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Operations

How IHOP came up with its virtual brands

Unlike sister concept Applebee's, the pancake chain looked outside the organization for help developing Thrilled Cheese and Super Mega Dilla.

Financing

How Pizza Ranch learned to live with the buffet, and then without it

The pizza and chicken buffet concept has recovered from the pandemic, but not just because it focused more on takeout and installed drive-thru windows. Some credit goes to video games.

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.

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

A Chick-fil-A in Santa Barbara is in danger of being declared a public nuisance because of backups. But that is not the only such conflict. Here’s what restaurants are doing to ease these problems.

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.

Zunzi’s was doing well as a traditional fast casual, its CEO said, but then it added a bar and sales soared. Now, it’s changed its franchising plans.

Oklahoma City-based HumanKind Hospitality is still trying to figure out how to balance soaring costs with how much its customers will bear.

Reality Check: There is a model out there of how to stop a store-by-store unionization effort. Starbucks' defender in chief should take a hard look.

Sweet & Sour: Brick-and-mortarless delivery concepts are growing at a head-turning clip. But that sort of expansion usually brings challenges, too.

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