The deal with chicken wing franchise Wingstop calls for 12 stores in five years. Patel already has 12 Orange Leaf stores open, planning to develop another 24 by the end of the summer. For Patel, building concepts that have a strong reputation and are supportive of franchisees in the way that Wingstop and Orange Leaf are doing is important.
Smashburger, a better burger chain based in Denver, has tapped Audra Wosik as director of Franchise Sales, Canada, to accelerate its expansion in the country. The chain already has aggressive growth plans there, and lags far behind the number one better chain, Five Guys Burgers. When it entered Calgary, Alberta, it did so with a corporate presence, signing leases and then opening two new stores.
For the customer that wants spirits with flavors, there’s a bounty of choices. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), 171 new brands were introduced in 2012 — 122 were flavored. Growing on the never-ending, round-the-clock work schedules of Americans, flavored and convenient premixed cocktails are growing. One only needs to follow the tale of Skinnygirl...
Even though only 16 percent of indies use Twitter, they use it to their advantage: independents have more followers per location than chain restaurants do. In fact, independent restaurants garner more than 10 times the followers per location than chains (343 vs. 32), according to RIMS. Food truck operators can teach brick-and-mortar operations a lot about having conversations with customers; they've been having them for several years. Customers have grown accustomed to easily connecting with the food truck owners and managers, and sharing their own ideas about what dishes seem to work, and which should see a short life.
Ignite Restaurant Group has opened two new Joe’s Crab Shack restaurants April 16. The 323-seat Joe’s Crab Shack in Deptford Township, N.J. opened at 2000 Clements Bridge Road in the Deptford Landing shopping center, Deptford, N.J. A Joe’s Crab Shack in West Nyack, also opened.
The Star of the Bar competition will be held during the International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB 2013), which is co-located with the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) annual international foodservice event, NRA Show 2013, in Chicago. IWSB will be held May 19-21, 2013. The challenge awaits the semifinalists at the IWSB Sunday, May 19. Event judges will pick the first five, but online voting will determine the sixth semifinalist April 22-24, courtesy of the general public.
In America there are many entrepreneurial Cinderella stories. The United States is the land of opportunity: foodservice has been portrayed as an industry of opportunity, producing the restaurant industry, which has become the second largest employer in the United States. The Chobani story is exceptional for those who have followed it, and Greek Yogurt is its catalyst. Chobani was a top food innovation company, according to Fast Company magazine in 2012, and Stonyfield Farms, an organic yogurt company, a subsidiary of global food giant Danone, made the list earlier this year.
The new Pizzeria Industry Council (PIC) is working on some great things. If you’re ever around pizza industry managers and executives, you’ll feel energized. That is the nature of the “brotherhood under the cheese,” as Chair Marla Topliff, president of Rosati’s Pizza, likes to refer to them. Numerous industry paths have put this brotherhood to work, organized under the steering committee in association with the National Restaurant Association (NRA), to make the pizza segment better than it already is.
CKE Restaurants will expand its Carl’s Jr. concept in Europe through a new agreement with Dansk Supermarked to enter Denmark. The new location will open in the Bilka hypermarket in Naestved. Dansk Supermarked operates the Bilka, Fotex, Netto and Salling brands, having a strong presence in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Poland, according to CKE. The Bilka unit will open sometime in the fall of this year. The 17-unit Bilka hypermarket concept is part of Dansk’s 1,200-store global presence.
The acquisition of Romano’s Macaroni Grill is complete. Ignite Restaurant Group said today in a statement that it has finalized the purchase from Golden Gate Capital for approximately $55M. Along with the completed purchase, 25-year foodservice veteran David Catalono has been tapped to lead the brand as its president. The purchase includes 186 company-owned restaurants. Ignite also gains five franchised units within the United States and 19 additional units outside the United States and in U.S. territories.
