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The Bottom Line

Jonathan Maze The Bottom Line

Restaurant Business Executive Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze is a longtime industry journalist who writes about restaurant finance, mergers and acquisitions and the economy, with a particular focus on quick-service restaurants. He writes daily about the factors influencing the operating environment, including labor and food costs and various industry trends such as technology and delivery.

Jonathan has been widely quoted in media publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post and has appeared on CNBC, Yahoo Finance and NPR. He writes a weekly finance-focused newsletter for Restaurant Business, The Bottom Line, and is the host of the weekly podcast “A Deeper Dive.”

Financing

Staying open longer isn’t always the best idea

 By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 20, 2022

The Bottom Line: Chick-fil-A and First Watch, two different chains, have proven that concepts can be successful by limiting their hours. Here’s why.

Financing

Netflix and Grubhub show consumers are shifting back to normal

 By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 20, 2022

The Bottom Line: News that the streaming service lost subscribers last quarter, and the latest sale discussions involving the delivery firm, show consumers are leaving the house a lot more.

Leadership

Sardar Biglari makes more changes to his incentive agreement

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 15, 2022

The Bottom Line: Biglari Holdings, the owner of Steak n Shake, defends a services agreement with its chairman’s investment fund and commits to making up prior investment losses.

Financing

These are the chains and sectors that have done best since the pandemic

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 15, 2022

The Bottom Line: Jersey Mike’s, Tropical Smoothie, Dutch Bros and Raising Cane’s have enjoyed the strongest growth among the biggest chains. Some of the other winners might surprise you.

Financing

Fast food menu price inflation appears to peak

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 14, 2022

The Bottom Line: Prices have slowed in recent months. Are operators getting religion on prices or is it a sign of a consumer pushback?

Financing

McDonald’s and Subway close units and increase sales

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 08, 2022

The Bottom Line: Two of the three biggest chains combined closed more than 1,400 restaurants last year. But their individual locations make more money.

Topics

As lines blur, the term ‘fast casual’ has become obsolete

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 06, 2022

The Bottom Line: As more chains like Chipotle and Shake Shack add drive-thrus and focus on takeout, they look more like the fast-food restaurants from which they tried to differentiate themselves.

Financing

Soaring inflation and a return to normal could take a bite out of delivery

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 05, 2022

The Bottom Line: Costly third-party delivery orders could drop as higher prices hurt consumers’ pocketbooks. But could this be a sign of tightening consumer spending?

Financing

How Papa John’s won the pandemic pizza battle

By Jonathan Maze on Apr. 04, 2022

The Bottom Line: The pizza delivery chain bested its primary rivals because of its embrace of third-party delivery, its focus on premiumization, and Shaq.

Financing

Consumers are still spending, but fears of a recession grow

By Jonathan Maze on Mar. 31, 2022

The Bottom Line: Fears are growing that higher interest rates to stifle inflation will ultimately trigger a recession. Here’s what this could mean for restaurants.

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