Restaurant Rewind

If you’ve been in the chain restaurant business for an appreciable stretch, chances are you’ve either attended or heard about the Restaurant Leadership Conference.

It’s the top-to-top event where you might see Magic Johnson jump off the stage to give someone a hug, two chain builders lay the groundwork for a merger (Cava and Zoes Kitchen, 2018) or a big-name CEO careening around a Go Kart track. Be mindful of who may be behind you in the coffee line, because it could be a best-selling author checking out the tech demonstrations in the tradeshow area.

Yet even longtime attendees are likely unaware of how the conference, now hosted by Restaurant Business parent Informa, came to be. In those roots are the reasons why the RLC continues to reign as an event where you’re likely to be surprised by what happens on the stage and the number of industry all-stars you’ll meet.

This week’s edition of our Restaurant Rewind retro-focused podcast revisits how the conference got started, why it zigged when other conferences zagged, and some of the brush-with-greatness presenters who left attendees a-buzz.

Check it out, whether you are there or want to be.

Popeyes is emerging as a tough bird to beat in the quick-service fried-chicken market, a distinction that would have delighted its late founder, the flamboyant and pugnacious nonconformist Al Copeland.

Had Copeland done nothing more than create Popeyes, he’d deserve a prime spot in a restaurant industry hall of fame. But his leadership of that chain is only one of the reasons he should be remembered today.

In an industry of cowboys and rebels, he was a standout in his brashness and insistence on marching to his own beat. Industry long-timers would have a tough time naming someone who came close to his uniqueness.

Consider, for instance, that he once not only ran Popeyes but its next closest rival, the chain now known as Church’s Texas Chicken. He fought openly with the author Anne Rice and other neighbors, never yielding an inch. And then there were his ghost stories.

But that’s just a sampling of what made Copeland so unusual. Press play on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind to learn more about his exploits in and outside of the restaurant business.

It’s probably a myth that tax-code writers refine their knack for inscrutability by taking a whack at state and local liquor regulations. The complexity and illogic of the rules governing alcohol sales are enough to make a restaurateur long for a seat on the other side of the bar, knocking back Jell-O shots with fellow scofflaws.

In New York and other areas, theirs would be an outlaw’s life, the result of gelatin made with vodka being prohibited for sale or giveaway by restaurants and bars. Yes, you read that correctly. You can buy a hefty blunt from a streetside establishment, but a wiggly 1-inch cube of spiked Island Pineapple Jell-O is pure contraband, even in a place as wild as New York City.

Join us for this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind as we look at why so many regulations governing the sale of alcoholic beverages seem stuck in the age when revelers would hit their local dram shop for a flagon of mead.

We won’t say a word if you should happen to listen with a cube of cherry-red gelatin at your elbow.

America loves its pranks, as fast-food chains learned years ago in turning April Fool’s Day into a major marketing opportunity. Consumers have brought considerable gullibility to the day, while big brands like Taco Bell, Burger King and McDonald’s have gone to extreme lengths to hoodwink the public, with remarkable success.

The combination has turned several of the put-ons into major news stories because the deceptions were so successful, as stupid as they might appear in hindsight. In a surprising number of those instances, perpetrators had to ‘fess up afterward that they were pulling off a joke and not actually adding burgers for lefthanders or edible fashion accessories.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks back at some of the outstanding con jobs and what they wrought. Join us as pranksters rev up their tricks for this year’s April Fool’s Day, which falls on Monday. No foolin’.

After Wendy’s charge and retreat on dynamic pricing, the restaurant business can’t seem to talk about anything else. Perhaps that’s because variable pricing is as much a part of the business as knives and forks.

Indeed, you may not be aware of the various forms dynamic pricing has taken over the years. In this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, we take a look at some of the forgotten manifestations, including ones from big-name operators like McDonald’s.

Join us as we look at early instances of dynamic pricing and how it’s waxed and waned.

True crime stories have become a major entertainment genre, delivered in big numbers by podcasts, streaming TV shows and even several whole networks. It’s about time Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, made its contribution to the field.

In this week’s episode, we look back at the small role a restaurant played in the assumed murder of Jimmy Hoffa, the labor leader and known organized-crime associate who disappeared without a trace in 1975. Even today, tips periodically surface about what happened to the Michigander, only to lead nowhere.

One of the few things known for sure is where Hoffa intended to dine on the day he disappeared. There’s no dispute that he was scheduled to lunch with two known gangsters at what was then one of the country’s most famous fine-dining restaurants, Machus’ Red Fox in Bloomfield, Mich.

He never made it past the parking lot, where his car was later found abandoned. But that was enough to indelibly connect the restaurant and its proprietor, an upstanding industry luminary named Harris Machus, to one of the most infamous disappearances in American history.

There was never any suggestion that Machus or his establishment had anything to do with what was later adjudged to be a murder. But a restaurant formerly noted for the caliber of its service and food became a popular destination for another reason overnight. Interest in true crime stories was popular even then, nearly 50 years ago.

The irony is that Machus was as solid of a citizen as you could hope to find, having served with honor in World War II, and forever shaping the modern U.S. restaurant business as it emerged in the 1950s and '60s. He even served as president of the National Restaurant Association, where he was a director for a solid decade.

Little is remembered about Machus today other than the connection to Hoffa. But there was so much more to the man, as this week’s podcast episode attests.

 But listen for yourself. Hit Play to learn about an often-overlooked pioneer of the business.

If Mad Men’s Don Draper was trying to impress a prospective client, he may have taken the target to New York City’s cathedral of French cooking, La Pavillon—the 1960s landmark, not the modern reincarnation opened by Daniel Boulud.

There, he would have sampled the fare of a young French chef who’d leave more of an imprint on the American dining scene than mere memories of outstanding meals. By that time, Jacques Pepin was already a culinary star on both sides of the Atlantic, having served as personal chef to France’s Charles De Gaulle before leading the kitchen team at La Pavillon. In modern parlance, we’d have called him a celebrity chef, if not a rock star.

So how did he build on that fame? To the astonishment of many, Pepin took what was essentially the job of corporate chef for the Howard Johnson’s restaurant chain, a mass-market phenom known for its orange roofs, fried clams and ice cream.

It was one of the many curious twists to a culinary career that’s now in its 74th year. At age 88, Pepin is still making appearances in the fine-dining world. Yet many of the young chefs who’ve been unknowingly influenced by the kitchen master may not recognize his name, even though it’s graced some 30 cookbooks and 17 cooking shows. 

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind shows why Pepin should not be overlooked by any student of the restaurant business. On the occasion of a tribute to Pepin by one of the educational institutions he helped to found, the podcast delves into the chef’s career and his lasting influence on the business.

Give a listen to learn how a one-time R&D chef for Howard Johnson’s brought fine dining to the masses.

As any fan of "The Sopranos" knows, mobsters love good food almost as much as they relish ill-gotten money. No wonder organized crime is constantly rumored to be intertwined with the restaurant business.

For veterans of New York City, those insinuations are far from fanciful. Long-timers know the dining landmarks where Mafioso kingpins were whacked after a meal, and where you have to be careful not to kick fellow guests in the ankle lest you set off their back-up guns. A line of black limos outside means you don’t tell Italian jokes while waiting for a table, and the men’s dress code might include a pinky ring. 

If there were any doubts of a connection between cooks and capos, they were dashed a few years ago when once-celebrated chef David Ruggerio came clean on his involvement with the mob. While earning stellar reviews for his fare at New York’s La Caravelle, the second cousin to famed gangster Carlo Gambino pursued a second life as a goodfella, hijacking trucks, shaking down other crooks and dealing drugs.

He eventually left the business to avoid jail time, and decided to air his criminal past after several partners in crime were killed and he was disrespected by a godfather of sorts.

It’s an incredible story, and you can learn it by hitting Play on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks back at often-forgotten nuggets from the industry’s past.  Listen this week for a snapshot of how a real wise guy made it in the business.

Restaurants will be hearing the name again and again as one of the industry’s premier awards program draws closer to its early May conclusion for 2024. Yet few in the business may know who James Beard was, now that he’s been gone for nearly 40 years.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind answers the question of why Beard should be remembered, particularly within fine dining. Even those familiar with the media star’s legacy may not be aware of his full contribution to the industry he loved, like proving that Americans would tune in their TVs to learn more about cooking and food. He was the first to try the airwaves, beginning in 1946.

Nor might they know that he was a founder of Citymeals on Wheels, or that he was a fan of barbecuing when that form of prep was still considered low-brow.

Learn more about a figure who deserves to be remembered as a god of the business. Hit Play to learn how Beard lived, and the contributions he’s left behind.

Tipping has been villainized by organized labor as a vestige of slavery, an assertion that strains credibility. What makes the assertion even more difficult to accept is the background of the restaurant company that’s likely more dependent on tipping than any other employer in the business.

Bill Darden is well-known to any student of the business as the founder of Darden Restaurants and Red Lobster, the brand that made the company a full-service powerhouse. Yet few are likely aware of the role he played in combating racism, going back as far as 1935.

Darden’s refusal to segregate his dining rooms put him and his business at considerable risk. Yet he made color-blindness a plank of the company’s culture.

Join us as we look back in this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind at the stance Darden took and how sharply it contrasted with the industry’s attitude of even just a few decades ago.

Hit “Play” to learn how one strong adherent to tipping was all about treating people equally, regardless of their skin color.

Casual dining roared back as pandemic conditions lifted and dining rooms reopened, dispelling assertions the segment was cooked. But that doesn’t mean the full-service chain market has been on cruise control, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind attests.

The retro-focused podcast looks back during the installment to what the casual market looked like 10 and 20 years ago, and how that compares with the state of play today. Among the brands that have clearly aged are TGI Fridays and Red Lobster, the brands that virtually midwifed the whole sector.

Join us as we look at how the market has changed, and what propelled those granddads of the segment to prominence in the first place.

It’s not unusual for a newly hired restaurant-chain executive to spend time in a unit as a line-level employee. Seeing an operation from the perspective of a customer or worker often provides insight and a reality check c-suiters might not get otherwise. In general, being in stores is a great thing for the CEO. 

Except, that is, when they don’t have a clue as to what’s really happening in their restaurants.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at how wrong things can go when an exec doesn’t have a firm grasp on operations, personnel or the conditions of a store. They’re nightmares that I’ve personally witnessed, from rodent sightings to having a renegade employee sounding off about what he or she doesn’t like.

Tune in for a sample of the train wrecks I’ve seen while in-unit with a leader who wants to be one of the team but doesn’t have a credible claim on being so.

About 84% of the United States’ adult population carry a credit card, or roughly 191 million American consumers, according to the research company Experion. That shouldn’t be a surprise to today’s restaurateurs, who’ve seen the use of cash be challenged pointedly in recent years by the surge in digital ordering.

No wonder the expense of accepting plastic has soared into one of operators’ biggest cost items, third only to labor and food.

How did the industry get here? When did the modern credit card find its way into the business, and how did playing with plastic become so prevalent?

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, a podcast that looks back at the roots of today’s restaurant issues, aims to answer those questions. Let’s just say you can thank or blame a pair of 1940s men for sparking the industry’s dependence on credit and charge cards.

Join us as we trace the evolution of the co-dependency between restaurants and charge-card networks.

Restaurants have been pressed since at least the 1970s to provide menu options for customers looking to lose weight and eat more healthfully. That pressure might reach its peak every January, when patrons are hellbent on following a set diet in hopes of shedding a few pounds.

What diet might that be this year, given the weight-loss schemes currently in vogue? Chances are it won’t have as much of an influence on menus as the craze that swept up diners and restaurants more than two decades ago, prompting chain after chain to overhaul their bills of fare.

Join us on this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind for a look at the profound influence that fad, the Atkins diet, temporarily had on the industry. It’s a cautionary tale of how short-lived any restrictive eating plan tends to be, regardless of how widely it might have been embraced.

Press play for a look at the influence popular diets have today, compared to the force at least one packed 25 years ago.

The restaurant industry seems as if it’s going backward in its efforts to promote diversity within its top executive ranks. If it goes all the way back to the mid-20th century, it’ll find that the role of women in particular was far more pronounced in those formative years.

Indeed, women played key roles in the development of the chain sector, in part because those early ventures were largely family affairs. Men might have grabbed the limelight, but women were often the key figures behind the scenes.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at three of those female pioneers. Without them, we likely wouldn’t have the McDonald’s, In-N-Out and Marriott International we do today.

Join us as we celebrate women who are still role models all these decades later.  

McDonald’s created a stir last week with the opening of a second concept, a drive-thru drinks operation called CosMc’s. But it’s far from the first time the Golden Arches has tried to find gold from a second venture. It’s been tinkering with possible additions to its single-brand fold almost from the time Ray Kroc got involved with the chain.

The possibilities have included everything from a beer garden to an amusement park to a mixed-use complex that could have been a model for Mall of America. And those were all before its diversification binge of the late 1990s.

Yet not one of those notions worked for Big Mac. Today, McDonald’s Corp. is still synonymous with the McDonald’s chain.

Find out what happened from this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, a podcast that look back into the industry’s past for a better understanding of what’s happening today. You’ll find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Not every service standout earned that distinction by indulging customers’ every whim and preference. Some of the hospitality industry’s most admired brands garnered respect in part by drawing a firm line and refusing to cross it, no matter how much business was at stake. They simply tell customers, Nope, ain't going to do that. 

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at several of those sticks-in-the-mud, what they’ve refused to do, and why. And, as listeners will hear, these are not the industry’s marginal brands. We’re talking about revered operations like Chick-fil-A, Texas Roadhouse and Marriott.

Learn more about their stubbornness by pressing “Play.”

If you think the term “happy hour” was coined in the 1960s or '70s to tag post-work booze fests, you’re off by about 50 years and 100 proof. The wordsmith behind that phrase was none other than a sobriety-minded Uncle Sam.

It’s one piece of the restaurant jargon whose roots we trace during this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that delves into the business’ past for a deeper appreciation of what’s happening now. Join us as we look at the origins of such industry-specific terms as “daypart,” “86” and “in the weeds.”

Press Play to learn how restaurant-speak came to be.

Deep-frying a whole turkey has become a popular way of preparing the star of Thanksgiving feasts. Proponents say it yields a more delicious centerpiece in considerably less time than roasting. So why was there ever a time that cooking method was not a consideration, be it for a restaurant chef or the home cook?

It's likely a result of the option being just a mad foodie’s fever dream until an advancement in camper technology provided a means, and the leftovers from a pigfest gave an unexpected impetus. And everything came together merely in recent decades, an eye-blink compared to the arc of many American culinary traditions.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind as we look back at how deep-frying turkeys became a thing.

Red Lobster has been making headlines for offering an all-you-can-eat deal that worked too well as a traffic driver. Management acknowledged that the spike in food costs ate about $11 million in profits for the third quarter.

The situation is hardly unprecedented in the restaurant business—even for Red Lobster itself. Two decades ago, it similarly saw margins crunched by an all-you-can-eat crab legs deal.

Join us as we look back at some of the memorable instances of restaurant chains over- or underestimating how popular a bargain deal would prove to be. Hit the Play button for a crash course on Riblets gluts and Mighty Wings over-supplies.

For roughly 15 years, no other restaurant in the country could match the sales volumes of Hilltop Steak House, a kitschy mega-restaurant perched atop a hill outside Boston. It wasn’t unusual for the local favorite’s annual revenues to top $25 million, even surpassing $30 million for at least one year.

Even more amazing was how the place did it. Though Hilltop specialized in doormat-sized steaks, its prices were a bargain. Its superpower was providing the sort of value that kept customers lining up, waiting to hear their name called for a table in one of the establishment’s five dining rooms.

Not familiar with the story of how a local butcher turned a small local joint into a money mill that somehow defied duplication? Join us as we look back at an operation that has largely been forgotten since its closing in 2013.

Our bet is it’s worth remembering. But see for yourself.

Decades before the phrase “fast casual” was coined, a restaurant concept little noticed outside of New York City was using a self-service format, rapid-fire cooking and a Chipotle-style production line to offer a steak meal for less than $9.

We’re not talking about something from the Roaring '20s. Tad’s Steakhouse was grilling its strip steaks several dozen at a time to offer a bargain-price steak lunch until just a few years ago. There’s still a unit plugging away under that name in San Francisco, though inflation has rendered a $9 price as obsolete as wagon wheels.

What can the industry learn from a brand that persevered for 63 years in the grueling New York market, selling steak at that?

Give a listen to this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind to learn why the industry should not forget Tad’s Steakhouse.

The restaurant industry cursed her at the time, but Lady Bird Johnson served up some tough love in the 1960s that’s arguably still paying benefits to the business today. She moved the nation’s fight against highway litter and garish roadside billboard from the margins to the mainstreams, forcing the public and the industry to change some decidedly litterbug ways.

In the process, the genteel Texan with a core of steel forever changed the role of First Lady, from a passive plus-one to her spouse, to an activist wielding the power of her position to pursue a cause.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind for a look at an often overlooked development that some regard as the spark that led to the environmental consciousness we see in the industry today.

If you can play a guitar and sell records, why not parlay your notoriety into a second career as restaurateur?

That questionable line of thinking has led a number of stars to try their hand at the business, usually with unexciting if not disastrous results. But that can’t be said about the late mega-star who epitomized the laid-back lifestyle, the antithesis of what’s needed to succeed in a notoriously frantic trade that requires intense attention to detail.

Jimmy Buffett lent his name, time and money in no less than three restaurant ventures, two of which are still chugging along as exceptions that prove the rule. In this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, we look at the business empire Buffett built without blurring his perception as someone who believed happy hour should never end. (In truth, Buffett stopped drinking years ago.)

And he’s not alone. We also take a quick look at two other rockstars-turned-restaurateurs who cultivated an image contrary to Buffett. Consider it a Kiss of appreciation.

Hit play to see what we mean.

Buzz can be as much of a factor for a restaurant’s success as the caliber of its food and service. Yet the industry has seen countless instances of reality falling short of the hoopla.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks back at a prime example, the Wagamama ramen chain. The brand’s success in Europe fostered ample talk that the low-priced favorite of London hipsters would make a similar splash on the U.S. side of the Atlantic. Yet, all these years later, the concept has only seven American outposts open, not the hundreds other parts of the world have seen.

The lack of traction is especially puzzling because the brand had an early proxy in the U.S. that proved the concept’s viability, a close and highly successful knockoff in the harsh proving ground of New York City. 

What happened to a concept with so much potential and industry attention? Join us as we take a look at this prime example of a promising concept somehow failing to find traction.

Download the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

The movie business is having a blockbuster summer, with restaurants enjoying tie-ins with such certifiable hits as “Barbie” and “Super Mario Bros.” But marketing collaborations haven’t been the only ways the film and restaurant industries have fed off one another, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

The two have been intertwined likely from the first time a director yelled “Action!” Along with TV, movies have used restaurants as the settings for everything from gangland shootouts to the star turn of a culinarily gifted rat. The places may not always be identified by their real names, but they’re no strangers to bright lights and rolling cameras.

Add in the tendency of stars from one field to branch into the other, and you have a symbiotic relationship that delights the public. And the interconnections may run deeper than even film buffs realize, as this week’s episode notes.

Download it for an entertaining late-summer look at the connection. At the very least, you’ll elevate your knowledge of entertainment trivia along with your cocktail banter.

You’ll find Restaurant Rewind from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Every now and then, a public restaurant company finds itself in the crosshairs of an activist investor who’s convinced it can do a better job of running the business. But few of those attempts to wrest control of an operation come close to Starboard Capital’s successful attempt nine years ago to boot the whole board of Darden Restaurants and sharply change the casual-dining giant’s direction.

And now Starboard has another casual-dining behemoth in its sights. The investment firm has filed notice that it intends to lean on Bloomin’ Brands, the parent of Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s, to force some changes.  

What can the Bloomin’ team expect from what’s now appears to be its largest shareholder?

The current episode of Restaurant Rewind attempts to answer that question by looking back at the 2014 interactions between Starboard and Darden.  At the heart of that give-and-take was what may be the most exhaustive list of alleged ills an investor has ever gathered on a holding, a 294-page slide deck and whitepaper on what Darden had supposedly done wrong and how it could right itself.

Restaurateurs greeted the initial demands for a $15 minimum wage with disbelief and ridicule. Now the industry is facing proposals to set a floor of $30 an hour for some employees.

Is it déjà vu all over again? Will that level of pay become the new wage target for organized labor and politicians, the way $15 has been for years? Or is the demand for a $30 wage merely a test to see how high the pay floor can be lifted?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks for clues in a recollection of how a $15 wage became the standard ask when increases in a minimum wage are being considered. How did a pay level more than double the federal rate become a norm?

Download the episode and join me as we retrace that course. You’ll find Restaurant Rewind wherever you usually get your podcasts.

McDonald’s and Starbucks have both aired plans to shoehorn more units into less densely populated markets they would have bypassed with nary a second thought 10 or 20 years ago. Chances are they may find a few traditional Dairy Queens already pumping out cones and cups in those long-overlooked nooks.

The home of the Dilly Bar and the Blizzard was an early believer in the potential of the byways and crannies where the competition for frozen treats—or a fast-food treat of any kind—was far from blistering. The concept and its development strategy have evolved considerably from those days of rapid expansion, but the brand remains synonymous in the popular imagination with Small Town America.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at how Dairy Queen earned that distinction while adjusting to the monumental social changes of post-World War II America.  Treat yourself to a Blizzard and a colorful recollection of how a brand known by the curl topping its cones and cups quietly became a fast-food giant in its own right.

He ran a soft-porn magazine, called Muhammad Ali a pal, cycled through romantic interests the way some restaurants run through specials, and relaxed by racing boats and piloting a hot-air balloon. 

Ask outsiders to name the visionaries who built the restaurant industry into the social fixture it is today and chances are you’ll hear names like Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas and Howard Schultz. Odds are the list won’t include a force who midwifed a whole category of the business, even though he was active in the field far more recently than those dynasty builders.

And that’s not even considering his storybook life outside of the business. His bio is the stuff of movies. Indeed, he figured into two, portrayed in one by Mark Harmon. Ray Kroc only had one film made about him.

Yet, almost exactly 14 years after his death, Norman Brinker may well be fading from the industry’s collective memory. There aren’t that many of us still in the trade who were privileged to witness Norman’s brilliance firsthand.  Those of a more tender vintage might recognize that his name is used by Brinker International, the parent company of the Chili’s and Maggiano’s chains, but may not be aware of the why.

It would be a colossal loss if such an influential and inspirational figure was forgotten by the business he did so much to build. That’s why we’re devoting the next two issues of our Restaurant Rewind podcast to a personalized recount of Norman Brinker’s extraordinary life and career.

Join us this episode as we look at Brinker’s early influences and how they presaged the success he would enjoy throughout his 78 years. Mixed in are the details that would today make Norman a regular focus of shows like Entertainment Tonight or even TMZ. His would be a frequently boldfaced name.

Download the episode from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

If you’ve ever wondered who came up with the idea of having servers introduce themselves by name, ponder no more. The lore holds that it was Joe Baum, who was to the restaurant business what Steve Jobs was to personal tech.

And how about the ubiquitous gimmick of having the now-familiar server approach with a giant peppermill, ready to do some personalized grinding? Same guy.

But Baum’s impact wasn’t limited to tableside theater, though he exceled at that mission. Baum was also a key force in loosening up fine dining, sometimes going so far as to give his places a theme, be it Hawaiian or Roman.

And what extraordinary places he hatched: The Four Seasons. Windows on the World. Tavern on the Green.

He was a force that changed the business, often with a style that made him a precursor of today’s celebrity chefs and restaurateurs.

And yet he may be forgotten by a generation that takes Baum’s innovations for granted.

Hit the Play button to learn what a mistake that is for any student of the business. Download this episode of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

This year’s baseball season has been a tough one for some of the biggest names in the sport. Might it be time for some of the fallen stars to consider a late-innings switch into the restaurant business?

On this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we take a look at a few of the celebrated restaurateurs who made a big name for themselves on the baseball diamond first.  Some youngsters may not even recognize the names Stan Musial or Boog Powell, but only someone recently thawed out of a long sleep in a glacier would be unfamiliar with Mickey Mantle.

Give a listen to learn how those superstars made a name in the restaurant business after hanging up their spikes and batting gloves. Join me in that journey by downloading the installment wherever you usually get your podcasts.

The restaurant industry’s romance with Wall Street is back on, with chain after chain set to find out how much the stock market loves them. Cava is expected to get a read this week, possibly followed by brands ranging from Gen Korean BBQ to Panera Bread and its sibling concepts, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

Will the stampede set a new high-water mark for restaurant IPOs? Can the volume come close to the torrent of offerings that stock buyers embraced in the go-go 1990s? More than 70 foodservice companies sold themselves to the public that decade, led by steak and eatertainment concepts.

The flood of capital changed the business. Many regarded that time as the coming-out party for casual dining. Others saw it as the first time growth-for-growth’s-sake put the sector in trouble.

Join me on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, where we’ll look back at those days of IPO after IPO. What can we learn from those times about what’s ahead for restaurant companies yearning to go public?

The jingle tinkling out incessantly from rolling ice cream trucks is as much a sign of summer as anything Mother Nature flashes. But for the treat purveyors themselves, it might as well be a bugle sounding, “Charge!” It’s time for their turf war to resume.

For decades, the treat-shops-on-wheels have clashed over who has dibs to particular routes and stopping points. On this week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we look at what’s behind that long-running feud, and how it might materialize this season. Will the rivalry escalate again to weapons?

Download the episode from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Let the swells have their $900 fish whisker souffle. New York City’s true gift to the culinary arts is just fine for me. I’m talking hot dogs, the consummate Big Apple delight. From stockbroker to starving student, New Yorkers have a special fondness for the $2.50 tube steak, especially if it fueled their climb from down-and-out to doing OK.

Come along as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast slathers on the onion relish for a taste of what hot dogs have meant to New Yorkers, as strange as that role has sometimes been.

My apologies if you end up with mustard stains and the hint of a New York accent.

Cookie concepts are growing at a head-turning pace. If that sounds like déjà vu all over again, you’re showing your age.

Indeed, the restaurant business saw a similar boom in the segment nearly 50 years ago, when consumers found their indulgence opportunities increasing at a breakneck clip because of upstarts like Mrs. Field’s, Famous Amos and David’s Cookies.

What happened to those champions of the chocolate chip? How did that surge differ from what we’re seeing today from the likes of Crumble or Insomnia? The answer starts with the prior wave’s reliance on the characters behind the brands. They were the precursors of today’s celebrity chefs.

But that’s not the only way the new wave differs from that first manifestation. For the full picture, download this week’s episode from wherever you get your podcasts. And bring your own milk for dipping.

Ever wonder how a high-end restaurant chain could end up with a clunky name like Ruth’s Chris Steak House? If you’re familiar with the Ruth in that moniker, the mystery is about as vexing as picking an even number between one and three. There was no way that a force like Ruth Fertel would not leave her mark on the business, literally and figuratively.

Here’s just a few bulleted items from her life story: She didn’t enter the industry until age 38, looking for a way to pay for her two boys’ college education. Never mind that her education was in chemistry and physics. She’d earned college degrees in each by age 19.

That was before she broke the gender barrier to become a professional racehorse trainer.

Convinced that single moms brought a special touch to service, she built an all-female waitstaff for her restaurant venture. And she literally lived at her workplace, at least until it burned down.

Want more? Join me on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast for a look at the extraordinary life and career of Ruth Ann Udsted Fertel.

Restaurants have a notoriously high mortality rate. How, then, did a windowless fish house tucked beneath a New York City train station make it through two world wars, a depression and a steady onslaught of new competition?

Join me on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast as we look at how the Grand Central Oyster Bar has remained a Big Apple hotspot without devolving into a museum or a tourist trap. We might not score a dozen oysters for the once-prevailing price of 35 cents, but we’ll see how a decidedly old-guard establishment can keep its currency when it remains true to its origins while making concessions to the times.

The backhand McDonald’s caught from its franchisees last week is proof that friction can erupt between the home office and field operations of any restaurant chain, regardless of its success.

By Big Mac standards, the strife is a low point in relations with a group the franchisor has long lauded as its secret sauce. But the strain is nothing compared to the hostilities that very openly erupted between a hot concept and its licensees 20 years ago.

Join me on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, as we look back at the war that raged in the court of public opinion—and in the actual legal sort—between Quiznos franchisees and their franchisor at the time.

Download the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.  

And let me know of any topic you’d like me to resurrect from the past for additional insight into what’s happening in the business today. Email me at promeo@winsightmedia.com.

McDonald’s has announced that it’s tweaking its burgers to enhance their flavor and overall appeal. Judging from history, the move will either prove a stroke of genius or one of the worst mistakes Big Mac has ever made.

This week on Restaurant Rewind, we look back at what happened when Big Mac’s chief rival overhauled its main customer lure. Join me as we recount how Burger King’s revamped Whopper was received. (Here’s a hint: You won’t find the updated version on the menu today.)

Even casual listeners can hear plenty of wheezing these days from ghost kitchen and virtual concept specialists. The quick about-face in that sector calls to mind a boom that looked at the start of this century like it would reset competition for families’ dinner business—only to collapse in short order, helped along by the Great Recession.

If you’re not familiar with meal assembly and prep concepts, you either weren’t in the business back then, or you’ve repressed the memory. Join me for this episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast as we look back at a true flash in the hotel pan: the dozens of ventures that bet parents would welcome the chance to put together a week’s worth of meals in a social setting.

We’ll take a look at the factors that (briefly) made meal assembly concepts a wave to ride, and why it crashed in short order, leaving behind a few brands that managed to recast themselves.

Pop quiz time!

Regardless of a restaurant’s design, menu or pricing, its guests will be provided with an amenity that started as a quasi-blanket, morphed into a marketing tool in 1887, and survived an onslaught of forks as American colonists rolled east.

Name that restaurant staple.

Or, hit the play button on this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast to trek back to ancient Greece, where the correct answer had its start as an edible remedy for greasy fingers.

Join me this episode for a surprising look at how the restaurant napkin came to be.

But if you plan to make a mess, bring your own linens.

Starbucks has turned the dial on its hoopla machine all the way to 11 for the introduction of its new olive oil-infused beverages, a line the coffee giant is touting as The Next Big Thing.

If the situation feels like a rerun, you may be recalling the blare of trumpets that similarly heralded such past up-enders as Evolution Fresh juices, La Boulange baked goods, or even Starbucks-brand music stores. 

To be fair, there’s no reason to doubt the new drinks will prove more of a Pumpkin Spice Latte than a Dolce Misto or the Unicorn Latte. And the home of the green apron is far from the only restaurant chain to hype a new menu item or product line as a disruptor, only to generate more fizzle than sizzle. Remember, Taco Bell once tried a diet line.

Join me on this week’s edition of our Restaurant Rewind podcast for a look back at some of the products that failed to live up to their hyped potential. You’ll find this and every episode of the retro-focused program wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Long before Jerry Richardson rose to prominence as owner of the Carolina Panthers football team, he’d distinguished himself as a pioneer of the fast-food restaurant business.

He not only developed much of the Hardee’s burger chain as a franchisee in the 1960s and '70s, but would go on to oversee such brands as Denny’s, El Pollo Loco and Quincy’s. By the time he retired in 1995, he was responsible for more than 2, 500 restaurants.

Richardson died earlier this month at age 86.  His connection to the restaurant industry had been minimal for nearly the prior two decades, but his mark on the business is indelible.

Join me on this week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast as we review the career of an early industry star who found fame before and after on the gridiron.

Download this week’s episode of retro-focused Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.