Operations

Why Bar Louie joined the growing ranks of casual-dining bankruptcies

This week’s podcast features a conversation about Bar Louie’s bankruptcy, California Pizza Kitchen’s mid-life crisis, and Panera Bread’s new CEO. 

Also, more on Nvidia's partnership with Yum Brands, and Piada Italian Street Food’s latest handheld menu item, which could be a gamechanger.

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Emerging Brands

Currito finds its groove, 20 years in

The healthful, fast-casual concept has struck a chord as a franchise brand that plays in the same space as non-franchised Cava, Sweetgreen and Chipotle.

Financing

Once the dominant delivery providers, pizza chains have taken a back seat to aggregators

The Bottom Line: Sales at fast-food pizza chains have stagnated for the past three years, according to the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. Blame the rise of DoorDash and Uber Eats.

Financing

In Hooters, another example of private-equity excess

The Bottom Line: The casual-dining chain’s owners loaded the company up with too much debt coming out of the pandemic. The result was a predictable bankruptcy.

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