Pesce reopens Lexington Dunkin with Jimmy John’s under one roof
The Marrett Road reopening restores a historic Dunkin and adds Jimmy John’s, with the operator describing training work and planned delivery.
Operations & ManagementSep 2, 20262 views
The Marrett Road reopening restores a historic Dunkin and adds Jimmy John’s, with the operator describing training work and planned delivery.
Cornerstone’s Mokas agreement covers six Missouri locations and three Kansas markets. Its 2027 opening target sits alongside an earlier franchisee’s separately staged development plan.
Yum China's 300th Burger Bar extends an adjacent-store format. The operating question is how shared resources affect costs and contribution across both businesses.
The Akron milestone follows earlier packages in Newark and Duluth, showing how NDCP combines equipment procurement, delivery and installation support.
A&W’s 2,200–2,800-square-foot U.S. prototype makes dining space a deliberate part of future development. The operating questions begin with guest flow and a site-specific budget.
Sysco’s fiscal 2027 savings target includes carryover from earlier initiatives. Its product-cost inflation measure and operational history explain the plan’s limits for restaurant buyers.
The returning Pretzel Bacon Pub anchors a coordinated menu, while Apple Crumble extends the Frosty Fusion format introduced in 2025.
The San Diego military opening adds a new host setting while two Walmart restaurants remain expected beyond the original fall 2025 schedule.
The 40-seat restaurant brings Wendy’s international design to Canada, with confirmed site features and room for local adaptation.
Crave Kitchen Georgia Tech was planned for August. Shared purchasing, training and ordering still need to work across distinct production stations.
Shipley’s new catering channel pairs a dedicated menu with advance notice. The operating opportunity lies in how each shop plans capacity and handoff.
A three-unit agreement underpins Smoothie King’s Rochester expansion, while a Penfield opening is planned and two other communities remain under consideration.
A Fort Hood concession award would give franchisee Howard Raphael another military cafe, following his documented Fort Lee opening in 2021.
The June 15 Thousand Oaks café puts an operating location behind Vesci’s West Los Angeles development plan, following his earlier move from burgers to bakery cafés.
Three bowl recipes share rice and arugula while adding whole and half portions. The $9.99 starting price carries location and delivery qualifications.
Five GoTo Foods brands are set to join Favor across more than 550 Texas locations, adding a regional channel alongside existing delivery platforms.
A tablet photo can close a gap between kitchen production and event leftovers. The next step is connecting the observation to attendance, menu mix and the next booking.
Huey Magoo’s estimates 40% lower development costs. Its proposed footprint still requires a site plan and a comparison of complete project budgets.
CAVA’s first St. Louis-area restaurant pairs a 2,900-square-foot space with dine-in service, digital pickup and delivery. Des Peres is planned for later in 2026.
The Fort Lee commissary opening pairs a smaller footprint and simplified menu with staff background checks and an extended military approval process.
Metz Group’s planned Pennsylvania expansion and Conley McIntyre’s completed 10th restaurant show two paths to multi-unit growth at Eggs Up Grill.
Dine's April report announcement closes a domestic egg-sourcing timeline while putting a 2026 estimate on one packaging redesign.
A shared protein links four limited-time lunch items. Portions, production steps and separate promotion dates determine the operating implications.
The proposed acquisition connects delivered distribution with warehouse shopping. Its value to an operator depends on prices, replenishment and independent alternatives.
With quit rates surging past 4.8%, wages under political pressure, and unions organizing at record pace, QSR operators are turning to AI drive-thrus, robotic fryers, and self-order kiosks to survive. Here is where every major chain stands.
Six major QSR brands are simultaneously executing aggressive expansion plans in 2026, colliding over the same premium drive-thru sites and driving acquisition costs to new highs. Here's what operators need to know.
Technomic projects the 2026 FIFA World Cup will add $1.9 billion to U.S. food-service revenue. With 78 matches across 16 cities, 742,000 incremental international visitors, and hotel revenue surging 25% in host markets, QSR operators have a narrow window to capture outsized traffic. Here is where the money lands and how to get in front of it.
Starbucks is building its largest corporate outpost outside Seattle in Nashville, hunting for 250,000 square feet to house supply chain operations and up to 2,000 workers. The move follows a $1 billion restructuring, 500 store closures, and 1,100 corporate layoffs. For QSR operators watching the corporate migration south, the playbook is becoming impossible to ignore.
Food service unemployment hit 7.1% in February, nearly double the national average. Yet 54% of operators say a shrinking labor pool is their top concern. Both things are true at the same time, and the explanation reveals a structural shift that no wage increase alone will fix.
Bloomin' Brands is pouring $50 million into Outback Steakhouse in 2026, splitting it across steak upgrades, a new service model, managing partner investment, and a digital-first marketing shift. Here is where every dollar is going and whether it can close the gap with LongHorn and Texas Roadhouse.
Crude oil past $100/barrel is hammering restaurant supply chains through diesel surcharges, petroleum-based packaging costs, and rising energy bills. The Iran conflict oil disruption adds a new cost layer on top of existing tariff and beef price pressures.
DoorDash activated an emergency fuel relief program on March 23 as gas prices hit $3.98/gallon nationally, up 35% in one month. The oil price shock from the Iran conflict is sending delivery costs surging across the restaurant supply chain.
At Starbucks' January 2026 Investor Day, CEO Brian Niccol revealed that 650 pilot stores running the Green Apron service model outperformed the broader fleet by 200 basis points in comparable store sales. Here is what changed at the store level, why it worked, and what QSR operators can take from the playbook.
Drive-thru, delivery, and takeaway now account for more than 70% of revenue at leading QSR brands. The implications go far beyond convenience. This shift is fundamentally rewriting how restaurants are designed, where they are built, how they are staffed, and what the economics of a single unit actually look like.
The H-2B visa cap for the second half of fiscal year 2026 closed on March 10, well before summer peak season arrives. For QSR operators already fighting a structural labor gap, that cutoff date carries real operational weight.
The nearly 30-year-old Italian casual dining chain is debuting a 6,000 square foot bar-forward prototype in Laredo, Texas. With 20 draft beers, craft cocktails, and fire pits, it's a bet that beverage-driven traffic can reverse casual dining's structural decline.
Americans aged 65 and older will account for 18% of all restaurant spending by 2030, nearly double their share from 2025. With 73 million seniors controlling $78 trillion in assets, operators who ignore this demographic shift risk leaving billions on the table.
HHS Secretary RFK Jr. announced a plan to eliminate eight synthetic food dyes by the end of 2026, but only two face formal bans. The remaining six are subject to 'voluntary cooperation' from manufacturers, creating a compliance gray zone that will ripple through QSR supply chains in Q3 and Q4 2026.
Portillo's raised $466 million in its 2021 IPO on promises of 920 locations. Four years later, the stock has lost 90% of its value, a CEO is gone, and an activist investor forced a full strategic pivot. The story of what went wrong is a lesson every regional chain operator needs to read.
Texas Roadhouse posted 3.5% comp growth in Q1 2026 while peers bleed traffic, opened its 50th Bubba's 33, and keeps proving that from-scratch food and equity-driven management are the most durable competitive advantages in casual dining. Here's what operators at every price point can learn from their model.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduces a $25,000 federal income tax exemption on tips, triggering a cascade of state copycat bills and mandatory payroll system changes. Here is what QSR operators need to understand about compliance, worker pay, and the long game.
Brian Niccol has cut more than 2,000 corporate jobs, shuttered all 90 pickup-only stores, and is closing five Seattle coffeehouses in April. The early data says the pain is working.
McDonald's is doubling down on breakfast with $1 McMuffin promotions and a $4 McValue 2.0 meal launching in April, while Wendy's quietly pulled back on breakfast hours in weaker markets. Understanding who's winning the morning daypart, and why it matters to your bottom line.
Bojangles expanded made-from-scratch all-day breakfast to every standalone location on March 12, 2026. Here is what the move means for unit economics, kitchen operations, and the broader daypart war.
The USDA projects egg prices will fall 27.4% in 2026 as avian flu pressure eases and U.S. flock sizes recover. For QSR operators sitting on compressed breakfast margins, the relief could be significant — but the timing depends on contract structures and how fast chains move to capitalize.
The ghost kitchen industry that was supposed to be worth $1 trillion is now consolidating around two companies. Purpose-built facilities are closing. The model that's actually working looks nothing like what investors were promised.
From Checkers' 570-square-foot prototype to Taco Bell's dual-lane Go Mobile concept, the industry's biggest operators are cutting footprints in half. It's not a stylistic choice: it's the only math that works when real estate costs, construction expenses, and labor rates all move in one direction.
McDonald's is overhauling more than 27,000 drive-thru locations worldwide with multi-lane designs, AI-powered ordering, dynamic menu boards, and mobile pickup lanes. With drive-thru accounting for 70% of U.S. sales, the redesign is the operational centerpiece of the Accelerating the Arches strategy.
McDonald's is rolling out its Best Burger program to every U.S. market by the end of 2026. The initiative overhauls cooking methods, seasoning, and bun preparation across 14,000 locations. It is the most ambitious quality push since the Made for You system two decades ago.
The restaurant industry still needs 200,000 workers to reach pre-pandemic staffing levels. Rising minimum wages, tighter immigration enforcement, and shifting generational expectations are making the gap harder to close. Automation is no longer optional.