Nation’s Restaurant News teams up with Datassential and its Firefly data platform to present a look at the restaurant landscape that tracks the performance of the largest 500 chains.
Operators in the breakfast-and-lunch segment are finding that the “early to bed, early to rise” business model can make for happy employees and healthy returns—no matter the economy.With hours that contribute to workers’ quality of life, limited...
IT’S BEEN DUBBED THE GREAT RECESSION. It’s been characterized as a perfect storm. It’s been described as the worst operating environment that many restaurateurs can remember.Today’s economic setting—with its reduced consumer spending, diminished...
Chef-owner David Machado has been synonymous since 2003 with upscale neighborhood restaurants on the east side of Portland, Ore. But this month he returns to his downtown roots with the opening of Nel Centro in the 175-room Hotel Modera.Prior to...
McDonald’s Corp. is working a winning plan through its system of owner-operators, says Beaverton, Ore., franchisee Don Armstrong.The world’s largest hamburger chain, with more than 32,000 restaurants in 100 countries, posted a 4-percent profit...
The good news is that the price of many foods has come down over the past year. The bad news is that some restaurants are seeing their customer counts come down, too. Others are seeing check averages fall, and many are seeing both.As sales drop...
The genesis of Chick-fil-A’s Char-grilled & Fruit Salad, a Menu-Masters winner for “Best Menu/Line Extension,” goes back many years and speaks volumes about customer input. In the early 1990s, Woody Faulk, the chain’s vice president of...
It’s a typical day in the life of Wolfgang Puck: The Austria-born culinary phenom is up to his lederhosen in the details of yet another restaurant opening in Los Angeles, home to his self-named company. He just learned that the opening...
When it comes to cooking, chef David Burke says he’s a “showoff.” But in Burke’s dining rooms his innovative dishes steal the show.The chef’s “angry lobster” with hot pepper sauce and claws facing up toward diners, for example, evokes a punk’s...
At Qdoba Mexican Grill, it’s healthy to go naked—but that’s not an invitation for customers to doff their garments. In Qdoba parlance, “naked” refers to menu items served without tortillas. Last year, Qdoba earned a “Smart Meal”...
