Restaurant Business over the past year covered every important piece of news in the industry and then some.
We covered breaking news about Happy Meal toys and examined crucial regulatory issues. We conducted major investigations and kept track of industry sales performance, broke big breaking news stories and extensively covered crucial topics.
But as we come to the close of the year it’s also good to look at the very best of the journalism we at RB provided this year. So here are some of the best stories from the year that was, from the award-winning team at Restaurant Business.
Some of these are behind a paywall. But you can click here to subscribe.
Tipping Point
This year, we unleashed the RB editorial team on one of the most fascinating issues in the industry today: The rapid growth of tipping into other areas of the restaurant industry and the culture’s extensive and controversial history. It was an important look at a crucial time for the practice.
The Demise of Boston Market
It’s difficult to destroy a restaurant chain. But we may be watching it happen in real time. The rotisserie chicken chain was sued more than 130 times, mostly by unpaid vendors, landlords and workers, over the past three years, including US Foods. Stores were shuttered, sometimes by the state. And insider stories of the situation at the chain and former sister concept Corner Bakery were outlandish.
The California fast-food compromise
Restaurant and labor groups somewhat surprisingly came together and worked out a compromise on fast food regulations in the country’s largest state, a compromise that the industry apparently had little choice but to negotiate. RB Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo got the inside story of how that deal, and its $20 fast-food minimum wage, came together.
The Frankenmuth story
How did little Frankenmuth, Mich., with a population of just over 5,000 people, come to be home to two of the 100 largest independent restaurants by annual sales? RB Executive Editor Lisa Jennings tells the fascinating story of the tourist town and its two homestyle restaurants.
The only woman in the room
Today’s woman executives have grown accustomed to being in rooms full of men. But as RB Editor Reyna Estrada tells it, the CEOs now leading restaurant companies are determined to open doors for others and make sure that doesn’t happen for the next generation.
A new kind of restaurant
Can a tech entrepreneur really reinvent the restaurant? Investors sure think so. Marc Lore, he of Diapers.com fame, has created Wonder, a “new kind of food hall” with its own ecosystem. The concept has already raised $850 million. RB Senior Technology Editor Joe Guszkowski toured Wonder to see what it was all about.
Where have all the pastry chefs gone?
The pandemic has influenced quite a few things in the restaurant industry. But it is changing the role of the pastry chef. Once common throughout the industry, Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe notes that the job has evolved. The result is a fascinating story on one key area of industry labor evolution.
The Quiznos suicide
In 2022, Quiznos hailed a franchisee who opened a new prototype for the chain and signed an extensive, multi-state development agreement and took ownership of the brand’s first restaurant. Less than one year later he took his own life, leaving his family heavily in debt. For his widow, the problems were just beginning.
The collapse of Taps
In 1999, Joe Manzella opened Taps Fish House in Brea, Calif. The high-volume concept would become the first in what would ultimately become a $30 million restaurant company. By July 2023, the last restaurants closed amid a sea of bankruptcies, lawsuits, charges and countercharges. Jennings waded through all this to tell the story of the collapse of an empire.
Here come the service fees
A huge issue in the restaurant industry this year was service fees. Communities around the country killed the tip credit, prompting restaurants to turn to service fees to pay staff without raising prices. The side effects were not always pretty, as Romeo writes in his story examining the experience of one notable city, Washington, D.C.
What about security?
Technology is all over the restaurant industry these days, with mobile apps and loyalty programs, kiosks, robots and new, fancy POS systems. All of that comes with a major security risk. Guszkowski discusses these risks and provides some helpful tips for restaurant companies to protect themselves and their businesses.
Sauce!
Want to generate a lot of attention for your menu development without creating operational headaches for your staff? Try sauce. We would argue that sauce was THE menu item of the year in 2023, and Pat Cobe was all over the story.
Sustainable tech
Technology isn’t just for helping you serve customers. It’s increasingly about helping restaurants become more sustainable. In this piece, Estrada examines the growing amount of tech available for companies looking to get on the right side of the environment.
State of the Plate
I swear I did not include this particular piece from our phenomenal menu trends columnist Nancy Kruse because it talks about dessert. I swear it’s just a particularly excellent column. But … dessert.
Check it out and try not to drool.
RB Daily
Do you know we have a daily podcast? You should absolutely check it out. It’s a rundown of the most important stories of the day. And at just about four minutes per episode, it’s totally low risk. Our excellent podcast specialist, Kimmy “Spoons” Kaczmarek, does a great job of putting it all together every week.
The art
None of our stories and packages work well at all unless they look good. And for that we have Senior Art Director Nico Heins. To show just how skilled he is, let me present this package of stories we wrote this year on Burger King’s struggles and its recovery. Masterful work.
Thank you for reading Restaurant Business this year. And we promise to come back even stronger in 2024 with more of the excellent journalism you’ve come to expect.
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