Here's a succinct analysis of what's hurting restaurant sales. It comes via Jeffrey Bernstein, a sharp restaurant analyst at Barclay's Capital. In addition to recognizing there remain too many restaurants, Bernstein adds the following:

1) Convenient, ready-to eat, high quality prepared alternatives from other food channels (i.e. supermarkets, warehouse clubs) further pressuring the share of consumer food dollar spen...Read More

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   This weekend I dropped by a Kings Restaurant in Monaca, Pa., some 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. I hadn't been in one of the regional chain's restaurants since it remodeled its 35 units two years ago. (It has since debuted a new concept, Kings Hometown Grill, on Neville Island, in the Ohio River.) 
   There's nothing out of the ordinary here; but this iteration is much improved over the dated look that formerly defined the privately held company. One element made me chuckle: the word graphics wall in the last photo. I suppose if it were me, I wouldn't have merely listed items on the menu (especially Country Fried Steak). I'd have copied another approach and used witty quotes about fo...Read More

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   Here's another chance to test your foodservice IQ, which must pretty high since you're reading this blog in the first place. Still, I want you to increase your knowledge of all things foodservice even if you guess wrong. In this case, you'll be instructed on how to consume a popular item without having to reach for a napkin. Good luck!

1. Which restaurant chain is being blamed for a promotion that led to gunfire in New York City.

--Pret a Manger

--Taco Bell

--Friendly's

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   The New York Times published a profile on Saturday of the unusually tight-lipped Ruby Tuesday chain--which had never invited a reporter to its Mayville, Tenn., headquarters. What makes this article worth reading isn't that the 37-year-old restaurant company is doing things differently as it struggles to win customers while upgrading itself in a failing economy. Indeed, its managers are being trained to inveigle the troops in the same way as other casual-dining operators: emphasize service, prepare food properly.
   It's that for the first time, in print, anyway, CEO and founder Sandy Beall, a colorful speaker, publi...Read More

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   Since spring of 2007 restaurant analyst Nicole Miller of Piper Jaffray has been asking high school students (54 percent male, 44 percent female) to list their favorite chain restaurants in order of preference. Some 1,200 students, age 16 on average, are told to write in responses on blank lines, rather than choose them from a list, she says. About a third of the students work part-time jobs. Their weighted household income is $75,000.
   The following percentages reflect the results from tallying each student's top choice.

Fall 2008         ...Read More

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SBUX management met with numerous investors in recent months in both the U.S. and Europe and the feedback is pointing to continued improvement in [same-store sales] and significant progress on the cost cutting front.Trading at 9X 2010 EBITDA, we [sic] think a lot of good news is reflected in the shares.

   That's advice from Jefferies & Company restaurant analyst Jeff Farmer, who has a "hold" rating on the ...Read More

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   I would have posted this note as soon as I spotted Bruce Buschel's "dont's" list on his blog "The Art of Running a Small Business," but I didn't take my computer to Denver last week, where a bunch of editors, operators and sponsors gathered for our annual conference, Chain Leader Live. 
   It was a good one, by the way, with presentations ranging from Granite City Brewery...Read More

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   Shall we start with a 50 percent tax on the retail value of beef? That's the suggestion of Princeton University professor and author Peter Singer in today's New York Daily News. 
   Why tax red meat? 
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   Conventional holds that now is not the time for restaurants to raise prices. See my last blog post. But, in fact, menu prices have been climbing, if stealthily, according to Boston-based Intellaprice. Particularly drink prices, which have risen 2 percent in 2009. 
   Says Intellaprice President Leslie Kerr: "This year, food prices overall are down 0.6 percent and bar beverage prices are up nearly 2 percent. That’s compared to our 2008 finding that food prices were up 2 percent overall and bar beverages were up 5 percent vs. 2007."

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"Both restaurant and food companies are pointing to stable commodity prices in 2010 as production capacity cuts are offset by still soft consumer demand."

   More evidence of a "new normal"? Jefferies & Company restaurant analyst Jeff Farmer doesn't say so in an October 16 note to investors but it's evident that the recession is increasingly problematic for chains. Stable wholesale prices-- for chicken, beef, cheese and butter, for instance -- usually means better marg...Read More

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   Like watching car wrecks? Then you'll love Adweek columnist Barbara Lippert's brutal dissection of Friendly's new television commerical. But before linking to it view the spot more than once--otherwise you'll find yourself replaying it to grasp the mistakes Lippert so cleverly points out. 

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   There were a few good moments during last night's Rachel Maddow Show. The best came during an interview with Rick Berman, a former Brinker International executive-turned-public affairs specialist (see videos below). The Washington, D.C.-based Berman opposes many liberal causes via a variety of Web sites, the most popular of which is consumerfreedom.com. 
   Many people, especially liberals like Rachel Maddow, write the sites off as nothing more than fronts for businesses that would suffer financially if left-wing initiatives became reality. Maddow wasn't bashful about saying so.
    Berman's consumerfreedom.com, for instance, is current...Read More

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