Dave's Dispatch
David Farkas has worked for Chain Leader as a senior editor since 1998. With Dave's Dispatch he provides not only plump bits of industry gossip, but news and analysis found nowhere else.
Fast Food: Mr. Kumpir Makes Its Debut
With all due respect, the words “Canada” and “trendiness” don’t often appear in the same sentence. Yet last week the widely read Globe and Mail surmised that trendiness, in fact, accounted for the recent influx of fast-food joints into Vancouver. “Our trendsetting nature partly explains why Fatburger, Beard Papa’s, Starbucks brea ...... Read More
Comments (0)Obama's Speech: Republicans Nay, NRA Yea
I don’t know if you caught it but when President Obama proposed eliminating the capital gains tax for small businesses in last night’s State of the Union address, nary a Republican in the chamber applauded. That surprised me given party members are usually behind anything that fosters free enterprise. Yet the normally right-leaning National Restaurant Association praised ...... Read More
Comments (8)Current Affairs: Restaurant Chains
Scott Hume, a journalist who runs the excellent website Burgerbusiness.com, was interviewed during a conference call this afternoon by restaurant analyst Mark Kalinowski of Janney Montgomery Scott. When Kalinowski asked his guest for a take on the industry’s current state of affairs, Hume ticked off several items, including the following: • That chain restaurants are in ...... Read More
Comments (0)Quiz: Bellwether State
Today’s quiz theme is the bellwether state for all things foodservice. I speak, of course, of California, which has long been at the forefront of the industry’s biggest shifts. As always, right answers are immediately rewarded. Wrong ones, not so much – though what turns up will leave you shaking your head … it’s sooo Left C ...... Read More
Comments (3)Andy Puzder: "Leave us alone."
CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder was his usual provocative self during a recent interview with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News channel. Puzder even had a message for President Obama: “If you want us to grow our business, we do not need to be stimulated. We need to be left alone.” CKE’s Puzder Asked about current government efforts to restrict salt in foods, Puzd ...... Read More
Comments (8)The Darker Side of Foodservice
What is it you wish for most this year: More customers? Better marketing? Lower food costs? How about something as simple as staying in business? That thought occurred to me after talking to Tom Thees of Restaurant Equipment Retrieval, a Toledo-based company that repossesses foodservice equipment. Tom, whom ...... Read More
Comments (7)50 More Things Servers Should Never Do
A couple months ago I posted a list of actions restaurant servers should never take, according to Bruce Buschel, who is opening his first restaurant this spring in Bridgehampton, N.Y. Bruchel divided the 100-item list into two parts, publishing the second 50 "dont’s" a few days after the first. Somehow I missed them. So today I’m posting ...... Read More
Comments (5)Do You Want Fries and Ammonia with That?
Today’s New York Times, in a brilliant piece of reporting, shows how the USDA was persuaded by a Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based company called Beef Products to approve of an ammonia-based process to kill E. coli and Salmonella in a product that is mixed with ground beef. When customers, including restaurant chains and school lunch programs, complain ...... Read More
Comments (0)Heads Down: PETA's Letter to the NRA
Happy New Year! And what could be more welcoming than a letter to National Restaurant Association president and CEO Dawn Sweeney from Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? In it, Ms. Newkirk humbly suggests that restaurants remove the dead animals from their walls. I’d love to hear your tho ...... Read More
Comments (16)Quiz: Of Salads, Ignition Locks and Subway
Those of you lucky enough to break for the holidays might want to brush up on world events between sips of eggnog and bites of sugar cookies. Events, that is, related to the restaurant business, of course. The six questions while bearing no relation to Christmas or Hanukkah, do "reward" wrong answers with a spirited song. As always, right answers deliver immediate satisfact ...... Read More
Comments (1)Biting the Bullet While Plates Spin
In a recent column about dining-and-dashing in my local newspaper, columnist Connie Schulz takes local restaurant operators to task for charging "walk-away" meals to servers. She cites an email from a Labor Department official who informs her the practice is illegal. Schulz says: For those employers who plead ignorance of the law, now you know. You can immediately sto ...... Read More
Comments (4)Classy Chain
I always like dropping into Le Pain Quotidien (French for daily bread), the European-style café/bakery chain that operates 100 or so units around the globe. It’s a quiet place with well-spoken employees and very good food, especially pastries. Bread makes an impression, too, by the way. Despite 44 units in the U.S. alone, the concept ...... Read More
Comments (2)
