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This week on the Extra Serving podcast, a production of Nation’s Restaurant News’ Last Bite Network, NRN editors Holly Petre, Leigh Anne Zinsmeister and Sam Oches discussed the wave of restaurants showing support for Ukraine by closing restaurants in Russia.
Companies from McDonalds to Yum Brands to Papa Johns released statements intending to close Russian units or halt Russian expansion is the wake of the attack on Ukraine. The team discussed how Vladimir Putin has been trying to fight against these restaurants showing support for Ukraine and how the industry has been showing its support for Ukraine in other ways.
The team also discussed President Biden’s new regulations on cryptocurrency and what that means for the booming market here in the restaurant space. Will it limit the industry’s expansion into the metaverse? Find out more in the podcast.
And finally, the team discusses the future of RRF which was pulled from the omnibus spending bill this week in the Senate. Though it wasn’t a surprise to the team, it pulled the final rug out from a lot of independent restaurants who were relying on that money to get through the last leg of the pandemic.
Donna Tuttle, Whataburger’s group director for brand communications and culture, spoke with Oches at IFMA’s COEX about how the regional chain has been handling the labor crisis by paying managers six-figure salaries and offering careers.
Most New Yorkers are already familiar with Artichoke Basille — famous for their long lines of partygoers that wrap around the block late on Saturday night waiting to buy a slice of their namesake one-and-a-half-pound artichoke slice. Artichoke Basille opened in 2008 as a gourmet slice shop with no pies and only eight varieties on the menu, and started selling slices to the hungry late-night crowd, staying open until 6:00 the next morning. But although the Manhattan-based, 16-unit pizza chain has been expanding of late to new markets including California and Connecticut and just launched franchising in 2019, owners Sal Basille and Francis Garcia see bigger potential for the future. “We want to make sure we’re able to support our franchisees and be able to get [to a pizza shop] by car or by train, those are the markets we’re focusing on,” Francis Garcia said. “We’re looking for markets that are similar to markets we currently operate in: markets with young people with disposable income, nightlife, things like that.” “We have a company-owned unit opening soon in Times Square and a couple more irons in the fire. After that, hopefully we’ll be going across the globe next.” Listen to the latest episode of Extra Serving to find out more. ...
Paul Griffin started out as a fine-dining chef, working his way through trendy restaurants with world-class chefs. But when he was working at a hip gastropub in Delray Beach, Fla., it seemed that all his customers wanted was his $20 all-natural burgers. “We were kind of shocked by the product mix,” he said. If customers weren’t interested in the lobster nachos and duck and other fun items and just wanted burgers, why not just make them? And so BurgerFi was born, serving all-natural beef and other items with clean labels. Griffin helped start the chain, where he holds the title of chief culinary officer, which has grown to around 120 units and just celebrated its 10th anniversary with a shake limited-time offer. His job changed from developing new menu items at the gastropub to training crew as new restaurants opened and handling a supply chain that has grown to $40 million worth of food & beverage annually. In this podcast he discusses how that supply chain was challenged over the past year – it turns out that buying all-natural beef shielded him from some of the supply-chain disruptions many other burger chains faced — some of the LTOs he has developed over the years, and how he and his team are adapting to drive-thrus, ghost kitchens and other necessities of the current age. ...
This week on Extra Serving, a podcast from Nation’s Restaurant News and the Last Bite Network, the team covered this week’s most urgent news: vaccine mandates. Digital editor Holly Petre, senior editor Lisa Jennings and editor-in-chief Sam Oches talked about the impact of vaccine mandates on restaurants. Immediately following the conversation, President Joe Biden announced that the Department of Labor will require all workplaces with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccines or negative weekly tests. Also, the NRN team discussed Hurricane Ida’s impact on restaurants, including what the rising tide of climate change could mean for the industry and how it can help prevent storms from getting worse. Petre, Jennings and Oches also discuss the string of wildfires in the Northwest last year and how that impacted chains like Dutch Bros. Finally, Petre, Jennings and Oches reviewed the latest IPOs from morning daypart companies First Watch and Dutch Bros. The latter filed for an IPO in June but announced this week it is seeking a $3.3 billion valuation; the former company filed paperwork this week, but the number of shares and price range have not yet been determined. For this week’s interview, Jennings spoke with the CEO of Jack in the Box, Darin Harris, about the future of the quick-service company. A little over a year into his tenure with the brand, Harris talked about how he is expanding the company’s reach into new markets. Check out the latest episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches here and register for CREATE here. ...
