A Deeper Dive

Why do companies franchise their business? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Gary Occhiogrosso the founder of Franchise Growth Solutions, who talks about the opportunities and challenges involved in franchising. Occhiogrosso has been involved in the business for a long time and we talk about his history, first as a franchisee and later as the founder of...

Did Starbucks win its labor battle? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features a debate between myself and Peter Romeo, the editor at large of RB, on the success of Starbucks’ pushback against unions. For some time, it seemed that another Starbucks store formed a union every few hours. The push, the most successful effort to unionize a restaurant chain, contribut...

Restaurant automation is coming rapidly. But how much of an impact will it have? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Juan Martinez, principal with the consulting firm Profitality, who talks about the growing use of automation. Martinez is a periodic guest on the podcast and he works with restaurants to improve their overall profitability. Automation has be...

Can dine-in pizza still work? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features a trio of executives from Mountain Mike’s Pizza: co-CEO and brand owners Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme and COO Jim Metevier. Mountain Mike’s is a California-based chain that operates about 270 locations. Britt and St. Geme bought the chain about six years ago. The trio talk about the history o...

What is the future of casual dining? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features John Cywinski, the president of the casual-dining brand Applebee’s, to discuss that very topic. Bar and grill chains like Applebee’s had generally struggled since the Great Recession. And then the pandemic forced them to figure out takeout and delivery, and many of them did. But the p...

Does the fast-casual sector exist? In this week’s episode of a Deeper Dive I’m joined by my colleague Lisa Jennings to talk about the blurring of the lines in the restaurant industry—particularly between fast-casual and quick-service restaurants. The fast-casual sector represented a group of higher-end limited-service concepts and until the pandemic largely dominated industry growth over the past...

Amusements have been, quite literally, a game-changer for Cicis. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jeff Hetsel, the president of the 300-unit pizza buffet chain. Cicis has had a strong performance coming out of the pandemic, with sales up 14.5% last year, according to Technomic. One of the big reasons is video games. The company has been convincing opera...

How can restaurants avoid becoming a political football? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Kefauver, the managing partner with public affairs firm Align Public Strategies and cohost of the RB-hosted Working Lunch podcast. Kefauver discusses a variety of topics, including a backlash against corporate ESG strategies. ESG stands for environmental, socia...

How can operators avoid price increases as their own costs increase? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Rich Shank, senior principal with RB sister company Technomic. He discusses the challenging operating environment when it comes to menu pricing. Restaurants have been raising prices aggressively this year as higher prices for food and labor eat into mar...

The beverage business is rapidly changing and drive-thru coffee concepts like Scooters Coffee are right in the middle of it. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Thornton, the president of Scooter’s. Scooter’s has quietly been one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the U.S. System sales and unit count have nearly tripled over the past five year...

If you haven’t come across a bubble tea concept yet, you will quite soon. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Paul Reynish, who was named global CEO of the bubble tea concept Gong Cha earlier this year. Gong Cha was founded in Taiwan in 1996 and is now based in London. It has quietly been one of the fastest-growing chains in the country. It operates more t...

How big of a deal is the unionization effort at Starbucks? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features my colleague Peter Romeo, who talks about the ongoing unionization campaign at the coffee giant. More than 200 Starbucks locations have voted to form a union. The company has undertaken a massive effort to stop it. Peter and I discuss that unionization campaign,...

The nation’s opioid crisis grew much worse during the pandemic. And it has hit restaurants particularly hard. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Rick Van Warner, a former longtime industry executive and ex-CEO of the Tex-Mex chain Tijuana Flats. He is also on the board at Project Opioid, a Florida-based agency that works with employers on the opioid crisi...

Can fries fix Quiznos? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Mark Lohmann, the president of Rego Restaurant Group, which owns Quiznos as well as its sister chain Taco Del Mar. Quiznos has gone from nearly 4,700 U.S. restaurants in 2006 to just 200 now, plus fewer than 300 internationally, a 90% reduction in total unit count that is unprecedented in restauran...

How did Smoothie King convince franchisees to go along with a complete menu overhaul? And how did customers react? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Wan Kim, the CEO and owner of the Texas-based Smoothie King brand. Kim was a franchisee of the brand in South Korea before he bought the company and moved to the U.S. Smoothie King has been one of the countr...

Getting attention is the name of the game in the ultra-competitive restaurant industry, and Krispy Kreme has been doing quite a bit of that lately. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Dave Skena, the global chief brand officer for the doughnut chain. Skena’s job is to get attention for a well-known brand and the company has been doing some interesting thin...

Pumpkin spice season comes earlier every year. Why? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features RB Senior Editor Pat Cobe, who joins me to talk about what’s on the menu at fast-food chains. We speak first about the recent news that Taco Bell has a partnership with the dessert concept Milk Bar . The two are launching the Strawberry Bell Truffle at a limited number...

How is the restaurant industry dealing with the difficult operating environment? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features an interview with Michelle Korsmo, who took over as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in May. Korsmo discusses her career to date. She has worked in public policy at the state and federal levels and most recently was chief executi...

Why would you leave a 1,800-unit chicken wing chain for a salad upstart? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive seeks to answer that question. It features Charlie Morrison, now the CEO of the nearly-60-unit Salad and Go. Morrison is the now-former CEO of Wingstop, which he led for nearly a decade, growing it from 500 locations to about 1,800 units and helping to turn...

How was Taco Bell able to get its latest prototype from idea to operating in less than two years? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Mike Grams, the chief operating officer for the Mexican fast-food chain, to talk about a variety of topics, from franchising to the reaction to its Mexican Pizza. That includes its fancy new Defy prototype, the one that feat...

Shahpour Nejad came to the U.S. to get his college degree. Instead he became a pizza guy. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Nejad, the CEO and cofounder of the Sacramento-based Pizza Guys, who discusses his personal history, the formation of his chain and its growth strategies. Nejad’s parents sent him to the U.S. in the late 1970s when he was just 16, s...

Subway has made yet another massive change to its menu. Will it work? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Pat Cobe, the senior menu editor for RB, in a discussion about Subway’s latest menu chane. Subway last year overhauled its menu with an “eat fresh refresh,” an upgrade of numerous ingredients, including its bread. Some longtime operators who recall the...

How do you turn a well-loved local restaurant into a hot national concept? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Garrett Reed, CEO of Layne’s Chicken Fingers, to talk about his efforts to take that step. Layne’s was founded near Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, in 1994. Reed and a partner later purchased the brand, intending on turning it into a fran...

Everybody talks about having a good corporate culture. But what does that mean? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features James Pogue, the CEO of the leadership consulting firm JP Enterprises, to talk about culture and inclusivity. Pogue is a former researcher and administrator who now works with companies—including many restaurants—to help them attract and reta...

How does a mall concept do well in stand-alone locations? With chicken wings. This week’s episode of A Deeper Dive features Charley’s Philly Steaks President Candra Alisiswanto, who talks about Charley’s growth strategy. Charley’s operates 670 locations. Most of those have traditionally been in mall settings. But more recently, the company began expanding outside of those shopping centers and into...