November 20, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

November 19, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

November 18, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

   I was boning up on beef production when I came across an interview with the Portland, Ore. chef-owner of the Pilot Butte Drive-In, well-known for its 18-ounce burgers. No surprise there considering the Web site was cattlenetwork.com. 
   The chef talks about his business and how tough it is to make a buck, even in a popular restaurant with a solid reputation for good food. Among the issues he discusses is menu labeling, an impending proposal in the liberal state government. Here's how he sees it:

November 14, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

   Anyone else spot Jefferies & Co.'s report on CMG, which with its "hold" rating sent the stock price tumbling 5 percent, to $42, as of 11:30 a.m. (ET)? Analyst Jefferey Farmer, who recently met with management, questioned the anticipated 7 percent menu price hike, wondering what effect it will have on traffic. For its part, management didn't hazard a guess. Not was it willing to say whether new-unit productivity would stabilize in 2009 (Farmer, however, thinks it will).

November 10, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

   Are customers now cooking dinner at home instead of going out to eat? No one is quite sure that's the case, though certainly many are visiting restaurants less frequently than they did 18 months ago, as the financial performance of publicly traded companies makes abundantly clear.
   Now, a publishing company is pouring salt into that wound with a digital cookbook called "Insider's Recipes: Master Edition." It's a compendium of popular chain dishes for a very low price. Here's the pitch from the publisher's Web site:

...Read More