Top Fast Casual News

Partnership with Bridging Culture Worldwide will help burger brand try to sign first South Korean multiunit franchise development agreement in 2011.

Greek fast-casual chain will undergo a makeover under new ownership, climbing out of bankruptcy with an increased focus on food, service, and store ambiance.

Get a glimpse of what an expert panel at QSR‘s Dine America conference in September will share about how to structure your prices in a post-recession world.

In 2001 famed French chef Daniel Boulud rocked the restaurant world—and he did it with the most unlikely of dishes: the hamburger. Before it became a global phenomenon, the db Burger—a sirloin stuffed with braised short ribs and foie gras on a Parmesan bun that sells for a cool $32—was unlike any burger creation that […]

Tony Shure and Colin McCabe, best friends and business partners, go way back. They went to the same school in New York City. Friendly but distant at school, they grew close after finding themselves, by pure coincidence, both freshmen at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. One of the things they had in common was […]

Lean and Mean In the past six months, Ed Frechette has noticed a trend. “People on Wall Street are coming to Au Bon Pain for meetings and interviews,” says Frechette, senior vice president of marketing for the Boston-based chain, which has locations in New York City. Financial executives are not the only ones looking to […]

Gary Worthington grew up inhaling freshly baked bread in the kitchen of his childhood home in Grantsville, Utah, a small farming community 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. Decades later, Worthington still enjoys the comforting aroma, though now it comes from his own business. Worthington and his family operate Kneaders Bakery & Café, a […]

Twenty experienced restaurateurs— marketers, operations specialists, and management executives from all across the industry—gathered in January in Orange County, California, to talk about the issues driving their businesses. All members of Technomic Inc.’s Operator Advisory Board, they went back and forth, passionately discussing the challenges shaping their daily work. And then the talks shifted to […]

You might expect a 46-unit chain to lose some identity after merging with a company 22 times its size, especially when the company is Panera Bread, the fast-growing bakery café powerhouse. Au contraire says Paradise Bakery & Café President David Birzon. “We still see ourselves as the bakery-café leader in terms of quality. Before becoming […]

The growing demand for customization in quick-service can be attributed to consumer insistence on a “me society” and operators’ intense battle for food-share. Customization in fast food began with the burger wars. The early McDonald’s model launched a take-it-my-way attack, with a batch and bin management method of burger delivery. Archenemy Burger King countered in […]