Abuelo's

Food

How Velvet Taco puts 52 unique limited-time tacos on the menu every year

A robust R&D pipeline constantly keeps WTF, the fast casual’s Weekly Taco Feature, filled with inventive tacos. Director of Culinary Venecia Willis makes it happen.

Food

Election Day and next-gen family meals drive menu launches

Taste Tracker: Pizza for voters at Pieology; kits and family meals make a comeback at Tijuana Flats and Cotton Patch Cafe; and Red Lobster goes for Asian flavors.

New menu launches tap into diet-friendly fare, Super Bowl promotions and more.

Units are large with painted murals, statues and courtyards and a menu inspired by family recipes

More than half of the restaurant industry’s $491 billion in sales come from the Top 500 chains. And these giants grew at a modestly stronger rate, both in terms of sales and store counts, than the industry overall. Restaurant Business focused on the leading 250 performers to identify trends for our first-ever special report delivering lessons from Technomic’s annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. This special package includes lessons for all operators from the largest chains by segment, menu category and more.

Its Tex-Mex menu pairs with an upbeat setting and murals

The Mexican category overall saw sales increase by 0.9% to $18 billion and units by 4.1%, to 12,656.

When it comes to restaurant brands, the sales leaders are not always consumers’ favorites for a variety of reasons. Chains best at parlaying customer satisfaction into sales are hard to beat.