Noodles & Company’s comeback doesn’t discard the playbook. There are complex components, from a massive menuboard initiative to one of the most successful product launches in recent fast-casual history, but the foundation sparks a familiar tale. And that’s why it’s lasted well beyond the burst stage. Noodles & Company’s turnaround has sustained, chief executive Dave Boennighausen… read more
Seattle-based health-oriented concept Evergreens has purchased a similar concept, Garden Bar in Portland, Ore., for an undisclosed sum, the two chains announced. Garden Bar is being renamed Garden Bar by Evergreens and its staff will become Evergreens employees. Its founder, Ana Chaud, will be the restaurants’ new vice president of brand development. The price of… read more
Wendy’s is taking its breakfast menu nationwide in 2020 and will hire 20,000 new employees to support the morning meal, the company announced. The fast-food chain, which has been a holdout in the breakfast area among major national chains, currently has breakfast in 300-plus restaurants. Items on Wendy’s breakfast menu includes the Breakfast Baconator, Frosty-ccino and… read more
McDonald’s and Jack in the Box have joined the Great Chicken Sandwich War with the introduction of limited-time chicken meals that include a massive “quad” patty chicken sandwich. San Diego-based Jack in the Box debuted its first-ever quad chicken sandwich this week. The Really Big Chicken Sandwich combo, with four stacked breaded chicken patties, comes with… read more
In China, where it operates about 4,000 restaurants and plans to have 6,000 by 2023, the chain is still expanding at breakneck speed with a new location every 15 hours. Globally, the company is opening a store roughly every four hours. While Starbucks has been in China for two decades, more rivals are popping up,… read more
Starbucks, the world’s second-largest restaurant company by market capitalization, has been refocusing on its priority markets of the U.S. and China in a push to underpin more vigorous growth. Earnings in the company’s most recent quarter were a step in that direction, with Starbucks posting its fastest global sales growth in three years. These aren’t… read more
Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson, in the role for more than two years now, is ripping up the old store blueprints in a bid to revitalize growth. First on the list: a pick-up cafe in New York set to open this fall to cater to busy coffee-drinkers on the go. The Manhattan store,… read more
As the digital revolution sweeps across the globe, impacting employees, organizations, and industries in its wake, restaurants have a unique opportunity to measure technology’s impact on not just the way work gets done, but the way people work. On one hand, the benefits of automation are endless, particularly in the restaurant and hospitality industry, where… read more
In 2015, USA Today wrote an article asking, “Is Anthony’s the best pizza chain in America?” The story described the experience: “Imagine pizza so good that seasonal snowbirds from New York—the most pizza-defensive city in the country—liked it so much they imported it from their winter stays in Florida. If you think of a chain… read more
Wayne Jones visited 38 Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza locations before signing on as chief executive in 2017, succeeding founder Anthony Bruno. Each stop tugged at his roots. Jones grew up in California, with little money, and got into restaurants so he could eat. And there was a local pizza place where the owner would put… read more