The Jersey Mike’s acquisition and McDonald’s new value mealThe Jersey Mike’s acquisition and McDonald’s new value meal

On this week’s Extra Serving, NRN editor in chief Sam Oches and executive editor Alicia Kelso discuss Blackstone’s acquisition of Jersey Mike’s. The brand’s founder and CEO Peter Cancro claimed it was still in the “early innings” of growth, so what should we expect from this sandwich player going forward?

Plus, McDonald’s has had a busy couple of weeks, playing both offense (debuting the McValue menu, offering a jug of McRib sauce for sale) and defense (paying roughly $100 million to move past its E. coli outbreak, suffering from espresso machine outages). How might this affect performance at the Golden Arches?

And other major chains are rolling out new marketing campaigns, from Shake Shack’s partnership with Delta Airlines to Pizza Hut’s rollout of a tomato wine; Sam and Alicia talk about why these campaigns can have an impact on business in the long run.

Finally, in this week’s extra serving, senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn joins to talk about trends to watch for in 2025, from algae oil to oysters to martinis.