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When Todd Barrick gets up in the morning, he checks refrigeration temperatures at his seven Domino's units, based in Gettysburg, Pa.-- on his phone. If one store has neglected to [...]

CEO Michael Mohammed had a taquito problem. As his 33-unit Chronic Tacos expanded out of Southern California, it was rethinking its menu. The deep-fried taquito, Mohammed says, was not an [...]

THREE THINGS IT TAKES TO SUCCEED IN THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS THESE DAYS: A GOOD MENU, GOOD HELP AND A GOOD EMPLOYMENT LAWYER. IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS, LABOR REGULATORS HAVE [...]

Mauricio Arroyave has his feet in three worlds: Latin America, the United States and the restaurant industry. Born in Colombia, he was a toddler when his mother immigrated to Chicago. [...]

Everyone is clamoring to be the next Chipotle. So what are the secrets to success for this industry strongman? We lift the foil for a closer look. In 2005, Laura [...]

Don Fox was busy designing a health-insurance plan for his workers when he got an unexpected reprieve from Uncle Sam: an extra year. Unlike many of his colleagues, he decided [...]

One month this spring, Mario Marovic was paying $20 for a case of limes. The next month, he was paying $100. It was a squeeze for Matador Cantina, his Mexican [...]

A few years ago, Bruce Thomas pulled the tip jars off his counters. It was better than getting sued. As director of operations for to Dunkin' Donuts around Massachusetts, Thomas [...]

Will a wage hike hurt businesses or help workers? Both sides dig in. Karlyn Dozier is a 34-year-old single mom from New Orleans. For the past lo years, she's worked [...]

Facing a shallow labor pool and stepped-up enforcement by the Feds, the restaurant industry is putting pressure on lawmakers to ramp up immigration reform. And change may be closer than [...]

It's the new Public Health Enemy Number One. What's a restaurant to do? From the opening piano chords, it sounds like a nostalgic ad for Coke. Video clips show a [...]

Temple Grandin still remembers a day, back in 1999, when she led a restaurant vice president on his first tour of a slaughterhouse. 'That day, we saw a half-dead, skinny [...]

Twenty years later, Paul Booras still remembers the taste of a locally grown tomato. Working at an upscale Boston restaurant, he took a road trip with the chef when the [...]

More than any other industry, restaurants are being targeted by international crime gangs who are making a killing off your customers' credit card numbers--and leaving you to pay the bill. [...]

The silver lining of the economic downturn was cheap leases. The deals aren't as easy to find anymore. But don't hand over that first born just yet. Steven Josovitz shakes [...]

To bring near-universal health care to the nation, the restaurant industry is being called on to carry a large burden. Here's what you need to know. 'The way [the health-care [...]

Like Most restaurant owners, Nigel and Julia Widdowson of Bangall, New York, work hard to keep a roof over their heads. Unlike most, their roof is covered with dirt. When [...]

AT FIRST GLANCE, 2010 SHOULD BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE EXECUTIVE search. When restaurant chains around the country are shutting doors and laying off seasoned managers, it ought to [...]

WHEN IT COMES TO CUTTING ENERGY bills in your restaurant, how low can you go? You've already done the quick and easy stuff, like plugging leaks and screwing in those [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A trade-up sandwich place shifts focus to a trade-down lunch destination 'WICHCRAFT, 12 UNITS, NEW YORK CITY Initially positioned as a place where New Yorkers could trade up [...]

IMAGINE YOU HAD TO BUY A $30,000 STOVE or refrigerator every year. You'd check specs, research brands and seek the best features for the least money. Right? Well guess what: [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LEAVE IT TO AMERICA'S RESTAURANTS TO FIND THE UPSIDE OF A SLOWDOWN. The economy's current slump, say restaurant experts, could be the toughest to hit foodservice in decades. [...]

Supermarket delis are taking on new identities. While most customers have historically perceived outlets as venues for fresh and prepackaged meats and cheeses, an increasing number of shoppers now are [...]

A CROSS THE VAST SERENGETI LANDSCAPE OF RESTAURANT financing, there is an 800-pound gorilla roaming. Its name is GE Capital, it's very hungry--and it wants to be your friend. Through [...]

Moms are the queens of the supermarket deli. Mothers control the purse strings for 80 percent of the average family's purchases and spend $1.6 trillion annually on consumer goods and [...]

SELWYN YOSSLOWITZ WAS READY TO TAKE HIS SEVEN-UNIT MARMALADE Cafe to the next level. All he needed was pockets deeper than his own. Since 1990, when Yosslowitz and two partners [...]

IT'S THE HOTTEST, WELL, BUZZWORD IN MARKETING. BUZZ. EVERYBODY wants it. Not everybody has it. And to get it, best you forget the old lingo of media buys, bump rates [...]

WANT TO BEAT THE BIG GUYS IN THIS GAME? YOU'D BETTER FIND THE RIGHT corner--or in-line or end-cap. 'Of all the decisions a new restaurant owner will make, the biggest [...]

THE HAM'S CASUAL-DINING CHAIN is known throughout North Carolina for its hand-cut potato chips, a signature that could have worked against it in today's increasingly health-conscious marketplace. Management had weathered [...]

IT'S LUNCHTIME in downtown Fort Worth, and over at the 7th Street Grill, Sandy Potter's customers are working on their diets. You wouldn't guess it at first glance. These waistline-watchers [...]

Lanette Kovach gets 60 calls a month from people who want to lose weight. Nothing odd about that: She's a nutritionist. What's unusual is that they're calling her at a [...]

FOR GREG DOLLARHYDE, the past few months have been fast--and anything but casual. Four years ago, after Popeyes' parent and franchising giant AFC Enterprises narrowly missed buying the Baja Fresh [...]

IT WAS A PLACID MARCH DAY in Rick Roman's office, 95 floors over downtown Chicago, as the co-owner of the Signature Room opened his mail. Suddenly, he dropped everything, picked [...]

TONY SMITH WAS in a financial frying pan. At his two Popeyes stores in Cleveland, chicken was flying out the door. He figured his territory could hold 13 to 18 [...]

PICTURE THE SCENE: A father and son are out for a stroll when a little girl walks past and passes the boy a flyer. The boy glances at the sheet, [...]

IT WAS EARLY MAY, and Hardee's president Rory Murphy was commiserating with a sympathetic analyst. Ever since its 1997 acquisition, by Anaheim, CA-based CKE Restaurants, he'd been struggling to pump [...]

OUT ON THE OLD FRONTIER, Chet England is plowing some new ones. A dusty Colorado cattle ranch is a long way from the kitchen of a Burger King, but he [...]

IT WAS A LATE NIGHT in Tucson in 1998, and writer Michael Munday was walking into a newly opened Macaroni Grill when he ran into a couple of tourists on [...]

Apple South is a multi-brand restaurant operation that has an equity interest in Don Pablo's, McCormick and Schmick's, Canyon Cafe and Hops Restaurant Bar and Brewery. The newest concept that is part of the operation is Belgo's. The company identified 30 growth niches in the restaurant industry and will enter each one when it is the proper time., As Dupree and Kinsel sell off the successful Applebee's, they're taking a big risk on a handful of fledgling chains. Here's why. As Tom Dupree tells it, he was a [...]

Is super-investor Buffett's buyout of Dairy Queen a crafty move--or a $585-million blunder? To the casual eye, he was just another elderly gent in a suit. Like many of his [...]

The restaurant industry has a number of concerns, and their effect on the industry will be mixed in 1998. Some of these worries include competition, legislation, pricing, costs that keep increasing and liability. Other concerns include labor shortages, food safety and the threat of ever increasing casinos, which siphon business away from local restaurants., Waiting for news on your biggest concerns? Read on for the good, the bad, and the ugly. According to the American Sleep Disorders Association, 60 million Americans suffer from some [...]

Michael Berry left Harvard University in 1996 to head Disneyland's foodservice operations. The hiring of Berry reflects Walt Disney Co.'s decision to treat food not as a secondary concern but as a growth opportunity. At Disneyland, Berry has tripled the number of foodservice managers to 19 and instituted a three-year plan to redo all of the park's 31 restaurants and 188 food carts. Initiatives instituted at other Disney facilities are dicussed., It's a humid summer night on Main Street, U.S.A. Crowds jostle for spots at curbside to hear the brass band. Storefronts are outlined by the blaze of 11,-000 incandescent bulbs. [...]

PepsiCo Inc. may name David Novak to head its spun-off restaurant group in 1997. The collection of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and other restaurants will be the world's largest. Novak currently is running KFC North America as well as Pizza Hut. Under his management style, which emphasizes recognition of employees, KFC has increased its same-store sales. Novak feels service is more important than marketing. However, observers question whether anyone can lead the restaurant group to success., Is PepsiCo's crown prince ready to take over the company's restaurant empire? It's dawn in Denver, as David Novak grabs a cup of coffee and heads into yet another meeting. [...]

Taco Bell's new CEO, John Antioco, faces the daunting task of reviving Taco Bell. Following several years of excellent sales growth, the chain has experienced two years of slipping same-store sales. Antioco's turnaround program will not be fully disclosed until Jul 1997, according to the company. It is likely, however, that the program will focus on ways to generate steady growth, instead of the blockbuster schemes that the chain is famous for., Robert Coe didn't know what to expect. The 29-year Taco Bell franchisee was about to do lunch with a man who had never run a restaurant in his life, but [...]

C. Ronald Petty has become president of Peter Piper Pizza of Phoenix, AZ, after resigning from Flagstar Companies Inc of Spartanburg, SC, the parent of Denny's. Peter Piper Pizza was founded in 1973 by Tony Cavallo, has 125 locations stretching from Texas to Southern California, and has a corporate staff of 44 persons. A new location for Peter Piper Pizza costs $600,000 and has average annual sales in the range of $700,000 to $1.2 mil., RON PETTY'S GETTING in touch with his inner skier. On this December afternoon, he's flexing his leg muscles for a downhill run. As his feet twist this way and that, [...]

The restaurant industry's reputation is being challenged on the Internet, which allows users to make both positive and negative comments to each other via cyberspace. This could present restaurateurs with a public relations problem or an opportunity to find out more about their customers. Many fast food fans are computer hackers who eat while they work at their computers. Some people who use the Internet are workers connected to the restaurant industry., KFC CONSORTS with the KKK. McDonald's scrapes hamburger patties off the floor and slaps them on a bun. Pizza Hut shortchanges on toppings, while Domino's adds a little something extra--a [...]

CEO Roger Enrico is a prominent figure in changes taking place at PepsiCo Inc. Enrico has been credited with the turnaround of PepsiCo's restaurant units, Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut. PepsiCo is beginning to co-brand its restaurant operations by consolidating operations such as payroll, purchasing and accounting. PepsiCo's smaller sideline operations, which include California Pizza Kitchen and Chevy's, may present opportunities for the corporation., WHEN ROGER ENRICO was a kid, he wanted to be an actor. He never dreamed he'd end up at the head of the world's largest restaurant system. But when he [...]

Several restaurants have found that downsizing does not work in their operations. Removing several middle management positions created a gap in the organizational structure; it did not decrease redundancy. Some of these restaurants have increased their training staff and multi-unit supervisors to increase the performance of their operations., DAN SCOGGIN REMEMBERS THE TIME HE POSED THE QUESTION TO AN overworked Ground Round manager in the Florida panhandle. What would happen if the Navy downsized the support staff at [...]

US restaurant chains that establish operations in foreign markets are faced with many financial unknowns. The value of the US dollar in world markets will effect the financial statement of the restaurant chain. Differences in currencies, labor laws and customs will also affect a restaurant chain. Most chains will open in only a few new areas at a time in order to absorb the differences and changes., WORK WAS GOING JUST FINE ON the new restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center in Manhattan until, one day, world trade got in the way. Windows on [...]