What is the future of virtual restaurants?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Robbie Earl, the co-founder of Virtual Dining Concepts. The company is now the largest operator of digital-only brands, wh

The story behind the fast-growing minigolf concept Puttshack

8 days ago 27m 5s

What happens when you combine high-tech miniature golf and food?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Joe Vrankin, the CEO of the fast-growing eatertainment concept Puttshack.Puttshack is an 18-unit cha

What to expect from the upcoming Restaurant Leadership Conference

13 days ago 19m 36s

What is happening at the Restaurant Leadership Conference this year?We decided to demand that Chris Keating, the EVP of Conferences for Informa Connect, RB’s parent company, talk about the conference, which runs April 14-17. And he was happy t

How Wingstop fixed its chicken wing cost problem

15 days ago 28m 49s

How did Wingstop fix its cost problem?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Michael Skipworth, the chicken chain's CEO.Wingstop is hitting on all cylinders right now, thanks to the popularity of chicken

How to modernize a 50-year-old pizza chain

22 days ago 27m 35s

How is Happy Joe’s modernizing its brand?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Tom Sacco, the CEO of Happy Joe’s.The 52-unit, Iowa-based chain has been around for 50 years. It was sold just before the p

How a more diverse C-suite is helping restaurants

29 days ago 27m 55s

How are restaurants making their C-suites more diverse?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Therese Gearhart, the president and CEO of the Women’s Foodservice Forum.WFF’s leadership conference is comin

What Corner Bakery's new owners saw in the brand

Mar 13th, 2024 28m 13s

What is Corner Bakery doing to right its ship?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Chris Dharod, the CEO of Corner Bakery.Dharod is with SSCP Management, a franchisee of Applebee’s and Sonic and owner

Why you should never compromise on unit economics

Mar 6th, 2024 29m 25s

Never compromise on your unit economics.This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Justin Rosenberg, the founder of the fast-casual chain Honeygrow.Rosenberg founded the bowl chain in 2012 and it was going q

Why restaurant consumers are more value conscious right now

Feb 29th, 2024 34m 58s

How important is value right now?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Robert Byrne, the director of consumer and industry insights at RB sister company Technomic.We talk extensively about value. There’

What to expect out of restaurants in 2024

Feb 21st, 2024 31m 3s

What will the restaurant industry do in 2024?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Hudson Riehle, the senior vice president of the research and knowledge group with the National Restaurant Association.R

How does an emerging brand break into a new market?

Feb 14th, 2024 29m 22s

How does an emerging brand break into a new market?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Otto Othman, the cofounder of Pincho, who discusses a wide range of topics.Pincho is based in Miami and specializ

How Shipley Do-Nuts is bringing its brand into the future

Feb 7th, 2024 28m 11s

How do you get an 87-year-old brand ready for expansion?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Flynn Dekker, the CEO of the 352-unit donut and kolache chain Shipley Do-Nuts.Shipley is an institution in i

How Cici's Pizza is becoming more like Chuck E. Cheese

Jan 31st, 2024 28m 27s

How is Cici’s becoming more like Chuck E. Cheese?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Jeff Hetsel, the president and COO of Cici’s Pizza.Hetsel discusses the chain’s rapid shift into something of an

How private equity is impacting food costs

Jan 24th, 2024 22m 13s

How is private equity impacting food costs?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features John Davie, the CEO of Buyer’s Edge Platform.Buyer’s Edge is a digital procurement platform that helps restaurants use

How Subway franchisees view some of the chain's recent moves

Jan 17th, 2024 32m 13s

Subway could avoid some problems if it consulted more with its franchisees. Or so says the head of its biggest association.This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Bill Mathis, a Subway operator out of Mi

How Starbucks is evolving to meet consumer demands

Jan 10th, 2024 28m 24s

Starbucks is the most complicated simple business on the planet.This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast is all about Starbucks. I’m joined this week by RB Editor-at-Large Peter Romeo.Peter and I toured headquarters and have a s

How Smalls Sliders uses modular buildings to speed growth

Jan 3rd, 2024 30m 21s

Can a slider concept use modular buildings to get big?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Maria Rivera, the CEO of the rapidly growing slider chain, to talk about its unique method of growth.Smalls

The best of the 'A Deeper Dive' podcast

Dec 26th, 2023 39m 57s

The last episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a look back at some of the year’s best episodes.The episode features clips from some key guests, including marketing expert and author Chip Klose,

Inside the turnaround at Potbelly

Dec 20th, 2023 30m 31s

How did Potbelly turn its business around?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Bob Wright, the CEO of the Chicago-based sandwich chain.Potbelly struggled going into the pandemic, which hammered its c

How high-end restaurants are becoming like Taylor Swift concerts

Dec 13th, 2023 28m 18s

Are restaurants becoming like Taylor Swift?Well, sort of. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Matt Tucker. He is the senior vice president with Squarespace and is head of the reservation platform Tock.

Why the FTC is targeting the Subway sale

Dec 6th, 2023 26m 33s

Why is the FTC looking into Subway?This episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features John Gordon, a restaurant consultant out of San Diego, who discusses the apparent investigation of the sale of Subway to Roark Capital.

Why customers increasingly think restaurants aren't worth it

Nov 29th, 2023 28m 1s

Customers are increasingly questioning the value of their restaurant visits.This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Lisa Miller, a consumer strategist and author of the book “The Business of Joy.” And we

Why Steak & Ale is making a comeback, 15 years after shutting down

Nov 21st, 2023 30m 34s

How do you dust off a brand that has been dead for 15 years?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Paul Mangiamele, the CEO and chairman of Legendary Restaurant Brands, the owner of Bennigan’s. Mangiam

What Pollo Tropical's new owners plan to do with the brand

Nov 15th, 2023 28m 6s

What do you do with Pollo Tropical?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” features Alex Macedo, the chairman of Authentic Restaurant Brands, to talk about that company’s recent acquisition of Pollo Tropical.Aut

A look at the state of the restaurant labor market

Nov 8th, 2023 28m

What is the state of the labor market right now?This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Brian Miller, the CEO of management recruiting firm Patrice & Associates.Miller works with hospitality companies to