Extra Serving: A restaurant industry podcast

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Leigh Anne Zinsmeister spoke about Red Lobster’s bankruptcy. It may be the biggest news of the week, but it’s also the least surprising: Red Lobster has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In court documents, Red Lobster CEO Jonathan Tibus said that Red Lobster’s seafood supplier, Tha...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Leigh Anne Zinsmeister, and Ron Ruggless spoke about brand activations. This week, the writers took a break from earnings because frankly they’re all exhausted. NRN senior editor Ron Ruggless is on the pod this week and he talked about his recent experience with North Italia in Miami. He was the...

This week on a bonus episode of Extra Serving, a podcast by Nation’s Restaurant News, there are three interviews with restaurant executives to fill your feed. First is an interview with Erick McReynolds, VP of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Chick-fil-A. McReynolds has been in his post since 2021 and has been with the Atlanta-based chicken chain since 2007. Chick-fil-A has long been known for...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Leigh Anne Zinsmeister continued to speak about this quarter’s earnings. Since the editors last gathered for the pod, several companies have reported, including Bloomin’ Brands, El Pollo Loco, and Texas Roadhouse. The editors mentioned Texas Roadhouse last week, anticipating the b...

It’s earnings season, and the editors will be talking about it a lot over the next few weeks. So far, the outlook is mixed. Brands like KFC and Pizza Hut have taken a big fall, while Wingstop and Chipotle are seeing big gains. McDonald’s also had a tough quarter. While still up, the chain saw its value player status fall even further. Starbucks also had a hard quarter. It experienced a decrease in...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Alicia Kelso talked about the state of the financial market in the industry. While some brands are thriving, there are plenty of others that have been struggling. Many have either declared bankruptcy or are rumored to be. Tijuana Flats and Oberweis Dairy both declared Chapter 11 t...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Bret Thorn spoke about food trends. Senior food and beverage editor Thorn spoke about the latest food trends at chains and independents. Throughout the week on First Bite, Thorn covered some of the latest trends, including the “swicy” combination and the rise in sauces. The team g...

This week on Extra Serving, we have a special episode featuring two women in C-suite restaurant roles that aren’t typically held by women: finance and technology. There are two interviews with female executives, recorded last month during the Women’s Foodservice Forum Leadership Conference, that cover everything from how they’ve achieved success in their career to mentoring to what it means to be...

On this week’s episode of Extra Serving, a Nation’s Restaurant News podcast, NRN editors Holly Petre, Bret Thorn, and Joanna Fantozzi spoke about how restaurants are reacting to the introduction of AB 1228 in California. The bill, which went into effect on April 1, raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour. Several restaurant and franchise groups prepared for the raise by laying...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Leigh Anne Zinsmeister and Bret Thorn discussed food trends. NRN’s resident food trend expert, senior food and beverage editor Thorn, talked about what’s going on in drinks, pizza, snacks, and more. He covered what’s hot in the industry now and what you should be looking out for in the R&D pipeline. Then...

This week, on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Leigh Anne Zinsmeister, and Alicia Kelso spoke about the slew of female CEOs that were appointed this week. In an industry that’s flooded with white male CEOs, seeing several female leaders in one month is unusual, let alone one week. That’s contrasted with companies like Yum Brands and Starbuc...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a product of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Leigh Anne Zinsmeister talked about a new law in Florida that could impact third-party delivery services across the country. The Florida State Senate last week passed a bill that would protect restaurants and consumers from third-party delivery companies by requiring the possibili...

On this week’s episode of Extra Serving, a podcast by Nation’s Restaurant News, managing editor Leigh Anne Zinsmeister, editor-in-chief Sam Oches, and senior food and beverage editor Bret Thorn talk about the latest drink trend sweeping the nation. Adding cream to sodas is not a new concept, but in their current form, dirty sodas certainly feel new and exciting and they’re trending in large part t...

In this special episode of Extra Serving, NRN editor-in-chief Sam Oches talks with Chris Keating, EVP of Conferences for NRN parent Informa Foodservice. Sam and Chris talk about the upcoming Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC), held April 14-17 in Phoenix, and why restaurant leaders should plan to attend this influential annual event. Chris shares more details on RLC’s program and speakers, how...

This week on the Extra Serving podcast, Nation’s Restaurant News editors Holly Petre, Alicia Kelso, and Joanna Fantozzi spoke about what feels like the longest earnings season ever. CAVA reported early this week, and showed that it’s still possible to have double-digit traffic gains in this economic environment. The brand, which went public in June 2023, has now seen three straight quarters of sam...

This week, we’re going to be talking about some outliers. During the first half of earnings season, we have an idea of what the industry looks like and the results are not great. Most companies are seeing positive same-store sales in the low single digits. Except for Texas Roadhouse and Wingstop. The two brands on very different ends of the spectrum both saw higher than average sales growth with W...

What’s up with Taco Bell? It released over a dozen new menu items in a futuristic display in Las Vegas and some of the items are wacky while others make sense for the brand. We’re also talking about some financial rumors on this week’s episode of the pod. Check it out.

This week, the earnings conversation will focus on Chipotle, which saw massive gains during the fourth quarter. The fast-casual chain bucked all trends with a same-store sales increase of 8.4% with a 7.4% increase in transactions compared to a 1.6% decline industrywide. The editors talked about how Chipotle has managed to exceed both analyst and industry expectations and what this means for the fu...

What will this earnings season tell us about the industry? After what appeared to be a successful holiday season for restaurants, should we be seeing huge gains? In this episode, NRN editors give their predictions and what they’re looking out for over the next month as chains start to report in earnest.

How is Chipotle marketing to Gen Z ahead of its busiest time of the year? Why are some customers labeling Applebee’s latest marketing promotion a “scam”? Find out more about these stories plus hear from the NRN team about America’s Favorite Chains. Check out America’s Favorite Chains here >> Get caught up on the LinkedIn Live explaining the data behind the report >>

This week some huge news dropped: Burger King is acquiring its largest franchisee, Carrols Restaurant Group. What does this mean for Burger King? Plus, the joint employer rule is threatening the independence of franchisees but possibly to the benefit of workers. Who will win? Stay tuned to find out.

Want to know why the recent Stanley cup by Starbucks collaboration went viral? Or how CPG is changing in the industry? Tune in to this week's episode of Extra Serving.

What can you expect from California’s new minimum wage bill? According to Pizza Hut franchisees, the possible end to in-house delivery. Plus, hear what a possible sale for Tropical Smoothie Cafe could mean for the growing brand and how the IPO market is shaping up in 2024.

Could Chick-fil-A possibly ever be open on Sundays? Find out that and more including why Olive Garden has a generational appeal and how Chuck E. Cheese is planning a turnaround on this week’s episode of Extra Serving.

Do you want to know the latest trend in restaurants or how McDonald’s is expanding its reach? Listen to this week’s episode of Extra Serving to hear what the NRN editors think about hot button issues in the industry.