crisis like no other for restaurants. There hasn’t been a playbook. But there have been some companies that have been better prepared for crises than others. Just look at Whataburger. This is a company whose restaurants are primarily based in the South, and which has been forced to deal with hurricane and storm damage to its restaurants seemingly every year. Even just t...
Chicken-finger brand Raising Cane's lost 30 percent of its sales in the weeks following stay-at-home orders last March, but by the end of 2020, it was clearing its original sales expectations by 10 percent. How did it do it? Drive thrus helped a lot, but the company's culture was mostly to thank. That culture is something founder Todd Graves has been working on since he opened the first location in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1996, and it helped the company clock in at No. 89 in Glassdoor’s most ...
If you were to point to some of the biggest trends in the pre-pandemic foodservice world, health-oriented concepts would have to be in the top five. Especially in the fast-casual category, there was a lot of momentum for salad and bowl concepts that were geared toward that healthy, active lifestyle. When COVID showed up, though, some wondered if the momentum for that category had hit a wall. But that’s not really been the case—at least not for Crisp & Green. In fact, founder Steele Smiley sa...
The buy-one-give-one model became popular in the last 10–15 years, with businesses like TOMS Shoes and Warby Parker donating a product to those in need for every transaction they made. That’s exactly what Tacos 4 Life is doing with tacos, as founders Austin and Ashton Samuelson committed to donating the funds necessary to purchase one meal to the organization Feed My Starving Children for every taco they sell. That mission was sailing along until last March, when COVID arrived. And like every ot...
While most quick serves and fast casuals had a huge advantage in quickly recovering from the sales drop of last March, there is a whole subset of fast casuals that, even if they were in tune with digital and off-premises trends, took much longer to recover. Those are the fast casuals in more urban areas or business districts, brands that might have done 80 percent or more of their sales at the lunch daypart and had a massive catering business serving the workers of downtown Chicago, San Francisc...
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced restaurants to rethink how they get their food into customers' hands, and technology has allowed them to get really creative with service. That's led to a real opportunity for restaurants of all service models to innovate—which is exactly what McAlister’s Deli is doing. Prior to the pandemic, McAlister's was doing dine-in, carryout, and third-party delivery model, while also testing curbside. After the pandemic, though, it’s expanded those service channels to inc...
In the five or six years prior to the pandemic, big-box fast casuals sprung up around the U.S. offering a high-quality experience meant to be enjoyed on-site. These kinds of restaurants were hit particularly hard by COVID-19, as they didn’t have the off-premises mechanisms that helped more traditional fast casuals turn things around last year. Hopdoddy is one of these so-called fast casual 2.0 brands with big footprints and comfortable seating, a laid-back experience that is best enjoyed in the ...
If you’re a restaurant industry professional, chances are your path to where you are today has included a lot of hustle, a lot of putting your head down and grinding out the job that needs to get done. You probably didn’t have a clearly articulated career ladder to climb or the attention of someone higher up who took you under their wing and taught you how things were supposed to be done. That’s because this rarely exists in the restaurant industry, outside maybe the major corporations. And that...
For many, the COVID-19 pandemic has been an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on life, to reassess what we’re doing and where we're going. That's been very true of restaurant companies, which have taken the opportunity to think more about their operations, their service, their menu, and their plans for the future, and for many, to use that reflection to reimagine their business model. Smashburger is one of those companies that has undergone a transformation in the last year, one partic...
COVID-19 is likely to give a jolt to the franchise world. Just like in the Great Recession, there will probably be a surge in people looking for a new career, driving demand for franchises sky high. And many franchisors are able to provide support and resources to their franchisees in times of crisis, making franchises a safer bet for those looking to jump into entrepreneurialism. Scott Greenberg is a franchising expert and author of the new book, “The Wealthy Franchisee: Game-Changing Steps to ...
Remember the chicken sandwich wars that launched with Popeyes’ new sandwich? Way back in 2019? We all called it a war but really, as with most marketing initiatives, it was mostly just tongue-in-cheek barbs and playful quips that brands slung at each other via social media. That playfulness disappeared in the early days of the pandemic as restaurant brands scrambled to come across as trustworthy and transparent. And while that playfulness has since returned to restaurant marketing, it's no doubt...
Just a few years ago, food halls were christened as the next big thing in foodservice. Like food trucks, every city had to have one and consumers had to be seen eating at one. Unfortunately for food halls, the COVID-19 pandemic was kind of like the anti-food hall; food halls are all about socialization, which is exactly what we lost with COVID. Reed Allen Slobusky had opened a food hall, Hall Pass in Salt Lake City, just before COVID-19 hit. But Slobusky—the founder of seven-unit fast casual Ski...
COVID-19 has affected limited- and full-service restaurants in totally different ways, with staggering implications for the future of the industry. Nobody knows this quite like Sam Fox. The founder of Fox Restaurant Concepts has developed both casual and fast-casual concepts, giving him a unique window into how the pandemic has altered service and hospitality for the future. Fox joins the podcast to discuss his entry into the ghost-kitchen space with Fly Bye. He also talks about how he’s had to ...
The 40/40 List launched in 2017 as a way to identify the quick serves and fast casuals that have the best shot at becoming the next big thing—the rising stars of the restaurant industry. Starting over each year with a new set of 40 brands, we've highlighted 200 concepts that we think have got what it takes to become the next Chipotle or Shake Shack. For our fifth edition of the 40/40 List, we'll be sharing interviews all month on the Fast Forward feed with founders and leaders at several of this...
The 40/40 List launched in 2017 as a way to identify the quick serves and fast casuals that have the best shot at becoming the next big thing—the rising stars of the restaurant industry. Starting over each year with a new set of 40 brands, we've highlighted 200 concepts that we think have got what it takes to become the next Chipotle or Shake Shack. For our fifth edition of the 40/40 List, we'll be sharing interviews all month on the Fast Forward feed with founders and leaders at several of this...
The 40/40 List launched in 2017 as a way to identify the quick serves and fast casuals that have the best shot at becoming the next big thing—the rising stars of the restaurant industry. Starting over each year with a new set of 40 brands, we've highlighted 200 concepts that we think have got what it takes to become the next Chipotle or Shake Shack. For our fifth edition of the 40/40 List, we'll be sharing interviews all month on the Fast Forward feed with founders and leaders at several of this...
The 40/40 List launched in 2017 as a way to identify the quick serves and fast casuals that have the best shot at becoming the next big thing—the rising stars of the restaurant industry. Starting over each year with a new set of 40 brands, we've highlighted 200 concepts that we think have got what it takes to become the next Chipotle or Shake Shack. For our fifth edition of the 40/40 List, we'll be sharing interviews all month on the Fast Forward feed with founders and leaders at several of this...
The 40/40 List launched in 2017 as a way to identify the quick serves and fast casuals that have the best shot at becoming the next big thing—the rising stars of the restaurant industry. Starting over each year with a new set of 40 brands, we've highlighted 200 concepts that we think have got what it takes to become the next Chipotle or Shake Shack. For our fifth edition of the 40/40 List, we'll be sharing interviews all month on the Fast Forward feed with founders and leaders at several of this...
We've all heard that full service has suffered the worst of the pandemic's effects, while quick service has thrived because of off-premises channels. But very few brands have experienced both sides of the service aisle quite like Dish Society. Launched in 2014, Dish Society is a flex-casual concept, serving counter service by day and full service by night at five Houston-area locations. And throughout the pandemic, the brand has witnessed first-hand how both service styles could be directly affe...
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurant operators have gotten really creative with their service models to get food in customers' hands. Full-service brands in particular have gotten a crash course in off-premises business and a limited-service model. Now one chain is making that change permanent. Bonchon, the Korean fried chicken chain, has developed a fast-casual prototype that it's going to stick with moving forward. CEO Flynn Dekker joins the podcast to talk about that decision, how dig...
Nontraditional venues like schools, sports arenas, hospitals, business centers, and airports have long been great opportunities for restaurants to get in front of new audiences. But those venues were particularly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, as many of them lost a vast majority of their audience, if not all of it. Sodexo is one facility management company that provides foodservice for nontraditional venues, and its leadership team has spent the last several months adapting to the pandemic and f...
Restaurant employees have had a brutal year. Not only are foodservice jobs disappearing along with restaurant and dining-room closures, but also, those who have managed to hold onto their jobs are being asked to put their health at risk while simultaneously abiding by more stringent safety standards and playing mask police, to boot. MOD Pizza cofounder and CEO Scott Svenson recognizes how hard the year has been on his employees. That's why his team has spent the pandemic doubling down on MOD's c...
There was a time when Voodoo Doughnut was a cash-only restaurant—in fact, that time was 2019. Yes, this Portland, Oregon–based doughnut shop was such an icon that it could get away with doing things like not accept credit cards and stay open 24 hours a day. But COVID-19 forced Voodoo to quickly catch up with reality, which it did by instituting things like third-party delivery and online ordering. Now the 10-unit brand is learning how to maintain its icon status while also modernizing its system...
