How colleges shape customers

Tunisian vegetable stew and Szechwan tofu stir-fry. Certified organic salad bars. Made-to-order panini sandwiches. Bento boxes. Mediterranean tapas and Asian small plates. The restaurant offerings of a good-size city? Not exactly. This is Cal Dining, the foodservice arm of the University of California, Berkeley, where the new Café 3 dining hall offers all-you-can-eat sushi, build-your-own pho and Asian noodle soups, dim sum and such daily specials as pad Thai noodles, Korean beef stir-fry and chicken satay with spicy peanut sauce.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Financing

The Tijuana Flats bankruptcy highlights the dangers of menu miscues

The Bottom Line: The fast-casual chain’s problems following new menu debuts in 2021 and 2022 show that adding new items isn’t always the right idea.

Trending

More from our partners