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Biography

Jonathan Maze

Editor-in-Chief

 Contact Jonathan

Restaurant Business Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze is a longtime industry journalist who writes about restaurant finance, mergers and acquisitions and the economy, with a particular focus on quick-service restaurants. He writes daily about the factors influencing the operating environment, including labor and food costs and various industry trends such as technology and delivery.

Jonathan has been widely quoted in media publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post and has appeared on CNBC, Yahoo Finance and NPR. He writes a weekly finance-focused newsletter for Restaurant Business, The Bottom Line, and is the host of the weekly podcast “A Deeper Dive.”

Articles by
Jonathan Maze

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Marketing

McDonald's takes another nostalgia trip, this time with Grimace

The burger giant has found a winning formula by tapping into customers’ love of its brands. And so the big purple blob character will be the centerpiece of its marketing starting next week.

Financing

Fat Brands plans to take Twin Peaks public

The brand collector plans to offer shares of the casual-dining chain to the public but will remain its majority owner.

The Bottom Line: The company has reportedly narrowed its list of buyers and the price tag is down. But the deal is taking a while to get over the finish line, and here’s why.

The sandwich giant signed a 4,000-unit, master franchise agreement with Shanghai Fu-Rui-Shi Corporate Development, its largest such agreement in the brand’s history.

The pizza chain is acquiring restaurants from a franchisee, believing that operating its own locations in the market will improve sales over the long term.

SSCP Management, owner of Roy’s and a co-owner of Cici’s, won a bankruptcy auction for the fast-casual bakery/café chain.

The Bottom Line: The owner of Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit has declined as much as 10% since reporting what Gibbs called a “blowout” first quarter. And the company argues that it could easily weather a downturn.

The highest-paid executive last year wasn't even a CEO, and three of the 10 best-paid chief executives no longer work for their companies.

The 32-unit concept, started by a pair of longtime restaurateurs including the former owner of Baja Fresh, plans to raise $25 million in an initial public offering.

A Deeper Dive: R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research for the data firm Placer.ai, joins the podcast to discuss the state of industry sales and traffic.

The Bottom Line: The burger chain’s unit volumes have lagged its competitors. One reason has been a morning daypart that hasn’t quite lived up to expectations. Can the brand’s new management fix it?

Carl Bachmann will jump from one fast-casual burger chain to the other when he takes over as BurgerFi CEO in July.

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