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Eggs Up Grill, the breakfast-lunch concept, adapted to the 2020 pandemic year despite suffering restaurant-opening delays, according to Ricky Richardson, CEO of the concept.
The Spartanburg, S.C.-based midscale breakfast franchisor added nine restaurants in 2020, even though it had to delay opening two units by several months because of the pandemic. It also rolled out a new mimosa program and boosted its off-premises sales, Richardson said in this Nation’s Restaurant News video interview.
In the most recent Datassential Firefly 500+ rankings, Eggs Up Grill rose to No. 417 in 2020, up from No. 479 in 2019. Unit growth was 17.5%, and sales growth was 15.6% in 2020.
The 47-unit Eggs Up Grill, which franchises all but one of its restaurants, early on in the pandemic relied on its local operators to make the crucial decisions for their communities, Richardson said.
“We put together a very simple framework as soon as this happened,” he said. “It was about survivability-sustainability and then growth and survivability. It was about allowing the franchisees the space that they needed to stabilize their business.”
Patrick Main has been working with Peet’s Coffee for more than 30 years, and he has spent most of that time inventing coffee drinks. Now he is the senior beverage innovator for the chain based in Emeryville, Calif., which operates around 250 coffeehouses in the United States. It would easier for him to say what hasn’t changed about the American coffee scene than what has: When he started, the brew was already ubiquitous, but it was a commodity that came out of a can, not a specialty item with distinctive terroirs and back stories. In this edition of the Extra Serving podcast, Main discusses how our perception of coffee has evolved, and also his own research & development process. He reminisces about the first frozen beverage that he created in the 1990s, and shares details about the development of the fior di Sicilia orange flavor that is at the heart of his holiday coffee offerings for the past couple of years. He also explains the importance of remembering the operational realities of his business: Ensuring that the thousands of baristas who work for the company can maintain consistency. “I don’t want to reinvent what the barista does every time I change a flavor,” he said. ...
This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a production of Nation’s Restaurant News, NRN editors Holly Petre, Sam Oches, and Joanna Fantozzi spoke about the return of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. As the three editors hit the record button, the RRF was passed in the House of Representatives, securing $42 billion in funding for restaurants who did not receive funding the first time around. However, while on the podcast, news broke that the Senate would not be taking up a vote until after April recess. Hear what the editors had to say about this shocking news. Plus, the editors discussed Virtual Dining Concepts new CEO, Stephanie Sollers. Sollers comes to VDC from DoorDash and, as the editors discuss, will be able to help the brand mature past its current stage. But what does it mean that this company is getting its first-ever CEO? Is this finally the start of a new segment? The editors discuss. Also, Petre, Fantozzi, and Oches discuss Chipotle entering the metaverse. While the fast-casual brand is following in Wendy’s footsteps just a week later, it’s entering the metaverse with a game. Learn more about the gamification of the metaverse and how this could impact the way brands enter the metaverse in the pod. Lastly, Fantozzi speaks with J.R. Galardi, CEO of Wienerschnitzel as he takes over the reins at the family-run company. They talk about what it’s like to be part of a family run company and the brand’s plans for growth. ...
Sam Fox grew up in his family’s deli restaurant business and honed his restaurant chops by creating such now-stand-alone concepts as True Food Kitchen, North Italia, Flower Child and Sauce Pizza and Wine. With the $353 million deal to sell his Phoenix-based Fox Restaurant Concepts to Calabasas Hills, Calif.-based Cheesecake Factory Inc., Fox is launching into a new phase of his career, which earned him 2019 Nation’s Restaurant News Golden Chain honors. Cheesecake first invested in FRC’s North Italia and Flower Child concepts in 2016, partnering with the visionary Fox who, with the opening of True Food Kitchen in 2008, sealed a fantastic future for kale as a salad when the leafy green was lingering as a durable divider on salad bars. Fox, who grew up in a restaurant family, had created and sold popular concepts before selling his entire company. Besides spinning off True Food Kitchen, he sold the fast-casual Sauce Pizza and Wine in 2015. His first Fox Restaurant Concepts restaurant — Wildflower in Tucson, Ariz., opened in 1998 — continues to appeal to customers with its upscale American eatery format. And he partnered with seasoned restaurant companies. He created True Food Kitchen with Dr. Andrew Weil and then teamed with P.F. Chang’s China Bistro to expand it. He partnered with Cheesecake Factory on casual-dining North Italia and fast-casual Flower Child. Fox Restaurant Concepts, which will continue to be based in Phoenix under Fox’ direction, has more than 50 restaurants in 10 states with such concepts as The Arrogant Butcher, Blanco, Culinary Dropout, Dough Bird, The Greene House, The Henry, Olive & Ivy and Zinburger. In this Extra Serving interview, Fox talks about his start in the foodservice business, the future of ...
