The Latest
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9 restaurant industry events to attend in 2024
The coming year is packed with conferences focused on hot-button restaurant issues ranging from franchise operations to generative artificial intelligence.
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Empowering employees: The transformative impact of pay optionality
Employee pay flexibility: paying your staff how they want, when they want and where they want.
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RBI names CFO, shakes up leadership
The company named Sami Siddiqui as its CFO while Jeff Klein will fill Siddiqui’s previous role as president of Popeyes U.S. Thiago Santelmo was also promoted to president of international.
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Taco Bell to launch Cantina Chicken menu nationwide
Five items debut on March 21, and Taco Bell rewards members have exclusive early access to select offerings.
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Sam Nazarian buys Kitchen United IP, forms new virtual brand platform
Nazarian will combine these unspecified components with Nextbite and C3 to support the new concept, Everybody Eats, which has goals that echo the growth plans of failed ghost kitchen pioneers.
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How &pizza’s new CEO is transforming the chain’s loyalty program, operations
Burns, who has held the position for over two months, is leading a major tech overhaul at the chain, including a new rewards scheme, app and website.
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Chick-fil-A to open first digital-only pickup restaurant in NYC
The 3,500-square-foot walk-up restaurant is the first of two digital-focused locations to open this year, with an elevated drive-thru expected to follow.
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Carrabba’s brings sandwiches to lunch menu after catering success
The daypart now includes six bistro sandwich combo meals previously only available through Carrabba’s catering brand, which has exceeded company expectations since launching in 2023.
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Danny Meyer’s PE firm invests $20M in Five Iron Golf
Enlightened Hospitality Investments’ minority investment will help the golf-simulator chain accelerate growth and increase its offerings.
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Krystal opening new c-store design with Circle K in North Carolina
The latest prototype, which is expected to open this fall, features improved diner accessibility and operations flow between the restaurant and its c-store host.
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Casey’s foodservice is thriving beyond pizza
The c-store retailer saw strong results last quarter from items like its new chicken sandwich and burgers, CEO Darren Rebelez said.
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Boston Market owner’s second bankruptcy filing dismissed
A judged barred Jay Pandya, who may face lawsuits against the chain over unpaid bills, from submitting another Chapter 11 filing for six months.
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DoorDash adds AI to chat feature to detect harassment between workers and customers
The aggregator is replacing an old chat monitoring tool with SafeChat+, which can detect inappropriate content without keyword matching.
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7-Eleven beefs up foodservice offerings
The retailer has made the first additions of the year to its food lineup, including burritos, meat snacks and tropical juices.
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The restaurant labor market in 6 key statistics
Slowing turnover, steady unemployment and flat real wage growth point to growing restaurant employer power over workers compared to 2022 and 2021.
Updated March 11, 2024 -
Little Caesars joins QSR snack trend with bite-sized Crazy Puffs
The chain is catching up to competitors like Pizza Hut and Papa Johns, which both offer handheld, pizza-themed snacking items for on-the-go diners.
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Texas judge vacates joint employer rule
The rule, which was set to go into effect Monday, would have lowered the bar for joint employer status.
Updated March 11, 2024 -
Subway franchisees pay $218K for allegedly pocketing employees’ tips
A DOL investigation found managers and owners illegally participated in employee tip pools and manually adjusted hours to avoid paying overtime.
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DC passes bill that protects restaurants with service fees from litigation
Service fees of 20% or less will be approved, so long as fees are clearly disclosed to diners. The move follows forecasts that such restaurant fees will proliferate in the District, which recently eliminated the tip credit.
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DC bill mandates study of delivery worker conditions, pay
As part of the restaurant rules package that passed in the District this week, the city council requires aggregators and restaurants to agree that delivery workers are allowed to use restaurant bathrooms.
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Noodles & Company names Drew Madsen CEO, preps for menu overhaul
After three quarters of sliding sales, Madsen will oversee menu changes and digital strategies to woo lapsed and new customers after a tough year.
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Publix adds burrito bowl bars to mainstream supermarkets
The grocery chain is bringing the bars into its traditional stores after first offering them at its GreenWise Markets.
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Presto Automation is risking its business on drive-thru voice AI
The tech firm wants to spin off its tablet payment business, which generates roughly 90% of its revenue and is losing major clients, to focus on its fledgling drive-thru voice automation tool.
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Starbucks debuts 2 iced lavender drinks for spring
The matcha and latte LTOs aren’t part of the new beverage platforms announced earlier this year, but capitalize on growing sales of cold beverages and tea-based lattes.
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Taco Bell franchisee sued after manager sexually harassed teen employees
Charter Foods faces two lawsuits from women who were harassed by a convicted sex offender working as their shift supervisor in West Virginia.
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First Watch will enter New England, Las Vegas as EBITDA nears $100M
After passing $1 billion in sales, the breakfast chain is eyeing new markets where its suburban-first system could insulate it from high development costs.