Restaurant Rewind

The movie business is having a blockbuster summer, with restaurants enjoying tie-ins with such certifiable hits as “Barbie” and “Super Mario Bros.” But marketing collaborations haven’t been the only ways the film and restaurant industries have fed off one another, as this week’s Restaurant Rewind podcast attests.

The two have been intertwined likely from the first time a director yelled “Action!” Along with TV, movies have used restaurants as the settings for everything from gangland shootouts to the star turn of a culinarily gifted rat. The places may not always be identified by their real names, but they’re no strangers to bright lights and rolling cameras.

Add in the tendency of stars from one field to branch into the other, and you have a symbiotic relationship that delights the public. And the interconnections may run deeper than even film buffs realize, as this week’s episode notes.

Download it for an entertaining late-summer look at the connection. At the very least, you’ll elevate your knowledge of entertainment trivia along with your cocktail banter.

You’ll find Restaurant Rewind from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

Every now and then, a public restaurant company finds itself in the crosshairs of an activist investor who’s convinced it can do a better job of running the business. But few of those attempts to wrest control of an operation come close to Starboard Capital’s successful attempt nine years ago to boot the whole board of Darden Restaurants and sharply change the casual-dining giant’s direction.

And now Starboard has another casual-dining behemoth in its sights. The investment firm has filed notice that it intends to lean on Bloomin’ Brands, the parent of Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba’s, to force some changes.  

What can the Bloomin’ team expect from what’s now appears to be its largest shareholder?

The current episode of Restaurant Rewind attempts to answer that question by looking back at the 2014 interactions between Starboard and Darden.  At the heart of that give-and-take was what may be the most exhaustive list of alleged ills an investor has ever gathered on a holding, a 294-page slide deck and whitepaper on what Darden had supposedly done wrong and how it could right itself.

Restaurateurs greeted the initial demands for a $15 minimum wage with disbelief and ridicule. Now the industry is facing proposals to set a floor of $30 an hour for some employees.

Is it déjà vu all over again? Will that level of pay become the new wage target for organized labor and politicians, the way $15 has been for years? Or is the demand for a $30 wage merely a test to see how high the pay floor can be lifted?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks for clues in a recollection of how a $15 wage became the standard ask when increases in a minimum wage are being considered. How did a pay level more than double the federal rate become a norm?

Download the episode and join me as we retrace that course. You’ll find Restaurant Rewind wherever you usually get your podcasts.

McDonald’s and Starbucks have both aired plans to shoehorn more units into less densely populated markets they would have bypassed with nary a second thought 10 or 20 years ago. Chances are they may find a few traditional Dairy Queens already pumping out cones and cups in those long-overlooked nooks.

The home of the Dilly Bar and the Blizzard was an early believer in the potential of the byways and crannies where the competition for frozen treats—or a fast-food treat of any kind—was far from blistering. The concept and its development strategy have evolved considerably from those days of rapid expansion, but the brand remains synonymous in the popular imagination with Small Town America.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks at how Dairy Queen earned that distinction while adjusting to the monumental social changes of post-World War II America.  Treat yourself to a Blizzard and a colorful recollection of how a brand known by the curl topping its cones and cups quietly became a fast-food giant in its own right.

Boston Market is once again snagging headlines, though not for the reasons that made it one of the most talked-about restaurant concepts of the 1990s.

The talk back then was of upending the industry with an operation unlike anything the business had ever seen. Its management crowed about the brand hitting the $1 billion systemwide sales mark faster than any concept that had preceded it. Now the chain is struggling to pay its bills.

Whatever happens to the self-professed pioneer of “home meal replacement,” it will likely be remembered by anyone around at the time for the excitement the venture generated in its early days.

What made it such an attention-getter, a simultaneous source of awe, skepticism and warnings about smooth-talking interlopers from other industries?

In this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, we look back at those heady initial years and a few of the jaw-dropping events that transpired in the years afterward. If buzz were profits, the brand would be bigger today than McDonald’s, its one-time owner. Indeed, Big Mac copied it, as did operators ranging from Cracker Barrel to Arby's to Roy Rogers. 

Give a listen by downloading the episode from wherever you get your podcasts.

He ran a soft-porn magazine, called Muhammad Ali a pal, cycled through romantic interests the way some restaurants run through specials, and relaxed by racing boats and piloting a hot-air balloon. 

Imagine that you’re the head of the second largest restaurant company in the business, overseeing the likes of Burger King, Godfather’s, Steak and Ale and Bennigan’s, making a huge salary, though you’ve already made millions upon millions. 

But you decide to pack it in to buy an upstart concept no one had ever heard of, to start all over in building a restaurant brand.

As this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind recounts, that was exactly what Norman Brinker did while heading the enormous restaurant group of The Pillsbury Co. He could have worked that job for the rest of his life, and made a fortune doing it. Instead, he resigned to buy an upstart concept that few had even heard of, a full-service brand in a segment called gourmet burgers, which would all but disappear within a few years. 

Chili’s would not. It would become the foundation of a multi-brand restaurant company whose brands would include Maggiano’s, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Bay Street, Cozy Mel’s, On the Border, Wildfire Grill and Corner Market, to name just a few. 

In the process, Brinker changed the trajectory of the restaurant business. It’s proof that he was one of the smartest and most successful leaders the industry has ever seen. 

But listen for yourself, in Part II of our two-part series. And if you need to catch up, give Part I a listen. You’ll find both wherever you get your podcasts. 

Ask outsiders to name the visionaries who built the restaurant industry into the social fixture it is today and chances are you’ll hear names like Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas and Howard Schultz. Odds are the list won’t include a force who midwifed a whole category of the business, even though he was active in the field far more recently than those dynasty builders.

And that’s not even considering his storybook life outside of the business. His bio is the stuff of movies. Indeed, he figured into two, portrayed in one by Mark Harmon. Ray Kroc only had one film made about him.

Yet, almost exactly 14 years after his death, Norman Brinker may well be fading from the industry’s collective memory. There aren’t that many of us still in the trade who were privileged to witness Norman’s brilliance firsthand.  Those of a more tender vintage might recognize that his name is used by Brinker International, the parent company of the Chili’s and Maggiano’s chains, but may not be aware of the why.

It would be a colossal loss if such an influential and inspirational figure was forgotten by the business he did so much to build. That’s why we’re devoting the next two issues of our Restaurant Rewind podcast to a personalized recount of Norman Brinker’s extraordinary life and career.

Join us this episode as we look at Brinker’s early influences and how they presaged the success he would enjoy throughout his 78 years. Mixed in are the details that would today make Norman a regular focus of shows like Entertainment Tonight or even TMZ. His would be a frequently boldfaced name.

Download the episode from wherever you usually get your podcasts.

If you’ve ever wondered who came up with the idea of having servers introduce themselves by name, ponder no more. The lore holds that it was Joe Baum, who was to the restaurant business what Steve Jobs was to personal tech.

And how about the ubiquitous gimmick of having the now-familiar server approach with a giant peppermill, ready to do some personalized grinding? Same guy.

But Baum’s impact wasn’t limited to tableside theater, though he exceled at that mission. Baum was also a key force in loosening up fine dining, sometimes going so far as to give his places a theme, be it Hawaiian or Roman.

And what extraordinary places he hatched: The Four Seasons. Windows on the World. Tavern on the Green.

He was a force that changed the business, often with a style that made him a precursor of today’s celebrity chefs and restaurateurs.

And yet he may be forgotten by a generation that takes Baum’s innovations for granted.

Hit the Play button to learn what a mistake that is for any student of the business. Download this episode of Restaurant Rewind from wherever you get your podcasts.

This year’s baseball season has been a tough one for some of the biggest names in the sport. Might it be time for some of the fallen stars to consider a late-innings switch into the restaurant business?

On this week’s edition of the Restaurant Rewind podcast, we take a look at a few of the celebrated restaurateurs who made a big name for themselves on the baseball diamond first.  Some youngsters may not even recognize the names Stan Musial or Boog Powell, but only someone recently thawed out of a long sleep in a glacier would be unfamiliar with Mickey Mantle.

Give a listen to learn how those superstars made a name in the restaurant business after hanging up their spikes and batting gloves. Join me in that journey by downloading the installment wherever you usually get your podcasts.