LongHorn Steakhouse
The Darden chain aims to offer an authentic Western steakhouse experience
Operations
This week’s restaurant nightmares: Heart stoppers
Wait—isn't Halloween still weeks away? That didn't spare restaurants from the sort of scary stories that are usually told around a campfire. The evil this time came from snakes, clowns and liars.
It’s not that George McKerrow hates computers. He just hates what computers do to restaurant workers. A 30-year industry veteran, McKerrow, founder of Longhorn Steakhouse and, more recently, co-founder (with Ted Turner) of Ted’s Montana Grill, remembers taking restaurants public as late as 1990—without the help of computers.
More than half of the restaurant industry’s $491 billion in sales come from the Top 500 chains. And these giants grew at a modestly stronger rate, both in terms of sales and store counts, than the industry overall. Restaurant Business focused on the leading 250 performers to identify trends for our first-ever special report delivering lessons from Technomic’s annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. This special package includes lessons for all operators from the largest chains by segment, menu category and more.