Restaurant Rewind

Restaurants have a notoriously high mortality rate. How, then, did a windowless fish house tucked beneath a New York City train station make it through two world wars, a depression and a steady onslaught of new competition? Join me on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast as we look at how the Grand Central Oyster Bar has remained a Big Apple hotspot without devolving into a museum or a tourist tr...

The backhand McDonald’s caught from its franchisees last week is proof that friction can erupt between the home office and field operations of any restaurant chain, regardless of its success. By Big Mac standards, the strife is a low point in relations with a group the franchisor has long lauded as its secret sauce. But the strain is nothing compared to the hostilities that very openly erupted bet...

McDonald’s has announced that it’s tweaking its burgers to enhance their flavor and overall appeal. Judging from history, the move will either prove a stroke of genius or one of the worst mistakes Big Mac has ever made. This week on Restaurant Rewind, we look back at what happened when Big Mac’s chief rival overhauled its main customer lure. Join me as we recount how Burger King’s revamped Whopper...

Even casual listeners can hear plenty of wheezing these days from ghost kitchen and virtual concept specialists. The quick about-face in that sector calls to mind a boom that looked at the start of this century like it would reset competition for families’ dinner business—only to collapse in short order, helped along by the Great Recession. If you’re not familiar with meal assembly and prep concep...

Pop quiz time! Regardless of a restaurant’s design, menu or pricing, its guests will be provided with an amenity that started as a quasi-blanket, morphed into a marketing tool in 1887, and survived an onslaught of forks as American colonists rolled east. Name that restaurant staple. Or, hit the play button on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast to trek back to ancient Greece, where the correct a...

Starbucks has turned the dial on its hoopla machine all the way to 11 for the introduction of its new olive oil-infused beverages, a line the coffee giant is touting as The Next Big Thing. If the situation feels like a rerun, you may be recalling the blare of trumpets that similarly heralded such past up-enders as Evolution Fresh juices, La Boulange baked goods, or even Starbucks-brand music store...

If the term “double-double, animal style” is Greek to you, then you’ve likely never stood before a white-uniformed young person in a peaked cap, specifying what sort of onions you want atop your In-N-Out burger. Plenty of regional chains enjoy a strong local following. In the instance of 7 5 -year-old In-N-Out, we’re clearly talking about a cult—one that makes a hardcore Chick-fil-A fan seem wishy...

Long before Jerry Richardson rose to prominence as owner of the Carolina Panthers football team, he’d distinguished himself as a pioneer of the fast-food restaurant business. He not only developed much of the Hardee’s burger chain as a franchisee in the 1960s and '70s, but would go on to oversee such brands as Denny’s, El Pollo Loco and Quincy’s. By the time he retired in 1995, he was responsible...

Drive-thru lanes veered beyond the fast-food business during the pandemic, meriting at least a road test by restaurant concepts of all stripes. Time will tell if the trend continues, but the convenience’s newfound prevalence underscores a question for students of the business: Who came up with the idea of car-window service in the first place? This week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast t...

The story is a familiar one today: A new restaurant venture doesn’t bother to include dining or seating areas because its focus is exclusively on hot food to go. It’s the rationale behind such new concepts as Chipotle’s Farmesa bowls spinoff, Golden Corral’s Homestyle Kitchen, Buffalo Wild Wings’ BWW Go or Texas Roadhouse’s Jaggers, to name just a few examples.  The list seems to grow daily....

The themes of several big restaurant chains’ latest marketing campaigns may be instantly recognizable to consumers of a certain vintage. And that familiarity might be exactly what they're shooting for. As this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind reports, the newest way for marketers of scale to cut through the clutter is by using an old but reliable tagline, theme or jingle.  Consider the lat...

After a string of scrapped launches, Chipotle Mexican Grill is trying again to establish a second restaurant brand.  Will its secret startup find the staying power that escaped the previous ventures? With the test of a bowl concept looking like a “go” for the burrito powerhouse, this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast delves into those earlier stabs at diversification. Host and Restaurant Busin...

Food, service and ambience have long been the fundamental means for differentiating one restaurant from another. Now a new variable is gaining importance as the industry’s labor plight forces a hard decision on operators: When should their restaurants be open? As this week’s edition of RB’s Restaurant Rewind reports, concepts are adding or forgoing dayparts as they more carefully balance sales pot...

Two of the restaurant industry’s oldest full-service chains have declared they’re not ready for the old concepts home. Steak and Ale and Red Lobster have both indicated in recent weeks that they’re set to pursue new beginnings in casual dining, the market they helped to create in the mid-1960s. The efforts are a gamble. But that’s fitting for brands that started as bold challenges to the status qu...

Turning the calendar page to a new year is often the time for a reality check. Where’s the restaurant industry in January 2023? And how do expectations for the next 12 months stack up against recollections of the past 12? There’s no shortage of opinions on what’s ahead for the business. But one thing seems to be a point of agreement: We’re far from the cliff’s edge of three years ago, when the wor...

Social media may be the marketing channel of choice for restaurants today, but many chains once opted for loftier means. Like their roofs. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, looks back at restaurants' once-routine use of a particular color on the tops of their buildings as a marketing tool. Pizza Hut’s point of instant recognition was a red roof....

Wisconsin is known for dairy cows, cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind reminds listeners that supper clubs also belong squarely on that list. This episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at the peculiar institutions that grew out of Prohibition and speakeasies, only to be re-embraced by generation after generation in part because of the nostalgia they pack....

In the quest for The Next Big Thing, even veteran restaurant operators have been known to hatch a venture that was best left undeveloped. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks at three that didn’t even sound good on paper. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo takes listeners on an audio tour of the three concepts he ranks as the worst-ever, from an S&M-themed spot...

The restaurant industry lost one of its pioneers last week with the death of John Y. Brown. Many in the business may not recognize that name, given that he bowed out of the limelight about two decades ago. But they’ll surely know of his major success, a chicken chain called KFC. Brown was to Kentucky Fried Chicken what Ray Kroc was to McDonald’s or Howard Schultz is to Starbucks. He built the chai...

The midterm elections returned politicians from all stripes of civilian lives to Washington, D.C.  And that includes one of the restaurant industry’s own. Indeed, the next Congress is likely to be led by someone who was no stranger to making payroll and working a lunch rush. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast looks at the path that led Kevin McCarthy from deli proprietor to...

Restaurants have been advised to be politically active likely from the first time a table was set. But that involvement hasn’t always gone smoothly, as this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast attests. Back in the early 1990s, when another health crisis was ravaging the nation, the industry mistakenly gave its support to a measure that contradicted science—and, in the eyes of many, com...

The restaurant industry has abounded in creeps, bullies, meanies and all-around jerks. But few rival Victor Posner, the onetime owner of Arby’s, as a candidate for the title of GOAT. This week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind retro podcast looks at the infamous corporate raider and his flamethrower management style. While he owned Arby’s, the brand rebounded in head-turning fashion. But it wasn’...

Few full-service restaurant chains have seen the steep ups and downs of Shoney’s, a brand that once dominated family dining. It also sported one of the most ill-fitting management teams ever to occupy a C-suite. No wonder it was one of the most talked-about chains of the 1980s and '90s, only to fly out of mind before you can say "breakfast bar." What humbled a brand that appeared to have so much m...

Yet another modern riff on the Automat has called it quits , extending the lengthy list of ventures that have fallen far short of the original’s 89-year run. What about that pioneer of restaurant technology has prompted so many entrepreneurs to give an updated version a try? Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks back at the attractions and drawbacks of the seminal concept in this w...

Few restaurant companies can match the success of Starbucks. But the coffee giant has had its share of spectacular misfires as well, as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind recounts. The retro-focused podcast looks at some of the bad calls the company has made over the last 40 years, from the launch of a flatbread side venture to its bid to become a force in the music business. Host and Editor...