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Restaurant Rewind

`Those who don’t know their history are destined to relive it', to riff on the words of a famed philosopher. For anyone in the restaurant business, that oft-quoted saying may be more of a heartening promise than a dire admonition. The industry’s past is packed with tales of scoundrels and heroes, big thinkers and pinheads, colossal successes and dismal failures, breakthrough moves and self-inflicted destruction. Few soap operas pack as much color and drama. Yet those yellowed snapshots provide insights relevant to the challenges of today. Join Peter Romeo, a 41-year veteran of the business with a penchant for restaurant history, as he explores those pivotal moments from the past. 

Operations

Kentucky Roast Beef? When KFC was in the concept creation game

 By Restaurant Business Staff on Jan. 09, 2025

Restaurant Rewind: Saucy isn’t the first time that the fast-food chicken chain created new brands. This podcast episode features a look at some of the restaurants KFC created.

Operations

Restaurants have had their share of true-crime horrors, including these

 By Peter Romeo on Dec. 19, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: We dip into the industry's crime files to look at two of the most haunting cases, the Brown's Chicken and Speedway murders.

Food

How much updating can Chi-Chi's stand without losing its soul?

By Peter Romeo on Dec. 12, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: The Mexican pioneer is promising to return in a more contemporary version. A look back at its heyday suggests that’ll be a challenging transformation.

Food

Meet the U.S. father of mac 'n cheese. You know him as Thomas Jefferson

By Peter Romeo on Dec. 05, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: One of the most important figures in American history also played a key role in making a casserole of pasta and cheese the quintessential comfort food of the nation he helped to birth. Here's the story.

Leadership

If past is prologue, what's next for Jersey Mike's?

By Peter Romeo on Nov. 21, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: The chain’s history is largely the story of founder and owner Peter Cancro doing what he believed was right for the brand, convention be damned. Now a majority stake will be held by a private-equity firm, a breed hardly known for being hands-off. Will Jersey Mike’s prove an exception?

Marketing

Is that the Big Boy driving my Uber?

By Peter Romeo on Nov. 14, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: Restaurant mascots are seeing less career opportunity than stagecoach drivers these days. Here's the sad tale of how their fortunes have tanked.

Marketing

TGI Fridays needs to get its bad rep back

By Peter Romeo on Nov. 07, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: Once a true convention smasher, the casual-dining pioneer gradually sanded away the quirks and irreverence that made it saucier than anything the industry had seen before. Here’s a reminder of what it once was.

Operations

Decades later, Jack in the Box's E. coli outbreak is still being recalled. Here's why

By Peter Romeo on Oct. 31, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: The food-safety crisis was a turning point for the industry. Some say it was a long-overdue wakeup call that still has even giant fast-food chains like McDonald's on edge.

Operations

The pioneer of daytime dining is a chain you've likely never heard of

By Peter Romeo on Oct. 24, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: Before there was a First Watch or Another Broken Egg, there was Le Peep and its godfather, Allen Bernstein.

Leadership

Don't be surprised if your kids follow you into the restaurant business

By Peter Romeo on Oct. 17, 2024

Restaurant Rewind: Plenty of second and third generations have opted for the career paths their elders took, undercutting the popular perception that the field is the last place a sane person would want to work.

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