Restaurant Rewind

Not every service standout earned that distinction by indulging customers’ every whim and preference. Some of the hospitality industry’s most admired brands garnered respect in part by drawing a firm line and refusing to cross it, no matter how much business was at stake. They simply tell customers, Nope, ain't going to do that. 

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at several of those sticks-in-the-mud, what they’ve refused to do, and why. And, as listeners will hear, these are not the industry’s marginal brands. We’re talking about revered operations like Chick-fil-A, Texas Roadhouse and Marriott.

Learn more about their stubbornness by pressing “Play.”

If you think the term “happy hour” was coined in the 1960s or '70s to tag post-work booze fests, you’re off by about 50 years and 100 proof. The wordsmith behind that phrase was none other than a sobriety-minded Uncle Sam.

It’s one piece of the restaurant jargon whose roots we trace during this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, the podcast that delves into the business’ past for a deeper appreciation of what’s happening now. Join us as we look at the origins of such industry-specific terms as “daypart,” “86” and “in the weeds.”

Press Play to learn how restaurant-speak came to be.

Deep-frying a whole turkey has become a popular way of preparing the star of Thanksgiving feasts. Proponents say it yields a more delicious centerpiece in considerably less time than roasting. So why was there ever a time that cooking method was not a consideration, be it for a restaurant chef or the home cook?

It's likely a result of the option being just a mad foodie’s fever dream until an advancement in camper technology provided a means, and the leftovers from a pigfest gave an unexpected impetus. And everything came together merely in recent decades, an eye-blink compared to the arc of many American culinary traditions.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind as we look back at how deep-frying turkeys became a thing.

Red Lobster has been making headlines for offering an all-you-can-eat deal that worked too well as a traffic driver. Management acknowledged that the spike in food costs ate about $11 million in profits for the third quarter.

The situation is hardly unprecedented in the restaurant business—even for Red Lobster itself. Two decades ago, it similarly saw margins crunched by an all-you-can-eat crab legs deal.

Join us as we look back at some of the memorable instances of restaurant chains over- or underestimating how popular a bargain deal would prove to be. Hit the Play button for a crash course on Riblets gluts and Mighty Wings over-supplies.

For roughly 15 years, no other restaurant in the country could match the sales volumes of Hilltop Steak House, a kitschy mega-restaurant perched atop a hill outside Boston. It wasn’t unusual for the local favorite’s annual revenues to top $25 million, even surpassing $30 million for at least one year.

Even more amazing was how the place did it. Though Hilltop specialized in doormat-sized steaks, its prices were a bargain. Its superpower was providing the sort of value that kept customers lining up, waiting to hear their name called for a table in one of the establishment’s five dining rooms.

Not familiar with the story of how a local butcher turned a small local joint into a money mill that somehow defied duplication? Join us as we look back at an operation that has largely been forgotten since its closing in 2013.

Our bet is it’s worth remembering. But see for yourself.

Decades before the phrase “fast casual” was coined, a restaurant concept little noticed outside of New York City was using a self-service format, rapid-fire cooking and a Chipotle-style production line to offer a steak meal for less than $9.

We’re not talking about something from the Roaring '20s. Tad’s Steakhouse was grilling its strip steaks several dozen at a time to offer a bargain-price steak lunch until just a few years ago. There’s still a unit plugging away under that name in San Francisco, though inflation has rendered a $9 price as obsolete as wagon wheels.

What can the industry learn from a brand that persevered for 63 years in the grueling New York market, selling steak at that?

Give a listen to this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind to learn why the industry should not forget Tad’s Steakhouse.

The restaurant industry cursed her at the time, but Lady Bird Johnson served up some tough love in the 1960s that’s arguably still paying benefits to the business today. She moved the nation’s fight against highway litter and garish roadside billboard from the margins to the mainstreams, forcing the public and the industry to change some decidedly litterbug ways.

In the process, the genteel Texan with a core of steel forever changed the role of First Lady, from a passive plus-one to her spouse, to an activist wielding the power of her position to pursue a cause.

Join us on this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind for a look at an often overlooked development that some regard as the spark that led to the environmental consciousness we see in the industry today.

If you can play a guitar and sell records, why not parlay your notoriety into a second career as restaurateur?

That questionable line of thinking has led a number of stars to try their hand at the business, usually with unexciting if not disastrous results. But that can’t be said about the late mega-star who epitomized the laid-back lifestyle, the antithesis of what’s needed to succeed in a notoriously frantic trade that requires intense attention to detail.

Jimmy Buffett lent his name, time and money in no less than three restaurant ventures, two of which are still chugging along as exceptions that prove the rule. In this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, we look at the business empire Buffett built without blurring his perception as someone who believed happy hour should never end. (In truth, Buffett stopped drinking years ago.)

And he’s not alone. We also take a quick look at two other rockstars-turned-restaurateurs who cultivated an image contrary to Buffett. Consider it a Kiss of appreciation.

Hit play to see what we mean.

No, McDonald’s never blended earthworms or cow eyeballs into the ground beef for its burgers. And Kentucky Fried Chicken didn’t change its name to KFC because the birds it sourced were mutants with six wings and couldn’t legally be called chickens anymore.

But, astoundingly, those reports did get some play in the pre-internet age, and you can still find references on the (mis)information superhighway today. With social media and the mass-market reach of the web, stories like those can spread in a flash, forcing operations to counter the ridiculous with reason and fact—sometimes without effect.

In today’s episode of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we look at some of the restaurant rumors that have taken hold over the years. What fueled such crazy reports, and why did they get traction at all?

Give a listen to some of the information nightmares big brands have been forced to counter. And if others occur to you, drop me a line at [email protected].

Buzz can be as much of a factor for a restaurant’s success as the caliber of its food and service. Yet the industry has seen countless instances of reality falling short of the hoopla.

This week’s edition of Restaurant Rewind looks back at a prime example, the Wagamama ramen chain. The brand’s success in Europe fostered ample talk that the low-priced favorite of London hipsters would make a similar splash on the U.S. side of the Atlantic. Yet, all these years later, the concept has only seven American outposts open, not the hundreds other parts of the world have seen.

The lack of traction is especially puzzling because the brand had an early proxy in the U.S. that proved the concept’s viability, a close and highly successful knockoff in the harsh proving ground of New York City. 

What happened to a concept with so much potential and industry attention? Join us as we take a look at this prime example of a promising concept somehow failing to find traction.

Download the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.