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First Bite

Nation"s Restaurant News

First Bite, hosted by Nation’s Restaurant News digital editor Holly Petre, highlights the top restaurant industry headlines of each day followed by a short conversation on one of the day’s trending stories. Published early every weekday morning, First Bite is the perfect way to get a brief recap of the daily foodservice news alongside your first cup of coffee.

business management

All Episodes

11:36

What Rubio's bankruptcy could mean for restaurant...

First Bite ·

2024/06/06

Less than a week after abruptly closingnearly 50 California locations, Rubio’s has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it is pursuing this action to facilitate the sale of the 41-year-old business, adding that its remaining 86 locations in California, Arizona, and Nevada will continue to operate as is.The company has cited challenging economic conditions, diminishing in-store traffic driven by sustained work-from-home trends, rising food and utility costs, and “significant

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13:20

Why specialty beverages are the future of foodservice

First Bite ·

2024/06/05

Utah-based dirty soda chain Swig announced Monday the appointment of former Dutch Bros executive, Daniel Batty, as the fast-growing concept’s first chief development officer.In jumping from one fast-growing beverage chain to another, Batty will help Swig to achieve its long-term goal of growing from 70 locations to 1,400 units over the next eight years.Swig is best known for being at the forefront of the dirty soda beverage trend — which combines soda, dairy creamer, and flavored syrups and is

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17:40

Can Julie Felss-Masino figure out how make Cracker...

First Bite ·

2024/06/04

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store – the brand best known for rocking chairs out front, a gift shop of tchotchkes inside, and for being the restaurant of choice for road tripping families — has been struggling for a long time.After several quarters of negative traffic and sales, new CEO Julie Felss-Masinoannounced last monththat the family-dining chain would be undergoing a brand makeover to become more relevant, with five pillars of change, ranging from store remodels and tech investments to menu

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13:30

Why Domino's may be winning the pricing wars

First Bite ·

2024/06/03

While pricing continues to be a hot topic and challenging conundrum for restaurant operators in 2024, Domino’s Pizza is confident in its firm stance on the pizza delivery value equation. The Ann Arbor-based company purposefully did not raise prices last year and has not done so thus far this year, which has been beneficial for the bottom line, Domino’s CEO Russell Weiner said in a fireside chat during the annual Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions conference.As most quick-service restaurant chains

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14:32

Why chicken sandwiches are here to stay

First Bite ·

2024/05/31

BurgerFi announced that it would be rebranding to ChickenFi as it introduces new chicken sandwiches. There is no indication if this is a permanent rebrand or a temporary marketing move.The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based fast-casual restaurant brand debuted a fried-chicken sandwich and a grilled-chicken sandwich on its permanent menu on May 21.The chain’s chicken breast is prepared sous-vide. The new sandwiches come grilled or hand-breaded and fried, topped with fresh lettuce, tomato, pickles, and honey

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09:47

Are consumers changing their tune on the value of QSRs?

First Bite ·

2024/05/30

Arecent CNN studyof earnings calls and analyst notes finds that the word of the summer – on Wall Street, at least – is “bifurcation,” or the division of something into two parts. In this specific instance, bifurcation means that high-income consumers are plugging along just fine, while low-income consumers are really starting to struggle.Indeed, 80% of American households have less cash available than they did in 2019, while credit card debt has reached a historic high. Meanwhile, aJP Morgan

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08:21

Why this restaurant segment is seeing traffic gains...

First Bite ·

2024/05/29

The fast-casual category first became a thing in the 1990s (about the time Chipotle emerged) and came of age in the 2010s following the Great Recession, when consumers wanted more bang for their buck in the form of value, speed, and quality. The category came to be defined as a sort of elevated QSR but without the full-service component of casual dining.Fast forward to this post-pandemic environment and fast casual has become a rare sweet spot of growth for the industry as price point lines continue

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13:36

What does growth mean for restaurants in these...

First Bite ·

2024/05/28

No matter how it’s defined, growth in any capacity requires capital and capital remains expensive; the Fed raised interest rates 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023 to combat relentlessly high inflation. A cooldown has yet to happen, which has kept a lot of investors on the sidelines.Of course, there’s an ironic twist at play here. Those rates remain high because demand remains high. Driving much of this environment is a sturdy set of consumers with more wages in their pockets and a continued

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16:39

Why invisible technology continues to be the most...

First Bite ·

2024/05/24

The most popular technology tool on display at the 2024 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago was mostly invisible. What do the robotic arms, POS systems, back of house analytics tools, and more booth gadgets have in common? Most of them are powered by and supported by data. Data — whether it’s collected by machine learning or AI — has proven to be the universal currency of restaurant technology in 2024 and beyond.Operators are waking up to the significance ofdata collection and

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10:35

Employees want more now, so it's time to invest

First Bite ·

2024/05/23

The restaurant industry has a labor shortage problem. That is certainly not breaking news. Employee engagement is at an 11-year low. That might surprise some folks.Gusto founder/CEO Nate Hybl said this conversation about employees is long overdue.The bigger companies are already focusing more on the employee proposition, but smaller brands need to make people development a part of their budget, Hybl added. He suggested taking 1-2% off the topline to invest in people.Hybl said acknowledging and

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11:43

Here's how eatertainment is evolving and sticking...

First Bite ·

2024/05/22

There have been many iterations of eatertainment over the years. It began with stalwart chains like Chuck E. Cheese and Dave & Buster’s, places to play arcade games and win tokens that would lead to prizes.Over the past 10 years, that idea has been flipped. Eatertainment had moved onto larger-scale games like bowling and pool. Chains like Punch Bowl Social, founded in 2012, were also focused on offering upscale food and drink in a hipper environment.Following the struggles of Punch Bowl Social,

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16:11

Why most restaurants aren't turning to discounting to...

First Bite ·

2024/05/21

Restaurant value used to be a much simpler calculation: Discount-driven customers would seek out dollar meals at quick-service restaurants, call for pizza delivery on Friday nights (sans delivery fees), and then splurge on full-service meals on rarer occasions. But in 2024, with dollar menus all but extinct, and newer variables like convenience pricing, service fees, shrinkflation, and dynamic pricing in the mix, the consumer value equation has never been more complex.Or has it? Customers may have

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18:06

Amid Red Lobster's downfall, what can the restaurant do?

First Bite ·

2024/05/20

Red Lobster abruptly closed some 87 restaurants on Monday as the chain faces apparentcash-flow issues and loss of confidence from its largest owner. USA Today compiled a list of all of the shuttered restaurants listed on the chain’s web site.The closed locations are in 28 states, with the largest number, 16, in its home state of Florida, including three in Orlando.Auction siteTagex has listed 48 closed Red Lobster locationsand has put all of their contents up for sale in an auction scheduled to end

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10:54

Why Chipotle's extreme focus on this one thing has...

First Bite ·

2024/05/17

Since we’re officially more than halfway through Q1 earnings reports, it’s fair game to derive some of the winners from the start of 2024. Unquestionably among them is Chipotle, which experienced a 7% increase in same-store sales driven in large part by a 5.4% increase in traffic.To understand the secret of Chipotle’s momentum of late, it’s important to understand its sharpened focus on throughput. Indeed, the word “throughput” was mentioned 33 times during the company’s earnings call April 24

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10:02

Why you should stay nimble with your restaurant's...

First Bite ·

2024/05/15

TikToker “MiriTheSiren” was known for posting her creative Chick-fil-A meals, videos that were meant to inspire consumers to think of innovative ways to eat fast food. The TikToker, whose real name is Miri, was a Chick-fil-A employee, sharing how she mixed items at the store for her free meal every day.Quickly, Miri gained a following with her videos going viral, garnering tens of millions of views on her videos between January and April of this year. But Chick-fil-A wasn’t happy.The Atlanta-based

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13:14

How Sweetgreen has benefitted from its recent success

First Bite ·

2024/05/14

Los Angeles-based Sweetgreen is besting many of its restaurant competitors in the first quarter. The fast-casual chain reported 5% same-store sales increases and a 26% revenue increase year-over-year.Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman stated that while January was tough with weather, the benefit of two holidays in the first quarter was a boon to business.The quarter, ended March 31, saw most of its success from 41 net new store openings over the past year, resulting in $21.1 million in additional

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14:47

Why Papa Johns may be losing its competitive edge in...

First Bite ·

2024/05/13

Papa Johns’ customers are spending less than they had previously, and when they do spend money on pizza, they are more likely to choose third-party aggregators over the company’s first-party delivery channels.This shift in mix balance was a primary driver behind the Atlanta-based pizza chain’s 2% decline in North America same-store sales, as well as revenue and overall sales deflation for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024.Sales from aggregator channels have grown to 16% this quarter, as

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10:48

How Applebee's is planning to turn things around

First Bite ·

2024/05/10

Dine Brands’ first quarter results included same-store sales declines at both Applebee’s (-4.6%) and, for the first time in 11 quarters, IHOP (-1.7%), highlighting a continuing narrative across the industry about increasing consumer sensitivity. Despite a few exceptions, that narrative has impacted concepts across segments, fromMcDonald’sandKFCto First Watch and Starbucks.

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16:19

How Dutch Bros pulled ahead of its biggest...

First Bite ·

2024/05/09

At a time when many restaurant companies are struggling to get customers in the door, Dutch Bros is one of the better success stories for the first quarter of 2024. In Q1, the Oregon-based coffee chain saw 10% same-store sales growth, attributable mostly to menu pricing increases, discounting, and positive traffic trends.Traffic will likely continue an upward growth trajectory after Dutch Bros starts accepting mobile order and pay, which the company will begin offering for the first time by the end

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15:04

How big restaurant chains are trying to get in on the...

First Bite ·

2024/05/07

Whataburger is upgrading its coffee offerings with new hot and iced coffee, a new sweet cream, and a limited-time shake to promote the change. They’re being rolled out on May 7.The same blend of Arabica coffee beans from Colombia,Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras are being used for both hot and iced coffees, but the roast is different.

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