Restaurant Rewind

Red Lobster has certainly been in the news lately. But not one of the stories recalls the remarkable person who built it into an institution deserving of so much ink. And, no, it’s not Bill Darden, although he gave the brand its start.

The individual who turned Darden’s concept into the cultural icon it is today was an Air Force veteran who left his family’s farm in rural Georgia to make his mark on the world. If you scour the bric-a-brac some older stores sport to provide a dockside feel, you may even spot a reference to him on some of the props (executives lent their names to the bogus lobster traps and seafood crates as sort of an inside joke.) Look for an ersatz antique emblazoned with “Lee’s” or “Joe’s,” as in Joe Lee, a true godfather of what we now know as casual dining.

Don’t recognize that name? Then you’re in for a treat. By popular demand, Restaurant Rewind is undertaking a series of profiles on the giants who laid the foundation for the restaurant industry we know today. Much of the information will be drawn from firsthand experiences with those pioneers.

The first installment focuses on Joe Lee.

We’ll focus on a variety of movers and shakers from the industry’s past in future installments. But for now, do yourself a favor and click “Play.”

As we’ve learned firsthand, if some yahoo airs a myth or outright lie about your operation, fellow wingnuts are going to listen and believe it, no matter how outrageous the assertion might be. Remember the reports that Paul McCartney had died?

Restaurants seem particularly vulnerable to those attempts to smear reputations, a likely result of employing and serving so many people. The chances of alienating someone who then seeks revenge via internet falsehoods is that much greater.

On this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks into the industry’s past for more color on what’s happening in the business today, we pedal back to some of the outrageous myths that have been spun about major restaurant brands. How did the home of the Bloomin’ Onion come to be accused of satanic worship? And what has McDonald’s not supposedly been mixing into its burgers to save money?

You’ll also hear how someone on social media recently tried to use one of our stories to take a swipe at Panera Bread.

Press Play for a rundown on some jaw-dropping myths from the industry’s past.

With traffic ebbing through much of the business, restaurant chains are resorting to the sort of deep discounting the industry hasn’t seen for a while. Sonic is hoping it can win back lapsed users with the enticement of a $1.29 chili cheese hot dog. Applebee’s is touting 50-cent fried-mozzarella sticks (though bargain-hunters have to purchase at least four of the gooey treats). Even Starbucks is offering bundled deals.

Yet those appeals to penny-pinchers are nothing compared to the price-slashing of three decades ago, when two industry giants rolled out menu lines that initially seemed as if the two, both master marketers, had been sampling too many of Applebee’s $1 cocktails.  These were not limited-time offers. Taco Bell twice dropped the price of some tacos to 39 cents. In some markets, McDonald’s used 29-cent burgers as a lure.

How’d those tactics work? This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, RB’s retro-focused podcast,  looks back at those bar-setting acts of deflation. Give a listen for a recount of what happened when those bargains were fly-cast into the business.

Imagine if the inflationary pressures forcing restaurants to hike menu prices were halted with the swipe of a pen. As far-fetched as that might sound, a government-directed halt to all cost increases was tried once, roughly 50 years ago. And the results didn’t exactly meet expectations. There’s a reason the move was known as the Nixon Shock.

That’s Nixon as in Richard Nixon, the president whose name is now synonymous with abuse of power. Although his forte was foreign affairs, the Republican bet he could take domestic action that would ensure re-election in 1972. So he used an executive order to freeze all prices and wages. His ridiculous fear of losing was also why the White House sanctioned a break-in at Democratic headquarters housed in an upscale mixed-use complex called Watergate.

Both moves were disasters. The fallout from Watergate continues to shape politics today. But the effect of the price and wage freezes is largely forgotten. Learn why that’s the case in this week’s edition of our retro-focused podcast, Restaurant Rewind.

The restaurant industry has lost two standout talents in less than two weeks: Solomon Choi, the founder of 16 Handles and an investor in other ventures, and James Kent, the gifted New York City fine-dining chef. Choi was 44, and Kent just 45. Both apparently died from heart issues.

Misfortune comes at random. But there’s no denying the industry is less than a leader in addressing the issue of health among its members. All of the concern has been focused on the well-being of restaurant customers, not the industry professionals who serve them.

But that’s not always been the case, as we discuss in this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind. From time to time, there have been flashes of interest in promoting healthier lifestyles for those on the business side. But we still have a long way to go.

Meanwhile, the grind of the business has left us with losses that can still haunt, as the episode also attests. Give a listen to some departures that were particularly painful.

Restaurants’ appreciation of air conditioning is likely to be at a high point this week as a major heat wave rolls across the country. For at least the next few days, and likely at a significant number of additional points during the summer, no other piece of technology is likely to be as highly valued by the trade. Just ask operators in Phoenix, where temperatures hit 111 degrees on Friday.

How did that dependence come about? And who invented air conditioning in the first place?

Those questions are answered in this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks back into the industry’s past for more color on what’s happening in the trade today. The current installment traces the development of A/Cs from their invention in 1902 by a name that’s well known and still a dominant force in the field today.

We look at when and why the foodservice business followed movie theaters’ lead in adopting the machinery, and touch on how the equipment forced the industry to be more inclusive.

So grab a cold drink, crank up the A/C, and give a listen.

Domino’s is tweaking its ad strategy to tout the quality of its food—a complete 180 from the ground-breaking campaign it ran 16 years ago in what proved a seminal move by the pizza giant. Back then, it acknowledged that its pies were abominable; the ads spotlighted customers who asserted the pizza was the worst they had ever tasted, and they disparaged the product as little better than cardboard smeared with ketchup. After detailing how god-awful the pizza had been for 50 years, the ads went on to herald a revision for the ages.

CNN said it might have been the weirdest TV ad in history. But it worked. The campaign was a turning point for Domino’s, leading to its emergence as the nation’s largest pizza chain.

Now the brand is taking the reverse tack. Will it work? It’s hard to say, because there have been so few parallels in the industry’s past, but there were a few that provide a rough comparison. Like the time KFC changed its name to FKC in exasperation over an operational challenge.

Get a sense of how bad attributes can become good marketing points by listening to this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind.

A&W fast-food restaurants in Canada will start serving Pret A Manger-branded products this fall, under a just-announced 10-year collaboration deal.

A cross-selling situation like that might have been inconceivable 20 years ago, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind reports. But, as the podcast installment explains, the lines of competition have been blurring for some time as restaurant licensing expands beyond consumer packaged goods to ready-to-eat fare prominently featured on another concept’s menu. Cinnabon-branded products, for instance, are available at chains ranging from Wendy’s to Subway to The Cheesecake Factory.

Tune into this week’s episode for a look at why and how chains are increasingly relying on the drawing power of other chains’ products to increase their own allure.

All-you-can-eat deals can be risky, as Red Lobster’s current plight attests. But there was a stretch 50 years or so ago when the danger extended beyond business fallout, to actual physical peril for customers and neighbors using the same roads.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at that era when a flurry of upstart concepts used the promise of unlimited beer and wine as their main draws. Today, adult beverages offer restaurants an extremely attractive profit margin. Back then, they were the cheapo giveaways, the bait for luring in patrons willing to pop for a steak or burger. That’s where the money was.

Join as we look back at a day when $10 could get you drunk and decently fed, and why those times mercifully ended quickly.

Federal regulators have brought a new battery of charges against Andy Wiederhorn, chairman of Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones parent Fat Brands. It’s not the first time he’s been accused of violating federal security regulations. Nor is he the lone high-level restaurant executive to have served jail time, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Rewind podcast reports.

The installment looks back at several of the most publicized instances of executives crossing the line into criminal territory, including the scandal 20 years ago that rocked Buca di Beppo. There’s also a deeper dive into what landed Wiederhorn in prison around that time, where he earned a $2 million bonus on top of a CEO-scale salary.

Press “Play” for a recount of the curious criminal records of past chain CEOs.

The Beatles were still newcomers to the music scene when Scoma’s served up its first bowl of cioppino on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The Fab Four would disband in less than a decade, but the restaurant remains a star of the local restaurant scene at age 59, the payoff from navigating the latest currents in dining while remaining true to the operating philosophy and standards set by founder Al Scoma in 1965. By design, the experience of today’s customers is not radically different from what Al sought to deliver decades ago to their grandparents and great-grandparents.

It's a common goal of landmark dining establishments, but not an easy one to attain, given how widely generations’ preferences can diverge over time. On this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, Scoma’s President Mariann Costello shares how her charge has handled that challenge of balancing the new with the revered, and what has kept Scoma’s successful for six decades.

She also shares her thoughts on how the San Francisco market has changed in the 40 years she’s been affiliated with the restaurant (and, no, she’s not the longest-serving member of the team, as she’s quick to point out).

Press “Play” for a download of how a restaurant with sales exceeding $11 million a year has sustained its success through wars, recessions, a pandemic and the loss of a fishing boat.

With summer just a few heatwaves away, the restaurant business is within a Maraschino cherry toss of prime ice cream season. Is there any better time to retrace how a treat that began as honeyed snow has morphed into an all-American restaurant staple?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind is betting “no.” The installment looks back at the origins of the frozen treat and its twisty evolution over the centuries that followed. In what other account might Nero, Thomas Jefferson and Howard Johnson all play memorable roles?  

So scoop yourself a bowl of rum raisin, bury it in whipped cream and press Play.

Even the name suggests a climb out of a rut: TGI Friday’s, as in it’s time to cut loose and have some wicked fun. The casual-dining trailblazer didn’t disappoint, aiming from Day One to offer a different sort of experience to children of the conformity-conscious '50s.

If you’ve been in the chain restaurant business for an appreciable stretch, chances are you’ve either attended or heard about the Restaurant Leadership Conference.

It’s the top-to-top event where you might see Magic Johnson jump off the stage to give someone a hug, two chain builders lay the groundwork for a merger (Cava and Zoes Kitchen, 2018) or a big-name CEO careening around a Go Kart track. Be mindful of who may be behind you in the coffee line, because it could be a best-selling author checking out the tech demonstrations in the tradeshow area.

Yet even longtime attendees are likely unaware of how the conference, now hosted by Restaurant Business parent Informa, came to be. In those roots are the reasons why the RLC continues to reign as an event where you’re likely to be surprised by what happens on the stage and the number of industry all-stars you’ll meet.

This week’s edition of our Restaurant Rewind retro-focused podcast revisits how the conference got started, why it zigged when other conferences zagged, and some of the brush-with-greatness presenters who left attendees a-buzz.

Check it out, whether you are there or want to be.

Popeyes is emerging as a tough bird to beat in the quick-service fried-chicken market, a distinction that would have delighted its late founder, the flamboyant and pugnacious nonconformist Al Copeland.

Had Copeland done nothing more than create Popeyes, he’d deserve a prime spot in a restaurant industry hall of fame. But his leadership of that chain is only one of the reasons he should be remembered today.

In an industry of cowboys and rebels, he was a standout in his brashness and insistence on marching to his own beat. Industry long-timers would have a tough time naming someone who came close to his uniqueness.

Consider, for instance, that he once not only ran Popeyes but its next closest rival, the chain now known as Church’s Texas Chicken. He fought openly with the author Anne Rice and other neighbors, never yielding an inch. And then there were his ghost stories.

But that’s just a sampling of what made Copeland so unusual. Press play on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind to learn more about his exploits in and outside of the restaurant business.

It’s probably a myth that tax-code writers refine their knack for inscrutability by taking a whack at state and local liquor regulations. The complexity and illogic of the rules governing alcohol sales are enough to make a restaurateur long for a seat on the other side of the bar, knocking back Jell-O shots with fellow scofflaws.

In New York and other areas, theirs would be an outlaw’s life, the result of gelatin made with vodka being prohibited for sale or giveaway by restaurants and bars. Yes, you read that correctly. You can buy a hefty blunt from a streetside establishment, but a wiggly 1-inch cube of spiked Island Pineapple Jell-O is pure contraband, even in a place as wild as New York City.

Join us for this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind as we look at why so many regulations governing the sale of alcoholic beverages seem stuck in the age when revelers would hit their local dram shop for a flagon of mead.

We won’t say a word if you should happen to listen with a cube of cherry-red gelatin at your elbow.

America loves its pranks, as fast-food chains learned years ago in turning April Fool’s Day into a major marketing opportunity. Consumers have brought considerable gullibility to the day, while big brands like Taco Bell, Burger King and McDonald’s have gone to extreme lengths to hoodwink the public, with remarkable success.

The combination has turned several of the put-ons into major news stories because the deceptions were so successful, as stupid as they might appear in hindsight. In a surprising number of those instances, perpetrators had to ‘fess up afterward that they were pulling off a joke and not actually adding burgers for lefthanders or edible fashion accessories.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks back at some of the outstanding con jobs and what they wrought. Join us as pranksters rev up their tricks for this year’s April Fool’s Day, which falls on Monday. No foolin’.

After Wendy’s charge and retreat on dynamic pricing, the restaurant business can’t seem to talk about anything else. Perhaps that’s because variable pricing is as much a part of the business as knives and forks.

Indeed, you may not be aware of the various forms dynamic pricing has taken over the years. In this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, we take a look at some of the forgotten manifestations, including ones from big-name operators like McDonald’s.

Join us as we look at early instances of dynamic pricing and how it’s waxed and waned.

True crime stories have become a major entertainment genre, delivered in big numbers by podcasts, streaming TV shows and even several whole networks. It’s about time Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, made its contribution to the field.

In this week’s episode, we look back at the small role a restaurant played in the assumed murder of Jimmy Hoffa, the labor leader and known organized-crime associate who disappeared without a trace in 1975. Even today, tips periodically surface about what happened to the Michigander, only to lead nowhere.

One of the few things known for sure is where Hoffa intended to dine on the day he disappeared. There’s no dispute that he was scheduled to lunch with two known gangsters at what was then one of the country’s most famous fine-dining restaurants, Machus’ Red Fox in Bloomfield, Mich.

He never made it past the parking lot, where his car was later found abandoned. But that was enough to indelibly connect the restaurant and its proprietor, an upstanding industry luminary named Harris Machus, to one of the most infamous disappearances in American history.

There was never any suggestion that Machus or his establishment had anything to do with what was later adjudged to be a murder. But a restaurant formerly noted for the caliber of its service and food became a popular destination for another reason overnight. Interest in true crime stories was popular even then, nearly 50 years ago.

The irony is that Machus was as solid of a citizen as you could hope to find, having served with honor in World War II, and forever shaping the modern U.S. restaurant business as it emerged in the 1950s and '60s. He even served as president of the National Restaurant Association, where he was a director for a solid decade.

Little is remembered about Machus today other than the connection to Hoffa. But there was so much more to the man, as this week’s podcast episode attests.

 But listen for yourself. Hit Play to learn about an often-overlooked pioneer of the business.

If Mad Men’s Don Draper was trying to impress a prospective client, he may have taken the target to New York City’s cathedral of French cooking, La Pavillon—the 1960s landmark, not the modern reincarnation opened by Daniel Boulud.

There, he would have sampled the fare of a young French chef who’d leave more of an imprint on the American dining scene than mere memories of outstanding meals. By that time, Jacques Pepin was already a culinary star on both sides of the Atlantic, having served as personal chef to France’s Charles De Gaulle before leading the kitchen team at La Pavillon. In modern parlance, we’d have called him a celebrity chef, if not a rock star.

So how did he build on that fame? To the astonishment of many, Pepin took what was essentially the job of corporate chef for the Howard Johnson’s restaurant chain, a mass-market phenom known for its orange roofs, fried clams and ice cream.

It was one of the many curious twists to a culinary career that’s now in its 74th year. At age 88, Pepin is still making appearances in the fine-dining world. Yet many of the young chefs who’ve been unknowingly influenced by the kitchen master may not recognize his name, even though it’s graced some 30 cookbooks and 17 cooking shows. 

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind shows why Pepin should not be overlooked by any student of the restaurant business. On the occasion of a tribute to Pepin by one of the educational institutions he helped to found, the podcast delves into the chef’s career and his lasting influence on the business.

Give a listen to learn how a one-time R&D chef for Howard Johnson’s brought fine dining to the masses.

The restaurant industry has seen a number of big-name chains reveal widespread closures within their ranks in recent weeks. Outback parent Bloomin’ Brand alerted Wall Street that it intends to close 41 stores, while adding another 45. Denny’s recently acknowledged that it had shut about 60 stores in 2023 because the units were no longer financially sustainable.

As dramatic as those closures might be, they may not have spun as many heads as the complete shutdown nearly 30 years ago of a 51-unit chain in a single day. What grabbed attention was the company pulling the plug: Darden Restaurants, better known as the Midas-like operation that ran Olive Garden and Red Lobster at the time.

The full-service operator had launched an Asian concept just five years earlier with hopes of duplicating what it had done with Olive Garden: offering consumers a safe, reasonable and dependable alternative to the thousands of mom-and-pop ethnic restaurants that dotted the landscape at the time. There was no leading Chinese brand, just as there hadn’t been a national Italian option until Olive Garden came along.

But China Coast proved it was no Olive Garden. After a mere five years, Darden decided it was losing too much money on the upstart, and snapped off the whole system’s lights on a Tuesday morning.

But Darden wasn’t finished with the Asian market, as you’ll learn from listening to this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that travels into the industry’s past for more insights on what’s happening in the business today.

What did Darden hope would be a more viable Asian concept than China Coast? And what went wrong with China Coast in the first place?

Press Play to find out.

As any fan of "The Sopranos" knows, mobsters love good food almost as much as they relish ill-gotten money. No wonder organized crime is constantly rumored to be intertwined with the restaurant business.

For veterans of New York City, those insinuations are far from fanciful. Long-timers know the dining landmarks where Mafioso kingpins were whacked after a meal, and where you have to be careful not to kick fellow guests in the ankle lest you set off their back-up guns. A line of black limos outside means you don’t tell Italian jokes while waiting for a table, and the men’s dress code might include a pinky ring. 

If there were any doubts of a connection between cooks and capos, they were dashed a few years ago when once-celebrated chef David Ruggerio came clean on his involvement with the mob. While earning stellar reviews for his fare at New York’s La Caravelle, the second cousin to famed gangster Carlo Gambino pursued a second life as a goodfella, hijacking trucks, shaking down other crooks and dealing drugs.

He eventually left the business to avoid jail time, and decided to air his criminal past after several partners in crime were killed and he was disrespected by a godfather of sorts.

It’s an incredible story, and you can learn it by hitting Play on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks back at often-forgotten nuggets from the industry’s past.  Listen this week for a snapshot of how a real wise guy made it in the business.

Restaurants will be hearing the name again and again as one of the industry’s premier awards program draws closer to its early May conclusion for 2024. Yet few in the business may know who James Beard was, now that he’s been gone for nearly 40 years.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind answers the question of why Beard should be remembered, particularly within fine dining. Even those familiar with the media star’s legacy may not be aware of his full contribution to the industry he loved, like proving that Americans would tune in their TVs to learn more about cooking and food. He was the first to try the airwaves, beginning in 1946.

Nor might they know that he was a founder of Citymeals on Wheels, or that he was a fan of barbecuing when that form of prep was still considered low-brow.

Learn more about a figure who deserves to be remembered as a god of the business. Hit Play to learn how Beard lived, and the contributions he’s left behind.

Tipping has been villainized by organized labor as a vestige of slavery, an assertion that strains credibility. What makes the assertion even more difficult to accept is the background of the restaurant company that’s likely more dependent on tipping than any other employer in the business.

Bill Darden is well-known to any student of the business as the founder of Darden Restaurants and Red Lobster, the brand that made the company a full-service powerhouse. Yet few are likely aware of the role he played in combating racism, going back as far as 1935.

Darden’s refusal to segregate his dining rooms put him and his business at considerable risk. Yet he made color-blindness a plank of the company’s culture.

Join us as we look back in this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind at the stance Darden took and how sharply it contrasted with the industry’s attitude of even just a few decades ago.

Hit “Play” to learn how one strong adherent to tipping was all about treating people equally, regardless of their skin color.

Casual dining roared back as pandemic conditions lifted and dining rooms reopened, dispelling assertions the segment was cooked. But that doesn’t mean the full-service chain market has been on cruise control, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind attests.

The retro-focused podcast looks back during the installment to what the casual market looked like 10 and 20 years ago, and how that compares with the state of play today. Among the brands that have clearly aged are TGI Fridays and Red Lobster, the brands that virtually midwifed the whole sector.

Join us as we look at how the market has changed, and what propelled those granddads of the segment to prominence in the first place.

It’s not unusual for a newly hired restaurant-chain executive to spend time in a unit as a line-level employee. Seeing an operation from the perspective of a customer or worker often provides insight and a reality check c-suiters might not get otherwise. In general, being in stores is a great thing for the CEO. 

Except, that is, when they don’t have a clue as to what’s really happening in their restaurants.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at how wrong things can go when an exec doesn’t have a firm grasp on operations, personnel or the conditions of a store. They’re nightmares that I’ve personally witnessed, from rodent sightings to having a renegade employee sounding off about what he or she doesn’t like.

Tune in for a sample of the train wrecks I’ve seen while in-unit with a leader who wants to be one of the team but doesn’t have a credible claim on being so.

About 84% of the United States’ adult population carry a credit card, or roughly 191 million American consumers, according to the research company Experion. That shouldn’t be a surprise to today’s restaurateurs, who’ve seen the use of cash be challenged pointedly in recent years by the surge in digital ordering.

No wonder the expense of accepting plastic has soared into one of operators’ biggest cost items, third only to labor and food.

How did the industry get here? When did the modern credit card find its way into the business, and how did playing with plastic become so prevalent?

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, a podcast that looks back at the roots of today’s restaurant issues, aims to answer those questions. Let’s just say you can thank or blame a pair of 1940s men for sparking the industry’s dependence on credit and charge cards.

Join us as we trace the evolution of the co-dependency between restaurants and charge-card networks.

Restaurants have been pressed since at least the 1970s to provide menu options for customers looking to lose weight and eat more healthfully. That pressure might reach its peak every January, when patrons are hellbent on following a set diet in hopes of shedding a few pounds.

What diet might that be this year, given the weight-loss schemes currently in vogue? Chances are it won’t have as much of an influence on menus as the craze that swept up diners and restaurants more than two decades ago, prompting chain after chain to overhaul their bills of fare.

Join us on this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind for a look at the profound influence that fad, the Atkins diet, temporarily had on the industry. It’s a cautionary tale of how short-lived any restrictive eating plan tends to be, regardless of how widely it might have been embraced.

Press play for a look at the influence popular diets have today, compared to the force at least one packed 25 years ago.

The restaurant industry seems as if it’s going backward in its efforts to promote diversity within its top executive ranks. If it goes all the way back to the mid-20th century, it’ll find that the role of women in particular was far more pronounced in those formative years.

Indeed, women played key roles in the development of the chain sector, in part because those early ventures were largely family affairs. Men might have grabbed the limelight, but women were often the key figures behind the scenes.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at three of those female pioneers. Without them, we likely wouldn’t have the McDonald’s, In-N-Out and Marriott International we do today.

Join us as we celebrate women who are still role models all these decades later.  

McDonald’s created a stir last week with the opening of a second concept, a drive-thru drinks operation called CosMc’s. But it’s far from the first time the Golden Arches has tried to find gold from a second venture. It’s been tinkering with possible additions to its single-brand fold almost from the time Ray Kroc got involved with the chain.

The possibilities have included everything from a beer garden to an amusement park to a mixed-use complex that could have been a model for Mall of America. And those were all before its diversification binge of the late 1990s.

Yet not one of those notions worked for Big Mac. Today, McDonald’s Corp. is still synonymous with the McDonald’s chain.

Find out what happened from this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, a podcast that look back into the industry’s past for a better understanding of what’s happening today. You’ll find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Not every service standout earned that distinction by indulging customers’ every whim and preference. Some of the hospitality industry’s most admired brands garnered respect in part by drawing a firm line and refusing to cross it, no matter how much business was at stake. They simply tell customers, Nope, ain't going to do that. 

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at several of those sticks-in-the-mud, what they’ve refused to do, and why. And, as listeners will hear, these are not the industry’s marginal brands. We’re talking about revered operations like Chick-fil-A, Texas Roadhouse and Marriott.

Learn more about their stubbornness by pressing “Play.”

If you think the term “happy hour” was coined in the 1960s or '70s to tag post-work booze fests, you’re off by about 50 years and 100 proof. The wordsmith behind that phrase was none other than a sobriety-minded Uncle Sam.

It’s one piece of the restaurant jargon whose roots we trace during this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that delves into the business’ past for a deeper appreciation of what’s happening now. Join us as we look at the origins of such industry-specific terms as “daypart,” “86” and “in the weeds.”

Press Play to learn how restaurant-speak came to be.

Deep-frying a whole turkey has become a popular way of preparing the star of Thanksgiving feasts. Proponents say it yields a more delicious centerpiece in considerably less time than roasting. So why was there ever a time that cooking method was not a consideration, be it for a restaurant chef or the home cook?

It's likely a result of the option being just a mad foodie’s fever dream until an advancement in camper technology provided a means, and the leftovers from a pigfest gave an unexpected impetus. And everything came together merely in recent decades, an eye-blink compared to the arc of many American culinary traditions.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind as we look back at how deep-frying turkeys became a thing.

Red Lobster has been making headlines for offering an all-you-can-eat deal that worked too well as a traffic driver. Management acknowledged that the spike in food costs ate about $11 million in profits for the third quarter.

The situation is hardly unprecedented in the restaurant business—even for Red Lobster itself. Two decades ago, it similarly saw margins crunched by an all-you-can-eat crab legs deal.

Join us as we look back at some of the memorable instances of restaurant chains over- or underestimating how popular a bargain deal would prove to be. Hit the Play button for a crash course on Riblets gluts and Mighty Wings over-supplies.

For roughly 15 years, no other restaurant in the country could match the sales volumes of Hilltop Steak House, a kitschy mega-restaurant perched atop a hill outside Boston. It wasn’t unusual for the local favorite’s annual revenues to top $25 million, even surpassing $30 million for at least one year.

Even more amazing was how the place did it. Though Hilltop specialized in doormat-sized steaks, its prices were a bargain. Its superpower was providing the sort of value that kept customers lining up, waiting to hear their name called for a table in one of the establishment’s five dining rooms.

Not familiar with the story of how a local butcher turned a small local joint into a money mill that somehow defied duplication? Join us as we look back at an operation that has largely been forgotten since its closing in 2013.

Our bet is it’s worth remembering. But see for yourself.

Decades before the phrase “fast casual” was coined, a restaurant concept little noticed outside of New York City was using a self-service format, rapid-fire cooking and a Chipotle-style production line to offer a steak meal for less than $9.

We’re not talking about something from the Roaring '20s. Tad’s Steakhouse was grilling its strip steaks several dozen at a time to offer a bargain-price steak lunch until just a few years ago. There’s still a unit plugging away under that name in San Francisco, though inflation has rendered a $9 price as obsolete as wagon wheels.

What can the industry learn from a brand that persevered for 63 years in the grueling New York market, selling steak at that?

Give a listen to this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind to learn why the industry should not forget Tad’s Steakhouse.

The restaurant industry cursed her at the time, but Lady Bird Johnson served up some tough love in the 1960s that’s arguably still paying benefits to the business today. She moved the nation’s fight against highway litter and garish roadside billboard from the margins to the mainstreams, forcing the public and the industry to change some decidedly litterbug ways.

In the process, the genteel Texan with a core of steel forever changed the role of First Lady, from a passive plus-one to her spouse, to an activist wielding the power of her position to pursue a cause.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind for a look at an often overlooked development that some regard as the spark that led to the environmental consciousness we see in the industry today.

If you can play a guitar and sell records, why not parlay your notoriety into a second career as restaurateur?

That questionable line of thinking has led a number of stars to try their hand at the business, usually with unexciting if not disastrous results. But that can’t be said about the late mega-star who epitomized the laid-back lifestyle, the antithesis of what’s needed to succeed in a notoriously frantic trade that requires intense attention to detail.

Jimmy Buffett lent his name, time and money in no less than three restaurant ventures, two of which are still chugging along as exceptions that prove the rule. In this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, we look at the business empire Buffett built without blurring his perception as someone who believed happy hour should never end. (In truth, Buffett stopped drinking years ago.)

And he’s not alone. We also take a quick look at two other rockstars-turned-restaurateurs who cultivated an image contrary to Buffett. Consider it a Kiss of appreciation.

Hit play to see what we mean.

No, McDonald’s never blended earthworms or cow eyeballs into the ground beef for its burgers. And Kentucky Fried Chicken didn’t change its name to KFC because the birds it sourced were mutants with six wings and couldn’t legally be called chickens anymore.

But, astoundingly, those reports did get some play in the pre-internet age, and you can still find references on the (mis)information superhighway today. With social media and the mass-market reach of the web, stories like those can spread in a flash, forcing operations to counter the ridiculous with reason and fact—sometimes without effect.

In today’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we look at some of the restaurant rumors that have taken hold over the years. What fueled such crazy reports, and why did they get traction at all?

Give a listen to some of the information nightmares big brands have been forced to counter. And if others occur to you, drop me a line at [email protected].

Buzz can be as much of a factor for a restaurant’s success as the caliber of its food and service. Yet the industry has seen countless instances of reality falling short of the hoopla.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks back at a prime example, the Wagamama ramen chain. The brand’s success in Europe fostered ample talk that the low-priced favorite of London hipsters would make a similar splash on the U.S. side of the Atlantic. Yet, all these years later, the concept has only seven American outposts open, not the hundreds other parts of the world have seen.

The lack of traction is especially puzzling because the brand had an early proxy in the U.S. that proved the concept’s viability, a close and highly successful knockoff in the harsh proving ground of New York City. 

What happened to a concept with so much potential and industry attention? Join us as we take a look at this prime example of a promising concept somehow failing to find traction.

Download the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

The movie business is having a blockbuster summer, with restaurants enjoying tie-ins with such certifiable hits as “Barbie” and “Super Mario Bros.” But marketing collaborations haven’t been the only ways the film and restaurant industries have fed off one another, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

The two have been intertwined likely from the first time a director yelled “Action!” Along with TV, movies have used restaurants as the settings for everything from gangland shootouts to the star turn of a culinarily gifted rat. The places may not always be identified by their real names, but they’re no strangers to bright lights and rolling cameras.

Add in the tendency of stars from one field to branch into the other, and you have a symbiotic relationship that delights the public. And the interconnections may run deeper than even film buffs realize, as this week’s episode notes.

Download it for an entertaining late-summer look at the connection. At the very least, you’ll elevate your knowledge of entertainment trivia along with your cocktail banter.

You’ll find Restaurant Rewind from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Every now and then, a public restaurant company finds itself in the crosshairs of an activist investor who’s convinced it can do a better job of running the business. But few of those attempts to wrest control of an operation come close to Starboard Capital’s successful attempt nine years ago to boot the whole board of Darden Restaurants and sharply change the casual-dining giant’s direction.

And now Starboard has another casual-dining behemoth in its sights. The investment firm has filed notice that it intends to lean on Bloomin’ Brands, the parent of Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s, to force some changes.  

What can the Bloomin’ team expect from what’s now appears to be its largest shareholder?

The current episode of Restaurant Rewind attempts to answer that question by looking back at the 2014 interactions between Starboard and Darden.  At the heart of that give-and-take was what may be the most exhaustive list of alleged ills an investor has ever gathered on a holding, a 294-page slide deck and whitepaper on what Darden had supposedly done wrong and how it could right itself.

Restaurateurs greeted the initial demands for a $15 minimum wage with disbelief and ridicule. Now the industry is facing proposals to set a floor of $30 an hour for some employees.

Is it déjà vu all over again? Will that level of pay become the new wage target for organized labor and politicians, the way $15 has been for years? Or is the demand for a $30 wage merely a test to see how high the pay floor can be lifted?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks for clues in a recollection of how a $15 wage became the standard ask when increases in a minimum wage are being considered. How did a pay level more than double the federal rate become a norm?

Download the episode and join me as we retrace that course. You’ll find Restaurant Rewind wherever you usually get your podcasts.

McDonald’s and Starbucks have both aired plans to shoehorn more units into less densely populated markets they would have bypassed with nary a second thought 10 or 20 years ago. Chances are they may find a few traditional Dairy Queens already pumping out cones and cups in those long-overlooked nooks.

The home of the Dilly Bar and the Blizzard was an early believer in the potential of the byways and crannies where the competition for frozen treats—or a fast-food treat of any kind—was far from blistering. The concept and its development strategy have evolved considerably from those days of rapid expansion, but the brand remains synonymous in the popular imagination with Small Town America.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at how Dairy Queen earned that distinction while adjusting to the monumental social changes of post-World War II America.  Treat yourself to a Blizzard and a colorful recollection of how a brand known by the curl topping its cones and cups quietly became a fast-food giant in its own right.

Boston Market is once again snagging headlines, though not for the reasons that made it one of the most talked-about restaurant concepts of the 1990s.

The talk back then was of upending the industry with an operation unlike anything the business had ever seen. Its management crowed about the brand hitting the $1 billion systemwide sales mark faster than any concept that had preceded it. Now the chain is struggling to pay its bills.

Whatever happens to the self-professed pioneer of “home meal replacement,” it will likely be remembered by anyone around at the time for the excitement the venture generated in its early days.

What made it such an attention-getter, a simultaneous source of awe, skepticism and warnings about smooth-talking interlopers from other industries?

In this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, we look back at those heady initial years and a few of the jaw-dropping events that transpired in the years afterward. If buzz were profits, the brand would be bigger today than McDonald’s, its one-time owner. Indeed, Big Mac copied it, as did operators ranging from Cracker Barrel to Arby's to Roy Rogers. 

Give a listen by downloading the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

He ran a soft-porn magazine, called Muhammad Ali a pal, cycled through romantic interests the way some restaurants run through specials, and relaxed by racing boats and piloting a hot-air balloon. 

Imagine that you’re the head of the second largest restaurant company in the business, overseeing the likes of Burger King, Godfather’s, Steak and Ale and Bennigan’s, making a huge salary, though you’ve already made millions upon millions. 

But you decide to pack it in to buy an upstart concept no one had ever heard of, to start all over in building a restaurant brand.

As this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind recounts, that was exactly what Norman Brinker did while heading the enormous restaurant group of The Pillsbury Co. He could have worked that job for the rest of his life, and made a fortune doing it. Instead, he resigned to buy an upstart concept that few had even heard of, a full-service brand in a segment called gourmet burgers, which would all but disappear within a few years. 

Chili’s would not. It would become the foundation of a multi-brand restaurant company whose brands would include Maggiano’s, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Bay Street, Cozy Mel’s, On the Border, Wildfire Grill and Corner Market, to name just a few. 

In the process, Brinker changed the trajectory of the restaurant business. It’s proof that he was one of the smartest and most successful leaders the industry has ever seen. 

But listen for yourself, in Part II of our two-part series. And if you need to catch up, give Part I a listen. You’ll find both wherever you get your podcasts. 

Ask outsiders to name the visionaries who built the restaurant industry into the social fixture it is today and chances are you’ll hear names like Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas and Howard Schultz. Odds are the list won’t include a force who midwifed a whole category of the business, even though he was active in the field far more recently than those dynasty builders.

And that’s not even considering his storybook life outside of the business. His bio is the stuff of movies. Indeed, he figured into two, portrayed in one by Mark Harmon. Ray Kroc only had one film made about him.

Yet, almost exactly 14 years after his death, Norman Brinker may well be fading from the industry’s collective memory. There aren’t that many of us still in the trade who were privileged to witness Norman’s brilliance firsthand.  Those of a more tender vintage might recognize that his name is used by Brinker International, the parent company of the Chili’s and Maggiano’s chains, but may not be aware of the why.

It would be a colossal loss if such an influential and inspirational figure was forgotten by the business he did so much to build. That’s why we’re devoting the next two issues of our Restaurant Rewind podcast to a personalized recount of Norman Brinker’s extraordinary life and career.

Join us this episode as we look at Brinker’s early influences and how they presaged the success he would enjoy throughout his 78 years. Mixed in are the details that would today make Norman a regular focus of shows like Entertainment Tonight or even TMZ. His would be a frequently boldfaced name.

Download the episode from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

If you’ve ever wondered who came up with the idea of having servers introduce themselves by name, ponder no more. The lore holds that it was Joe Baum, who was to the restaurant business what Steve Jobs was to personal tech.

And how about the ubiquitous gimmick of having the now-familiar server approach with a giant peppermill, ready to do some personalized grinding? Same guy.

But Baum’s impact wasn’t limited to tableside theater, though he exceled at that mission. Baum was also a key force in loosening up fine dining, sometimes going so far as to give his places a theme, be it Hawaiian or Roman.

And what extraordinary places he hatched: The Four Seasons. Windows on the World. Tavern on the Green.

He was a force that changed the business, often with a style that made him a precursor of today’s celebrity chefs and restaurateurs.

And yet he may be forgotten by a generation that takes Baum’s innovations for granted.

Hit the Play button to learn what a mistake that is for any student of the business. Download this episode of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

This year’s baseball season has been a tough one for some of the biggest names in the sport. Might it be time for some of the fallen stars to consider a late-innings switch into the restaurant business?

On this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we take a look at a few of the celebrated restaurateurs who made a big name for themselves on the baseball diamond first.  Some youngsters may not even recognize the names Stan Musial or Boog Powell, but only someone recently thawed out of a long sleep in a glacier would be unfamiliar with Mickey Mantle.

Give a listen to learn how those superstars made a name in the restaurant business after hanging up their spikes and batting gloves. Join me in that journey by downloading the installment wherever you usually get your podcasts.

The restaurant industry’s romance with Wall Street is back on, with chain after chain set to find out how much the stock market loves them. Cava is expected to get a read this week, possibly followed by brands ranging from Gen Korean BBQ to Panera Bread and its sibling concepts, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

Will the stampede set a new high-water mark for restaurant IPOs? Can the volume come close to the torrent of offerings that stock buyers embraced in the go-go 1990s? More than 70 foodservice companies sold themselves to the public that decade, led by steak and eatertainment concepts.

The flood of capital changed the business. Many regarded that time as the coming-out party for casual dining. Others saw it as the first time growth-for-growth’s-sake put the sector in trouble.

Join me on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, where we’ll look back at those days of IPO after IPO. What can we learn from those times about what’s ahead for restaurant companies yearning to go public?

The jingle tinkling out incessantly from rolling ice cream trucks is as much a sign of summer as anything Mother Nature flashes. But for the treat purveyors themselves, it might as well be a bugle sounding, “Charge!” It’s time for their turf war to resume.

For decades, the treat-shops-on-wheels have clashed over who has dibs to particular routes and stopping points. On this week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we look at what’s behind that long-running feud, and how it might materialize this season. Will the rivalry escalate again to weapons?

Download the episode from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Let the swells have their $900 fish whisker souffle. New York City’s true gift to the culinary arts is just fine for me. I’m talking hot dogs, the consummate Big Apple delight. From stockbroker to starving student, New Yorkers have a special fondness for the $2.50 tube steak, especially if it fueled their climb from down-and-out to doing OK.

Come along as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast slathers on the onion relish for a taste of what hot dogs have meant to New Yorkers, as strange as that role has sometimes been.

My apologies if you end up with mustard stains and the hint of a New York accent.

Cookie concepts are growing at a head-turning pace. If that sounds like déjà vu all over again, you’re showing your age.

Indeed, the restaurant business saw a similar boom in the segment nearly 50 years ago, when consumers found their indulgence opportunities increasing at a breakneck clip because of upstarts like Mrs. Field’s, Famous Amos and David’s Cookies.

What happened to those champions of the chocolate chip? How did that surge differ from what we’re seeing today from the likes of Crumble or Insomnia? The answer starts with the prior wave’s reliance on the characters behind the brands. They were the precursors of today’s celebrity chefs.

But that’s not the only way the new wave differs from that first manifestation. For the full picture, download this week’s episode from wherever you get your podcasts. And bring your own milk for dipping.

Ever wonder how a high-end restaurant chain could end up with a clunky name like Ruth’s Chris Steak House? If you’re familiar with the Ruth in that moniker, the mystery is about as vexing as picking an even number between one and three. There was no way that a force like Ruth Fertel would not leave her mark on the business, literally and figuratively.

Here’s just a few bulleted items from her life story: She didn’t enter the industry until age 38, looking for a way to pay for her two boys’ college education. Never mind that her education was in chemistry and physics. She’d earned college degrees in each by age 19.

That was before she broke the gender barrier to become a professional racehorse trainer.

Convinced that single moms brought a special touch to service, she built an all-female waitstaff for her restaurant venture. And she literally lived at her workplace, at least until it burned down.

Want more? Join me on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast for a look at the extraordinary life and career of Ruth Ann Udsted Fertel.

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 trap. We might not score a dozen oysters for the once-prevailing price of 35 cents, but we’ll see how a decidedly old-guard establishment can keep its currency when it remains true to its origins while making concessions to the times.

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 between a hot concept and its licensees 20 years ago.

Join me on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, as we look back at the war that raged in the court of public opinion—and in the actual legal sort—between Quiznos franchisees and their franchisor at the time.

Download the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.  

And let me know of any topic you’d like me to resurrect from the past for additional insight into what’s happening in the business today. Email me at [email protected].

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 was received. (Here’s a hint: You won’t find the updated version on the menu today.)

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 concepts, you either weren’t in the business back then, or you’ve repressed the memory. Join me for this episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast as we look back at a true flash in the hotel pan: the dozens of ventures that bet parents would welcome the chance to put together a week’s worth of meals in a social setting.

We’ll take a look at the factors that (briefly) made meal assembly concepts a wave to ride, and why it crashed in short order, leaving behind a few brands that managed to recast themselves.

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 answer had its start as an edible remedy for greasy fingers.

Join me this episode for a surprising look at how the restaurant napkin came to be.

But if you plan to make a mess, bring your own linens.

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 stores. 

To be fair, there’s no reason to doubt the new drinks will prove more of a Pumpkin Spice Latte than a Dolce Misto or the Unicorn Latte. And the home of the green apron is far from the only restaurant chain to hype a new menu item or product line as a disruptor, only to generate more fizzle than sizzle. Remember, Taco Bell once tried a diet line.

Join me on this week’s edition of our Restaurant Rewind podcast for a look back at some of the products that failed to live up to their hyped potential. You’ll find this and every episode of the retro-focused program wherever you usually get your podcasts.

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 75-year-old In-N-Out, we’re clearly talking about a cult—one that makes a hardcore Chick-fil-A fan seem wishy-washy. What is it about an old-line burger chain that inspires such loyalty?

The food is definitely a hook. But part of the appeal is the insider-y feel that comes with knowing the brand’s rich array of peculiarities. What other operation has a thing about palm trees? Or quotes scriptures on its fry sleeves?

Fortunately for you newbies, this week’s edition of our Restaurant Rewind podcast serves as a primer on the peculiarities that have endured the concept to generation after generation of West Coasters. It’s delivered here in anticipation of the chain’s expansion to the East Coast.

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 for more than 2, 500 restaurants.

Richardson died earlier this month at age 86.  His connection to the restaurant industry had been minimal for nearly the prior two decades, but his mark on the business is indelible.

Join me on this week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast as we review the career of an early industry star who found fame before and after on the gridiron.

Download this week’s episode of retro-focused Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

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 takes on the question, which proves more difficult to answer than may have been expected. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at no fewer than five claimants to the title of drive-thru inventor, from McDonald’s to The Pig Stand.

The look back into the industry’s past may not have yielded the definitive answer, but it provides a look at the surprising source of the confusion.

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.

But there’s nothing new about the strategy, as this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast reports. Host Peter Romeo taps his memory as reporter and consumer to recount how the business model was used by a restaurant startup 70 years ago, to considerable success. The venture would grow to more than 1,000 outlets, making it a mammoth player of its day.

Along the way, notes Romeo, it would change the course of restaurant marketing and franchising. Yet the concept is all but forgotten, despite remaining in operation on a small scale. Romeo, editor at large of Restaurant Business, speculates that the pioneering brand’s quick fade kept it from being stamped on the industry’s collective memory.

And it wasn’t the only venture to presage today’s to-go-only concepts Romeo looks at a second example, this one truly a steak-and-potato concept, that thrived a mere 30 or so years ago.

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 latest efforts from Wendy’s and Burger King, or the campaign Outback Steakhouse says it's developing. Which is exactly what host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo does in this week’s installment of the podcast.

He notes that the reliance on past hits is consistent with the use of familiar limited-time offers to turn heads.

It’s also part of a larger trend toward rebooting a proven hit in many fields of entertainment.

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 Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo fires up the time machine for a recount of Chipotle’s short-lived incursions into the Asian, pizza and burger markets, and why those experiments never grew beyond about 15 units.

What has the high-flying company learned from ShopHouse Asian Kitchen, Pizzeria Locale and Tasty Made that enhance the chances of success for the new venture, which is going by the name Farmesa?

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 potential against the difficulties of staffing for those hours. Brunch is drawing entrants throughout the full-service sector, but the worth of dinner service is being increasingly questioned.

Meanwhile, even brands synonymous with round-the-clock service are skipping overnight shifts because of diminishing head counts—not of customers, but of potential hires.

As Rewind host Peter Romeo notes in this week’s report, restaurant newcomers have been opting out of post-afternoon service for decades. The Restaurant Business Editor At Large suggests that the true instigator might have ben a concept that was a rage in the 1980s but is little known today, called Le Peep.

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 quo. Without their operational and marketing nonconformity, the full-service chain business might be very different today.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks at the stamp each brand put on the industry when they opened within two years of one another. Host Peter Romeo, editor at large of Restaurant Business, looks in particular at the contributions made by each to the industry’s talent pool. There was a time when alumni of the concepts were at the helm of nearly every casual chain of scale.

He also makes a case for never forgetting the names and contributions of the powerhouses’ guiding forces, Norman Brinker and Joe Lee.

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 world was first hearing of this strange and aggressive killer called COVID-19.

Forgotten how eerie and daunting those times were? This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind takes listeners back to the last blissful days of ignorance for an industry that was about to be walloped. Host and Editor At Large Peter Romeo reminds listeners of the business’ disbelief that such a thing could happen, and how far it’s come from those grim days.

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. Howard Johnson’s opted for orange. IHOP relied on light blue.

Podcast host and RB Editor At Large Peter Romeo takes listeners on a trip back to those days for a look at what was once a cookbook way of calling attention to a young concept. The quick report examines why the practice fell out of favor and how some brands are grappling with what those arresting roofs still say to the public about the concept they cap.

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. You won’t find the latest experiment in molecular gastronomy, but where else can you get all the fried fish you can eat on a Friday night?

Podcast host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo notes that these places are far from museums. Many enjoy sales volumes that the latest hotspot in New York City or Los Angeles would envy, in part because of their brisk drinks business. They’re proof that special-occasion dining is still alive and well in a part of the country that’s best known for cheese.

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 in New York City to an eatertainment venture built around catastrophic deaths.

Tune in so you, too, can wonder, what were they thinking in giving something like this a try? 

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 chains from a loose group of about 600 diner-style restaurants operating under a variety of names, into a 3,500-unit behemoth.

But that wasn’t the only concept that Brown put on the map. He also co-founded Kenny Rogers Roasters, and helped to build at least five other restaurant chains.

Along the way, he served as governor of Kentucky, owner of the Boston Celtics and the husband of media star Phyllis George.

Sound intriguing? Learn more about the giant of the business from this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind. 

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 speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the federal government’s third-highest-ranking official.

Join host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he looks at how that time in foodservice could shape what’s considered in Congress in 2023.

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, common decency. The business was tarred as insensitive to employees who were fighting to stay alive—at the very time the industry was striving to improve its image as an employer.

It caught considerable criticism for what was widely seen as tone-deaf pandering to the ignorant and anti-gay elements of society, with little justification to offer except a desire to protect sales.

Join podcast host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he looks at why the industry should never forget the painful lessons it learned from supporting what was called the Chapman Amendment. Download the episode and all installments of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

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’t because of the warm, supportive culture he cultivated for the chain and its sister brands.

Join host and Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he makes the case that the industry should regard itself as fortunate if it never sees another owner with Posner’s proclivities.

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 momentum?

On the occasion of Shoney’s 75th anniversary, Restaurant Rewind is strapping into the rollercoaster to relive those climbs and plummets. Host and Editor At Large goes all the way back to the chain’s beginnings with an entrepreneurial college football star who was once headed for the Brooklyn Dodgers—the NFL team, not the better-known baseball squad that followed. It’s a story of amazingly bad behavior and considerable hubris, with good intensions ultimately prevailing. And, as Romeo notes, the story is still being written.

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 week’s edition of his retro-focused Restaurant Rewind podcast.

Using the lens of his own experiences with the Horn & Hardart Automat, he provides a consumer’s perspective on why the brand originally found traction with New York City tourists and office workers, only to be driven into a grave by rising prices and the onslaught of fast-food in the 1960s and ’70s.

Download the installment and every episode of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

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 At Large Peter Romeo recalls in particular the host of secondary chains the home of the green apron has tried and ultimately discarded, from two-unit Princi’s to 400-store Teavana.

The question of the moment for many restaurateurs is how readily customers will accept menu price increases to counter the soaring costs of food and labor. While the rate of inflation may be unprecedented, the challenge is decidedly not, as this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at past instances of operators having to adjudge where patrons would draw the line. As he recounts in taking listeners back to those historic moments, it’s a matter of determining the psychological price barrier consumers won’t cross, be it a $10 ticket for Applebee’s entrees back in the 1980s or a $5 ticket for one of Subway’s signature Footlongs several years ago. Which limits were real, and which were misperceptions?

Draw yourself a $27 beer and give a listen. Download this and every installment of the retro-focused Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

Commercial airliners can take restaurant chain executives only so far in the quest shared by many of inspecting and approving every proposed site for a new unit. The more feasible alternative has long been the use of corporate jets to zip from one location to another.

But as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast notes, that reliance on private craft has not been without turbulence. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at the corporate scandals that have erupted because a chain CEO was suspected of slipping some personal travel into an official corporate itinerary. In more than one instance, that blurring of the lines cost the chain chief his job, if not his career.

Join Romeo as he examines three of the higher-profile instances of shareholders throwing a fit over what they saw as a boss’ misuse of the company plane.

To people of a certain vintage, the mention of Woolworth’s lunch counters pulls up strong memories.

Children of the early '60s might recall them as the setting for a crucial step forward in the fight for equal rights. A group of college-aged youngsters galvanized the nation by trying to order a meal and refusing to leave when they were denied service. The youths were violently attacked because they were Black and in the South.

Those a little younger may remember how that battle solidified the outlets’ distinction as a dining option for everyone, affordable by most and, at least in the North, eventually blind to color. Indeed, that openness to diners of all races and ethnicities was part of the appeal for a hardcore fan living in a melting pot community outside New York City.

He would grow up to cover the restaurant industry for 40 years and become the host of a podcast that delves into the business’ often-controversial past. It started, he says, with those early trips to a Woolworth’s counter, the introduction for him and countless other children of the '60s and '70s to the pleasures of dining out.

Join host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he focuses this week’s edition of his Restaurant Rewind on the unique role Woolworth’s restaurants played in democratizing dining out.

With a little help from the My Pillow Guy, Hardee’s was served an ideal opportunity last week for the sort of marketing exposure it could never afford. With a single tweet, the chain snagged one mention after another on some of TV’s most-watched programs.

The experience echoed past instances of restaurant chains turning an off-hand comment or passing event into an opportunity for truly breakthrough marketing. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, a search through restaurant history for insights on what’s happening today, looks at two of those instances.

Restaurant Business Editor At Large and Restaurant Rewind host Peter Romeo zeroes in on one of the most celebrated instances of guerilla marketing, Arby’s play off Pharrell Williams’ performance on the Grammys. And he wraps up with a look at how Wendy’s enjoyed that sort of spotlight during a debate by candidates for the U.S. presidency.

Today, diners can’t lob a jalapeno in a decent-sized town without hitting a Mexican restaurant of some sort. Many likely don’t realize the way was blazed for those options by a former Green Bay Packer and a displaced West Coaster who couldn’t find so much as a taco in his new Midwest haunts.

As this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast reports, the unlikely pair would introduce patches of the heartland to burritos and the like through a restaurant concept named after one of the partner’s wife. She went by the nickname of Chi-Chi’s.

Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at how the early casual-dining brand served as an unlikely apostle for Mexican fare. But, as the episode shows, that was only one wrinkle in the story. Chi-Chi’s history was a classic tale of a brand growing too quickly, without rock-sound unit economics, without a truly defensible point of difference.

All these years later, the commercial is still a stunner: The onetime leader of capitalism’s archenemy, plugging a very symbol of the American free-enterprise system.

Yet there was Mikhail Gorbachev, the last premier of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, relishing a visit to Russia’s first Pizza Hut with his granddaughter. If that wasn’t controversial enough, much of the spot’s dialogue was a debate over Gorbachev’s controversial legacy.

The situation was unusual, if not bizarre. Equally as extraordinary was how it came about and the conditions Gorby set for becoming a pitchman.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, looks at the lead-up to the ad and how Russian politics served Pizza Hut’s global marketing agenda. In recognition of Gorbachev’s death last week t age 91, host and RB Editor At Large Peter Romeo leads a quick trip back to one of the strangest casting moves in restaurant history, Russian or American.

He’s known as “the Jackie Robinson of restaurants,” an African-American who made his name in the business back in the early ‘60s, when people of color were seldom found in the front of house, never mind with their name on the deed.

Through his dignity, business acumen and warmth for all as a host, Ernie Royal proved that the skin color of anyone you put in chef’s whites is as insignificant to their success as the sort of socks they wear. It all came down to skill and drive, the ingredients that made his Hearthside restaurant one of the most celebrated dining establishments in the country.

Never mind that he had to pay $10,000 more than a white bidder for the place, or that it was located in Ruttledge, Vt., a community as white as the state’s legendary snowfalls.  While marchers were fighting for civil rights in the South, Royal was changing racial attitudes and setting an example for young people of color with his undeniable success.

Yet his name is unfamiliar today to many inside or outside of the industry. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, the retro-focused podcast, delivers an introduction. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo interviews Gerry Fernandez, the CEO of the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance and one of the young people who was inspired by Royal.

Looking to hire restaurant pros with a proven knack for delighting customers?

Have you thought about Ronald McDonald or the Burger King?

They could use the work, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests. Host and Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo looks at how onetime superstar mascots have been sidelined by the current trend of spotlighting food, guests and less-controversial team members.

What many consumers and even seasoned restaurant marketers might not appreciate are the colorful pasts those spokesfigures logged before being largely mothballed—as Romeo notes, the Grimace now gets more exposure than Ronald McDonald on McDonald’s website.

The episode looks at the rise and fall of the mascot as big-chain figurehead.

Download it and every installment wherever you get your podcasts.

‘Tis the season for steamed-milk mustaches and pumpkin ending up where no squash has gone before. Like the swallows that made Capistrano famous, restaurant marketers seem to know instinctively that it’s time to bring out their riffs on the pumpkin spice latte.

More a blend of pumpkin-pie seasonings than a true jack-o-lantern extract, the PSL and its derivations have proven they’re among a select group of limited-time offerings that draw a fanatical response no matter how many times they’ve been offered.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Rewind podcast looks at the Big Three traffic-drivers within that elite LTO group. Host and Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo recounts the sometimes bizarre turn of events that established PSL, the McRib and the Blizzard as surefire hits.

Download this and every episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

It’s not uncommon to forget about something we stashed away in an attic or basement because it’s no longer being used. But how often is that item a restaurant?

Yet that’s essentially what happened at a mall in Wilmington, Del., as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast reports.

Tucked behind a wall, where shoppers and staff couldn’t see it, was a Burger King that had been mothballed in 2009. It was largely overlooked until new management took over the center in 2020 and a curious vendor took a snapshot. The picture was posted on Reddit, sparking a wave of interest in what was tagged the lost BK.

Restaurant Rewind host and Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo talks with the mall’s manager about how a nearly perfectly preserved Burger King managed to remain a hidden feature for 13 years and could now be headed toward a second life as a speakeasy.

Listen to this and every episode by downloading Restaurant Rewinf from wherever you get your podcasts.

Two of today’s most powerful sales drivers for restaurants are delivery and digital technology. Both have been extraordinary strengths for Domino’s. Why, then, is the pizza giant hitting an uncharacteristic slowdown?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at how the pie maker got to its position of prominence in the off-premise market and what the trajectory is likely to be near-term. Joining podcast host and Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo is Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze, who recently underscored the length of Domino’s sales streak by listing all the chains that have sprouted since the pizza brand’s last sales downturn.

Give a listen to learn what went into Domino’s DNA, and what genetic engineering it may need to try to get comps positive again. Download this and every episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

Copycatting a successful restaurant concept is as old as the industry itself. Witness the recent efforts by Crumbl Cookies to block upstart competitors from lifting signature features of the fast-growing baked-goods specialist.

But few of those alleged thefts of intellectual property are as outrageous as a situation that had to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. It involved a brand that still operates today, Taco Cabana, and a competitor it would eventually absorb, Two Pesos.

The dispute resulted in an order by a federal court for Two Pesos to post signs alerting customers that it had stolen its format and design from Taco Cabana.

The district court also gave nine specific directives of how Two Pesos needed to change its design, right down to the roofline.

Sound crazy? Give a listen to learn how the case ended up twice before the Supreme Court. Download this and every episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

Subway is in the midst of a turnaround that pivots on the sandwich chain’s new ad campaign, Eat Fresh Refresh, a successor to some of the most effective marketing the restaurant industry has ever seen. Following up on the likes of $5 Footlong spots and the long-running focus on a customer’s loss of 245 pounds from a Subway diet can’t be a cakewalk.

Just how difficult that challenge must be is the focus of this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at two parallel situations from the 1980s: Wendy’s iconic Where’s the Beef? campaign and the cheeky run Burger King made on McDonald’s via a series of head-to-head comparisons.

As he shows, those attempts failed to have lightning strike twice. The recounts show how remarkable it is for a campaign like Subway’s follow-up to deliver more thunder.

Listen to this week’s episode and every installment by downloading Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

Tensions between McDonald’s and its franchisees have escalated into a public dispute, centered this time on the franchisor’s new policy for contract renewals. The franchisor has flat-out warned it’ll use the re-ups of 20-year pacts to scrub the system of operations showing their age. The rank-and-file counter that a 20-year run is a pretty good indicator that they know how to run successful restaurants.

The melee harkens back to a critical point in the evolution of another dominant franchise brand within its field. Given the parallels that have existed between Holiday Inns and McDonald’s, it’s not surprising the lodging chain once used the sort of leverage McDonald’s intends to wield on longtime licensees, with the same goal in mind.

But if the parallel should continue to hold true, McDonald’s may be heading for more of a change in its franchisee ranks than it envisioned, suggests this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at how Holiday Inn’s pressure on franchisees in the 1980s initially raised the possibility of a split in the system. It faced a defection not only of its largest franchisee but also of its legendary founder.

Join Romeo as he looks back on that little-known chapter in the history franchising. You’ll find Restaurant Rewind on Spotify or wherever you download your podcasts.

Gasoline prices have never been as high as they are currently, but the damage to restaurants and the economy in general is likely far lower than a fuel crisis many Americans still vividly remember. Those who are too young to have caught that truly historic wallop may be surprised to learn just how much of a disruption it was to day-to-day life.

Indeed, as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind recounts, the impact extended to everything from wartime-like rationing to forgoing year-end holiday lighting and keeping homes colder than normal.

Those were threatening days for a restaurant industry still in its adolescence, as host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo informs listeners in his highly personalized account of those literally chilling times. He uses that experience to assess the impact of today's oil inflation.

Listen this week and every Tuesday by downloading Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk has a pretty good record on startups, from PayPal to Tesla to Space X. But now he’s bringing that Midas touch to a field where past successes and staggering financial resources are no guarantee of another triumph, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at past instances of corporate giants giving the industry a try. For every slam-dunk by the likes of Pepsico or General Mills, the past parents of Taco Bell and Red Lobster, respectively, there seems to be a bizarre pairing of restaurant chain and mega-parent.

Jack in the Box, for instance, was once part of a giant pet food company. Hardee’s corporate siblings once included several Canadian brands of cigarettes. Executives of Pillsbury’s onetime restaurant holdings would joke about their bosses sporting a dusting of flour.

What’s that portend for Musk and his proposed drive-in concept? Give a listen to this and every week’s installment of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks into the industry’s past for a better understanding of what’s happening in the business today.

You’ll find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Gunmen have turned the most unlikely of settings into sites of horrifying carnage, as the recent tragedies in a Uvalde, Texas, grade school and a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket readily attest. Fortunately for foodservices, the shooters haven’t chosen restaurants as their stage, or at least not recently. But as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind vividly shows, the business hasn’t always enjoyed such luck.

Host Peter Romeo, the editor at large for Restaurant Business, recounts the three shootings he’s covered in his 38 years as a restaurant reporter, including what at the time was the nation’s highest-casualty event, the murder of 23 customers of a small town’s cafeteria.

“My goal here isn’t to scare anyone,” Romeo says.  “Rather, it’s to dash this notion that mass shootings are other institutions’ problem.”

Listen as he recalls the Luby’s shootings and two other gun tragedies that erupted in restaurants.

It’s proof, he concludes, that restaurants need to take precautions now to lessen their potential exposure.

Nelson Peltz must love those square burgers and Frosties. Fourteen years after buying Wendy’s, the activist investor has alerted federal regulators that he’s interested in acquiring the burger chain again.

If past is prologue, it’ll likely be a rollercoaster ride for investors, staff and any other stakeholder, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast reports. Host and Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo looks back at the war of communications that raged over about a two-year stretch, with Peltz formally rebuffed at least twice.

The particulars are clearly different this time around. For one thing, Peltz already owns about 20% of Wendy’s stock, or more than twice as much as he controlled back in 2008. Forcing Wendy’s to make an acquisition also appears to be a possibility this time, as the podcast notes.

The session also notes that Peltz lacks the sort of boardroom foil who made his last run such a grabber.

McDonald’s withdrawal from Russia has been big news, but the attention is nothing compared to the to-do that accompanied its entry into what was then a part of the Soviet Union. The opening of the first store 32 years ago was heralded as a turning point in East-West relations.

No wonder the ramp-up to the first store took 14 years. Much of that time was spent on the initial unit’s supply chain, but new hires needed as extensive training. Smiling in retail settings, for instance, wasn’t part of the Russian culture.

Read more about the challenges McDonald’s faced, and what the world said about the capitalist icon’s entry into Communist territory, in this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, hosted by Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo.

One of the downsides of being a public company is the fickleness of Wall Street. If investors so much as suspect a holding will fall short of expectations, they’ll mercilessly hammer down the value of a high-flying issue, even if the business fundamentals remain largely unchanged. They can fall in and out of love as easily as a teenager.

A case in point: Dutch Bros, the drive-thru coffee chain that lost 37% of its stock value in a single trading day because of a decline in comparable store sales for the first quarter.

In this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, the RB podcast that delves into the industry’s past for a deeper understanding of what’s happening today, host and RB Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo looks at two past instances of an investment darling going from sizzle to fizzle in a flash.

The familiarity of those brands is a testament that restaurants are a business of peaks and valleys. But see for yourself by giving a listen.

The restaurant industry has seen more pendulum swings than some clock stores. Right now, the business is in a shrink-the-menu mode, a place it’s been about every 10 or 11 years. Give it a bit, and the trend is likely to swing back to expanding bills of fare in hopes of sporting at least one item for everybody.

The same pendulum effect is visible in the portfolio strategies of the industry’s largest players. Chili’s parent Brinker International has pared back its holdings to two brands after operating many times that number in the past.  In little more than four years, Arby’s franchisor has grown to include seven franchise chains encompassing 30,000 restaurants.

It's a to-and-fro Wendy’s and McDonald’s know well, having gone from one brand to a broad collection and then back down a lone operation in less than a decade.  Few remember today that McDonald’s owned a coffee chain called Aroma, and was once the parent of Chipotle. Wendy’s owned part of a chef-driven pasta chain and a European-style bistro concept.

In this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, RB’s retrospective podcast, Editor-At-Large Peter Romeo looks back at those expansion binges and the concerns that powered them. The broadcast also examines why the two giants decided ultimately to abandon the approach.

Chick-fil-A emerged long ago as one of the highest-volume players in fast food. Now it’s leaving many full-service chains in the dust with average annual sales of $8.1 million per free-standing store.

It might have never gotten there if it hadn’t been for one of the more memorable marketing efforts in restaurant history, the iconic Eat Mor Chikin campaign. For 20 years, consumers were urged by a group of rascally cows to spare the herd by having a Chick-fil-A chicken  sandwich instead of a hamburger.

In this week’s edition of Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Rewind podcast, Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks back at that standout marketing effort from truly a field-level perspective. Part of the recollection is an interview with a onetime Chick-fil-A employee (and current RB staff member) whose early communications work included dressing up as one of the cows. You may never look at Senior Editor Joe Guszkowski’s articles in the same way again.

After seven decades in business, Sonic finds itself once again in alignment with the lifestyles of the times, President Claudia San Pedro commented while being honored last week as the 2022 Restaurant Leader of the Year.

In honor of her selection, this week’s edition of RB’s Restaurant Rewind podcast looks back at how Sonic, one of the industry’s older quick-service chains, got its start. Technology played a key role in that birth, and continues to drive the brand’s evolution today, San Pedro said during her appearance at the Restaurant Leadership Conference.

And let us not forget the contribution of 1950s teen idol Frankie Avalon.

So wheel your way into a parking slot, tune in that carside intercom, and give a listen as RB Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo takes you through a quick history of the brand.

Baseball has always had a unique connection to America’s other favored pastime, dining out. The restaurant industry has routinely provided a second career for the pros after they hang up their spikes. Just this week, two-time World Series champion and former Blue Jay Todd Stottlemyer revealed that he intends to open two units of the poke chain Koibito Poke.

With the new MLB season underway, this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks at that well-worn path between baseball and restaurants. We take a look at how some of the biggest names ever to play the game have put to use what they learned while dining out every night on the road.

A corporate raider who once muscled companies into all sorts of major changes is resuming his old activist ways, this time with McDonald’s as his target. Carl Icahn’s demand that the burger giant deliver on promised shifts in its purchasing policies is a flashback to the bruising proxy battles that have cost  many a big-name director their seat on a public restaurant company’s board.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Rewind podcast looks at three of highest-profile past melees between investors, directors and corporate management. If you’ve ever wondered why Applebee’s and IHOP are part of the same company, or why CEOs are such sticklers about when the corporate jet can be used, this installment is for you. Ditto if you’re a fan of mixed martial arts.

Republicans and Democrats can’t seem to agree on what time of day it is, much less a proposal that would affect every American household. Yet an equally split U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill last week to adopt daylight savings time nationwide for all 12 months. The measure is likely to fly through the House of Representatives and almost certainly be signed into law by President Biden.

And why not? The benefits sound as wholesome as parenthood and apple pie—a way to provide America’s hard-working families with a few more hours of sunlight together. But as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind reports, there’s a dark side to the situation for restaurants.

As if the world needed more tension, a restaurant group in Europe is trying to calm the hotheads who mistakenly read its name—House of Poutine—as a tribute to the warmongering president of Russia, proving once again that truth is war’s first casualty.

But as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind attests, this is hardly the only time wartime emotions have driven restaurant patrons a little insane. Conflicts on the battlefield have often spilled onto menus, leading to such craziness as the demonization of French toast.

The necessities of war have also changed what’s on American plates—or, in the case of World War II GIs, on what they dubbed a shingle (we’d use the name given to the other main ingredient, but let’s just call it chipped beef here).

Learn how wartime has affected America’s menus and eating habits by downloading this week’s Restaurant Rewind wherever you get your podcasts.

In those long-ago days before the pandemic, the term “virtual concept” was as foreign to most U.S. restaurateurs as a selection from “101 Rare Latvian Curses.”

Yet today, operations sporting that label are scrambling the industry’s traditional lines of competition. A burger joint inks a deal with one of the many upstart brands with “wings” in its name, and it’s instantly in the chicken delivery business. A brick-and-mortar operation without a hint of beef on its menu is suddenly slinging a lot of red meat courtesy of MrBeast Burger.

Virtual brands can now provide established operators with a way to snag fans of everything from quesadillas to cookies, grilled-cheese sandwiches and pancakes.

But the dynamic isn’t new, as the inaugural episode of RB’s newest podcast, "Restaurant Rewind," spells out.