5 must-know restaurant news stories: May 22, 2014

TGI Fridays plans summer road trip to reboot image (The New York Times)
Fresh off its sale to Sentinel Capital Partners and TriArtisan Capital Partners, casual-dining pioneer TGI Fridays will embark on a “Summer of Fridays” tour with food trucks to sample new menu items to a younger crowd across the country. The first stop reportedly is the Boston Calling music festival, where Fridays want to show consumers that it has become more than the chain their parents enjoyed in the ’70s or that was lampooned as Tchotchke’s in the 1999 movie “Office Space.”

—Mark Brandau

As many as 5,000 at risk in hepatitis A case at Missouri restaurant (Springfield News-Leader)
As many as 5,000 people may have been exposed in May to the hepatitis A virus at a Red Robin restaurant in Springfield, Mo., health officials said Wednesday. The Springfield-Greene County Health Department has set up immunization clinics for people who were at the restaurant from May 8 to May 16. The virus, which can be spread through food handling, affects the liver, and has been linked to one worker.
 
—Ron Ruggless

Taco Bell’s plans for a beer milkshake will have to wait (Bloomberg Businessweek)
The chain's new fast-casual concept, U.S. Taco Co. and Urban Taproom, will not be permitted to serve alcohol for its July opening, due to problems in securing a liquor license in Huntington Beach, Calif.

—Lisa Jennings

Brooklyn barbecue takes over the world (Vice)
The New York City borough's barbecue style is being assimilated in places like Colombia, Spain, Panama, Sweden, England, Japan and even other parts of the U.S.

—Marcella Veneziale

Tasting New York restaurant Prune's new menu (The New York Times)
Gabrielle Hamilton, the award-winning chef of the always-busy restaurant Prune in New York City, has completely overhauled the restaurant's menu, having grown weary of the old dishes after documenting them for her cookbook. The new menu has prominent sour flavors and pronounced use of vegetables, such as the salad that tops her pork cutlet Milanese, that are emblematic of what many chefs are doing this year.

—Bret Thorn