The Dress Rehearsal for Restaurants: Soft Opening
If you’re like me, a Friday night is best spent with Guy Fieri and re-runs of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” on The Food Network. You can tell Guy is a...
Domino’s Transformation and The Importance of Brand Auditing
Regardless of how you feel about Domino’s pizza, this is a company that excels at two things. 1. Domino’s is good at blowing things up—literally. The...
Restaurant Monitoring Done Right
Repeat after me: Restaurant video surveillance isn’t the end-all solution to your operational needs. Now more than ever, video solutions are extremely...
Is a Restaurant REIT the Right Move for Darden’s Olive Garden?
Is it a matter of financial success or a move that indicates a larger operational problem lurking beneath the surface? Ultimately, that’s what...
The Secret to Cutting Energy Costs in Restaurants
How well-versed are you in your restaurant energy costs? Here are three things you may not realize when it comes to the energy costs of restaurant...
Restaurant Operations Lessons from In-N-Out Burger
When Lynsi Snyder speaks, people listen. The 33-year-old billionaire owner of In-N-Out Burger, the sole heir to her family’s fortune, makes rare...
Improving Restaurant Labor Productivity with Mobile Technology
The minimum wage debate is a hot-button issue facing the restaurant industry right now. Los Angeles just became the largest city in America to raise...
The Impact of Food Delivery Apps on Operations and Brand Image
Food delivery is a natural progression in an age of convenience through mobile technology. Essentially, restaurants had a twofold, industry-wide...
Bowling Alley Operations & The Upscaling of an American Pastime
Photo by Jonathan Haeber, on Flickr Bowling is one of those versatile activities that could be at the center of a child’s birthday party, a corporate...
Trend Watch: The Upscaling of Airport Restaurants and Retail
Derek Jeter may be considered a first-ballot MLB Hall of Famer, but he recently struck out in a big business deal. Jeter had reportedly signed a...
What’s the Beef? Restaurants Consider Other Protein Options
While there’s nothing like a good steak or hamburger, U.S. consumers have been steadily cutting down on red meat and looking for other sources of...
Trend Watch: Food Courts
I’ve seen this coming since 2009 when I visited the newly opened Yankee Stadium and paid $5 for a cup of freshly squeezed lemonade. I passed on the...
Lessons from Listeria: Food Safety for Multi-Unit Operators
If you Google food safety news, you’ll see Listeria stories dominates headlines. Here are just a few of the recent stories: Blue Bell Creameries...
How to Perform Efficient Restaurant Line Checks
“Bloody hell. Here we go again.” Gordon Ramsay as restaurant patrons file into Hell’s Kitchen. It’s another busy night at the restaurant and the...
How Frozen Yogurt Became a Mainstream Hipster
Frozen yogurt is no longer a niche trend. The smaller players have died out, and the larger chains survive. Perhaps it’s survival of the fittest, but...
Preparing Your Restaurant for Outdoor Seating
Not everyone has the advantage of operating a restaurant in San Diego where the weather is picture perfect year-round. Even Zenput’s home city is...
So, You Want to Open a Hotel Restaurant
Opening a restaurant in a hotel comes down to two questions, depending on your side of the business. If you are a hotelier, you must ask yourself,...
A Pizza Chain’s 3 Slices of Success
Photo by The Pizza Review, on Flickr If there’s one food that can be served very well or very badly, it’s pizza. The crust has to be just right, the...
The Most Important Weekly Report for Restaurant Operators
While there’s no business like show business, there’s no business quite as challenging as the restaurant industry. Perhaps some non-foodservice...
3 Lessons from Managing Partner and Vendor Relationships
Recently, I was reading up on vendor management best practices when I came across this passage about selecting the right vendor. “The vendor selection...
How to Perform a Pizza Franchise Inspection
If you’ve ever visited New Jersey, you know it’s not uncommon to find five pizzerias in a square-mile-radius, and that’s just in a suburb! It’s...
What the FDA’s Menu Labeling Rules Mean for Food Retailers
Ready, set, re-label your foodservice menu! Ah, if only it were that easy. Following government mandates can be tedious, and when it affects an...
The Secret Sauce to Fast Casual Restaurants’ Success
Q: What do college students, stay-at-home parents and corporate executives have in common? A: You’ll find them all in fast casual restaurants on their...
Digital Menu Boards: What Foodservice Operators Need to Know
Once thought to be a luxury for large-chain operations, digital menu boards are becoming increasingly popular in quick-service restaurants and other...