Tomorrow’s Owners Wanted for Work Today: Jersey Mike’s Quicks off a new Recruitment Campaign

Jersey Mike’s Subs is launching a nationwide crew-level recruitment campaign aimed at entrepreneurial spirits who might want to become store operators or owners—if not heads of a multi-billion-dollar operation. A new TV commercial features CEO and chain father Peter Cancro, whose affiliation with the brand began when he bought the original unit at age 17 after working in the store for three years. Although the camera focuses on Cancro, he speaks of his mentor and champion, local banker Rod Smith, who was the 17-year-old’s football coach at the time. Coach Smith lent the teenager $125,000 to buy Mike’s Submarines, which was later re-christened Jersey Mike’s Subs to emphasize its south Jersey roots.

Today, the chain extends to 2,000 locations, with systemwide sales of $2 billion. The TV spot suggests that the opportunity for advancement is part of Jersey Mike’s DNA. “We want individuals to come and grow with us and see Jersey Mike’s as a place that can become their career,” Cancro said in a statement. The launch follows Jersey Mike’s adoption of a program called the Coach Rod Smith Ownership Program, where store-level managers and assistant managers who can’t qualify for financing are helped by the chain to become owners of their own unit. In at least one instance, Cancro co-signed for loans and the lease and even helped the recipients find a location for their restaurant. The CEO has said he hopes to expand the program to benefit 100 managers per year. “What Rod Smith did for me changed my life and I want everyone that becomes part of the Jersey Mike’s family to know that the future is unlimited for them, from becoming a store manager to eventually an owner,” says Cancro.  Source: Restaurant Business on-line.

How This Problem-Solving CEO Is Keeping Her Restaurants’ Doors Open

Dawn Lafreeda is President, CEO and founder of Den-Tex Central, Inc. dba Denny’s Restaurants. In 1984, she opened her first Denny’s and since then, has built an incredible 85-location operation. Lafreeda, like so many business owners in the restaurant space, has been massively impacted by the pandemic but has found a way to manage her way through this incredibly destructive crisis. Or more appropriately, has found ways to manage her way through the crisis. Lafreeda’s operation is challenged to follow safety protocols that vary from state to state, city to city, and frequently change with little or no warning. “In some instances, we had less than six hours’ notice to shut down dining rooms,” she told Entrepreneur. “We have had to learn and adapt to new ways of doing business to sustain.” In the following interview, Lafreeda breaks down the challenges that she and other multi-state business owners continue to face, and how she is fighting every day to keep her business, employees and customers healthy.

You have locations in multiple states. Can you explain the challenges this has presented?

I have restaurants in seven states and the rules vary from state to state and the challenges are never-ending. We typically follow the rules of the governor, but we have situations where the mayors also exercise authority that we need to take into account. This presents a huge challenge in ordering and staffing as we are unable to predict from week to week what we may be up against.  In order to stay compliant in each city and state, we have a spreadsheet that details PPE requirements, social distancing rules, hours of operation, curfews, and allowed capacity. The rules can be a moving target and they change frequently, sometimes on a daily basis. There are also challenges in dealing with the human resource aspect of things as there are many different employee situations that require a lot of sensitivity while trying to keep business open and save jobs. For instance, you may have an employee who lives with a family member who is elderly or compromised so they may be afraid to come to work. You may have a person who tests positive, so you must close for a period of time, and this affects the livelihood of your whole staff.  There have been supply chain issues, staffing issues, and widespread fear of getting sick.

How has Covid affected your overall business? We have had to make some extremely hard and painful decisions to survive, this includes closing locations. We are not able to run our business in the way we know makes it successful. In certain industries, we no longer are in control of our destiny but instead, we are at the mercy of the rules enforced on us by civil authority due to the pandemic. Additionally, this hit us very quickly without a lot of time to prepare. In some instances, we had less than six hours to shut down our dining rooms with no known date of when we could reopen. In some states, we reopened and then had to close again adding even further strain to operators. The restaurant industry at large is dealing with a lot of unknowns, but dining restrictions being re-enforced have now been built into Denny’s contingency plans for restaurants around the country, including mine. Where we have been able to reopen and operate, we are trying to offer the best customer experience we can. We pride ourselves on delivering the best dining experience imaginable and that has not changed, even with new challenges to overcome. What solutions and innovations have you seen that are working for restaurants?

The level of innovation at Denny’s I’ve seen during this pandemic has been incredible, and most of it has come straight from the restaurant teams. At the restaurant level, we feel empowered by Denny’s to ideate, innovate, and help grow our businesses. This is how outdoor dining at select locations was born, to help compliment the curbside and dine-thru services we have in place to feed our guests while socially distancing. We have also added booth partitions, a digital menu via scannable QR code, touchless options, and more portable meal options. Has customer feedback affected that way you are running your business? Absolutely, we believe it is important to listen to our guests and our number one priority is keeping our customers and our employees safe and top of mind. Earlier this year, Denny’s created the Sanitation Specialist position to help keep restaurants safe and sanitized. These individuals are trained on the proper cleaning and sanitizing procedures, and how to clean using the proper tools and approved disinfectants. That, along with other safety and satiation protocols have helped make our guests feel more comfortable having a meal with us. We deep clean all high-touch and non-contact surfaces regularly. Employees are required to wear face masks and gloves, take a mandatory temperature check before work, fill out a health screening questionnaire and wash their hands thoroughly with an alcohol-based sanitizer every twenty minutes. Additionally, all of our dining rooms have been rearranged to accommodate social distancing. We are heading into truly uncertain times, with the election and colder weather on the horizon. How are you preparing and how would you recommend other business owners to prepare? We are paying close attention to every line item on the P&L and looking for opportunities for improvement to carry us through the winter and get us through to the other side. Some specific things we are doing is analyzing hours of operation, menu size and simplification, staffing hours, and contract renegotiations. We are creating food offerings that are portable as well as family meal packs. We are learning to be more flexible and open to ideas that do not necessarily fit our traditional business model. We are looking at this as an opportunity to add offerings and ideas to our 67-year brand and heritage.

What are some of the positives you see for entrepreneurs who are able to come out on the other side of the pandemic? There will be some silver linings from this pandemic for the restaurant industry and for entrepreneurs in general. While sadly many businesses have closed, the positive side is this will offer a bigger pool of employees to businesses that have been struggling to find enough help. Pre-pandemic, record low unemployment made staffing a huge problem for many years. Unfortunately, while not all will not survive the pandemic, the ones who do may see an increase in volume as there will be fewer choices for consumers.  Many markets have been over-saturated for a long time making it difficult for some to sustain. Entrepreneurs who can get through this will be able to take advantage of the vacant locations that will come on the market and at more favorable lease terms. It will be an opportunity to expand. The pandemic has spawned new products, industry, and innovation which will move us forward into the future and create new jobs and opportunities. What do you advise for people who are scared to try and start a new business now? If you were starting your career all over again, what would you do if today was day one? Don’t let fear keep you from your dream. I see this as a prime opportunity for entrepreneurs. There are so many demands for new products, services, and innovation that it can be an entrepreneur’s dream. This is a unique moment in time and with the right idea and business plan, you can experience a huge success. I see opportunities everywhere. While the pandemic is bringing us great grief, it will also bring us new and unexpected gifts. If I were starting my career all over again, I would do many things the same. People are always going to eat and I believe 100% in the benefits of a franchise system. I would take my learnings from this period of time and make different building design decisions and menu decisions. I would negotiate my leases, contracts, loans, and insurance policies to better protect my business from things like civil authority, terrorism, and pandemics. I would do everything in my power to ensure I have a sustainable and scalable business that would endure the test of time and unpredicted threats.

There is nothing that would ever prevent me from starting over. We are fortunate to live in a place where the American dream is at our fingertips if we want it. I wanted it and I will always want it. – Source: Entrepreneur.

McDonald’s Franchisees Are Working On Ways To Fix The Chain’s Broken Ice Cream Machines

We love McDonald’s over here. Their fries? Perfect. Their Big Macs? CLASSIC. Their fountain Diet Cokes? Arguably my reason for living at this point. But you and I both know even the biggest McDonald’s fans bring up one gripe with the chain, and it’s that the ice cream machines seem to be broken constantly. This idea is a meme at this point and it’s something we’ve just come to accept, but apparently, McDonald’s franchisees are on a quest to change that. A new report from  Business Insider said that during a meeting of the National Owners Association, a group of independent McDonald’s franchisees, a National Supply Leadership Council equipment team was announced that will be focused on improving and finding solutions for the chain’s soft serve machines. Franchisee and leader of the newly formed team Tyler Gamble reportedly said that he was not taking any idea off of the table and that he wanted to “ensure that McDonald’s is no longer the butt of the joke, even with their own social media team.” (McDonald’s has historically gotten in on jokes about its broken ice cream machines on Twitter.) Some McDonald’s franchisees have been using a device from a company called Kytch that can evaluate issues within the soft serve machine, but it has yet to be approved by McDonald’s corporate, according to BI. McDonald’s responded to the BI report in a statement, saying that it “remains committed to providing a restaurant experience that our customers expect, and that includes being able to purchase the sweet treats they enjoy from our dessert menu.” – Source: msn.

Uber Founder Turns Real-Estate Mogul for Ghost Kitchen Startup

Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens rents out delivery-only kitchens, which have gained popularity after the coronavirus pandemic closed restaurants. The former chief executive of Uber Technologies Inc. has been quietly assembling a mini real-estate empire over the past two years, acquiring closed restaurants, auto-body shops, and warehouses for use in his new ghost kitchen venture. Entities tied to Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens, a startup that rents out space to businesses that prepare food for delivery have bought more than 40 properties in nearly two dozen cities for more than $130 million, according to a Wall Street Journal review of public property and corporate records and data from the commercial real-estate database Reonomy. The analysis linked various limited-liability companies that own the properties to business addresses of CloudKitchens’ parent, City Storage Systems LLC, and to its senior leaders. These acquisitions include buildings from Portland, Ore., and Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio, and Nashville. While real-estate brokers said they were aware that Mr. Kalanick’s firm had been in the market, the extent and value of his investments have never been reported. The amount invested in real estate makes him an outlier among startups. A spokeswoman for CloudKitchens declined to comment. The acquisitions are a big bet on the fast-growing food-delivery business. Delivery-only kitchens have been around for years and have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from venture investors hoping to replicate the success of the co-working industry, which built a multibillion-dollar business by essentially subleasing real estate. The pandemic gave a big boost to ghost kitchens in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, where many restaurants temporarily closed or went out of business. Mr. Kalanick isn’t the only Uber veteran to get into the business. Virtual Kitchen Co., co-founded by former Uber executives Ken Chong and Matt Sawchuk, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last month that it had raised around $20 million in funding. SoftBank Group Corp. -backed Reef Technology and Kitchen United are also part of this budding industry. Mr. Kalanick’s competitors rarely acquire real estate. They typically lease or sign revenue-sharing deals with landlords. Companies can expand more quickly without shelling out cash or borrowing heavily to acquire buildings. But some landlords have been reluctant to rent to ghost-kitchen operators because they often require a complicated rebuild and the business model is still relatively unproven. Reef has been placing mobile kitchen pods in parking lots. CloudKitchens’ strategy takes a market risk, but it could pay off if recently falling property values rebound. Entities tied to CloudKitchens paid $9.2 million for a vacant restaurant space in Miami Beach in May and $6.6 million for an industrial property in Queens, N.Y., in March, the Journal’s analysis shows. In some cases, CloudKitchens has been able to buy buildings at bargain prices because of the pandemic, brokers say. Mr. Kalanick has money to spend. Last year CloudKitchens raised $400 million from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund. Goldman Sachs has been financing his acquisitions and developments with millions in loans, property records show. The 44-year-old, who co-founded Uber, stepped down as the ride-hailing company’s CEO in 2017, following pressure from investors. The company fired more than 20 employees after an internal investigation into allegations that Uber created a workplace permissive of sexism and sexual harassment. Mr. Kalanick at the time said he “accepted the investors’ request to step aside.” His spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal last year that he had sold all his stock in the company for more than $2.7 billion. Why do you think CloudKitchens wants their property purchases to be secret? Join the conversation below. He is hardly the first investor to use limited-liability companies to acquire properties. Keeping real-estate deals quiet maintains privacy and can leave competitors in the dark about a company’s expansion plans. Amazon.com Inc. asked local officials and brokers to sign nondisclosure agreements while it was searching for second headquarter sites, according to a number of real estate firms. But brokers and property analysts say Mr. Kalanick’s discretion rises to unusual levels. CloudKitchens doesn’t identify its locations on its website, and they usually aren’t shown on Google Maps. Mr. Kalanick has told employees not to name CloudKitchens in their LinkedIn profiles. Real-estate agents in Memphis and Seattle say they signed contracts in recent weeks to sell properties to an investment firm that plans to turn them into delivery-only kitchens. They weren’t told much about the buyer, but around the same time as the contracts were signed, limited-liability companies named after the properties’ addresses were registered to the 41st floor of a Los Angeles office tower, a business address of City Storage Systems, corporate records show. It is unusual that a commercial real estate broker wouldn’t know the identity of a buyer, brokers said. Last year, representatives of an investment firm started touring a Los Angeles furniture store that was listed for sale. A big, open space located just off the San Diego Freeway, it was the perfect place for a food-delivery business, according to the listing agent Sheri Messerlian. Different groups of people showed up numerous times to inspect every corner. The property owner started getting impatient, she said. The suitors said little about themselves. Ms. Messerlian started digging but couldn’t find much information. “I finally gave up,” she said. They were good for the money, and that was what mattered. In April, the investors bought the space for $2.95 million after getting a $200,000 pandemic discount. Public records show that a City Storage Systems representative signed the application to register the LLC that now owns the property, which is registered to the 41st floor of the Los Angeles office tower. – Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Wendy’s Brings Aboard New CIO

In his new role, Mr. Vasconi will assume responsibility for all aspects of Wendy’s global technology efforts, the company said, including consumer-facing digital, restaurant technology, enterprise architecture and technology, and information security. Mr. Vasconi joins Wendy’s from Domino’s Pizza, where he spent the last eight years as executive vice president and CIO. Prior to his time with Domino’s, Mr. Vasconi was CIO and vice president of engineering for the Stanley Security Solutions division of Stanley Black & Decker, senior vice president and CIO for R.L. Polk & Co., and chief technology officer for several business units and platforms with the Ford Motor Co.  “Digital technology is a critical growth driver for Wendy’s today and will be in the future,” said Todd Penego, president and chief executive officer of Wendy’s. “Kevin Vasconi is an ideal leader to join our organization and help us advance to the next level. We are confident that his industry-leading experience will help to accelerate the growth we have already seen across technology channels in 2020, and he will lead a talented and well-resourced team focused on the substantial opportunities we see across the globe.” – Source: Food Business News

Sysco Hires New Chief Commercial Officer

In her new role, Ms. Sansone will lead Sysco’s overall commercial strategies, including responsibility for merchandising, marketing, pricing, digital sales enablement, customer loyalty program development, customer personalization, and exploring new channel sales development. She will be tasked with coordinating company-wide efforts to grow sales with merchandising, marketing, and personalized engagement. Ms. Sansone also will work with Sysco’s field-based sales organization to acquire new business and increase sales with existing customers. Ms. Sansone joins Sysco from CVS Health, where she spent the last 24 years. Most recently, she was chief merchandising officer and senior vice president of the front store business for the company. “I am very pleased to welcome Judy to Sysco,” said Kevin Hourican, president and chief executive officer of Sysco. “She is an experienced and highly talented leader who consistently delivers results and drives transformative change. Under Judy’s leadership, I am confident that we will accelerate our profitable sales growth by building a best-in-industry merchandising, marketing, and digital customer engagement strategy. We will leverage our robust customer purchasing data to provide personalized assortments, pricing, and promotional marketing to our customers. Increasing personalization of our go-to-market strategy will enable Sysco to profitably grow our sales and better serve our customers.” – Source: Food Business News.

Nearly 300 Public, Private Sector Groups Launch Digital Campaign Pushing for a Deal on a Coronavirus Relief

A coalition of travel, restaurant, retail, and state and local government groups launched a digital advertising campaign on Wednesday calling for Congress to quickly approve a new coronavirus relief package. The Covid Relief Now Coalition is made up of organizations representing the public and private sector, including the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), International Franchise Association (IFA), National League of Cities, Airlines for America, National Retail Federation, the National Restaurant Association and the U.S. Travel Association. They anticipate spending more than $100,000 over the next couple of months on ad buys, according to the IFA. The ad is currently running on social media platforms. “Our economy is on brink of collapse, millions of Americans unemployed, small businesses struggling to stay open, vital services stifled without funding. America is at a pivotal point. We need our leaders to lead. Tell Congress: no recess without relief,” the ad reads. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is in active negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuvhin, suggested on Wednesday that a coronavirus relief package deal is imminent and that Congress would deliver aid either before Election Day or a short time later. The Covid Relief Now Coalition wrote a letter to congressional leadership in September also to call for Congress to not go on recess without a package. More than 175 organizations signed on, and the group has since grown to 300 organizations. “Millions of jobs and the livelihoods of people who have built their small business for decades are just withering away because our leaders in Washington are prioritizing politics over people,” AHLA CEO Chip Rogers said in a statement on Wednesday. Other groups in the coalition include the National Association of Counties, American Apparel and Footwear Association, Asian American Hotel Owners Association, the Go Live Together Coalition, International Council of Shopping Centers, and National Conference of State Legislatures. Additionally, the coalition includes the National Governors Association, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, the Society of Independent Show Organizers, and the United States Conference of Mayors. – Source: The Hill.

Arby’s Enters Mexico, and Pandemic Pushes new U.S. Customers to try its Sandwiches

Arby’s is privately owned by Inspire Brands, which is backed by private equity firm Roark Capital. Its sister chains include Jimmy John’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Sonic. Arby’s first Mexican restaurant opens Thursday in Guadalajara, with another location in the country slated to start serving customers early next year. Key Spot Group, a division of Gruncorp, will serve as Arby’s franchisee in Mexico. Before the pandemic hit, Arby’s had hoped to open the location in the first half of this year but then waited to make sure that demand returned. “With the proximity to the U.S., we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for an initial foray into Latin America,” Taylor said. Arby’s was able to conduct its consumer research before the lockdowns went into place. The chain typically adapts 20% to 30% of its menu to suit local tastes. For its Mexican menu, it’s introducing pork belly and pulled pork sandwiches and adding lettuce, tomato, and cheese as toppings. It will also offer beer for the first time, selling Modelo Especial and Negra Modelo. Taylor said there could be “some shorter-term disruption” related to the pandemic but expressed confidence that Arby’s will move past that, as it has in the United States. In Arby’s home market, the pandemic has fueled new demand for its sandwiches, with half of its roughly 3,400 locations sticking to drive-thru and delivery service only, according to Taylor. “We’re outperforming the QSR industry by 5 to 10 points on a weekly basis, all transaction-driven,” he said, referring to quick-service restaurants. Fatigue over other fast-food options, like pizza and burgers, has pushed many consumers to try Arby’s sandwiches for the first time. Taylor said the chain has seen about 16 million new customers, lured by the launch of its 2 for $6 menu deals and marketing around its kid meals. While the broader restaurant industry is taking longer to recover from the pandemic, the fast-food sector is bouncing back more quickly, with chains like McDonald’s reporting same-store sales growth in the U.S. for their latest quarters. – Source: CNBC.

Chick-fil-A to Start Selling its Sauces at Walmart, other National Retailers

It will soon get a lot easier to acquire signature sauces from Chick-fil-A. The fast-food chain announced its Chick-fil-A and Polynesian Sauces will be available to buy at retailers including Walmart, Publix, and Kroger starting in mid-November. The sauces, available in 16-ounce bottles for $3.49 each, will initially appear in stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, ahead of a national rollout early next year. Chick-fil-A says 100% of the royalties received from third-party retail sales will go toward scholarships for restaurant employees. “We’re thrilled that every 16-ounce bottled sauce purchased from a participating retailer will help provide additional scholarship opportunities to Team Members, who are a key ingredient to our restaurant experience,” said L.J. Yankosky, senior director of Innovation & New Ventures at Chick-fil-A, in a statement. In March, Chick-fil-A launched a pilot program offering the sauces at all Publix, Target, Walmart, and Winn-Dixie stores in Florida. Customers can also purchase eight-ounce bottles of the chain’s signature sauces at participating restaurants. – Source: USA TODAY.

Tim Hortons to Test Reusable, Returnable Cups and Food Packaging

Tim Hortons has signed a deal with TerraCycle’s Loop program to test an option that would allow customers to pay a deposit and receive their order in reusable, returnable cups and food packaging. Once the customer is done they could return the cups and other containers to a participating restaurant and have their deposit refunded. Tim Hortons says the cups and food containers would then be cleaned, sanitized and used again. The test program is expected to start next year at select Toronto restaurants. Tim Hortons says it expects that over time, the Loop program will have a growing number of drop-off locations — both at Tim Hortons restaurants and elsewhere. The company announced plans to give away nearly two million reusable cups in February but had to pause the plan due to the pandemic. – Source: Bloomberg/The Canadian Press.

Fazoli’s Ramps up National Expansion with Six new Franchisees and 12 new Locations

Lexington, Ky.-based, fast-casual Italian-American chain Fazoli’s announced a major national expansion Thursday, with the addition of six new franchisees, totaling 12 new locations across Iowa, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. Additionally, a current Fazoli’s franchisee is opening two locations in Georgia. Currently, with 220 restaurants in 28 states, Fazoli’s is planning to begin opening this next wave of new restaurants in 2021.  “It is a very exciting time for the Fazoli’s franchise family,” CEO Carl Howard said. “During a time when many brands have slowed down, we put our foot on the gas.” In addition to a strong summer of sales and traffic both up nearly 16%, Fazoli’s said that their franchise boost during an otherwise challenging time for the industry was “fueled by their conversion strategy.” They encourage struggling quick-service or fast-casual operators to convert their restaurants into Fazoli’s brands under a new, shorter five-year term. During the pandemic, Fazoli’s has also relaxed many of its franchise requirements, allowing potential franchisees can open a 2,000- to the 3,500-square-foot restaurant open for less than $350,000. The company is also looking for franchisees interested in filling out their new store prototypes to capitalize on its focus on off-premise capabilities in response to shifting consumer needs. The prototypes include a 2,800-square-foot building, 2,500-square-foot building, 2,200-square-foot building, and a double drive-thru-only concept.  “After launching our first-ever conversion strategy, we saw robust interest from existing and potential franchisees who wanted to capitalize on this exclusive opportunity by bringing shuttered restaurant locations back to life with a strong and vibrant brand,” Howard said. “Our sales and traffic have skyrocketed. We’ve made brand history in the last six months with record-setting sales and traffic backed by a strong value proposition and a compelling off-premise strategy.” Expanding their franchise reach is not the only strategy Fazoli’;s is focusing on right now, however. In September, the brand announced that its ghost kitchen chicken wing concept would be assimilated into the company’s brick and mortar core menu. – Source: NRN.

Fast Food Chain KFC to add 5,400 New Jobs in UK, Ireland

Fast-food chain KFC said it will add 5,400 jobs across its 965 restaurants in the UK and Ireland by the end of 2020, in a rare piece of good news for Britain’s pandemic-hit jobs market. Britain’s unemployment rate hit its highest level in more than three years earlier in October and is expected to jump next month after the government’s broad coronavirus job-protection plan ends. Hospitality has been one of the worst-affected sectors, forcing finance minister Rishi Sunak to offer it more help on Thursday to try to save jobs. But despite huge swathes of Britain facing local lockdown restrictions, KFC said on Friday it planned to hire 5,400 new staff over the next 2-1/2 months. The new jobs would be partly supported by the government’s Kickstart scheme, which helps employers create opportunities for 16 to 24-year-olds at risk from long-term unemployment, KFC said. == Source: Reuters.

Starbucks is now Officially Testing Vegan Breakfast Sandwiches

Coffee chain Starbucks has launched a plant-based breakfast sandwich at one test location in Issaquah, WA, a city on the outskirts of Seattle. The new Plant Powered Breakfast Sandwich, retailing at $5.45, is made with a mung bean-based egg, a plant-based sausage patty, dairy-free cheese, and is served on an English muffin. While Starbucks has not yet released information about which brands are behind the vegan egg and dairy-free cheese components of the sandwich, a Starbucks spokesperson confirmed to VegNews that the plant-based sausage patty is made by Impossible Foods. As for the egg, food technology startup Eat Just launched a folded version of its popular, mung bean-based JUST Egg in April and the egg featured in Starbucks’ new sandwich looks strikingly similar. In June, Starbucks partnered with Impossible Foods to launch a non-vegan breakfast sandwich made with its plant-based Impossible patty at a majority of its United States locations—the first time the chain has added plant-based meat to its US menu. The new sandwich in Issaquah is the first time that Starbucks has tested a fully plant-based breakfast sandwich option in the US. The Issaquah location is also offering quiche-like Plant Powered Potato Bake bites made from plant-based egg (retailing at $4.75) as well as Chickpea bites as a part of the plant-based launch, and in September, also began tasting vegan cashew milk cream cheese from Miyoko’s Creamery. Customers at that store can purchase a 1.5-ounce package of the vegan cream cheese in Everything and Cinnamon Raisin flavors for $1. – Source: VegNews.

Peace in Chicken Sandwich Wars? One Brand Hopes So

Emerging fast-casual wants to host a Peace Summit between Chick-fil-A and Popeyes—and launch its own chicken sandwich while it’s at it. Erupting in the wake of Popeyes’ hugely successful chicken sandwich launch in August 2019, the so-called “chicken-sandwich wars” pitted Popeyes and Chick-fil-A in a highly publicized battle for poultry supremacy that helped the former set sales records and the latter reassert its status as the leader in the space. The wars also inspired a whole new generation of chicken-sandwich R&D across the restaurant industry. And now one emerging Miami-based fast-casual is wading directly into the battle—not only by launching its own chicken sandwich offering but also by calling an end to the wars altogether. PINCHO, which has expanded to 10 locations in South Florida, introduced its new chicken sandwich, El Crispy, earlier this month. It features a 100 percent certified antibiotic-free chicken breast coated in a seasoned flour breading, served on a locally baked brioche bun, and topped with pickles and a signature PINCHO sauce. To promote El Crispy, PINCHO published an open letter to Popeyes and Chick-fil-A inviting representatives from the brands to a Peace Summit on October 24 at PINCHO’s location in Hialeah, Florida. The event will be streamed on social media for fans to take part. Otto Othman, the brand’s co-founder and CEO, says the Peace Summit is a light-hearted attempt at bringing some levity during a tumultuous year. “Can we just be the peaceful sandwich?” he says. “Why can’t we just go out there and say, ‘You know what? 2020 has had enough.’” The Peace Summit—coming more than a full year after the wars were initiated, timing that the open letter claims is “in typical Miami fashion”—isn’t just intended to settle the bad blood between the chicken behemoths. Othman hopes it will encourage a bit of collaboration, too. “Let’s try to collaborate and see if we can use each other’s sauces on each other’s sandwiches and then possibly have the PINCHO El Crispy with the Chick-fil-A sauce or the Popeyes’ sandwich with the Chick-fil-A sauce,” he says. El Crispy was developed by PINCHO’s director of culinary, Adrian Sanchez, who previously owned a chicken-based food truck. Othman says Sanchez used to make chicken sandwiches for team members, but the brand hesitated in adding it to the menu because not every location had a fryer. Lately, though, he says consumer trends clearly point to chicken gaining momentum and beef falling from favor. “People are venturing off into more chicken and they’re venturing into more fish and more pasta or whatever,” he says. “So that’s why a lot of these chicken concepts are crushing it right now, because it’s sort of like the new better burger is the better chicken.” El Crispy is one of PINCHO’s biggest menu launches in its 10-year history. The brand originally launched as a burger and kebab concept in 2010, featuring standouts like the Toston Burger (a burger topped with provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, and cilantro sauce, with fried plantains replacing the bun) and chicken, steak, and shrimp kebabs available in a salad, bowl, or straight up. Then, earlier this year, the brand added Plates, which allowed guests to order an entrée with two sides. That addition positioned PINCHO as more of a dinner opportunity, and also gave guests the option of including more healthful sides, like a roasted veggies side that debuted with the Plates platform. As for the chicken sandwich’s positioning, Othman thinks it gives the brand a stronger player in the value game. The sandwich sells for $5.99, while a deluxe version with cheese, lettuce, and tomato is available for $6.99. “People have lost their jobs. People are on a budget. We’re going into a recession,” Othman says. “We won’t discount our food. We’ll do crazy promotions, but we’re not the brand that’ll say, ‘Tuesdays are 20 percent off.’ We would rather create items that are on the lower end in terms of pricing.”  Source: QSR.

New York City Issues Rules for Heating Outdoor Dining Spaces

New York City announced the rules for restaurants to heat the outdoor dining spaces that they were allowed to set up in June in response to dining rooms being ordered closed to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Electric radiant heaters — which heat objects rather than the air and therefore are more energy-efficient — are allowed in sidewalk and roadway seating, while natural gas and propane radiant heaters are allowed on sidewalks, although of course, they must comply with the city’s fire code. The full code is available at the city’s Department of Buildings website. The mayor’s office also said that issuing permits for the heaters had been streamlined to make the process faster and easier. As in many cities in the United States, New York has allowed restaurants to set up tables outdoors, sometimes in the streets, to allow them to continue doing business while trying to contain the virus, which seems to spread more easily indoors. In late September, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the outdoor dining, which had been implemented by more than 10,500 restaurants,  would be made permanent, and in some cases be extended to spaces in front of buildings next door to restaurants. “New Yorkers are resilient and adaptable, and city government should be as well,” Department of Buildings Commissioner Melanie La Rocca said in a statement announcing the heating rules. “Streamlining the outdoor heating requirements will help our friends and neighbors weather this crisis. We are offering clear guidance to restaurant owners so they know what they need to do to safely keep outdoor dining open now that summer has come to a close.” De Blasio said the guidelines would help keep diners, restaurant workers, and pedestrians safe. “Restaurants make New York City the greatest city in the world, and we’re proud to support their continued recovery from this crisis,” he said. Deputy mayor Laura Anglin said the “Open Restaurants” program that allows for outdoor dining “has been a bright spot in our city, making our streets more vibrant, enhancing our dining culture, and offering a healthy and safe way to connect. These sensible guidelines will enable this successful program to continue year-round with comfort heating options for restaurant patrons.” The mayor’s office also pointed out that outdoor activities in New York have in the past been amplified in response to epidemics. After a cholera outbreak in the city in the 19th century, open spaces including Central Park.  Source: Restaurant Hospitality.

Guillermo Perales’ Sun Holdings Buys 41 IHOP Restaurants from Bankrupt CFRA Holdings

The restaurants, which are now owned by Sun Holdings subsidiary Suncakes LLC, are in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina and were previously owned by CFRA Holdings, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May and closed 49 IHOP restaurants. Ownership was transferred in July, according to a statement from IHOP, which is a subsidiary of Glendale, Calif.-based Dine Brands Global. These are the first IHOP restaurants owned by Dallas-based Sun Holdings, which is one of the United States’ largest franchisees with more than 1,000 locations including Burger King, Popeyes, Arby’s, Cicis, Golden Corral, and Krispy Kreme restaurants, as well as GNC stores and T-Mobile locations. Most of Sun Holdings’ locations are in Florida and Texas. IHOP president Jay Johns said Perales’ purchase of IHOP restaurants underscored the brand’s potential. “As the owner and operator of multiple iconic brands, Suncakes’ investment in IHOP reinforces the strength of our franchise opportunity and the future viability of our business,” he said. “We are thrilled to welcome Guillermo and the Suncakes team to the IHOP family and are confident that their immense industry and brand expertise will undoubtedly yield success.” For his part, Perales said IHOP had been enjoying considerable momentum before the family-dining chain was affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. “We take great pride in joining IHOP, an iconic brand that has built significant momentum in the industry in recent years,” Perales said. “Our goal is to ensure that each and every guest that walks into one of our restaurants receives the quality service and familiar experience they’ve come to expect from IHOP for over 60 years.” Although IHOP was badly hurt by the coronavirus pandemic and related dining-room closures, same-store sales steadily improved for 12 consecutive weeks during the second quarter of 2020. The decline went from 81.5% to 34.4% over the course of the quarter. During the second-quarter earnings call, Johns said IHOP was well poised as the economy recovered because the chain’s customers had learned to use it for off-premise dining, which they hadn’t done before the pandemic. “If we can maintain even half of the increase we’ve gotten on that, and get our dining rooms back with full capacity … that’s going to lead to higher profits,” he told investors. Parent company Dine Brands is scheduled to announce third-quarter results on Oct. 28. Update, Oct. 15, 2020: This story has been updated with more details about Sun Holdings’ restaurants and about IHOP’s performance during the coronavirus pandemic.  Source: NRN.

A look at the mechanics of how a legacy brand reinvents itself . . . .

Two Years Into Dunkin’s Rebrand, VP Drayton Martin Talks Coffee, Logos, and Even Donuts

Despite the pandemic-prompted loss of foot traffic, retail coffee is still among the most robust segments of the restaurant business. According to Research and Markets, coffee shops are expected to grow by 13% between now and 2024, becoming an $81 billion industry.

It’s little wonder, then, that Dunkin’—America’s early-morning destination since 1950—underwent an ambitious rebranding two years ago. While millions of Americans already knew the chain for indulgences like its Boston Kreme donut, sausage-egg-and-cheese croissants, and steaming cups of lava java, Dunkin’ dropped the “Donuts” from its name in 2018 to become a coffee-focused brand. Over the past two years, its menu has swelled with the kind of specialty coffee drinks that, until recently, were largely the province of high-end independent shops and, of course, that chain with the mermaid logo. But a rebrand involves far more than tweaking a name and rejiggering a menu. That’s why we invited Dunkin’ VP of brand stewardship Drayton Martin for a Zoom chat to talk about how this 11,300-unit chain repositioned itself, and how that effort’s gone so far. – Source: ADWEEK.

Restaurants with Forgiven PPP Loans Could Face a Tax Wallop

As restaurateurs wait to see if their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans will be forgiven, accountants and industry lobbyists are warning that the waiver of repayment could foist a significant and often unforeseen tax burden on the borrowers. When Congress established the PPP under the omnibus CARES Act in March, it specified that loans essentially converted into grants under the carefully delineated forgiveness process would not count as taxable income for the borrower. But in April, after the bill had become law, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a ruling that business expenses paid with forgiven PPP funds could not be written off as normal tax deductions. Borrowers would be on the hook for roughly 20% to 30% of the forgiven funds when they paid their 2020 taxes, even if the money was used exactly as Congress had set as the prerequisites for forgiveness. Lobbyists representing small businesses have scrambled to re-instate the deductibility through legislation, but the effort has been blunted by the wrangling in Washington, D.C., over subsequent COVID-19 aid measures. They voice frustration that the IRS, a part of President Trump’s Treasury Department, has balked at reconsidering its designation of the expenses. The agency said it is merely applying past accounting principles to a new situation. But opponents note that the interpretation runs directly contrary to the intent of the CARES Act, which aimed in part to help small businesses survive the pandemic and keep employees on the payroll. “This could be fixed by the White House,” says Aaron Frazier, director of healthcare and tax policy for the National Restaurant Association. “If the perspective was, ‘We’re in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis,’ that could be fixed very quickly.” But proponents of a regulatory fix have hit a stone wall, he recounts. Instead, the association and its small-business allies are focused on a legislative fix in Congress. The solution is that rare piece of lawmaking that has bipartisan support, with “the express concern of the senior tax writers in the [Republican-controlled] Senate and the leading tax writer in the [Democrat-controlled] House,” says Frazier. “All the right people, they’re in agreement on fixing this issue,” says Frazier. A legislative remedy has been included in big bills such as the HEROES Act and its slimmed-down House of Representatives measure, known on the Hill as HEROES Act II. But neither aid measure found traction in the Senate. Then-President Trump shut down negotiations on a compromise measure, saying any relief package would be on hold until after the election. He reversed himself to some degree a few hours later, saying via tweet that he might be willing to sign slim, narrowly focused COVID relief legislation. “It is absolutely still alive, in terms of ‘Let’s get a legislative fix,’” says Frazier. “The reason it’s alive is restaurants and other small businesses that participated in PPP are already having to put aside money for taxes, and that was not the intent.” The legislative push has new urgency because the Small Business Administration (SBA), administrator of the PPP, started processing forgiveness applications early this month. Some restaurants and other small businesses may not ask to have their loans forgiven because of the tax implications, a possibility acknowledged by groups representing small businesses.  “Our hope is that this issue is addressed after the election,” says Frazier, who cites two reasons for his optimism. “Restaurants are in dire need of maintaining liquidity going into 2021,” and the loss of deductibility weighs against that paramount goal, he continues. In addition, “This is not going to add another dollar to the federal deficit,” since the impact of the PPP has already been baked into the federal government’s economic modeling.

“You can include it in a larger relief package and it doesn’t add to the deficit,” says Frazier. “There are a lot of ways to get there,” he says of a possible fix. “Groups small and large are saying, ‘we need to ramp up the urgency.  Find the road, and let’s get there.” – Source: Restaurant Business.

New Normal Inspires New Innovations in the Restaurant Industry

Due to COVID-19, the restaurant industry has seen more change in the last six months than in the last ten years according to Tama Looney, Brand Analytics & Customer Engagement Executive with Xenial, who has been in the restaurant industry for a decade and in the consumer insights and analytic industry for over 20. “Anything to maintain revenue during this time is important,” says Looney, “as well as making sure your service model is as safe as it can be for the customer and your employees so they feel comfortable coming back to you again and again.” After doing scores of surveys, scouring restaurant industry news, and visiting restaurants in person, Looney has seen the industry quickly respond to the coronavirus pandemic to create socially safe restaurants by:

Offering contactless payment

Requiring employees to wear masks

Providing sanitation stations

Making sure there’s visible evidence that surfaces are being continually sanitized and wiped down

Closing down areas where people congregate

Providing kiosks and apps for contactless ordering

Clearly communicating about any new precautions in place

“As a customer, I want to feel comfortable and confident that your business is taking the precautions necessary to keep me and my family safe so that I can continue to grab food as well as have the normalcy that I’m looking for from a brand,” she says.

Fast responders succeed

Looking back, she’s noticed that the restaurants who have outlasted this unprecedented challenge were early adopters of technology in their operations. “Maybe they had an inventory management system that tied to their digital menu boards,” she says. “So, when the supply chain was disrupted and they ran out of tomatoes, they could easily swipe anything that had tomatoes to clear it from their digital menus.” She’s also seen double-digit growth in consumers’ use of mobile apps to facilitate ordering, paying, delivery, and pick-up. Pre-COVID-19, she says, consumers had app fatigue and were hesitant to download yet another app on their phones. “Now there are progressive web apps, called PWAs, that look exactly like a mobile app but you don’t have to actually download something through the app store,” she says. “And they don’t take up as much space on your phone.” (PWA’s are both searchable through and run through the browser vs. downloading the app through an app store; once saved to the home screen, it looks and functions just like a native app from the app store.)

Creativity abounds

What’s more, she believes the pandemic has really shined a light on the entrepreneurial spirit of restaurant owners. “I admire the innovation that has come out of this,” she says noting the emergence of pop-up restaurants in parking lots and expanded five-lane drive-thrus attended by staffers with iPads. “In five months, I expect we will have 20 new things to talk about because restaurants are always innovating. All it takes is an infusion of technology into the space to really help each and every one of us to feel normal again when dining out.”  — Source: The National Restaurant Association. The National Restaurant Association and Heartland have teamed up to offer payments, payroll, point of sale, customer engagement, and funding solutions to help manage and grow your restaurant. – Source: The National Restaurant Association.

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