Operations

Long before his friends landed interviews for their first jobs, Lee Shadle began developing his first business, a fast-casual Italian restaurant called Pesto Creative Italian Bistro. As a junior at Ohio State University, Shadle created Pesto as a...

America loves the car. More than just a mode of transportation, the automobile can accommodate just about anything. People conceive babies, give birth and die in them. They change their clothes, put on makeup, read the paper, play games, talk on...

After weathering the stormy waters of produce contamination scandals, it looks like smoother sailing ahead for salad-only restaurant operatorsAfter all, their flagship item is widely popular and in step with culinary trends and current ideals of...

In spring 2005 a woman made national news by claiming she had discovered a severed finger in a cup of Wendy’s chili. Anna Ayala and her husband, Jaime Plascenia, both asserted that she had unwittingly bitten into the detached appendage...

For more than 50 years, McDonald’s has rolled with its opponents’ punches and watched its fortunes grow, especially in the recent past. The hamburger chain’s sales have increased for 55 straight months, the longest string in 27 years, with global...

Diners are impatient. They may fume when waiting for food at restaurants and get angry when they call and cannot book reservations.But they don’t patronize only restaurants that take reservations.Dining-guide publisher Tim Zagat says a customer’s...

It’s been said that everyone’s a critic, but never before has that adage applied so perfectly to the restaurant industry.With thousands of Internet bloggers writing about restaurants, hundreds of Web bulletin boards devoted to all things edible...

The best thing since sliced bread? Even more bread, it seems. Despite such challenges as the low-carb craze and fluctuating commodity costs, the American staple remains a favorite in all dayparts and restaurant segments.In fact, restaurants...

Advertising characters and icons are so prevalent in American culture that they sometimes transcend the companies they were created to represent. For instance, last fall ABC debuted “Cavemen,” a sitcom based on the Neanderthal-like ad characters...

It goes without saying that consistently delicious food is imperative to the success of a restaurant. But sometimes even a perfectly cooked steak or impeccable service is not enough to guarantee that a dining experience will stand out in customers...