Restaurant Rewind

Two of today’s most powerful sales drivers for restaurants are delivery and digital technology. Both have been extraordinary strengths for Domino’s. Why, then, is the pizza giant hitting an uncharacteristic slowdown?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at how the pie maker got to its position of prominence in the off-premise market and what the trajectory is likely to be near-term. Joining podcast host and Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo is Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze, who recently underscored the length of Domino’s sales streak by listing all the chains that have sprouted since the pizza brand’s last sales downturn.

Give a listen to learn what went into Domino’s DNA, and what genetic engineering it may need to try to get comps positive again. Download this and every episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

Copycatting a successful restaurant concept is as old as the industry itself. Witness the recent efforts by Crumbl Cookies to block upstart competitors from lifting signature features of the fast-growing baked-goods specialist.

But few of those alleged thefts of intellectual property are as outrageous as a situation that had to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. It involved a brand that still operates today, Taco Cabana, and a competitor it would eventually absorb, Two Pesos.

The dispute resulted in an order by a federal court for Two Pesos to post signs alerting customers that it had stolen its format and design from Taco Cabana.

The district court also gave nine specific directives of how Two Pesos needed to change its design, right down to the roofline.

Sound crazy? Give a listen to learn how the case ended up twice before the Supreme Court. Download this and every episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

Subway is in the midst of a turnaround that pivots on the sandwich chain’s new ad campaign, Eat Fresh Refresh, a successor to some of the most effective marketing the restaurant industry has ever seen. Following up on the likes of $5 Footlong spots and the long-running focus on a customer’s loss of 245 pounds from a Subway diet can’t be a cakewalk.

Just how difficult that challenge must be is the focus of this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at two parallel situations from the 1980s: Wendy’s iconic Where’s the Beef? campaign and the cheeky run Burger King made on McDonald’s via a series of head-to-head comparisons.

As he shows, those attempts failed to have lightning strike twice. The recounts show how remarkable it is for a campaign like Subway’s follow-up to deliver more thunder.

Listen to this week’s episode and every installment by downloading Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

Tensions between McDonald’s and its franchisees have escalated into a public dispute, centered this time on the franchisor’s new policy for contract renewals. The franchisor has flat-out warned it’ll use the re-ups of 20-year pacts to scrub the system of operations showing their age. The rank-and-file counter that a 20-year run is a pretty good indicator that they know how to run successful restaurants.

The melee harkens back to a critical point in the evolution of another dominant franchise brand within its field. Given the parallels that have existed between Holiday Inns and McDonald’s, it’s not surprising the lodging chain once used the sort of leverage McDonald’s intends to wield on longtime licensees, with the same goal in mind.

But if the parallel should continue to hold true, McDonald’s may be heading for more of a change in its franchisee ranks than it envisioned, suggests this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast. Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at how Holiday Inn’s pressure on franchisees in the 1980s initially raised the possibility of a split in the system. It faced a defection not only of its largest franchisee but also of its legendary founder.

Join Romeo as he looks back on that little-known chapter in the history franchising. You’ll find Restaurant Rewind on Spotify or wherever you download your podcasts.

Gasoline prices have never been as high as they are currently, but the damage to restaurants and the economy in general is likely far lower than a fuel crisis many Americans still vividly remember. Those who are too young to have caught that truly historic wallop may be surprised to learn just how much of a disruption it was to day-to-day life.

Indeed, as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind recounts, the impact extended to everything from wartime-like rationing to forgoing year-end holiday lighting and keeping homes colder than normal.

Those were threatening days for a restaurant industry still in its adolescence, as host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo informs listeners in his highly personalized account of those literally chilling times. He uses that experience to assess the impact of today's oil inflation.

Listen this week and every Tuesday by downloading Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk has a pretty good record on startups, from PayPal to Tesla to Space X. But now he’s bringing that Midas touch to a field where past successes and staggering financial resources are no guarantee of another triumph, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

Host and Restaurant Business Editor At Large Peter Romeo looks at past instances of corporate giants giving the industry a try. For every slam-dunk by the likes of Pepsico or General Mills, the past parents of Taco Bell and Red Lobster, respectively, there seems to be a bizarre pairing of restaurant chain and mega-parent.

Jack in the Box, for instance, was once part of a giant pet food company. Hardee’s corporate siblings once included several Canadian brands of cigarettes. Executives of Pillsbury’s onetime restaurant holdings would joke about their bosses sporting a dusting of flour.

What’s that portend for Musk and his proposed drive-in concept? Give a listen to this and every week’s installment of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks into the industry’s past for a better understanding of what’s happening in the business today.

You’ll find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Gunmen have turned the most unlikely of settings into sites of horrifying carnage, as the recent tragedies in a Uvalde, Texas, grade school and a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket readily attest. Fortunately for foodservices, the shooters haven’t chosen restaurants as their stage, or at least not recently. But as this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind vividly shows, the business hasn’t always enjoyed such luck.

Host Peter Romeo, the editor at large for Restaurant Business, recounts the three shootings he’s covered in his 38 years as a restaurant reporter, including what at the time was the nation’s highest-casualty event, the murder of 23 customers of a small town’s cafeteria.

“My goal here isn’t to scare anyone,” Romeo says.  “Rather, it’s to dash this notion that mass shootings are other institutions’ problem.”

Listen as he recalls the Luby’s shootings and two other gun tragedies that erupted in restaurants.

It’s proof, he concludes, that restaurants need to take precautions now to lessen their potential exposure.

Nelson Peltz must love those square burgers and Frosties. Fourteen years after buying Wendy’s, the activist investor has alerted federal regulators that he’s interested in acquiring the burger chain again.

If past is prologue, it’ll likely be a rollercoaster ride for investors, staff and any other stakeholder, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast reports. Host and Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo looks back at the war of communications that raged over about a two-year stretch, with Peltz formally rebuffed at least twice.

The particulars are clearly different this time around. For one thing, Peltz already owns about 20% of Wendy’s stock, or more than twice as much as he controlled back in 2008. Forcing Wendy’s to make an acquisition also appears to be a possibility this time, as the podcast notes.

The session also notes that Peltz lacks the sort of boardroom foil who made his last run such a grabber.

McDonald’s withdrawal from Russia has been big news, but the attention is nothing compared to the to-do that accompanied its entry into what was then a part of the Soviet Union. The opening of the first store 32 years ago was heralded as a turning point in East-West relations.

No wonder the ramp-up to the first store took 14 years. Much of that time was spent on the initial unit’s supply chain, but new hires needed as extensive training. Smiling in retail settings, for instance, wasn’t part of the Russian culture.

Read more about the challenges McDonald’s faced, and what the world said about the capitalist icon’s entry into Communist territory, in this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, hosted by Restaurant Business Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo.

One of the downsides of being a public company is the fickleness of Wall Street. If investors so much as suspect a holding will fall short of expectations, they’ll mercilessly hammer down the value of a high-flying issue, even if the business fundamentals remain largely unchanged. They can fall in and out of love as easily as a teenager.

A case in point: Dutch Bros, the drive-thru coffee chain that lost 37% of its stock value in a single trading day because of a decline in comparable store sales for the first quarter.

In this week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind, the RB podcast that delves into the industry’s past for a deeper understanding of what’s happening today, host and RB Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo looks at two past instances of an investment darling going from sizzle to fizzle in a flash.

The familiarity of those brands is a testament that restaurants are a business of peaks and valleys. But see for yourself by giving a listen.