July restaurant sales rose for a fourth straight month, and the industry used the week to redo its math. New IRS overtime rules landed squarely on employers, Pizza Hut’s global CEO stepped aside before a private equity close, and Denny’s opened a national catering channel with ezCater. Wonder put delivery robots on Grubhub, and Panera handed 70 million members a points system.
Restaurants shed jobs for a second straight month, and the week's biggest moves all point the same direction: take it in-house. Nelson Peltz is assembling a bid to pull Wendy's off the public market. Cava grew traffic 5.3%, c-stores launched their own soda and coffee brands, and a St. Louis salad shop is growing lettuce next to the dining room.
Guest counts are falling, and the industry is placing very different bets on how to win them back. Dutch Bros is buying the drive-thrus a bankrupt salad chain left behind, Bain Capital is buying bubble tea, and McDonald’s just changed U.S. leadership. Five stories, five strategies, one shared problem.
Earnings season hit the restaurant industry hard this week, and the numbers show who's built to withstand a shock. Starbucks and Chipotle both delivered, Jersey Mike's finally went public, and KFC Canada bet big on a new drink brand. Here's what operators need to know.
This week brought a run of industry firsts: the biggest restaurant IPO in 20 years, a hot dog chain's debut on a military base, and a new deadline threatening the THC drink boom. We break down what each means for operators and brands watching from the sidelines.
The winners and the strugglers pulled further apart this week. Wonder raised $650 million to expand its robot-run kitchens, while MTY moved to close up to 50 Papa Murphy’s and a 60-store Hardee’s operator filed for bankruptcy. Rising costs and Panera’s new Sip Club cap fill in the rest of the picture.
The June jobs report wiped out the industry’s summer hiring, and fast-food traffic kept sliding. So what did the smart operators do? They automated the drive-thru, hired a tech chief, cut store-build costs, and let a perfect peach do the upselling.
America’s 250th birthday and the restaurant industry are colliding in a week of record cookout costs, nostalgia plays, and some of the most distinctly American LTOs in recent memory. From McDonald’s fried apple pie to Portillo’s Char’diniera Dog to Sonic’s $2.50 everything, the industry is leaning hard into the moment. Here’s what operators need to know heading into the holiday weekend.
Some brands gained ground this week and others handed it over. This week’s top foodservice stories include one of the world’s largest pizza chains sold to private equity, a sub shop that ended Chick-fil-A’s decade-long reign, and a beef market so tight that a livestock parasite has become a menu-pricing problem — all curated by our team of strategists and food enthusiasts:
Operators pushed back this week — on platform lock-in, policy threats, and menu expectations. On The Border closed its final 60 company-owned locations on June 12. SevenRooms launched a free aggregator that pulls OpenTable, Resy, and every other booking platform into one dashboard. Panera dropped 12 new ingredients as part of its RISE transformation, and Chipotle revealed five simultaneous tests — including a remodel program the brand says has already dated 1,000 to 1,500 restaurants.
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