Weekly Roundup – Week of 9.7.26
September 11, 2026
This week’s top foodservice stories are all about winning back trust at the counter. A taco chain takes outside money and promises nothing changes. A sports bar chain ditches its QR codes for real menus. A wing chain turns football season into a $27.99 subscription, all curated by our team of strategists and food enthusiasts:
Private Equity Buys Into New York’s Most Famous Taco Line
Los Tacos No. 1 just took on its first outside investor. The Tijuana-style taco chain started at Chelsea Market in 2013. It’s now taking a strategic investment from TSG Consumer Partners, the private equity firm behind Dutch Bros and Yard House. Terms were not disclosed. Co-founder Christian Pineda and chief operating partner Jacobo Ackerman will keep running the 10-unit chain day-to-day. The plan is to expand into new cities without changing the food. Fans weren’t fully convinced. Los Tacos answered the backlash on Instagram with a promise: “We’re not switching to horse meat.” For any beloved independent weighing outside money, the real test isn’t the term sheet. It’s whether growth changes what made the line worth waiting in.
Twin Peaks Ditches the QR Code and Prints Menus Again
Twin Peaks is undoing one of the pandemic’s most common restaurant habits. The 115-unit sports bar chain is bringing back printed menus nationwide, retiring the QR codes many locations adopted years ago. The company says the switch came from customer feedback, not nostalgia. It’s pairing the move with its biggest menu update in years. New items include a doubled shareables platter and a lunch menu with four items under $10. There are new entrees too, like a smoked bone-in pork chop. The rollout lands three months after Twin Peaks emerged from bankruptcy. New, franchisee-backed owners are pushing the chain back into growth mode. Any operator who defaulted to QR codes during the pandemic for convenience should ask a simple question now. Is that default still serving the guest, or just the P&L?
Wingstop Turns Football Season Into a $27.99 Subscription
Wingstop is selling exactly 100 Wing Passes for the price of a single order. For $27.99, Club Wingstop members get 18 Watch Party Bundles, one for every week of the NFL regular season. Each bundle includes 20 wings, a large fry, and a large ranch, delivered to the app every Sunday morning. Passes go on sale September 10 and will almost certainly sell out within minutes. The drop lands months after Wingstop faced TikTok backlash over its chicken sourcing. It gives the brand a shareable, positive story to put back in front of that same audience. Club Wingstop only launched in May. CEO Michael Skipworth has described it as a long-term relationship play, not a discounting tool. Scarcity-driven perks like this are a cheap way to test a young loyalty program. They show how far goodwill can stretch before a brand needs real muscle behind it.
Red Lobster Shrinks to 484 Restaurants and Calls It Growth
Red Lobster is down to 484 U.S. locations, 36 fewer than it had at the end of 2025. That’s a 7% cut in a single year. The chain has closed restaurants in bunches since its 2024 bankruptcy. That includes a 55-year-old Columbus, Georgia location last month and its 23-year Times Square outpost in June. CEO Damola Adamolekun has said the brand needs to get smaller. Red Lobster’s own statement this week called the closures “how we build forward,” not a retreat. The footprint is now about 25% smaller than before its pre-bankruptcy overexpansion. Much of that traces to a 2014 sale-leaseback deal that still loads the brand with rent. Red Lobster says it plans to open restaurants again once the remaining fleet is healthier. For any brand financing growth through sale-leaseback deals, there’s a lesson here. The rent obligation outlives the capital it once unlocked.
Canada’s $27.6 Billion Tariff Answer Lands on America’s Food Supply Chain
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on $27.6 billion of U.S. goods took effect after midnight on September 8. The list hits dairy, sweeteners like molasses and honey, and milk proteins. It also covers packaging materials like kraft paper and cartons, steel, and agricultural equipment. It’s Canada’s answer to the 50% U.S. tariffs on roughly $28 billion of Canadian goods that took effect in August. The response has split the U.S. food industry down the middle. Dairy and steel groups are backing the pressure on Canada. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council disagree. They warn that retaliation threatens export markets both industries depend on. Campbell’s has already flagged tin tariffs as a drag on its canned soup margins. Any operator or supplier sourcing packaging, dairy, or kitchen equipment across the Canadian border should model this cost now. The trade groups themselves can’t agree on how it gets resolved.
Find more of this week’s top foodservice stories every Friday on the Omnivore blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are this week’s top foodservice stories? This week’s top foodservice stories include TSG Consumer Partners’ investment in Los Tacos No. 1, Twin Peaks bringing back printed menus, Wingstop’s $27.99 Wing Pass, Red Lobster’s closures down to 484 locations, and Canada’s $27.6 billion in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. food and agriculture goods.
Why is Red Lobster still closing restaurants? Red Lobster has cut its footprint to 484 U.S. locations, 36 fewer than at the end of 2025, as CEO Damola Adamolekun works to shed underperforming restaurants and expensive leases left over from a 2014 sale-leaseback deal.
What do Canada’s new tariffs target? Canada’s retaliatory tariffs, which took effect September 8 on $27.6 billion of U.S. goods, target dairy, sweeteners, packaging materials like kraft paper and cartons, steel, and agricultural equipment.
