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For much of March, the threat of COVID-19 grew as the infection spread. On March 11, that problem became very real for thousands of restaurant operators and millions of employees, [...]

The Chipotle Mexican Grill in Newport Beach, Calif., won't open for another three hours, but the proving ground for the concept's next iteration is already abuzz with the sounds of [...]

Outside Greg Creed's office in Yum Brands' gleaming Piano, Texas, global headquarters is a standard issue pingpong table, paddles and ball at the ready. The rec room staple is hardly [...]

The restaurant industry of today is in many respects the outcome of currents that can be traced back for decades--through hippies and beatniks, GIs and flappers, disco and the Charleston. [...]

At ages 22 and 25, respectively, Holley Hood and Hayden Straus beam with the enthusiasm of a young couple embarking on something big. Even they seem to struggle with grasping [...]

Quick-service restaurants still have a hammerlock on off-peak business, winning snackers and late-night diners with the potent combo of attractive prices and convenience. But full-service places are nibbling into QSRs' [...]

After fizzling in their first go-round two years ago, ghost kitchens are quickly catching hold among restaurant operations of all shapes and sizes- matching the diversity of the models being [...]

Once, they were considered pirates in nicer clothing, a mob of capital-rich opportunists flashing enough cash to buy control of restaurant companies, pillage the assets and then sell at a [...]

Steve Sather doesn't have much appreciation for the art of memo writing. In a 40-year restaurant career that will end this year when he retires as CEO of El Polio [...]

FINDING A TURNAROUND COURSE FOR ARDY'S WAS EASY FOR ITS NEW CEO. ALL HE DID WAS ASK. TO HEAR PAUL BROWN TELL IT, anyone with ears could have put the [...]

There's no place like home, according to Dorothy. Clearly the 'Wizard of Oz' heroine didn't work in the restaurant business, where operators seem to think a leap from a secure [...]

During Ron Shaich's 36 years as a restaurant leader, the Boston native's one major failure may have been retirement. He tried a Shaichian form of it back in 2010, cutting [...]

The size of his operations dwarfs all other franchises (and many restaurant parent companies, as well). Yet Flynn relishes his role as franchising's poster boy-and he's the best in the [...]

REMEMBERING FRED DELUCA CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SUBWAY Fred DeLuca never reduced the formula for building the world's largest restaurant chain into a neat sound bite of a philosophy, but he [...]

If any upshot of the National Labor Relations Board's recent bombshell ruling is a certainty at this point, it's that lawyers are going to make a lot of money. The [...]

Whether it's 140 emojis or a single word, a well-done app or a top-to-bottom initiative, these chains represent the best in social media and technology as winners of our first-ever [...]

At age 3 6, Mike Kulp sits atop a franchise empire that generated sales of nearly $700 million from 570 restaurants in 2017. How he got there is an illustration [...]

Illustration by Paul Blow '60 Minutes' recently turned its cameras on Danny Meyer's plan for scrapping tips and paying merit-based wages to all employees, servers and kitchen staffers alike. But [...]

With shoulder-length hair, a bushy beard, the lankiness of a street messiah and the clothing to match, Michael Lastoria looks more like the lead from 'Jesus Christ Superstar' than CEO [...]

A high ranking on the Top 500 can be a slippery perch, as several chart toppers proved this year with an involuntary game of Chutes and Ladders. The breathtaking slides [...]

The full-service chain segment was heading for a reset before the first dining room closed because of COVID-19. The pandemic just took off the brakes. The sector is morphing into [...]

The founder and CEO of high-flying Texas Roadhouse seems to delight in going his own way. He recently hinted at some new pursuits, without giving more than these sketchy clues. [...]

The Challenge Takers Elizabeth Blau CEO, Blau+Associates; consultant, The Rainbow Room Amy Bouzaglo Proprietor, Amy's Baking Co. Samy Bouzaglo Proprietor, Amy's Baking Co. Ralph Brennan President, Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group [...]

She's tasked with anticipating where consumer preferences will be down the road, and making sure Red Robin and her team are there, too. Pundits once called it future shock--the pain [...]

Longtime fans of Chick-fil-A's coleslaw weren't overjoyed to learn the side was being dropped to make room on the menu for healthier choices. And that included members of the Cathy [...]

On first blush, it's like learning Warren Buffer has changed his name to Moonbeam and moved into a commune, one sweat lodge over from Donald Trump's. Panera Bread, one of [...]

Nobody has to be convinced anymore of the impact social media is having on the restaurant landscape. And while the monster chains have staked out big swaths of social media [...]

Quietly they become the power center of the industry. Throughout 2012, we celebrate them. The Great Recession left clear winners and losers in the chain restaurant game. Fast-food places? Burger [...]

The Champagne corks should have been popping for Eric Justice. Barely into his 40s, the admittedly driven chef had achieved the sort of success that instructors recount in culinary schools [...]

I lost my cool--at the wrong person Kat Cole President, Cinnabon Not long after rising into her first executive post at a casual chain, Kat Cole learned that higher-ups don't [...]

There's a cyberwar for customers going on. These guys are winning ... for now JOE SORGE SOUNDED ABOUT THREE CHARACTERS AWAY FROM A TWEET THAT COULD MELT STONE. 'Wait a [...]

Few restaurant ventures have evolved from founder's dream to full-scale chain without the intervention of an experienced veteran who understands how to put the practicalities behind a promising idea. Given [...]

Restaurateurs tend to wring their hands and cuss when they consider their staffing challenges. But if they dried their eyes long enough to peer over some statisticians' shoulders, they might [...]

With inspiration from an unlikely source, operations have changed significantly inside the kitchens of Legal Sea Foods, the high-volume polished-casual operation concentrated along the East Coast. Supplies have been moved [...]

A South Carolina company in the heart of tobacco country decides it needs help in stoking the testosterone-laced operation with talent. Who better to handle the task than a highly [...]

Jerry Murrell was too convulsed with laughter to answer the question: Had he made any memorable mistakes in the early days of Five Guys Burgers and Fries? 'You're kidding, right?' [...]

HE'S BUILT AN EMPIRE PUTTING EMPLOYEES FIRST. NOW THAT HE'S TAKEN SHAKE SHACK PUBLIC, WILL SHAREHOLDERS BE OK WITH STAYING IN THE BACKSEAT? As CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, [...]

Had to kill it, didn't you? In any other industry, and even some lame-brained provinces of ours, the herd might've accepted the end of business as we've known it with [...]

The historic $2 trillion aid package passed in March is packed with extraordinary measures to keep the economy from breaking down amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its expected aftermath. Here [...]

Before the coronavirus scrambled the restaurant business, an upheaval was already remaking one of its bigger segments. Past Top 500s sported a number of family-dining chains high in the rankings, [...]

Grinding out story after story about the coronavirus's devastation of the restaurant business, I yearn for the day health officials tell us it's OK to dine out again. In my [...]

How are operators going to land customers and channel a profit back to investors in today's landscape? That's what about three dozen chains and a number of their suppliers shared [...]

We've found the real deals tend to share certain traits. Here's our checklist. We're petitioning our parent company to invest in one of those mixed martial arts octagons so we [...]

He's been a master at building the next hot concept. Now he's showing young restaurateurs the way. It's an old c-suite maxim: Surround yourself with people who compensate for the [...]

LIGHTS! CAMERA! ...wait a minute. With the stock market zigzagging, the job market in the doldrums, and consumer confidence barely registering, these can't be the most auspicious times to debut [...]

There's still plenty of wheezing and groaning from the restaurant intensive-care ward, but a few serious turnaround cases appear ready for discharge. Here are five once-ailing Top 500 brands showing [...]

Joe Lee, CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., is optimistic that he can propel the company toward improved earnings now that it has been freed of reporting directly to General Mills. Analysts say the large restaurant operator has hit a growth plateau, and add that its expected 12% sales growth is not very impressive. Lee points out the improvements made in the Olive Garden and Red Lobster concepts, and says that expansion plans for the pair will go ahead in 1996., Reminders of Darden restaurant's past are all over Orlando, from the original Olive Garden to the shuttered China Coast across the street. But just as easy to spot these days [...]

A survey of executive compensation for the top 100 CEOs in the restaurant industry for 1994 shows a marked decline in overall earnings levels. Overall compensation for these CEOs reached $61.1 million, which is just over 50% of what the Top 10 received in 1993. The discrepancy in these figures stems from a sharp decline in the value of corresponding stocks making the executives' stock options less appealing for cashing out. The top earner in 1994 was Taco Cabana's Richard Cervera with $4.3 million, versus 1993's top earner, Brinker's Ron McDougall with $20.7 million., FOR SOME OF THE INDUSTRY'S BEST-PAID CEOs, LAST YEAR BROUGHT A RETURN TO earth. The $20-million-range compensation packages of 1993 were nowhere to be seen in 1994, deflated by a [...]

Restaurant Business surveyed 550 fast-food chains in the US and found that 1995's top 50 fastest-growing posted total year-on-year sales increases of 49.4%. However, those same 50 systems had only 7,791 units, compared to the 17,151 held by the previous year's top 50. Lists rank chains by percentage increase in unit volume and percentage increase in system units. A synopsis of each chain, giving systemwide sales, the number of total units and average unit sales, is also provided., Some say the restaurant industry is already choked with too many outlets. Here with the counterpoint are the Top 50 Growth Chains. A diverse group, they led the industry last [...]

The restaurant industry has obtained $2.4 billion in financing from 1991-95 compared with $1.7 billion from 1980-89. The abundance of available capital does not mean that the investments have been distributed in a logical, equitable or wise manner. Some restaurateurs obtain financing from banks, others obtain financing on their credit cards and still others obtain financing from family or friends., LOUIS STOICO RUNS A NICE OPERATION, A 10-unit Italian chain with proven appeal, a 1.9:1 sales-to-investment ratio and plenty of room to grow. All he needs, says the Wichita restaurateur, [...]