Restaurant Rewind

Red Lobster has certainly been in the news lately. But not one of the stories recalls the remarkable person who built it into an institution deserving of so much ink. And, no, it’s not Bill Darden, although he gave the brand its start.

The individual who turned Darden’s concept into the cultural icon it is today was an Air Force veteran who left his family’s farm in rural Georgia to make his mark on the world. If you scour the bric-a-brac some older stores sport to provide a dockside feel, you may even spot a reference to him on some of the props (executives lent their names to the bogus lobster traps and seafood crates as sort of an inside joke.) Look for an ersatz antique emblazoned with “Lee’s” or “Joe’s,” as in Joe Lee, a true godfather of what we now know as casual dining.

Don’t recognize that name? Then you’re in for a treat. By popular demand, Restaurant Rewind is undertaking a series of profiles on the giants who laid the foundation for the restaurant industry we know today. Much of the information will be drawn from firsthand experiences with those pioneers.

The first installment focuses on Joe Lee.

We’ll focus on a variety of movers and shakers from the industry’s past in future installments. But for now, do yourself a favor and click “Play.”

As we’ve learned firsthand, if some yahoo airs a myth or outright lie about your operation, fellow wingnuts are going to listen and believe it, no matter how outrageous the assertion might be. Remember the reports that Paul McCartney had died?

Restaurants seem particularly vulnerable to those attempts to smear reputations, a likely result of employing and serving so many people. The chances of alienating someone who then seeks revenge via internet falsehoods is that much greater.

On this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks into the industry’s past for more color on what’s happening in the business today, we pedal back to some of the outrageous myths that have been spun about major restaurant brands. How did the home of the Bloomin’ Onion come to be accused of satanic worship? And what has McDonald’s not supposedly been mixing into its burgers to save money?

You’ll also hear how someone on social media recently tried to use one of our stories to take a swipe at Panera Bread.

Press Play for a rundown on some jaw-dropping myths from the industry’s past.

With traffic ebbing through much of the business, restaurant chains are resorting to the sort of deep discounting the industry hasn’t seen for a while. Sonic is hoping it can win back lapsed users with the enticement of a $1.29 chili cheese hot dog. Applebee’s is touting 50-cent fried-mozzarella sticks (though bargain-hunters have to purchase at least four of the gooey treats). Even Starbucks is offering bundled deals.

Yet those appeals to penny-pinchers are nothing compared to the price-slashing of three decades ago, when two industry giants rolled out menu lines that initially seemed as if the two, both master marketers, had been sampling too many of Applebee’s $1 cocktails.  These were not limited-time offers. Taco Bell twice dropped the price of some tacos to 39 cents. In some markets, McDonald’s used 29-cent burgers as a lure.

How’d those tactics work? This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, RB’s retro-focused podcast,  looks back at those bar-setting acts of deflation. Give a listen for a recount of what happened when those bargains were fly-cast into the business.

Imagine if the inflationary pressures forcing restaurants to hike menu prices were halted with the swipe of a pen. As far-fetched as that might sound, a government-directed halt to all cost increases was tried once, roughly 50 years ago. And the results didn’t exactly meet expectations. There’s a reason the move was known as the Nixon Shock.

That’s Nixon as in Richard Nixon, the president whose name is now synonymous with abuse of power. Although his forte was foreign affairs, the Republican bet he could take domestic action that would ensure re-election in 1972. So he used an executive order to freeze all prices and wages. His ridiculous fear of losing was also why the White House sanctioned a break-in at Democratic headquarters housed in an upscale mixed-use complex called Watergate.

Both moves were disasters. The fallout from Watergate continues to shape politics today. But the effect of the price and wage freezes is largely forgotten. Learn why that’s the case in this week’s edition of our retro-focused podcast, Restaurant Rewind.

The restaurant industry has lost two standout talents in less than two weeks: Solomon Choi, the founder of 16 Handles and an investor in other ventures, and James Kent, the gifted New York City fine-dining chef. Choi was 44, and Kent just 45. Both apparently died from heart issues.

Misfortune comes at random. But there’s no denying the industry is less than a leader in addressing the issue of health among its members. All of the concern has been focused on the well-being of restaurant customers, not the industry professionals who serve them.

But that’s not always been the case, as we discuss in this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind. From time to time, there have been flashes of interest in promoting healthier lifestyles for those on the business side. But we still have a long way to go.

Meanwhile, the grind of the business has left us with losses that can still haunt, as the episode also attests. Give a listen to some departures that were particularly painful.

Restaurants’ appreciation of air conditioning is likely to be at a high point this week as a major heat wave rolls across the country. For at least the next few days, and likely at a significant number of additional points during the summer, no other piece of technology is likely to be as highly valued by the trade. Just ask operators in Phoenix, where temperatures hit 111 degrees on Friday.

How did that dependence come about? And who invented air conditioning in the first place?

Those questions are answered in this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that looks back into the industry’s past for more color on what’s happening in the trade today. The current installment traces the development of A/Cs from their invention in 1902 by a name that’s well known and still a dominant force in the field today.

We look at when and why the foodservice business followed movie theaters’ lead in adopting the machinery, and touch on how the equipment forced the industry to be more inclusive.

So grab a cold drink, crank up the A/C, and give a listen.

Domino’s is tweaking its ad strategy to tout the quality of its food—a complete 180 from the ground-breaking campaign it ran 16 years ago in what proved a seminal move by the pizza giant. Back then, it acknowledged that its pies were abominable; the ads spotlighted customers who asserted the pizza was the worst they had ever tasted, and they disparaged the product as little better than cardboard smeared with ketchup. After detailing how god-awful the pizza had been for 50 years, the ads went on to herald a revision for the ages.

CNN said it might have been the weirdest TV ad in history. But it worked. The campaign was a turning point for Domino’s, leading to its emergence as the nation’s largest pizza chain.

Now the brand is taking the reverse tack. Will it work? It’s hard to say, because there have been so few parallels in the industry’s past, but there were a few that provide a rough comparison. Like the time KFC changed its name to FKC in exasperation over an operational challenge.

Get a sense of how bad attributes can become good marketing points by listening to this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind.

A&W fast-food restaurants in Canada will start serving Pret A Manger-branded products this fall, under a just-announced 10-year collaboration deal.

A cross-selling situation like that might have been inconceivable 20 years ago, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind reports. But, as the podcast installment explains, the lines of competition have been blurring for some time as restaurant licensing expands beyond consumer packaged goods to ready-to-eat fare prominently featured on another concept’s menu. Cinnabon-branded products, for instance, are available at chains ranging from Wendy’s to Subway to The Cheesecake Factory.

Tune into this week’s episode for a look at why and how chains are increasingly relying on the drawing power of other chains’ products to increase their own allure.

All-you-can-eat deals can be risky, as Red Lobster’s current plight attests. But there was a stretch 50 years or so ago when the danger extended beyond business fallout, to actual physical peril for customers and neighbors using the same roads.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at that era when a flurry of upstart concepts used the promise of unlimited beer and wine as their main draws. Today, adult beverages offer restaurants an extremely attractive profit margin. Back then, they were the cheapo giveaways, the bait for luring in patrons willing to pop for a steak or burger. That’s where the money was.

Join as we look back at a day when $10 could get you drunk and decently fed, and why those times mercifully ended quickly.

Federal regulators have brought a new battery of charges against Andy Wiederhorn, chairman of Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones parent Fat Brands. It’s not the first time he’s been accused of violating federal security regulations. Nor is he the lone high-level restaurant executive to have served jail time, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Rewind podcast reports.

The installment looks back at several of the most publicized instances of executives crossing the line into criminal territory, including the scandal 20 years ago that rocked Buca di Beppo. There’s also a deeper dive into what landed Wiederhorn in prison around that time, where he earned a $2 million bonus on top of a CEO-scale salary.

Press “Play” for a recount of the curious criminal records of past chain CEOs.