The movie business is having a blockbuster summer, with restaurants enjoying tie-ins with such certifiable hits as “Barbie” and “Super Mario Bros.” But marketing collaborations haven’t been the only ways the film and restaurant industries have fed off one another, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests. The two have been intertwined likely from the first time a director yelled “Action!” Along with TV, movies have used restaurants as the settings for everything from gangland shootouts t...
Aug 29, 2023•7 min
Every now and then, a public restaurant company finds itself in the crosshairs of an activist investor who’s convinced it can do a better job of running the business. But few of those attempts to wrest control of an operation come close to Starboard Capital’s successful attempt nine years ago to boot the whole board of Darden Restaurants and sharply change the casual-dining giant’s direction. And now Starboard has another casual-dining behemoth in its sights. The investment firm has filed notice...
Aug 22, 2023•9 min
Restaurateurs greeted the initial demands for a $15 minimum wage with disbelief and ridicule. Now the industry is facing proposals to set a floor of $30 an hour for some employees. Is it déjà vu all over again? Will that level of pay become the new wage target for organized labor and politicians, the way $15 has been for years? Or is the demand for a $30 wage merely a test to see how high the pay floor can be lifted? This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks for clues in a recollection of h...
Aug 15, 2023•10 min
McDonald’s and Starbucks have both aired plans to shoehorn more units into less densely populated markets they would have bypassed with nary a second thought 10 or 20 years ago. Chances are they may find a few traditional Dairy Queens already pumping out cones and cups in those long-overlooked nooks. The home of the Dilly Bar and the Blizzard was an early believer in the potential of the byways and crannies where the competition for frozen treats—or a fast-food treat of any kind—was far from bli...
Aug 08, 2023•10 min
Boston Market is once again snagging headlines , though not for the reasons that made it one of the most talked-about restaurant concepts of the 1990s. The talk back then was of upending the industry with an operation unlike anything the business had ever seen. Its management crowed about the brand hitting the $1 billion systemwide sales mark faster than any concept that had preceded it. Now the chain is struggling to pay its bills. Whatever happens to the self-professed pioneer of “home meal re...
Aug 01, 2023•13 min
He ran a soft-porn magazine, called Muhammad Ali a pal, cycled through romantic interests the way some restaurants run through specials, and relaxed by racing boats and piloting a hot-air balloon.
Jul 25, 2023•14 min
Imagine that you’re the head of the second largest restaurant company in the business, overseeing the likes of Burger King, Godfather’s, Steak and Ale and Bennigan’s, making a huge salary, though you’ve already made millions upon millions. But you decide to pack it in to buy an upstart concept no one had ever heard of, to start all over in building a restaurant brand. As this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind recounts, that was exactly what Norman Brinker did while heading the enormous restaur...
Jul 18, 2023•12 min
Ask outsiders to name the visionaries who built the restaurant industry into the social fixture it is today and chances are you’ll hear names like Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas and Howard Schultz. Odds are the list won’t include a force who midwifed a whole category of the business, even though he was active in the field far more recently than those dynasty builders. And that’s not even considering his storybook life outside of the business. His bio is the stuff of movies. Indeed, he figured into two, p...
Jul 11, 2023•11 min
If you’ve ever wondered who came up with the idea of having servers introduce themselves by name, ponder no more. The lore holds that it was Joe Baum, who was to the restaurant business what Steve Jobs was to personal tech. And how about the ubiquitous gimmick of having the now-familiar server approach with a giant peppermill, ready to do some personalized grinding? Same guy. But Baum’s impact wasn’t limited to tableside theater, though he exceled at that mission. Baum was also a key force in lo...
Jun 27, 2023•10 min
This year’s baseball season has been a tough one for some of the biggest names in the sport. Might it be time for some of the fallen stars to consider a late-innings switch into the restaurant business? On this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we take a look at a few of the celebrated restaurateurs who made a big name for themselves on the baseball diamond first. Some youngsters may not even recognize the names Stan Musial or Boog Powell, but only someone recently thawed out of a...
Jun 20, 2023•10 min
The restaurant industry’s romance with Wall Street is back on, with chain after chain set to find out how much the stock market loves them. Cava is expected to get a read this week, possibly followed by brands ranging from Gen Korean BBQ to Panera Bread and its sibling concepts, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels. Will the stampede set a new high-water mark for restaurant IPOs? Can the volume come close to the torrent of offerings that stock buyers embraced in the go-go 1990s? More than 70...
Jun 13, 2023•9 min
The jingle tinkling out incessantly from rolling ice cream trucks is as much a sign of summer as anything Mother Nature flashes. But for the treat purveyors themselves, it might as well be a bugle sounding, “Charge!” It’s time for their turf war to resume. For decades, the treat-shops-on-wheels have clashed over who has dibs to particular routes and stopping points. On this week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we look at what’s behind that long-running feud, and how it might material...
Jun 06, 2023•9 min
Let the swells have their $900 fish whisker souffle. New York City’s true gift to the culinary arts is just fine for me. I’m talking hot dogs, the consummate Big Apple delight. From stockbroker to starving student, New Yorkers have a special fondness for the $2.50 tube steak, especially if it fueled their climb from down-and-out to doing OK. Come along as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast slathers on the onion relish for a taste of what hot dogs have meant to New Yorkers, as strange as that ...
May 30, 2023•10 min
Cookie concepts are growing at a head-turning pace. If that sounds like déjà vu all over again, you’re showing your age. Indeed, the restaurant business saw a similar boom in the segment nearly 50 years ago, when consumers found their indulgence opportunities increasing at a breakneck clip because of upstarts like Mrs. Field’s, Famous Amos and David’s Cookies. What happened to those champions of the chocolate chip? How did that surge differ from what we’re seeing today from the likes of Crumble ...
May 16, 2023•9 min
Ever wonder how a high-end restaurant chain could end up with a clunky name like Ruth’s Chris Steak House? If you’re familiar with the Ruth in that moniker, the mystery is about as vexing as picking an even number between one and three. There was no way that a force like Ruth Fertel would not leave her mark on the business, literally and figuratively. Here’s just a few bulleted items from her life story: She didn’t enter the industry until age 38, looking for a way to pay for her two boys’ colle...
May 09, 2023•9 min
Restaurants have a notoriously high mortality rate. How, then, did a windowless fish house tucked beneath a New York City train station make it through two world wars, a depression and a steady onslaught of new competition? Join me on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast as we look at how the Grand Central Oyster Bar has remained a Big Apple hotspot without devolving into a museum or a tourist trap. We might not score a dozen oysters for the once-prevailing price of 35 cents, but we’ll see how ...
May 02, 2023•10 min
The backhand McDonald’s caught from its franchisees last week is proof that friction can erupt between the home office and field operations of any restaurant chain, regardless of its success. By Big Mac standards, the strife is a low point in relations with a group the franchisor has long lauded as its secret sauce. But the strain is nothing compared to the hostilities that very openly erupted between a hot concept and its licensees 20 years ago. Join me on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewi...
Apr 25, 2023•12 min
McDonald’s has announced that it’s tweaking its burgers to enhance their flavor and overall appeal. Judging from history, the move will either prove a stroke of genius or one of the worst mistakes Big Mac has ever made. This week on Restaurant Rewind, we look back at what happened when Big Mac’s chief rival overhauled its main customer lure. Join me as we recount how Burger King’s revamped Whopper was received. (Here’s a hint: You won’t find the updated version on the menu today.)...
Apr 18, 2023•8 min
Even casual listeners can hear plenty of wheezing these days from ghost kitchen and virtual concept specialists. The quick about-face in that sector calls to mind a boom that looked at the start of this century like it would reset competition for families’ dinner business—only to collapse in short order, helped along by the Great Recession. If you’re not familiar with meal assembly and prep concepts, you either weren’t in the business back then, or you’ve repressed the memory. Join me for this e...
Apr 11, 2023•11 min
Pop quiz time! Regardless of a restaurant’s design, menu or pricing, its guests will be provided with an amenity that started as a quasi-blanket, morphed into a marketing tool in 1887, and survived an onslaught of forks as American colonists rolled east. Name that restaurant staple. Or, hit the play button on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast to trek back to ancient Greece, where the correct answer had its start as an edible remedy for greasy fingers. Join me this episode for a surprising lo...
Apr 04, 2023•11 min
Starbucks has turned the dial on its hoopla machine all the way to 11 for the introduction of its new olive oil-infused beverages, a line the coffee giant is touting as The Next Big Thing. If the situation feels like a rerun, you may be recalling the blare of trumpets that similarly heralded such past up-enders as Evolution Fresh juices, La Boulange baked goods, or even Starbucks-brand music stores. To be fair, there’s no reason to doubt the new drinks will prove more of a Pumpkin Spice Latte th...
Mar 28, 2023•10 min
If the term “double-double, animal style” is Greek to you, then you’ve likely never stood before a white-uniformed young person in a peaked cap, specifying what sort of onions you want atop your In-N-Out burger. Plenty of regional chains enjoy a strong local following. In the instance of 7 5 -year-old In-N-Out, we’re clearly talking about a cult—one that makes a hardcore Chick-fil-A fan seem wishy-washy. What is it about an old-line burger chain that inspires such loyalty? The food is definitely...
Mar 21, 2023•11 min
Long before Jerry Richardson rose to prominence as owner of the Carolina Panthers football team, he’d distinguished himself as a pioneer of the fast-food restaurant business. He not only developed much of the Hardee’s burger chain as a franchisee in the 1960s and '70s, but would go on to oversee such brands as Denny’s, El Pollo Loco and Quincy’s. By the time he retired in 1995, he was responsible for more than 2, 500 restaurants. Richardson died earlier this month at age 86. His connection to th...
Mar 14, 2023•10 min
Drive-thru lanes veered beyond the fast-food business during the pandemic, meriting at least a road test by restaurant concepts of all stripes. Time will tell if the trend continues, but the convenience’s newfound prevalence underscores a question for students of the business: Who came up with the idea of car-window service in the first place? This week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast takes on the question, which proves more difficult to answer than may have been expected. Host and Re...
Mar 07, 2023•8 min
The story is a familiar one today: A new restaurant venture doesn’t bother to include dining or seating areas because its focus is exclusively on hot food to go. It’s the rationale behind such new concepts as Chipotle’s Farmesa bowls spinoff, Golden Corral’s Homestyle Kitchen, Buffalo Wild Wings’ BWW Go or Texas Roadhouse’s Jaggers, to name just a few examples. The list seems to grow daily. But there’s nothing new about the strategy, as this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast report...
Feb 28, 2023•10 min
The themes of several big restaurant chains’ latest marketing campaigns may be instantly recognizable to consumers of a certain vintage. And that familiarity might be exactly what they're shooting for. As this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind reports, the newest way for marketers of scale to cut through the clutter is by using an old but reliable tagline, theme or jingle. Consider the latest efforts from Wendy’s and Burger King, or the campaign Outback Steakhouse says it's developing. Which i...
Feb 21, 2023•8 min
After a string of scrapped launches, Chipotle Mexican Grill is trying again to establish a second restaurant brand. Will its secret startup find the staying power that escaped the previous ventures? With the test of a bowl concept looking like a “go” for the burrito powerhouse, this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast delves into those earlier stabs at diversification. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo fires up the time machine for a recount of Chipotle’s short-lived incursio...
Feb 14, 2023•9 min
Food, service and ambience have long been the fundamental means for differentiating one restaurant from another. Now a new variable is gaining importance as the industry’s labor plight forces a hard decision on operators: When should their restaurants be open? As this week’s edition of RB’s Restaurant Rewind reports, concepts are adding or forgoing dayparts as they more carefully balance sales potential against the difficulties of staffing for those hours. Brunch is drawing entrants throughout t...
Feb 07, 2023•8 min
Two of the restaurant industry’s oldest full-service chains have declared they’re not ready for the old concepts home. Steak and Ale and Red Lobster have both indicated in recent weeks that they’re set to pursue new beginnings in casual dining, the market they helped to create in the mid-1960s. The efforts are a gamble. But that’s fitting for brands that started as bold challenges to the status quo. Without their operational and marketing nonconformity, the full-service chain business might be v...
Jan 31, 2023•10 min
Turning the calendar page to a new year is often the time for a reality check. Where’s the restaurant industry in January 2023? And how do expectations for the next 12 months stack up against recollections of the past 12? There’s no shortage of opinions on what’s ahead for the business. But one thing seems to be a point of agreement: We’re far from the cliff’s edge of three years ago, when the world was first hearing of this strange and aggressive killer called COVID-19. Forgotten how eerie and ...
Jan 10, 2023•8 min
