Operations

As restaurant chains increase their efforts to target 18- to 34-year-olds, they’re quickly finding the best place to reach them is where they spend much of their time: on the phone. The latest chains to launch mobile or interactive...

At the research and development facility for OSI Restaurant Partners LLC in Tampa, Fla., Tim Gannon chats easily with Pauly Dauterive and Dave Ellis, two senior members of his R&D team. The trio volleys menu ideas for the company’s upcoming 20th...

NEW YORK Ted’s Montana Grill chain to several hundred restaurateurs, educators and reporters in the morning, then detailing the moves to a theater of college students in the afternoon. —Ted...

Being concentrated in different parts of the country, with different-sized chains and following different franchising philosophies, Lenny’s Sub Shops, Firehouse Subs and Silver Mine Subs don’t have to worry about each other when it...

DALLAS —Regional players in the barbecue segment are working to maintain their grip on escalating operating costs, with several chains launching fast-casual variants that help control commodity and payroll expenses. ...

Jon Luther, chairman and chief executive of Dunkin’ Brands Inc., regularly gets locked out of the corporate test kitchen he envisioned and built. The research and development team “actually precludes me,” Luther says.But he...

Some restaurant operators are scoring points with ecominded customers by replacing commercially bottled water with “house” waters made by filtering, chilling and carbonating tap water on the premises.Among the equipment they’re installing for this...

California Pizza Kitchen Inc.’s test kitchen in Los Angeles is part menu developer’s fantasy office and part playground for the 200-unit chain’s co-chief executives, Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield. Every sparkling piece of top-of-the-line...