Restaurant Rewind

Social media may be the marketing channel of choice for restaurants today, but many chains once opted for loftier means. Like their roofs.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, Restaurant Business’ retro-focused podcast, looks back at restaurants' once-routine use of a particular color on the tops of their buildings as a marketing tool. Pizza Hut’s point of instant recognition was a red roof. Howard Johnson’s opted for orange. IHOP relied on light blue.

Podcast host and RB Editor At Large Peter Romeo takes listeners on a trip back to those days for a look at what was once a cookbook way of calling attention to a young concept. The quick report examines why the practice fell out of favor and how some brands are grappling with what those arresting roofs still say to the public about the concept they cap.

Wisconsin is known for dairy cows, cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind reminds listeners that supper clubs also belong squarely on that list.

This episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at the peculiar institutions that grew out of Prohibition and speakeasies, only to be re-embraced by generation after generation in part because of the nostalgia they pack. You won’t find the latest experiment in molecular gastronomy, but where else can you get all the fried fish you can eat on a Friday night?

Podcast host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo notes that these places are far from museums. Many enjoy sales volumes that the latest hotspot in New York City or Los Angeles would envy, in part because of their brisk drinks business. They’re proof that special-occasion dining is still alive and well in a part of the country that’s best known for cheese.

In the quest for The Next Big Thing, even veteran restaurant operators have been known to hatch a venture that was best left undeveloped. This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks at three that didn’t even sound good on paper.

Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo takes listeners on an audio tour of the three concepts he ranks as the worst-ever, from an S&M-themed spot in New York City to an eatertainment venture built around catastrophic deaths.

Tune in so you, too, can wonder, what were they thinking in giving something like this a try? 

The restaurant industry lost one of its pioneers last week with the death of John Y. Brown. Many in the business may not recognize that name, given that he bowed out of the limelight about two decades ago. But they’ll surely know of his major success, a chicken chain called KFC.

Brown was to Kentucky Fried Chicken what Ray Kroc was to McDonald’s or Howard Schultz is to Starbucks. He built the chains from a loose group of about 600 diner-style restaurants operating under a variety of names, into a 3,500-unit behemoth.

But that wasn’t the only concept that Brown put on the map. He also co-founded Kenny Rogers Roasters, and helped to build at least five other restaurant chains.

Along the way, he served as governor of Kentucky, owner of the Boston Celtics and the husband of media star Phyllis George.

Sound intriguing? Learn more about the giant of the business from this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind. 

The midterm elections returned politicians from all stripes of civilian lives to Washington, D.C.  And that includes one of the restaurant industry’s own.

Indeed, the next Congress is likely to be led by someone who was no stranger to making payroll and working a lunch rush. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast looks at the path that led Kevin McCarthy from deli proprietor to speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the federal government’s third-highest-ranking official.

Join host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he looks at how that time in foodservice could shape what’s considered in Congress in 2023.

Restaurants have been advised to be politically active likely from the first time a table was set. But that involvement hasn’t always gone smoothly, as this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

Back in the early 1990s, when another health crisis was ravaging the nation, the industry mistakenly gave its support to a measure that contradicted science—and, in the eyes of many, common decency. The business was tarred as insensitive to employees who were fighting to stay alive—at the very time the industry was striving to improve its image as an employer.

It caught considerable criticism for what was widely seen as tone-deaf pandering to the ignorant and anti-gay elements of society, with little justification to offer except a desire to protect sales.

Join podcast host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he looks at why the industry should never forget the painful lessons it learned from supporting what was called the Chapman Amendment. Download the episode and all installments of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

The restaurant industry has abounded in creeps, bullies, meanies and all-around jerks. But few rival Victor Posner, the onetime owner of Arby’s, as a candidate for the title of GOAT.

This week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind retro podcast looks at the infamous corporate raider and his flamethrower management style. While he owned Arby’s, the brand rebounded in head-turning fashion. But it wasn’t because of the warm, supportive culture he cultivated for the chain and its sister brands.

Join host and Editor At Large Peter Romeo as he makes the case that the industry should regard itself as fortunate if it never sees another owner with Posner’s proclivities.

Few full-service restaurant chains have seen the steep ups and downs of Shoney’s, a brand that once dominated family dining. It also sported one of the most ill-fitting management teams ever to occupy a C-suite. No wonder it was one of the most talked-about chains of the 1980s and '90s, only to fly out of mind before you can say "breakfast bar." What humbled a brand that appeared to have so much momentum?

On the occasion of Shoney’s 75th anniversary, Restaurant Rewind is strapping into the rollercoaster to relive those climbs and plummets. Host and Editor At Large goes all the way back to the chain’s beginnings with an entrepreneurial college football star who was once headed for the Brooklyn Dodgers—the NFL team, not the better-known baseball squad that followed. It’s a story of amazingly bad behavior and considerable hubris, with good intensions ultimately prevailing. And, as Romeo notes, the story is still being written.

Yet another modern riff on the Automat has called it quits, extending the lengthy list of ventures that have fallen far short of the original’s 89-year run. What about that pioneer of restaurant technology has prompted so many entrepreneurs to give an updated version a try?

Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks back at the attractions and drawbacks of the seminal concept in this week’s edition of his retro-focused Restaurant Rewind podcast.

Using the lens of his own experiences with the Horn & Hardart Automat, he provides a consumer’s perspective on why the brand originally found traction with New York City tourists and office workers, only to be driven into a grave by rising prices and the onslaught of fast-food in the 1960s and ’70s.

Download the installment and every episode of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

Few restaurant companies can match the success of Starbucks. But the coffee giant has had its share of spectacular misfires as well, as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind recounts.

The retro-focused podcast looks at some of the bad calls the company has made over the last 40 years, from the launch of a flatbread side venture to its bid to become a force in the music business. Host and Editor At Large Peter Romeo recalls in particular the host of secondary chains the home of the green apron has tried and ultimately discarded, from two-unit Princi’s to 400-store Teavana.