equipment

With the rise in vendor-prepared foods, cook-chill methods and batch production techniques, the role of warming and holding equipment has grown in importance. Here are the prime considerations when looking to buy.

In compiling our second annual ranking of the fastest-growing up-and-coming restaurant chains in America —the ones tallying sales between $25 million and $50 million—we were struck by how many new growth stories there were to tell. Thirty-one of this year’s Future 50 growth chains, or 62 percent, are entirely new to the list. That tells us that the entrepreneurial spirit thrives in 2007, and that the restaurant business is still where it lives.