If you ever have attended Opening Day at Target Field, you know the only area jammed with more Twins fans than Target Field Plaza before the first pitch is a stretch of restaurants along First Avenue. The downtown patios and bars at Kieran’s Irish Pub, Cowboy Jack’s, the 508 Bar and Restaurant, O’Donovan’s Irish Pub,… read more

Chipotle Mexican Grill is boosting hourly pay by 10% for the next couple of weeks, joining other chains in offering enhanced benefits for employees during the coronavirus crisis. The “assistance pay,” retroactively effective from March 16 through April 12, is a way of “expressing our appreciation for those who are willing and able to continue… read more

Restaurant employees who suffer a financial hit from the COVID-19 pandemic will be able starting April 2 to request a one-time payment of $500 from a relief fund being set up by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF). The funds will be provided on a first come, first served basis to help impacted workers… read more

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Vintage Capital Management, LLC, an investment firm with beneficial ownership of approximately 11.6 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, announced that they have reached an agreement to appoint Anthony Ackil to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Ackil is the fifth independent director to be added to the Board… read more

Landry’s owner Tilman Fertitta temporarily laid off 40,000 employees, or 70 percent of his company’s workforce, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Houston Rockets and Golden Nugget casino owner told Bloomberg News that authorities should consider allowing businesses to operate at a limited capacity in a couple of weeks. He added that restaurants and casinos could operate at 30… read more

As he prepared to host an annual Mardi Gras celebration at a beachfront resort outside Houston, business was booming, pushing his personal fortune to more than $5 billion. A few weeks later — after the Covid-19 pandemic brought the travel and leisure industry to a virtual standstill — his casinos and restaurants are shuttered and… read more

Golden Corral said it has closed all 35 company-operated restaurants and furloughed 2,290 employees because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The franchisor said that “some” of the buffet chain’s 454 franchised stores remain in operation, offering takeout and delivery. Employees were informed of the move in a “virtual” town hall-style meeting with corporate officers. “It is… read more

Restaurants, and other companies in the United States, with fewer than 500 employees are now required to pay employees who miss work due to issues related to the novel coronavirus pandemic, following the signing into law on March 18 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. That includes sick leave and, in most cases, leave… read more

In the battle to keep their New York City restaurant going despite sharp restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak, the owners of Il Posto Accanto tried something Beatrice Tosti di Valminuta would have considered sacrilege in normal times. That was offering their traditional Italian dishes for delivery “which never, never, never, ever, ever, ever happened before,”… read more

The Institute of Food Technologists has canceled the IFT20 annual meeting and food expo due to the evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. The event was scheduled for July 12-15 at McCormick Place in Chicago. IFT20 will now take place as a “virtual event experience,” said Pam Coleman, president of the IFT. “Working in an industry responsible… read more