A Deeper Dive

Who is winning the chicken wars? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features a discussion on recent earnings with RB Executive Editor Lisa Jennings. A huge number of earnings have come in and many of them are head-scratchers. While a lot of chains have done really well, like Wingstop and its 22% same-store sales number, others have not, such as K

What’s coming to this year’s National Restaurant Association Show? More seats, for one thing. This special episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Tom Cindric, the president of exhibitions for Informa Connect Foodservice, which operates the show and is also a sister company of Restaurant Business. We will be attending the Show this year, and will do a

Convenience stores are upping their food game and one concept is taking advantage of it. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jim Norberg, the CEO of the convenience-store chicken concept Krispy Krunchy Chicken. We had Jim on largely because convenience stores are getting a lot of foodservice business right now. Traffic at convenience stor

How do you tailor your real estate strategies to an uncertain market? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Stephen Cohen, an attorney who specializes in real estate for restaurants and retailers. A lot of restaurants want to expand right now and are doing everything they can to do so. But the cost of expansion is higher than ever. Construc

What is the future of virtual restaurants? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Robbie Earl, the co-founder of Virtual Dining Concepts. The company is now the largest operator of digital-only brands, which operate inside other restaurants, ghost kitchens and other facilities. They typically do not have a traditional storefront. Virtual b

What happens when you combine high-tech miniature golf and food? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Vrankin, the CEO of the fast-growing eatertainment concept Puttshack. Puttshack is an 18-unit chain that combines a full-service restaurant with an indoor game of minigolf—neither of which is all that standard. The minigolf features

What is happening at the Restaurant Leadership Conference this year? We decided to demand that Chris Keating, the EVP of Conferences for Informa Connect, RB’s parent company, talk about the conference, which runs April 14-17. And he was happy to oblige. We ask about what’s happening at the event and the strategy behind it. We also chat about Martha Stewart, and Chris tells us s

How did Wingstop fix its cost problem? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Michael Skipworth, the chicken chain's CEO. Wingstop is hitting on all cylinders right now, thanks to the popularity of chicken wings and takeout but also because of its new line of chicken sandwiches, which have helped lure new customers in during different ti

How is Happy Joe’s modernizing its brand? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Tom Sacco, the CEO of Happy Joe’s. The 52-unit, Iowa-based chain has been around for 50 years. It was sold just before the pandemic. Sacco was brought in as CEO after a career with BJ’s, Ponderosa, Red Robin and Ghiradelli. The pandemic forced the brand to

How are restaurants making their C-suites more diverse? This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Therese Gearhart, the president and CEO of the Women’s Foodservice Forum. WFF’s leadership conference is coming up next week, and we figured it’d be a great time to check in on the industry’s track record of hiring women into leadership rol