SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AUDIENCE GROWTH Greg Sanders gsanders@wtwhmedia.com
CONTENT STUDIO
48
Waste is a Restaurant Killer, but Often the Last Thing Owners Fix Obsession with loyalty can backfire if guest experience isn’t consistent. SPONSORED BY QSR AUTOMATION
50
Lighting the Way: How Classic Foods is Modernizing Across Idaho and Utah Grab attention, increase traffic, and reinforce brand presence. SPONSORED BY WATCHIRE
52
Is Theft Eating Your Restaurants’ Earnings?
54 The Oven Innovation That’s Helping Productivity Soar How ImVection is changing the game by increasing speed, versatility, and efficiency.
SPONSORED BY BLODGETT
56
Smart Tech, Seamless Service: The New Standard in Restaurant Operations How next-gen technology is elevating efficiency and exceeding diner expectations. SPONSORED BY TOSHIBA
58
Here’s how restaurants are fighting back against cash loss. SPONSORED BY LOOMIS
SPONSORED BY VISTIFY 47 Restaurant Equipment & Technology / July 2025
A Big Task that Can Be Easily Automated Something the full-service sector has been doing for a long time.
SPONSORED BY ECOLAB
60
Palmer Digital Group Raises the Canopy for Dual-Concept Fast Casual Restaurant Chain First dual-lane drive-thru configuration with outdoor digital menuboard.
SPONSORED BY PALMER DIGITAL GROUP
62
From Screen to Strategy: How vMenu turns Menus into Revenue-Driving Tools Where digital menus meet real business growth.
VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT STUDIO Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER, CONTENT STUDIO Drew Filipski dfilipski@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER, CONTENT STUDIO Ya’el McLoud ymcloud@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER, CONTENT STUDIO Abby Winterburn awinterburn@wtwhmedia.com
ART & PRODUCTION
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Tory Bartelt tbartelt@wtwhmedia.com FSR ART DIRECTOR Erica Naftolowitz enaftolowitz@wtwhmedia.com
SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Eugene Drezner edrezner@wtwhmedia.com 919-945-0705
NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Edward Richards erichards@wtwhmedia.com 216-956-6636
NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Amber Dobsovic adobsovic@wtwhmedia.com 757-637-8673
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Guy Norcott gnorcott@wtwhmedia.com 854-200-5864
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Tracy Doubts tdoubts@wtwhmedia.com 919-945-0704
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Brandy Pinion bpinion@wtwhmedia.com 662-234-5481, EXT 127
FOUNDER Webb C. Howell
ADMINISTRATION
919-945-0704
How is the Industry Performing?
The first quarter was tough on the industry, although some saw success.
QSR magazine ’s July issue focuses on the financial side of the industry, including three features on Inspire Brand CFO Kate Jaspon, an in-depth look at inflation and value, and restaurants that have risen from prior bankruptcies.
Given the topic, I thought it would be prudent to assess how the industry has performed thus far in 2025. Looking at the data, there’s one clear truth: the first quarter wasn’t the best for several quick-service restaurants.
Many of the biggest public companies—McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and others— saw negative same-store sales. The story across all of the earnings calls was similar. Brands that over-index with lower-income consumers were disproportionately impacted when those guests began to pull back spending. Weather was also a significant factor, with unusually frigid temperatures affecting sales across the country.
The overall answer to these struggles seems to be more value alongside menu innovation. McDonald’s, for example, is hoping for improved Q2 results with the rollout of chicken strips nationwide in early May. Chicken—particularly boneless—has become a popular protein among millennial and Gen Z consumers. The burger giant is hoping to ride that wave this year, especially with Snack Wraps returning this month. Value is of the utmost importance as well. McDonald’s continues to lean into its McValue platform, and shared during its Q1 earnings call that the $5 Meal Deal is here to stay for the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t mean the chain has it all figured out.
It also indicated that its BOGO for $1 deal wasn’t getting desired results, so there will likely be a revaluation on that offer.
Meanwhile, Wendy’s is hoping to mitigate sluggish sales with a big summer. This includes a new collaboration with Takis—a brand that’s popular among the younger generation—and the aggressive push of its new Frostys platform, including Frosty Swirls and Frosty Fusions. Similar to McDonald’s, Wendy’s wants to take advantage of the chicken craze and also Gen Z’s love of spice. The Takis meal features a Spicy Chicken Sandwich and Fuego Fries.
Some chains have fared much better. Taco Bell saw same-store sales rise 9 percent in Q1, its best result in two years. The Mexican brand continues to benefit from value, like its Luxe Cravings Box lineup at $5, $7, and $9 price points, and its unique menu innovation. In fact, Taco Bell said earlier this year that it wanted to double the amount of menu innovation this year compared to what it did in 2024. Wingstop is another one that has triumphed. Same-store sales lifted 0.5 percent in Q1, which may seem slight, but still impressive considering it lapped two straight years of 20-plus percent same-store sales growth. The brand keeps winning with increased advertising spend, the launch of new menu platforms in chicken sandwiches and tenders, a greater emphasis on delivery, and a constant push around digital.
The second half of 2025 will test resilience, strategy, and creativity— traits the quick-service industry has long thrived on.
Ben Coley, Editor
The Chipotle-themed merchandise debuted during the Dublin Golf Tournament in late May.
Chipotle Goes Golfing
The fast casual entered a new partnership with golf pro Max Homa.
CHIPOTLE STEPPED INTO THE GOLF SCENE with its first-ever golf accessory line, launched in collaboration with COBRA Golf. The limited-edition release featured a FoilWrapped Burrito Head Cover and a Ball Bag inspired by the brand’s iconic chip bag, combining culinary fun with golf flair. This unique partnership was driven by pro golfer and longtime Chipotle fan Max Homa, who debuted the burrito-themed head cover during the Dublin Golf Tournament held May 27 to June 1.
Homa, known for his outspoken love of Chipotle since turning pro, led the campaign and appeared in the official launch video. In a playful twist, he opted for a burrito over his usual burrito bowl.
The accessories were made available exclusively on COBRA Golf’s website starting May 27. As part of the launch, Homa also gave away 250 free burrito head covers to fans via his Instagram account.
DINING FREQUENCY & GENERATIONAL BEHAVIORS
• Millennials (37 percent) and Gen Z (35 percent) are the most frequent diners, often eating out 2–3 times per week, driven by a desire for convenience, social experiences, and digital ease. Notably, 10 percent of Gen Z reports dining out daily.
• Boomers and Gen X are more occasional eaters, with a preference for weekly or monthly dining, indicating a more deliberate, less impulsive approach.
• Gender dynamics show men dine out more frequently than women, especially in the “multiple times per week” category, suggesting that promotional targeting and frequency should vary by gender.
The 2025 report, developed by WUNDERKIND and MX8 LABS, explores how diners across generations engage with restaurants—from dining frequency and discovery habits to loyalty program behavior and preferred marketing channels. With input from a representative U.S. sample of 300 diners, the report emphasizes the growing importance of personalization, convenience, and digital engagement as restaurants strive to balance innovation with value.
LOYALTY PROGRAM PARTICIPATION & PREFERENCES
• 72 percent of diners use loyalty programs, with millennials (55 percent) and Gen X (51 percent) leading in multi-program articipation. These groups actively seek value and rewards in exchange for loyalty.
• Loyalty success hinges on meaningful perks: 61 percent of diners cite free food and drink as the most appealing benefit, followed by exclusive discounts (46 percent) and birthday rewards (29 percent).
MEN dine out more frequently than women & often also answered “multiple times per week” 61% of diners cite FREE FOOD and DRINK as the most appealing benefit
• A third of consumers (32 percent) only sign up for loyalty programs at their favorite restaurants, indicating that quality of experience and value determines engagement—not just availability.
• Redemption experience matters: 46 percent prefer using restaurant mobile apps to track and redeem points, while 31 percent use email and 27 percent use text reminders, highlighting the importance of seamless omnichannel access.
PROMOTIONAL MESSAGING & ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
• Email is still the top marketing channel (48 percent), especially for older diners (Gen X: 60 percent), but SMS is gaining fast among millennials (43 percent) and Gen Z (45 percent), underscoring a shift toward mobile-first communication.
• Message frequency must be tailored: While 37 percent of diners want promotions a few times per week (millennials 47 percent, Gen Z 43 percent), boomers prefer weekly (25 percent) or monthly (28 percent) messaging.
RESTAURANT DISCOVERY CHANNELS
• Word-of-mouth remains dominant (39 percent), especially for boomers (64 percent) and Gen X (32 percent), making peer recommendations a powerful trust-builder for older diners.
• Digital discovery is king for younger demographics: Gen Z (33 percent) and millennials (30 percent) heavily rely on Google Reviews, Yelp, and social media like Instagram and TikTok.
• Third-party delivery apps (Uber Eats, DoorDash) are also significant for Gen Z (23 percent), indicating that discovery and ordering behavior are increasingly intertwined.
• Men prefer search engines, review platforms, and maps, while women lean more on social media and personal recommendations, showcasing distinct pathways to brand engagement.
• Personalized marketing is widely accepted: 46 percent of diners find it helpful, and 33 percent are open to it with limited frequency—suggesting a strong opportunity for triggered, behavior-based campaigns.
• A minority (9 percent) find personalized messaging intrusive, indicating that restaurants must build trust through clear opt-in pathways and preference controls.
BOOMERS and GEN X preferred:
WORD-OF-MOUTH
GEN Z and MILLENNIALS preferred:
DIGITAL DISCOVERY
|DAYPART GROWTH|
fresh ideas BREAKFAST SEES NEW LIFE
From catering to customization, restaurants are cashing in on the morning crowd.
BY SAM DANLEY
Breakfast was one of the big casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. With morning commutes disappearing almost overnight, fewer consumers had a reason—or the routine—to grab breakfast on the go. Habits shifted, and the morning daypart fell out of favor across much of the restaurant industry.
Several years removed from the disruption, breakfast appears to be making a comeback. Brands that had once pulled back are leaning back in. Others, like Portillo’s and Dutch Bros, are testing the waters for the first time, signaling renewed interest in the daypart.
So, what’s fueling breakfast’s return?
One key driver could be the increase in office occupancy rates. As more companies reinforce return-to-office policies, mornings are growing busier, with more people out and about—and breakfast traffic is starting to climb. According to an April report from Circana analyzing shifting eating patterns and the influence of workplace trends, 39 percent of consumers now report eating breakfast before 8 a m —a five-point increase from 2020. The research firm also found that breakfast was the best-performing daypart earlier this year, clinching 3 percent growth in March across the industry.
More guests are getting up early to eat out in the morning.
fresh ideas
Biscuit Belly has experienced the shifting tides of morning routines up close. Founded in 2019, just before the pandemic hit, the brand faced a challenging start as it tried to establish itself during a tough period. Founder and CEO Chad Coulter says Biscuit Belly initially wasn’t focused on off-premises channels, but the pandemic forced a swift pivot, with large catering orders for hospitals in particular becoming a key lifeline.
premium options that he says go beyond “the same old bagels and cream cheese spreads.”
Coulter says that in markets where catering is available, the momentum is having an outsized impact on the business—supporting brand awareness, driving trial, and feeding back into regular dine-in traffic. He sees catering not just as a revenue stream, but as a growth engine. It introduces the brand to new customers and creates a touchpoint for future visits.
Breakfast is a growing part of Taco Cabana’s business, and not just during the morning hours. President and COO Ulyses Camacho says the all-day breakfast menu is a reliable engine for traffic and sales across every shift for the fastcasual Tex-Mex chain.
At the same time, Coulter was also running a wine bar and small plates restaurant. He notes that traffic for the dinner-centric brand bounced back much faster than it did for Biscuit Belly’s “craft casual” breakfast and brunch concept. And while in-store traffic has fully recovered at Biscuit Belly, he says off-premises channels have kept climbing—especially catering, which is now becoming one of the brand’s strongest segments.
“People are starting to go back to the office,” Coulter says. “I feel like we’ve been saying that for five years. It’s been a slow trend, but there’s more and more of a push for that now, and our catering business just continues to grow and grow with that.”
That growth is partly driven by macro trends. Many breakfast and lunch-focused restaurants are seeing catering gains. But Coulter thinks Biscuit Belly’s performance also stands out thanks to a differentiated offering. The chain offers biscuit sandwich bundles, a biscuit and gravy bar, frittatas, french toast bakes, and other
When it comes to the morning daypart, Camacho points to the growth in catering as the biggest shift lately. The brand also is finding success in the morning with items that feed more than one person—available at the counter, in the drive-thru, or via digital ordering. It offers boxes that come with a dozen breakfast tacos, available in any combination of bean and cheese, bacon and egg, steak and egg, or chorizo and egg.
Last year alone, the chain sold over 1 million taco boxes across its nearly 150 locations.
“You count the weekend business, and that’s where these boxes really come into play,” Camacho says, pointing to family activities like league games as key occasions where the boxes provide convenience and appeal.
More recently, Taco Cabana introduced smaller taco boxes with six tacos, designed for smaller groups of two or three. Camacho sees these as a value-driven option that hits a sweet spot—allowing groups to get their fill and fuel their day without everyone having to order individual combo meals.
The brand also has been pushing to elevate its breakfast lineup
Breakfast boosts traffic for Taco Cabana.
Biscuit Belly has seen significant growth in catering as customers return to offices.
TIRED OF SO-SO AUVS & 16 TO 24-HOUR DAYS?
fresh ideas
with bolder, more adventurous flavors.
“Think about the flavor profile of a potato and egg taco,” Camacho says. “It’s not very bold. That might be good for a kid, but what about for the parent that wants something spicier?”
That appetite for more flavor is reflected in the success of the Monster Verde Burrito, launched last year. The item combines refried beans, chorizo, egg, bacon, hashbrowns, shredded cheese, and chipotle ranch dressing for a richer taste experience. Building on that, Taco Cabana introduced a new chipotle ranch–based topping earlier this year, designed specifically for breakfast dishes, giving guests the option to add an extra kick to their meal.
Original ChopShop is seeing strong returns from a more streamlined approach to breakfast. The health-focused fast casual recently pared down its morning offerings, removing lower-performing items while extending the availability of top sellers throughout the day.
“Number one, it’s an opportunity to get more variety in other dayparts,” says Kyle Frederick, COO of the roughly 30-unit chain. “Number two, because of our menu being so big, there’s an opportunity to simplify. So, during that whole process, we actually took off five items from the breakfast menu and we kept the three highest-selling items on the menu.”
At the same time, the brand launched a build-your-own breakfast bowl that’s quickly become a core menu item. Guests can start with scrambled eggs or egg whites, then layer in vegetables, proteins, and sauces—including more unique options like a jalapeno goat cheese spread.
“We had three breakfast bowls that were on the menu prior to the build-your-own breakfast bowl, and they all had a variety of eggs and bases and different vegetables,” Frederick says. “Guests were just modifying that all over the place, so we were like, let’s just give them a menu item that lets them choose their own adventure.”
Frederick says the move taps into what Original ChopShop guests already expect: customizable, better-for-you meals that offer both variety and value.
“The biggest takeaway is that we’re seeing heavy usage on that throughout the day,” he says. “It’s $9, so it’s providing a lot of value to the guests, and that’s clearly what people are looking for right now.”
Original ChopShop has experienced success after paring down its breakfast menu.
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Where Tech Meets Hospitality, Women Are Leading the Way
The best of the foodservice industry comes together to uncover new data.
women in foodservice leadership roles. The findings confirmed challenges in advancement and negotiation—but also highlighted progress. “We didn’t see the data out there specific to our industry, so we created it,” Craven says. “The results confirmed what we suspected, but also gave us hope. There’s still work to do, but women are doing better financially than many of us realized.”
The foodservice industry is one of the most diverse workforces in the U.S., with 60 percent of management roles held by women, according to the National Restaurant Association. However, while women and people of color make up much of the hourly and frontline workforce, representation drops significantly in executive roles. It’s a structural issue—but it’s also a leadership one. And leadership is evolving.
“As operators, we’re starting to rethink what e ective leadership looks like,” Craven says. “It’s not just about being tough or working 80-hour weeks—it’s about building resilient teams, setting clear priorities, and having the tools to lead well.”
For years, the foodservice industry has asked: How has gender equity evolved—and what does that mean for restaurants?
SynergySuite, a founding sponsor of Women in Restaurant Leadership (WiRL), partnered with QSR magazine to explore how gender impacts compensation, benefits, and negotiation for women in leadership roles.
Sara Davis, senior director of marketing at SynergySuite, and Cristal Craven, global director of Strategic Partnerships, share insights on the intersection of tech, foodservice, and gender equity— and where the industry is headed.
“SynergySuite has proudly supported WiRL since day one, because visibility matters,” Davis says. “We have talented women across our global teams—from UI/UX designers to product and marketing leaders—and we’re committed to continuing the conversation around equity in our industry.”
In 2025, QSR magazine, conducted a study with WORTH (Women of Restaurants, Technology, and Hospitality), where Craven is a co-founder, surveying nearly 200
That’s where technology comes in—not as a diversity solution, but as an operational one. “One of the things I love about what we’re building here at SynergySuite is how we get to help real people,” Craven says. “The goal isn’t just automation—it’s empowerment. Our new AI-powered features, like smart forecasting and suggestive ordering, don’t just save time—they give back control and clarity to managers. That’s how we help bring balance back into foodservice leadership.”
Both tech and foodservice remain male-dominated at the top but o er lessons for each other.
“In restaurants, there are a lot more women—but they’re often not given the chance to advance,” Davis says. “I think the restaurant sector could learn from tech in terms of upward mobility. On the flip side, tech could learn from restaurants about people-first culture and hospitality.”
It’s easier not to challenge the status quo—but both industries are proving how much they can thrive by embracing diversity and equity.
“Everything we’re doing with our product is geared toward giving managers—men or women—the ability to have more balance in their lives, be more e ective at their jobs, and focus on leadership and brand building,” Craven says. Ultimately, it’s about building better workplaces—for everyone. -By Ya’el McLoud
CRISTAL CRAVEN (LEFT) AND SARA DAVIS
Coco Playa
Combining warm cookies with coffees and sodas, thriving franchisee Ryan Feghali takes a plunge with his successful new independent concept.
BY TALLULAH HAWLEY
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego, CA
YEAR STARTED: June 1, 2024
ANNUAL SALES: $1,300,000
TOTAL UNITS: 1
COCO PLAYA IS RYAN FEGHALI’S FIRST NON-FRANchise restaurant industry venture. Founded almost a year ago, the single-unit concept serves a wide range of coffees, dirty sodas, and fruity refreshers under the San Diego sun.
“We applied a lot of what we learned in the franchising world to Coco Playa, but there’s also a lot of learning that came with it. So far, it’s been great,” Feghali says.
Feghali is a second-generation franchisee, helping out in the Little Caesars units that his father opened in 1986 in Bakers -
field, California. His father immigrated from Lebanon, and, Feghali says, “As typical immigrant families do, they have their full families working in the businesses that they’re trying to build, so I got to witness him and his brothers all helping grow the business.” His family still runs 15 locations.
As a child, Feghali would assist when needed, but he recounts, “I told myself that I’m going to go to college and I’m going to work in something else! I’m not going to work in this space.” After getting an MBA at UC San Diego and working in advertising and finance, Feghali worked 80-hour weeks behind an office desk while his family members continued to grow their franchising locations.
“I was looking at everybody else having so much fun expanding their businesses and restaurants, moving to multiple cities,”
says Feghali, “and I realized that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad… I mean I know the [franchising] business.” Once he was drawn back into the QSR world, Feghali, his cousin Jeoffrey Feghali, and Johnny Baklini formed Cedars Group and bought two Little Caesars units for sale in 2016 in Yuma, Arizona.
Today, he is at 33 restaurants across Oregon, Arizona, and California, which includes his Little Caesars units as well as a handful of Jersey Mike’s locations, along with his newest creation, Coco Playa.
The concept was founded by Cedars Group and Gabe and George Chammas, whom Feghali notes as two of his long-time close friends and business partners.
The idea for the brand arose while Feghali was dining with the Chammases in February 2023, talking about the possibility of franchising for either coffee brands or cookie brands, but could not find a passionate fit. “Why don’t you do it yourself?” was the answer the trio left the table with.
“In the franchising world, you deal with operations: the marketing is handled for you, the supply chain, the packaging, the branding,” he says. “Whereas, when you’re doing it yourself, there’s a learning curve and you have to figure it out yourself. It’s pretty dang hard, but it’s actually pretty fun.”
Coco Playa opened in June 2024 with the goal of “empower[ing] our community through happiness and energy,” says Feghali. By combining the “ultimate feel-good and the ultimate pick-me-up of sugar and caffeine,” the team aimed to “elevat[e] our customer experience and customer service to create moments of joy with every interaction.”
The location has no dining room but instead a walk-up window, a dual-lane drivethru, and an outdoor patio. In lieu of a typical drive-thru speaker, an employee standing outside personally takes
Italian machine builders lead the way in machine and process innovation.
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Italian machine builders are bringing innovative and transformative solutions to their industries.
DEPARTMENT
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
The Duo Redefining Indian Food
Franchise partners Kiki Khajuria and Samy Kilaru bring culture, community, and Curry Up Now’s rebellious spirit to Flower Mound, Texas.
BY SATYNE DONER
Curry Up Now has always been a brand for the bold. Founded by Akash and Rana Kapoor in 2009, the Indian-inspired fastcasual chain set out to disrupt the traditional Indian dining experience, starting with a single food truck in Burlingame, California. Today, it has grown to include 20 brick-and-mortar locations, three food trucks, and several digital kitchen outposts across the U.S., with a robust domestic development pipeline and plans for international expansion, including growth in the U.K.
Now, franchisees Samy Kilaru and Kiki Khajuria are bringing the brand’s rebellious spin on Indian street food to Flower Mound, Texas—a fast-growing suburb of Dallas. After 25 years working across logistics, IT, and customer service—including previous roles in the food industry—the two women are officially entering the restaurant space with a mission that’s part culinary, part cultural, and wholly community-driven.
“The diversity of Flower Mound makes it a perfect community for Curry Up Now to put down roots,” Khajuria says. “There are a variety of different cultures and backgrounds here, and it’s a great population to experiment with a new kind of restaurant.”
Curry Up Now’s unique approach to Indian food was a natural match for the duo, who were looking for a franchise that stood out in both flavor and brand identity. Serving up Indian flavors in familiar formats—like poutine disguised as Sexy Fries, Naughty Naan flatbread pizza, Tandoori Fried Chicken Sandwiches, and Tikka Masala Burritos—the menu is accessible for curious newcomers while still resonating with those craving authentic tastes.
“The menu is relatable and easy to understand. Quesadillas, burritos, and Tex-Mex are popular nationwide, and especially in Texas,” Kilaru explains. “There’s something for everyone. The dishes are huge, they’re fresh, and they pack a punch.”
Despite the fusion-forward format, the heart of the food remains rooted in real Indian flavors. For both women, that balance of playful innovation and cultural authenticity was key.
“The food offerings are fun, but when customers come in wanting to taste the authentic flavors and spices of their childhood, we’re able to satisfy them as well as someone who has never had Indian food,” adds Khajuria. “This brand brings back memories of eating street food in my hometown. It’s an experience that catches people’s attention and keeps them coming back.”
With a streamlined operating model, a strong R&D pipeline, and backing from industry-leading franchise development firm Fransmart, Kilaru and Khajuria saw the opportunity to jump in— and they took it. Their first unit was slated for May.
After decades in leadership roles in other industries, launching a restaurant is both a career pivot and a deeply personal milestone. More than just a business, it’s a way to honor their heritage and serve as role models for other women entrepreneurs.
“Overall, we have not met a ton of women entrepreneurs in this space, but I think we have a unique advantage when it comes to creating experiences that ensure everyone is catered to. It feels natural for us to come together and work on this concept,” Kilaru says. “The opportunity wasn’t going to take itself. When we looked into franchising, Curry Up Now stood out from any other Indian restaurant we’ve been to.”
Khajuria agrees, pointing to their desire to pave the way for others: “As a women-led restaurant and locally
[CONTINUED
Curry Up Now’s unique take on Indian food was a natural fit for franchisee duo Kiki Khajuria and Samy Kilaru.
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2025
10:00AM - 7:00PM Registration
12:00PM - 4:15PM Girly Grit: Real Women, Real Conversations (LEAD Luncheon) Kimberly Dockter Bollinger Olivia Fazzola Amy Hom
Miksa
2:00PM - 4:00PM Franchisee Worskhop - Ways of the Wealthy Franchisee: Unlocking the Human Edge Behind Operational Excellence
Nadeem Bajwa Scott Greenberg
5:30PM - 6:30PM Welcome to Atlanta, with Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy Andrew Cathy | CEO, Chick-fil-A
3:15PM - 4:00PM Finding the Digital-Native Restaurant Consumer
3:15PM - 4:00PM
3:15PM - 4:00PM Meet the Entrepreneurs
4:00PM - 4:15PM Networking Break
4:15PM - 5:00PM Closing Keynote
5:00PM - 7:00PM After Party
/ BY DANNY KLEIN
BREAKING BARRIERS, BUILDING BRIDGES RELATIONSHIPS, PASSION, AND ALWAYS TAKING THE SEAT HAS HELPED INSPIRE BRANDS
CFO KATE JASPON BLAZE A TRAIL FOR OTHERS TO FOLLOW.
The word “barriers” is one Kate Jaspon often references. Six years ago, right before the pandemic, a Deloitte Center for Financial Services study found only six of the 107 largest financial institutions in the U.S. were run by female CEOs. More recent data told a well-traveled story as well—while the percentage of men and women entering the finance field was roughly equal, men climbed the ladder quicker. At entry level, women held about 52 percent of finance jobs. That dwindled to 18 percent for C-suite positions globally.
All of this, though, isn’t to say Jaspon, the CFO of nearly 37,000-unit Inspire Brands, believes there’s a wall standing between women and progress. In fact, if she could go back and give herself some advice, it would be to see right through it.
“I think for women particularly, most of the opportunities that come to you in your career are big life events, right? Having a child. For me now, aging parents. Whatever it is. And I think women feel like they have to decide between this and that,” Jaspon says. “I’m going to have a family or I’m going to get married. I can’t move. I can’t take that promotion. What if I have to leave the office at 5?”
“What I say to people is, if the job is there and you can do it, or somebody is offering you the job, don’t create barriers for yourself,” she continues. “There are a lot of women before you. This is very different from when our parents grew up. The world is different now. I think companies and men have been great allies in removing those obstacles. So don’t let life events limit you taking a risk or opportunity.”
Jaspon is the daughter of a small business owner ( her father owned an electric company and worked on the megaproject “Big Dig” in Boston). He didn’t go to college and imparted on
her, as much as anything, when the phone rings at midnight, you get up and take the call.
Jaspon attended Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts—about 30 minutes from her hometown—and one of the country’s most selective universities, ranked No. 1 in entrepreneurship last year by U.S. News & World Report. It fit her family tree. But what Jaspon realized when she got there was, she might not be the risk taker some of her peers were. She enjoyed business and professors drilled down a specific point: if you could understand the cash flow and P&L of a business, you could do any role. So Jaspon loaded up on finance and accounting classes and left behind a vision she had from high school to become a computer programmer, aided by the realization Microsoft had blown away the pack. She also didn’t want to sit in front of a screen the rest of her life.
Jaspon didn’t want to reside in spreadsheets and numbers, either, which took her to KPMG as an auditor. And this circles back to her opening advice.
Jaspon clocked nine years with the company and thought she’d become a partner. There were no female partners at
the time and Jaspon says it was “difficult to be what I couldn’t see.” She got married in 2005. The Enron scandal was fresh. The finance world had changed. Jaspon thought she wanted to have children right away and KPMG asked Jaspon to move to New York.
These insecurities set doubt in her path. Then, Jaspon received a call from her first client at KPMG, a chain as ubiquitous in Massachusetts as the Red Sox—Dunkin’ Brands. She joined the coffee company in December 2005 as assistant controller and was later promoted to VP, finance and treasury and corporate controller. In 2017, she became CFO of the U.S.’ sixth-largest restaurant brand. But we’ll return to the timeline momentarily.
Dunkin’, as noted, is one of those culturally intimate jobs that’s like telling people in Oklahoma you work for Sonic Drive-In. Or In-N-Out in California. She went to high school with some of the Dunkin’ franchisees she began working with—second-
and third-generation leaders who grew up baking donuts and embracing the family business.
In what would become a recurring theme throughout Jaspon’s career, things got hectic quickly. Carlyle, Bain Capital, and Thomas H. Lee each acquired a 33 percent stake in Dunkin’ Brands the following March. The group paid $2.425 billion in cash. In 2011, the company raised $423 million in an IPO and went public. Jaspon helped lead Dunkin’ Brands through the transaction and follow-on equity offerings, securitization, and numerous other debt transactions, as well as the 2006 divestiture of Togo’s.
Jaspon says it was a “fun and exciting” time as she got to touch so many transactions. The business was the opposite of static and Jaspon learned through it. Paul Carbone, who spent nine years as Dunkin’s CFO and, this past March, was named CEO of Panera Brands, along with other mentors, encouraged Jaspon to explore life outside of accounting. “You’ve got to get back to understanding the P&L and cash flow,” she recalls. “Let’s get you out in the field. Let’s get you working with lenders.”
This is where Jaspon’s leadership style truly began to form.
n DUNKIN’
She developed relationships with franchisees and became the CFO whose cell phone number they programmed in. Whether it was equipment, the financial crisis, real estate, Dunkin’s 2018 launch of espresso, every year, Jaspon says, something different mattered. And they trusted her. She worked on things like interchange fees on credit cards and interest rates with lenders. Franchisees appreciated the fact Jaspon was brought up in a small business and didn’t need a crash course on why success for an operators’ bottom line was a win for corporate.
“It was never franchisor versus franchisee,” she says. “It was if the franchisee wins, we win together.”
Jaspon knew if operators saw Dunkin’ HQ as a transparent, reliable partner, and if they were making money, they’d invest back. They’d remodel and embrace directives. “I was at all their conventions,” Jaspon says. “I went to all their brand advisory committee meetings. I didn’t let them go around the rules. But they knew they could pick up the phone. And a lot of them have
leader whose constituents feel they can relate to and not speak through red tape. “It’s not always glamorous,” she says of the restaurant industry. “And the fact that I understood, I think, went a long way.”
Jaspon believes she could have become a franchisee. That’s how deep her feelings for this industry go. Her contribution to sharing experiences and making connections, she says, caught the eye of Inspire CEO Paul Brown.
Picture this. It’s close to September 2020. COVID-19 has endured and shut cafes and redirected restaurant operations going on seven months. That’s when Jaspon and Dunkin’ Americas president (now Inspire chief brand officer) Scott Murphy first heard about a potential sale to Roark Capital-backed Inspire Brands, which at the time owned Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings (the brand that’s 2018 sale, along with Rusty Taco, sparked the portfolio), and Jimmy John’s. As proxy would later outline, the two sides—Dunkin’s CEO was Dave Hoffmann—went back and forth for a while, but given COVID’s backdrop, Dunkin’ leadership had to continue running as “normal” while conversations ensued.
huge accountants who lead their networks, or CFOs. I’d go out to dinner with them. We’d bring them all into the office so we could share best practices. It wasn’t a competition.”
Again, this was something Jaspon learned from her father. And it held through two pivotal moments on the horizon.
Another sale, more chaos, and the path to Atlanta
When asked if she’s a prodigal math cruncher or somebody who can get on stage and start tossing out financial equations, Jaspon laughs. “I am very happy there is a calculator on this phone,” she says.
“I think what I have always been good at is relationships,” Jaspon adds. “I know enough about all the areas in finance, tech, whatever it might be, to be dangerous. But I’ve been really good at hiring really smart people that complement me so that I can go build the relationships and then bring it back.”
Her view of what makes a great CFO is somebody who has a vision for the company and can help guide decisions, and a
The news leaked on Halloween. And Jaspon says they “had like 20 minutes” before it went live to contact licensees and employees. Then, the deal closed in less 45 days.
In addition to taking place during the pandemic, there was only one acquisition in restaurant history larger than the roughly $11.3 billion Inspire paid—when 3G Capital LP, Burger King Worldwide Inc., acquired Tim Hortons for $12.64 billion in August 2014. Panera Bread was next at $7.5 billion, a price paid by JAB Holdings in 2017.
To say it was a whirlwind would be like telling somebody it’s drizzling during a hurricane. Months earlier, Jaspon was the CFO of a company, like essentially every other executive, trying to manage through a playbook-less crisis without any money. She was working out of her house, lobbying Washington, D.C., and seeing what might happen if you erected Plexiglas in a coffee shop.
Jaspon and Dunkin’ leadership made the call to defer all payments from franchisees, take salary reductions, continue to pay debt, landlords, and suppliers, and spent day in and day out, she says, letting franchisees and employees know everything would work out. “Even if behind the scenes we were worried,” Jaspon says. “We didn’t know what was going to happen. But that was the year that being a franchisor shined.”
Operators had fires each day. Could they run just a drivethru? What latest regulation was coming down? That two-way line of communication Jaspon referenced earlier came back into focus. “You really learned, really quickly, the relationship you had and the importance of that,” she says. “I also think the lender and the supplier community made a big decision that year on who stood beside them and worked with them. I’m really proud of the decisions we made.”
A serendipitous one was the aforementioned move to invest in espresso equipment. Hoffmann, a 20-year McDonald’s exec-
n JIMMY JOHN’S
utive, became CEO in 2018 and decided Dunkin’ Brands would invest alongside operators. The company revealed a $100 million plan that summer, with 65 percent earmarked to an “on-the-go beverage-led strategy.” Dunkin’ reengineered its espresso recipe, first introduced in 2003, to bring forth one of the company’s most significant product initiatives in 68 years. “That was outside my comfort zone going to the board and asking for that investment,” Jaspon says. “Looking back, it was probably one of the best things we ever did. We were launched and ready to go when Starbucks and a lot of our peers closed during COVID. Folks who saw us as a donut store on the West Coast were forced to go to us for espresso and coffee and things, and we had just reloaded all of the equipment. So it really put us on the map in places where we were viewed as a donut store.”
Before COVID, getting to Wall Street and ringing the bell was the watershed moment of her career, Jaspon says. This 2020 deadlock, however, is when she grew. Keeping operators
KATE JASPON’S ADVICE FOR WOMEN IN RESTAURANT LEADERSHIP
BY SATYNE DONER
calm through the chaos and then, suddenly, trying to explain an industry-shaking sale to a relatively new group in Inspire tested the mettle of her acumen and communication. Some franchisees were excited. Some, the opposite. The same was true of employees.
Jaspon herself wasn’t even sure if she had a job. Quietly, she and Inspire picked an end date, inclusive of staying on for a year or so to help with the integration and delisting of Dunkin’. She was going back and forth. A week in Atlanta. One in Boston.
Jaspon had spent years at Dunkin’ and had the resume, but Inspire’s CFO post was helmed by David Pipes, a four-decade vet who spent nearly half of his career with Arby’s and Inspire. He began in 2003 with Arby’s franchisee RTM, holding leadership positions in finance and accounting and then playing a key role in Arby’s 2005 acquisition of RTM, as well as subsequent merger with Wendy’s International three years later, which resulted in the formation of the Wendy’s /Arby’s Group. He remained with
Throughout her career, Kate Jaspon often found herself without a roadmap—no woman partner at KPMG to look up to, no clear example of a female finance leader, no blueprint for balancing a rising career with the demands of family life. But rather than focus on the limitations, she leaned into the opportunities, steadily rising through the ranks to become CFO of Inspire Brands.
Many of the major career moments in Jaspon’s life coincided with personal milestones. For many women, these moments bring the pressure of choosing between home and career. Jaspon is quick to challenge that narrative.
Jaspon also calls out a dynamic she encountered earlier in her career—what she refers to as “Queen Bee Syndrome,” where it can feel like there’s only room for one woman at the top. In an industry where more than 60 percent of American women have restaurant experience, she says, building inclusive leadership teams isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s smart business.
“Having diversity in mindset and having women at the table in foodservice just makes sense,” she says. “Our leadership team, our board, and our franchisee base need to reflect our crew and our consumers.
Women… we need you to speak up and provide your insight. We need to drive strategy because our decisions matter too.”
Jaspon encourages women to seek out both mentors— people to talk to and learn from—and sponsors, those willing to advocate behind closed doors.
“Your mentor doesn’t need to look like you,” she says. “They’re great as sounding boards or when you need to vent. But you also need a sponsor who will put their personal equity behind you when you’re not in the room, and you may only have one or two of those in your whole career. Sometimes you have to shift from mentors to sponsors because you need an advocate. But there are a lot of loyal, good people in this business to connect with.”
Jaspon has often been the only woman in the room—and over time, she’s learned to own that space. It’s also given her a deeper understanding of inclusion.
“Having been the only female in the room, I now pay attention to who else may be the ‘only’—like the only person of color,” she says. “I try to make sure my voice is heard, and theirs too. So many doors have been opened for me, and it’s our job as leaders to make sure they stay open.”
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Arby’s when Roark acquired the brand in 2011.
Pipes, though, decided to retire. In some ways, this mirrored the moment when Jaspon stepped into the CFO role at Dunkin’ years earlier.
Carbone resigned in April 2017 to head to Talbots. Jaspon, then VP, finance and treasurer, was appointed to serve as interim CFO, which switched to permanent in June.
Jaspon says she was surprised by Carbone’s departure. But she felt capable, just as she did now with Inspire. “I had awesome leaders and sponsors at Dunkin’ who made sure I was ready. I was an accountant, then I took treasury and tax and investor relations,” she says. “I think any time you’re the front person to the investor community that can be a little daunting. But I thought it was great.”
Returning to an earlier observation, Jaspon says becoming a female CFO at Dunkin’ was, as you’d imagine, not exactly a crowded club industy-wide. However, Kate Lavelle, now a member of Wingstop’s board of directors, was Dunkin’ Brands CFO from 2004–2010 as Jaspon came up. Lavelle has remained a sponsor and mentor.
Jaspon also found support through the Women’s Foodservice Forum ( she’s now the board chair, where she could build relationships with other executives and ask for advice, even if they weren’t necessarily CFOs).
In reality, she says, the biggest challenge when she emerged as CFO of Dunkin’ wasn’t her gender—it was her age. She was the youngest member on leadership by 20 years.
Jaspon says that’s why she was initially tagged with an interim distinction. She’d hear, “don’t forget you’re very green” as she worked to bolster her confidence. “My advice to women is to take the seat,” Jaspon says. “Don’t be scared. Take the risk assignment. ‘Do it,’ I would have told myself back then.”
During her controller days, Jaspon figured she’d go straight to CFO. But that’s not how it unfolded. Her boss came in one day and let her know he promoted somebody to her job. She was now the VP of finance. “I said, ‘what if I don’t want that job,’” she remembers. “And he said, ‘too bad. I already gave away your old job.’”
pharmaceutical and biotech industry, told her, “Let’s do this. Stay with what you love.”
So Jaspon, who had worked with Inspire chief growth officer Christian Charnaux on the deal (handling the Dunkin’ side), took three weeks and moved down to Atlanta with a job offer, six months after the deal.
“They had a search. They were working with [Pipes],” she says. “And then, here I was. It worked out for me. A lot of my career has been being ready and being in the right place at the right time.”
Growth away from home
Like taking on any new career position, Jaspon says leaving her hometown helped her grow by getting outside her comfort zone. She traveled at Dunkin, naturally, but her relationships and ties were all in Boston. Inspire, from its multiple brand presidents to overall scope, revealed fresh opportunities. And Jaspon dove into a franchisee system webbing out through different formats, concepts, service approaches, and a matrix shared-services model that was more akin to hotels and hospitality (where Brown and Charnaux hailed from) than your traditional restaurant system.
That was, in practice, the vision of Inspire. Brown and leadership observed a sector massively fragmented and ripe for a multi-brand play—the ability to leverage collective strength for the betterment of each individual brand.
These days, Jaspon describes some of Inspire’s whitespace as figuring out how to “MacGyver” the company to make anything
“Sometimes you need a kick in the butt, for lack of better words. If I had not done that, a., they would have brought somebody else in who have blocked me. But b., I would not have learned the skills that I needed to [become CFO],” Jaspon says. “So I try sometimes to ‘volun-tell’ people, ‘this is where you should go.’ It is really easy to get stuck in what’s comfortable and what you love.”
When Pipes retired, Jaspon faced a dilemma. She had twins (born in 2009) and had never lived anywhere but Boston. Did she want to uproot her now-seventh grade children, husband, support group, and go from a 150-or-so employee company to one with five different offices around the world? Did she want to learn wing pricing at BWW? Or how Sonic handles drive-in?
Lavelle offered advice. Jaspon’s husband, who worked in the
possible for franchisees. One plot of land? Why not open multiple brands across different dayparts (say a Dunkin’ and Buffalo Wild Wings GO)? Can you target non-trad, like an airport, and try three locations with a joint-backed office?
That flexibility unfurled runway and a bold, new frontier for Jaspon. What she brought instantly was her prowess in relationship building. Jaspon listens to franchisees. Asks why they pick one brand or another. What works and what’s still a challenge. “I obviously know unit economics matter, but franchisee relationships matter,” she says. “Non-competes matter. Upfront investment costs matter. If we can help them get lending matters. All of that. And I think the more that we’re out, whether
n ARBY’S
it’s Christian, Scott, myself, Paul, the more that we’re out meeting the franchisees and listening to them, the more we can pivot quickly to make our brands easier to use. And it’s easier to do that in a large scale.”
Jaspon says developing Inspire’s matrix model hasn’t been easy. It has been intensely rewarding. But there’s much still to do. Each brand brought in recognizable and clear equities. Drivethru at Arby’s. Delivery at Jimmy John’s. The ability to backend those individual strengths with technology and innovation that threads across, from data to app systems, is something Inspire is just glancing the surface of. “And the talent has been the most surprising to me—the talent we’ve been able to bring in,” she says. “… A talent breeds A talent.”
To this day, Jaspon, two decades into her restaurant career, still believes she can become a better CFO by learning more about people. Her job has become high level and she’s balancing judiciary responsibilities as much as being in the field. Yet that value of talking to operators and understanding their concerns and helping them navigate through, remains why she thinks the larger model works.
“I love this industry,” Jaspon says. “People either love working with franchisees or don’t. I love working with them. I think our franchisees are so passionate about what they do and their brands, their people. And I think that’s great. I think that drives our business model.”
A lot of operators can write checks, she continues. But the franchise industry is unique in the reality partners are also representatives of a larger brand. “If they’re doing well, they’re
a lever as any at this point. As Brown often says, “they’re not making more land.”
Navigating that and working on format innovation is one of Inspire’s unlocks headed through 2025 and beyond; how it can use land intelligently via multiple brands and designs. She says Inspire doesn’t want to become “Big Brother” and monitor every store. Rather, it’s working to identify positive and negative trends and solve those in tandem. It wants to gather information and help franchisees. While brand presidents and CMOs drive the top line, Jaspon targets the middle of the P&L and cost of capital and financing and returns. Inspire, which holds a much larger corporate footprint than most groups of this size (about 93 of the company is franchised), offers tools to guide through issues like pricing, as well as a government affairs and tax team to stay ahead of news. That’s the promise of tightly integrated scale. And it’s tackling these hurdles itself, too, given Inspire’s massive company footprint.
Jaspon thinks automation is going to change the scope of operations overall, especially in finance. Technology is stripping mundane tasks and enabling companies to focus on becoming better employers. “How do I use AI to try to learn, I get this invoice every month, this is how I code it, and then you use the human intelligence to check it on the back end,” Jaspon says. “Running reports and doing things that people used to be able to do, we can program to system that we’re doing the same thing over and over again.”
As alluring as the future appears, Jaspon turns back to her past once more. If there’s something about her experience she wants
going to stay with us, they’re going to develop, they’re going to take care of the employees, they’re going to invest in the employees,” Jaspon says. “It’s circular. If people don’t get that or if you form a competition between the franchisee and the franchisor, it’s a problem.”
The promise of the future
With inflation and tariffs and whatever else might be on deck, Jaspon has her hands full. She says Inspire pays attention to the same macro stressors as everybody—taxes, regulations, and so forth. But Jaspon feels real estate, less talked about, is as critical
emerging leaders to understand, it’s that a career is a marathon, not a sprint. “I feel like people are constantly searching,” she says. “A lot of my moves, if you look at them, were lateral. I went from controller to VP of finance to treasurer. I had the same title with very similar salary. But I broadened my skillset so I was ready. Now, everybody wants to know, I’ve been here for years, I want to jump and I want to jump. Maybe go sideways or try something different to build your skillset out. Specifically for women, you don’t need to have 100 percent of the qualifications to ask for the job. Once you get that seat at the table, take it.”
Danny
n BUFFALO WILD WINGS
I n f l a t
ion, V a lue, a nd t he B a t t le in B e t w e en
F or operators, inflation isn’t just squeezing margins—it’s forcing questions about strategy and what value means to restaurants and customers alike. Restaurateurs have felt a 36 percent rise in labor costs and a 35 percent increase in food costs over the past four years, according to the National Restaurant Association. The unpredictable nature of tariffs—which the Association estimated could cost the restaurant industry $12 billion—isn’t helping. For FAT Brands, food and labor inflation were in the 10 to 13 percent range as of late April, and the group has seen increases in both categories over the past year, according to chairman Andy Wiederhorn. For a while, eggs were a major driver, and poultry—especially chicken wings—had spiked, although those
As labor and food costs climb, restaurants are forced to redefine what value really means— for their customers, their teams, and their future.
BY BEN COLEY
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prices have come down. Beef is still relatively high because of a reduced herd size, which will likely take another year or so to recover, assuming no other disruptions like droughts, floods, or disease outbreaks, Wiederhorn says.
On the labor side, FAT Brands is seeing wage increases that go beyond ordinary cost-of-living adjustments, especially in California, which has the fast-food wage law that spiked the minimum wage for quick-service workers to $20 per hour.
Within the Golden State, Wiederhorn sees operators with thin margins closing stores—not just within his brands, but across the board. He wouldn’t be surprised if California sees record-level closures this year compared to prior years, as more businesses are pushed over the edge. The reality is, Wiederhorn says, operators have to raise prices to cover higher labor costs, but they’re not seeing enough traffic to sustain that pricing shift. They can’t offset the decline in foot traffic with price increases alone, and it becomes a vicious cycle.
“I’m a very vocal outspoken critic of jacking wages like the state did in California,” Wiederhorn says. “That hurts the operators and it hurts the consumers way more than it benefits the employees. I mean everyone wants their employees to make more money, but I just think that this is going to cost them money in their pocketbooks because the operators don’t have room in their margin to soak up an increase of up to 30 percent of the wages.”
“They’ve got issues with prices being so high, which are affecting consumers, and that’s why consumers are shopping for value. The big whammy— it’s going to come later in the year, which is the big unknown around supply chains as it relates to tariffs.”
Although labor inflation is burdensome, Harri CEO Luke Fryer says the worst possible approach is a wholesale reduction. He adds that an operator can’t do that effectively unless it’s handled in a strategic and data-informed manner. If a restaurateur thinks there’s excess in the employee department, any elimination must be based on clear data that tells them exactly when and where they can trim without negatively impacting the customer experience. When workers cut haphazardly, restaurant teams will be overstressed, which leads to higher turnover and more money being spent on training. Also, stores deliver a poorer product to guests.
Instead, Fryer says the focus should be on better labor deployment, including building smarter schedules, which starts with more accurate forecasting. A staffing model should be paired with demand forecasting to generate an optimal schedule. And it should be automated as opposed to using disconnected tools and systems that don’t talk to each other.
Other key factors are managing staff effectively and minimizing risk.
“This is the old adage—right people, right place, right time,” Fryer says. “What does that mean? It just means making sure that the people have appropriate skills. Have you been trained on the grill? Yep. And the appropriate qualification: how good are you at it? Like you’re a 1, which is really proficient, or a 4 who’s a trainee. Just make sure the best people are in the hightension positions at peak times. Because if the right person’s not
on the grill and on the drive-thru on Friday night at 8 o’clock, we’re backing up onto the freeway and we’re just leaving dollars on the table.”
Phil Kafarakis, CEO of IFMA, The Food Away From Home Association, says commodity inflation has improved, but is still a serious concern. Before the Trump administration’s policies, the cost pressures were mostly due to natural factors, such as input costs tied to harvest conditions. That means disruptions in coffee bean production in Africa, crop destruction, and similar issues. Kafarakis says many businesses have now absorbed those earlier hits. They raised prices to stay ahead of those natural cost increases and are continuing to monitor input costs closely. At the same time, they’re preparing for new challenges stemming from tariffs and the logistics of the global supply chain.
According to Kafarakis, brands are balancing food cost pressures and rising menu prices by offering customers more value for their dollar, like menu innovation or meal bundles. One example is Wingstop, which released a new Hot Honey Crispy Tender Box in April, featuring a popular flavor and the chain’s new and improved chicken tender product. Around the same time, the fast casual also offered an NBA Full Court Flavor Feast with six tenders, 16 wings, and a large fry, and a UFC Fight Night Bundle with 30 wings, large fries, and veggie sticks. Another important trend: the more sophisticated brands— those that have invested in loyalty programs and technology—are leveraging those assets. If a customer is part of a program, they receive special discounts. Kafarakis say it’s happening a lot in quick-service restaurants and increasingly during the morning daypart.
“They’re still struggling and prices are up,” Kafarakis says. “They’ve got issues with prices being so high, which are affecting consumers, and that’s why consumers are shopping for value. The big whammy—it’s going to come later in the year, which is the big unknown around supply chains as it relates to tariffs.”
With Inflation Rampant, Value Becomes Paramount
While brands deal with rising food and labor costs, they must also show respect to a consumer that’s tightened their wallets after facing years of inflation from restaurants, groceries, and other areas of their lives. This has led to steep discounting throughout the quick-service industry as operators attempt to claw back traffic from lower-income consumers who are turning down visits otherwise.
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Tim Fires, Circana’s president of global foodservice, says value is a much broader concept than it used to be. Traditionally, price and value have been seen as interchangeable, but they’re not the same. He explains that price is an important factor in creating value, however, Circana is seeing restaurants focus on the overall experience and the innovation behind it.
Value now means offering something that meets a wide range of consumer needs. For instance, if a customer is following a GLP-1 diet restriction or making dining decisions based on time of day, having menu items and portion sizes that align with those preferences is critical.
“There’s a lot of time worth spending on just understanding how the consumer is appreciative of the brand,” Fires says. “So we’re doing a lot of things related to how their experience was and what their wait time was. We call it brand health, but it’s around the consumer perception of what they got from the menu or from the experience that they had and the transactions that they had with that restaurant.”
“So we’re doing a lot of things related to how their experience was and what their wait time was. We call it brand health, but it’s around the consumer perception of what they got from the menu or from the experience that they had and the transactions that they had with that restaurant.”
Circana can’t always pinpoint exactly what aspect makes the difference— whether it was the service, the food, or the ambience—but the company does know that “treating myself” ranks among the top three reasons consumers choose to dine out. And in today’s environment, where consumers are constantly making trade-offs, choosing to invest in a meal away from home means the experience has to be worth it. A positive, memorable visit is what brings them back.
The company is seeing opportunities to enhance that “treating myself” moment in a few ways. One is through innovation around fan-favorite menu items or upgrading loyalty programs to deepen engagement. That doesn’t mean just rewarding customers with discounts or free items, but also enriching food and beverage and emotional return on investment at the same time.
“You really got to hone in on what value means and then make sure that you’re getting the message to the right household,” Fires says.
Quick-service chains also face stiff value-based competition from the casual-dining segment, which typically offers higher prices because of its added hospitality. Chili’s has blurred the lines with its 3 for $10.99 platform and its Big QP burger, which it claims has 85 percent more beef than McDonald’s Quarter Pounder.
“OK, $10.99, but you know you’re getting an 85 percent bigger burger, right? It’s like, what? Wait a minute,” Kafarakis says. “I’ll tell you this much, [Chili’s] margins aren’t getting the [crap beaten out of them] like everybody else because when
you go in there, you don’t leave with a $10.99 check. We’ve got you margining up. You’re going to buy some appetizers. You’re going to buy one of those $6 or $7 margaritas. You might even get one of those $12 margaritas. That’s the other side of this— the reason they’re bringing in the traffic. They’re watching their mix so they know where the margin is, and now they’re going to spend some marketing dollars because they’re making money.”
It’s not just restaurants either. Convenience stores are part of the value wars too, Kafarakis says. The concepts are giving away free items and building core items with beverages. He recently visited a QuikTrip that had a chicken promotion—available on Tuesdays and Thursdays—for $4.99 up to $9.99 depending on the number of pieces.
“Now they do it Tuesdays and Thursdays, so everybody’s selective and you’re not going to give the whole thing away the whole time, but you’re going to try to condition some people to come in because you got a special,” Kafarakis says. “… People are underestimating what convenience stores are able to do.”
Wiederhorn says everyone seems to have a discount offer, which makes it difficult to stand out. He’s also observed pushback from franchisees who don’t appreciate how some value offers impact their bottom line.
He acknowledges that a shift away from discounting could certainly impact traffic—if fewer deals are offered, some brands might see a dip in visits. But he believes guests are demanding a great experience. That includes both the quality of the food and the interaction, whether that’s in the restaurant or through delivery apps.
The key is to deliver value at whatever price point you’re charging. If a brand is charging $6 for a cup of coffee, it has to be a high-quality, frictionless experience. That’s FAT Brands’ emphasis right now—ensuging every guest interaction justifies the price.
“I think that the value wars in terms of price are going to come to an end because the operators can’t afford it and it’s not working,” Wiederhorn says. “If everyone has a discounted deal out there, the customers have so many choices, it’s not driving more traffic to your brand. You’re not a standout winner with your value offering when everybody else has discounted programs also. So operators are going to quickly push back on franchisors, and corporate operators are going to say ‘Geez, this isn’t working.’ We’re not getting the meaningful movement in traffic by discounting. We need to go back to level set things, and I think you’re going to see that—if you haven’t already seen that. You’re going to see that throughout the course of this year, and they’re going to gravitate toward justifying the value with the guest experience. You got to have great food, you got to have great guest experience, and that’s how you justify value. It’s not by discounting.”
Ben Coley is the editor of QSR. He can be reached at bcoley@wtwhmedia.com
TIM FIRES
THE BUSINESS OF BOUNCING BACK
/ BY SAM DANLEY
When the pressure is on, some brands fold. Others reset the playbook.
Bankruptcy can be a tough process, but for many brands, it’s a critical step toward recovery and growth. While Chapter 7 involves liquidation, Chapter 11 allows for reorganization—a much more common route, and one that has helped many businesses reset and come back stronger. The key isn’t just financial restructuring; it’s the opportunity to reevaluate, clarify vision, and refocus on what truly matters. Here’s a look at four brands that used bankruptcy as a springboard to success, turning a challenging chapter into a stronger future.
CICIS GETS BACK TO BASICS
Cicis Pizza’s buffet model quickly became a liability when COVID hit. Less than a year into the pandemic, the company filed for bankruptcy. But brand president Jeff Hetsel saw it as a reset opportunity, guided by a phrase taped to his desk: “never waste a crisis.”
The brand was acquired by D&G Investors—a joint venture
between SSCP Management and Gala Capital Partners— through a pre-packaged bankruptcy Hetsel says helped Cicis return to its roots while evolving for the future.
“It was always about thriving, never surviving,” he says. “One of the things that we talked about very early on is that a camel is a racehorse designed by a committee. There were so many people that really never understood the brand that were involved in the brand. This was going to provide us the opportunity to reset back to what made us great in the very beginning, which largely had slipped away through people putting their fingerprints on it and changing one thing at a time over the years.”
That reset came naturally to Hetsel, who’s been with Cicis for 33 years. In addition to leading the brand, he owns two loca-
tions as a franchisee and serves as president of JMC Restaurant Distribution, the company’s in-house supply arm.
Quality became a major focus. Cicis pulled out manuals from the early ’90s to return to original recipes and standards. At the same time, the brand leveraged its in-house distribution and purchasing capabilities to lock in quality ingredients at lower costs—key to maintaining its promise of being “the best pizza value anywhere.”
That value was also emphasized through a stronger marketing push. Campaigns spotlighted fresh-made dough and sauce, as well as the $8.99 all-you-can-eat price point.
“In a world where a cup of coffee or a smoothie can cost the same as a complete meal at an all-you-can-eat buffet, we know
we’re a wonderful value,” Hetsel says. “For us, it was just about really investing in that message.”
Cicis also began leaning more into limited-time offers. While historically a rarity, the brand now has a steady pipeline of four to five LTOs per year, thanks to a more proactive marketing approach.
Technology marked one of the biggest departures from the past. Following a data breach three years ago, Cicis replaced its tech stack with new POS and ERP systems across all locations. The upgraded infrastructure laid the foundation for the brand’s first-ever loyalty program, which begins piloting this summer ahead of a wider rollout later in the year.
The turnaround wasn’t without tough calls. In 2020 alone,
QUALITY BECAME A MAJOR FOCUS FOR CICIS AFTER IT WENT THROUGH BANKRUPTCY.
Cicis closed roughly 100 underperforming stores—a move Hetsel calls “addition by subtraction.” But the back-to-basics strategy, combined with selective modernization, has paid off. In recent years, Cicis has opened or reopened units across the country and signed several development agreements, with more in the pipeline for 2025.
Franchisees are also working closely with the brand on a systemwide remodel. The refresh includes updated aesthetics and expanded game rooms, while preserving the chain’s signature buffet model.
“We’re privately held, we have no debt, and we’re not under pressure to grow—but we have 35 stores in our development pipeline, so we are growing and are going to be growing more and more,” Hetsel says. “But what we really care about is just protecting and enhancing what we have.”
CLOVER’S HIGH-SPEED REINVENTION
Clover CEO Julia Wrin Piper describes the company’s recent bankruptcy process as “evolution on steroids.”
Chapter 11 Subchapter 5 didn’t just allow for restructuring—it forced the leadership team to quickly clarify its identity and future direction.
“It’s really economical in terms of capital, and it really asks a lot of the leadership team,” Wrin Piper says. “You have to have a lot of stamina and a lot of precision … We basically went through the natural evolution and experimentation process that a company usually takes years to go through, but we did that in a matter of months.”
The mission—promoting climate-conscious choices through plant-based meals—remained the constant. But the process required tough decisions about what to preserve and what to overhaul.
“It’s definitely an emotional process… especially in a mission-driven company like Clover,” says CMO Kiernan Schmitt. “We’re all motivated by the bigger climate goals that we stand for.”
That didn’t mean everything stayed the same. The team identified key non-negotiables, like sourcing from local farms and using compostable packaging, despite the cost. At the same time, operations were simplified, internal processes restructured, and some corporate roles eliminated. Clover also focused on making its brand more accessible to a wider audience.
“You have to be very, very honest with yourself and go in with a totally open mind,” Wrin Piper says. “Knowing exactly where every dollar is going, what your core values and competencies are ... it all moves quickly and can only be achieved if you’re being honest and over-communicating.”
One of the biggest visible shifts was the rebrand. Clover dropped “Food Lab” from its name, feeling it didn’t align with the brand’s farm-to-table ethos. It also updated its visual identity with vibrant food and farm imagery, a new color scheme, and more inviting packaging and uniforms. The menu now emphasizes flavor and familiarity—replacing technical names like “Celery Root” with more approachable terms like “Buffalo.”
“When we decided to go into restructuring, it was because we believed in the growth on the other side,” Schmitt says. “There was a version of this story where we brought it down to three restaurants … but the whole premise is that we want to affect climate change. We have to scale in order to accomplish that.”
Clover closed one restaurant and renegotiated its remaining leases during the process. Going forward, its real estate strategy centers on partnerships—especially with institutions like universities—and supporting other business lines, including a growing catering operation. The company now operates across four verticals: restaurants, catering, home meal box delivery, and wholesale. It’s currently designing new locations in Massachusetts and plans to expand further into New England before looking beyond the region.
“We have to carry the very honest and rigorous perspective that we developed during the restructuring forward,” Wrin Piper says. “It’s really important not to backslide, and to always look for where we can make a big impact.”
CHUCK E. CHEESE GOES BIG ON EXPERIENCE
When David McKillips stepped in as CEO of Chuck E. Cheese in early 2020, he inherited a brand in need of attention. Locations were outdated, underfunded, and worn down. Then COVID hit. Stores were forced to close and the company filed for bankruptcy.
But even in crisis, Chuck E. Cheese still held its status as the leading name in eatertainment, backed by a nearly five-decade legacy. The challenge was unlocking its full potential.
“We wanted to evolve from being a place where you go one or two times a year and make it a destination where you can come any time,” McKillips says. “That was the vision, and we were allowed to reset with that mindset while we were closed during COVID and going through the restructuring.”
That reset kicked off a full brand overhaul. With a $350 million investment beginning in 2021, Chuck E. Cheese set out to reimagine the guest experience. That meant restaurant remodels, new menu offerings, and tech-forward enhancements like kiosks, digital menu boards, floor-to-ceiling jumbotrons, and interactive dance floors.
“We embraced technology in the back of the house, too,
which was just as important,” McKillips says. “We upgraded our entire tech stack, everything from a new point of sale to a new app to kiosks that we have on the floor. We added pizza pickup windows and guest pagers, and we eliminated paper tickets and went to e-tickets, which are greener, cleaner, and a greater guest service.”
Chuck E. Cheese also has expanded beyond games and pizza with new in-store attractions. Trampolines tested in Brooklyn rolled out nationwide in 2024, joined by obstacle courses with climbing walls and slides. Together, they make up the Adventure Zone, launching systemwide in 2025. To boost visit frequency, the brand introduced Fun Passes, offering unlimited access for a flat fee over two months or a full year in installments.
Those efforts have brought consistency to the brand and opened new marketing avenues. Chuck E. Cheese has teamed with Buddy V’s virtual desserts, Kidz Bop, and the Harlem Globetrotters. It also extended its reach into retail, now offering frozen pizzas in Walmart.
McKillips says Chuck E. Cheese is well-positioned to make a strong impression on a new generation of kids—and reconnect with lapsed guests with the full system refreshed. Looking back, he credits communication as the foundation for the turnaround. One of his first moves was a listening tour, meeting face-to-face with every market to understand frontline needs.
“That really knocked down any type of wall between the support center and the field, which was so important,” he says.
At the time, he saw a clear disconnect between corporate and store-level teams. Frequent town halls—where wins and failures are openly discussed—helped rebuild trust. Today, general manager turnover is at an all-time low, and the company’s Glassdoor rating has never been higher.
“Communication is absolutely paramount for trying to be a change agent,” McKillips says. “I feel that everyone really can embrace change or embrace a new strategy if you understand the why behind it. And if it doesn’t work, you have to talk about the why behind that, too.”
CHUCK E. CHEESE
(3) CHUCK E. CHEESE HOPES TO MAKE A NEW, STRONGER IMPRESSION ON YOUNGER KIDS.
ships, cut unnecessary expenses, and streamlined its corporate support center.
TIJUANA FLATS FINDS ITS FLAVOR AGAIN
Jim Greco took the reins at Tijuana Flats just a few months after the brand filed for bankruptcy last spring. Known for leading comebacks at Sbarro and Bruegger’s Bagels, the industry veteran brought a reputation for turnarounds.
At Tijuana Flats, he determined the 30-year-old brand had simply lost its vision along the way.
“We looked at how we operated our restaurants—in particular, how we operated our labor at the store level and our cost of goods sold,” Greco says. “By benchmarking high-performing stores against similar but less-efficient ones, the company developed new guidelines around labor and product usage. “We worked to reduce the difference between the most efficient restaurants and the least efficient, and in doing so, we saved several percentage points of cost. That all falls to the bottom line.”
The brand currently operates around 90 stores across the Southern U.S. and is focused on building density in existing markets. In 2024, it opened three franchise stores and one corporate location, with similar plans for 2025.
“If you think back to 1995, there weren’t very many fast-casual Mexican restaurants, so it was a leader in that category,” Greco says. “It just failed to evolve over the years, while at the same time, more competitors arrived on the scene. It was no longer on the cutting edge in terms of appearance and product because it no longer knew exactly what its brand position was.”
Clarifying that brand identity became the priority. The company landed on “authentic Mexican” as its core positioning—setting it apart from competitors that typically serve Tex-Mex or fusion fare. To support the rebrand, Tijuana Flats partnered with a family-owned Mexican food company to develop new recipes and enhance existing ones. Dishes like Street Tacos and Street Corn were designed to strike a balance between Mexican street food and American familiarity, Greco says.
Guest feedback also played a key role. The team reviewed years of customer input to surface recurring issues the company had previously overlooked—like updating the rice or reworking how proteins were prepared.
Financially, Tijuana Flats took steps to reduce debt and improve margins. The company retained key vendor relation-
Roughly 30 restaurants closed between January and April 2024, prior to Greco’s arrival. He believes some of those closures could have been avoided.
“One of the cautionary tales that I would tell people is that you should be very, very careful about closing units,” he says. “It’s not a panacea. It often creates its own set of problems.”
Reflecting on Tijuana Flats’ rebound—and the pitfalls he’s seen throughout his career—Greco says the most common misstep is ignoring what guests are trying to tell you.
“It’s a lot easier to make slight course corrections as you’re going to keep yourself on track and then it is to get way off track and then try to fix it,” he says. “Constantly being aware of that and then adjusting for it is key to keeping the business from getting into the kind of trouble that would even require bankruptcy.”
Sam Danley is the associate editor of QSR. He can be reached at sdanley@wthwmedia.com
TIJUANA FLATS REGAINED ITS VISION BY CLARIFYING ITS BRAND IDENTITY.
The Influencer Shift is Here
A new app called Storytime is helping small businesses ditch expensive influencer campaigns in favor of hyperlocal creators who actually drive results.
BY BEN COLEY
Philip Davis and Aris Yeager are the founders of Storytime, a mobile app featuring a marketplace that connects local food influencers with restaurants. The idea came from their frustration with how influencer marketing had been handled in the past.
They had spent years building influencer marketing software for some of the biggest names in the world: Chanel, Sephora, LVMH. These brands had massive budgets, global audiences, and teams dedicated to figuring out how to work with influencers.
But they also spoke to stakeholders on the other end of the spectrum—small, location-based businesses. They wanted in on influencer marketing too. The problem? Everything that works for global luxury brands completely breaks down at the local level.
One issue is cost. The enterprise software Yeager and Davis worked with started at $1,000 per month, which is the entire marketing budget for many local operators. Complexity is another issue. These brands don’t need influencers with millions of followers— they need people whose audience lives within blocks of the store.
The disconnect affects influencers as well. Yeager sought partnerships in New York City and would send direct messages to places
he loved like Oakberry and Joe & The Juice. He would ask to trade posts for a smoothie or sandwich, but an exchange that should’ve taken minutes often took weeks. The messages, the negotiation, the back-and-forth—it was a broken workflow.
“It’s all the tedious work, all this back and forth messaging that they’re doing,” Yeager says. “And then obviously going beyond that from our experience, it’s understanding how you vet an influencer correctly. There’s a huge misunderstanding. A lot of business owners assume that it’s specific influencers with big followings that are going to move the needle, but the reality is when you can correctly vet an influencer, you realize that it’s all about hyperlocal.”
Yeager and Davis concluded that the entire process could be automated, which led to the creation of Storytime. The philosophy is to deploy dozens of smaller, local, more relevant creators instead of one large influencer who may have less actual impact.
As of April, the app worked with 400 locations and 140 different businesses in New York City. Storytime charges a flat monthly fee without any long-term commitment.
It works with Joe & The Juice, OAKBERRY, Brasa Peruvian Kitchen, among others.
From the influencer’s side, it starts with a simple application— but not everyone gets in. They vet applicants carefully. A following of 100,000 means nothing if those followers live in Brazil and the post is about a deli in Manhattan, as an example. Storytime cares about local reach, not follower count. In fact, the “sweet spot” they’ve found is creators with 5,000 to 15,000 followers. These users have followers that are often more engaged, more authentic, and more likely to drive real results.
Once an influencer is accepted, the app shows a map of nearby restaurants, which display tiered offers, depending on the size of someone’s social media reach. For instance, a lower deal may be $15 off while a higher one is $25 off. Influencers activate a voucher based on their reach, show up, validate it at the register, and Storytime tracks their posts to make sure brands get what they paid for.
“This just made everything so much easier for me,” says Alexis Decker, a food influencer who joined the Story-
Storytime helps restaurants in New York City gain more attention on social media.
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orders and offers recommendations. Of the customer, says Feghali, “Who knows what’s going on in that person’s day when they pull up, but all we know is that they want something to energize them or something to satisfy their sweet tooth. We know that sometimes when [ a customer will ] pull up, they might not be doing so great, but after they leave, we want them to be doing fantastic.”
While Coco Playa was in its infancy and its partners were searching for ways to innovate, Feghali decided to add dirty sodas to its lineup. Dirty soda is a mixture of soda, coffee creamer, and flavored syrups, adding a fun option for an espresso-free drink break.
“The perfect equation was formed: energizing coffee, crave-worthy cookies, refreshing dirty sodas, and the thing that brings it all together, which is a team that’s dedicated to putting smiles on people’s faces,” he says. “We like to say that the result is a place where every visit feels like a beachy escape, and every sip or bite makes your day just a little bit brighter.”
Laguna (hazelnut white mocha), Venice (chocolate macadamia shaken espresso), and Newport (almond roca coco mocha) are fun plays on classic California shores. Coco Playa’s dirty soda lineup is even quirkier, such as the Dew’d Where’s My Car?, which is a Mountain Dew with blue raspberry and coco crème mix-ins.
With so many flavor options and add-on choices, Feghali says the employees are all well-versed in the menu to help first-timers discover their new drink of choice (or to help frequent customers navigate toward a tasty new combination). Coco Playa also incorporates amusing and creative seasonal offers, such as The Demi, a coconut/ raspberry/pineapple ode to the reality show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”
Coco Playa is located in a heavily trafficked area of the bustling Old Town neighborhood of San Diego, near a multitude of coffee chain competition. “You put enough sugar in your coffee, it’s not going to taste that different from the next coffee place,” says Feghali. “What people are really striving for is that interaction where the customers get recognized by the employees.
owned business, I think we are setting an example for others in the industry. We want to empower others to achieve their goals and show them it’s possible.”
To help connect with local customers, the brand is also developing a Flower Mound–exclusive menu item: an Indo-Texan take on fajitas. For the franchisees, the dish isn’t just about flavor—it’s a cultural bridge.
“Bringing this brand into a community I’m already deeply involved in is exciting,” says Kilaru. “My kids grew up eating Indian food, and it’s not necessarily their favorite because they take it for granted, but when they tell me to take them to Curry Up Now, that’s a huge win. It speaks to the vibrant ambience and bold menu. Every aspect is enjoyable.”
That celebratory, welcoming spirit carries over to the way they’re building their team. From day one, the pair has focused on hiring people who share their passion for food, hospitality, and community building.
“As I walked through the restaurant [in those early days], I saw the incredible support of the community,” Khajuria says. “From the construction and utility workers to our first team members, we are supporting locals and they are reciprocating. We are building this community together, celebrating together, and really allowing for our customers to trust us to provide them with a great experience.”
With their first location up and running, Kilaru and Khajuria are already looking ahead.
A multi-unit expansion is in the works, with plans to grow across the Dallas area, add catering services, and strengthen offpremises channels.
“Our model is made for scaling,” Kilaru says. “Our primary focus right now is to make sure our first location is established and on its feet, but we’re ready to go. We’ve loved Curry Up Now for a long time and were waiting for the right moment to bring it to the community. [Khajuria] and I lead the franchise, and our families are right behind us, managing the backend so we can start growing.”
From their innovative menu to their community-first philosophy, the Flower Mound franchisees are turning heads—not just for the food, but for what it represents.
time team. “It just makes a lot more sense as well because it’s really nice for the restaurant side of it too. If they see an influencer come in via Storytime that they might not have found before, they can continue that relationship and really build a community with our influencer community instead of just having these people that come in for these one-offs and then never talk about the brand again. That’s a lot more disingenuous than the relationships that we’re trying to build.”
From the restaurant’s side, onboarding takes minutes. They choose their tiers and answer a few brand-fit questions. From there, Storytime automates everything and tailors the algorithm so influencers see restaurants that best match their location and following. The brand doesn’t need to manage outreach, DMs, or even track posts.
Michel Falcon, owner of Brasa, came across Storytime while casually searching for influencer tools online. One of the biggest differentiators for Falcon was the emphasis on localization.
“When I met with Aris and the team, they took me through the dashboards and how it all worked, and one thing that I appreciated is their localization,” Falcon explains. “Specifically for somebody like us, Brasa being where we are in [NYC’s Financial District], that’s very local, right? An influencer who spends the majority of their time in the Upper East Side, you’re not going to come all the way down just for a meal. It’s more targeted than the spray and pray.”
Falcon also appreciated the “clean and intentional” user experience on the app.
“The barrier of entry is extremely low when using Storytime because of the affordability, and the onboarding is extremely simple,” Falcon says. “You’re not being onboarded into a very robust or outdated software. You would be onboarded into a very easy interface to use, which is in your pocket because it’s in your phone. Very easy to understand the data points. It’s a great entry point to influencer marketing, and then from there, you get to allow yourself to get your feet wet.”
Storytime has dreams of growing outside of NYC into other big markets but also college towns, smaller cities, and densely populated suburbs.
Ben Coley is the editor of QSR. He can be reached at bcoley@ wtwhmedia.com
Tallulah Hawley is a staff writer for QSR magazine. She can be reached at thawley@wtwhmedia.com
Satyne Doner is a staff writer for QSR. She can be reached at sdoner@ wthwmedia.com
Quiznos CEO Preps for Growth
Neel Patel wants franchisees to see fresh potential in the sandwich chain.
BY SAM DANLEY
Neel Patel remembers the local Quiznos in his hometown—and the many Black Angus Steakhouse sandwiches he devoured as a kid.
Now, years later, he’s at the helm of the sandwich chain, tasked with reigniting growth and guiding the brand into its next chapter.
“I really need to love the product and believe in the product to feel comfortable while growing it,” Patel says. “Quiznos pioneered the hot sub and the toasted sub throughout the 80s and the 90s and popularized it in the early 2000s. To this day, I believe the offerings are extremely unique. We have high-quality meats and cheeses that are sliced in-house daily, a great set of bread offerings, and an industry-leading and pioneering set of sauces that come together to underpin really incredible recipes. So, when it comes to a craveable hot sub, we’re really hard to beat.”
Rego Restaurant Group named Patel CEO in late March, tapping him to lead both Quiznos and Taco Del Mar. Before that, he served as senior vice president of strategy and growth at Church’s Texas Chicken, where he led commercial strategy, revenue management, and global expansion. He played a key role in the brand’s transformation and recent growth—experience he plans to carry into his new role at Rego.
He joins when Quiznos is showing early signs of momentum.
Last fall, it opened a new drive-thru in Tucson, Arizona, that broke the brand’s all-time opening day sales record. Earlier in the year, it signed a deal with c-store chain Pump & Pantry to open another half-dozen locations—a continuation of development efforts that have included nontraditional sites and new franchise commitments in markets across Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, and more.
More recently, the chain kicked off 2025 with a string of successful openings that, as Patel puts it, “show flexibility and unique real estate footprints—not just our typical inlines.”
One of those openings is especially notable: In early May, Quiznos debuted its first-ever Qube concept restaurant in Alpena, Michigan.
Developed by BCubed Manufacturing in partnership with Rego Restaurant Group, the Qube is a modular restaurant model designed to speed up development, streamline operations, and cater to off-
premises customers. At around 650 square feet, each unit includes both drive-thru and walk-up windows and is designed to fit on smaller parcels of land. The concept supports a lower-cost structure and is built for operational efficiency, with features like kiosk ordering and self-serve lockers slated for future testing. The prefabricated units are manufactured off-site and shipped fully equipped and ready to install—cutting down timelines and construction complexity.
“The launch of our latest modular concept really pushes the envelope by making a low cost, freestanding drive-thru unit that’s optimized for digital and optimized for efficiency,” Patel says. “I think it lays the groundwork for very attractive ways for new partners and current franchisees to invest in the brand.”
The Qube opening brought Quiznos’ total unit count to 233, including 144 in the U.S. and 89 in Canada. At its peak the brand had nearly 5,000 locations. But that was before a dramatic decline that marked one of the industry’s most high-profile collapses.
Quiznos’ downfall was largely tied to a franchise model that prioritized corporate profits over operator success. Franchisees were forced to buy overpriced food and supplies
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from a company-owned distributor, which slashed their margins. A leveraged buyout added unsustainable debt, and when the 2008 recession hit, closures accelerated. The brand filed for bankruptcy in 2014, having lost most of its footprint.
“It’s hard to escape that the peak of Quiznos and the height of the brand was quite incredible,” Patel says. “That was a long time ago. We’re definitely a smaller portfolio than we were. What I think is fascinating and exciting about the opportunity now is how that scale has laid the groundwork for having the awareness that we have today. It continues to be broadly known, even if our footprint is a lot smaller than what it once was. So, as we continue to expand and grow, we’re not going to be unfamiliar to the other markets that we enter.”
Quiznos was acquired by High Bluff Capital Partners in 2018 and folded into its Rego Restaurant Group alongside Taco Del Mar. In the years that followed, the brand rolled out a comprehensive refresh and invested in improvements in nearly every aspect of the business—from an updated store design and re-branding initiative to a revamped menu and new kitchen equipment like flat top grills and deep fryers. Around the same time, it also began signing multi-unit development deals to reignite unit growth, including one with a former franchisee who returned to the system after a 10-year absence.
Patel says many franchisees are seeing fresh opportunity in Quiznos, and his top order of business is making sure that optimism continues.
“The number one priority for me is franchisee profitability—growing unit-level margins and ensuring that franchisees can continue to invest in the system, and also attract new franchisees who want to invest in the brand,” he says. “That’s a core focus of mine. It will continue to be at the center of the overall brand transformation going forward.”
At the same time, he adds, the broader value proposition needs to go beyond just good unit economics.
“Everything happens at the unit level,” Patel says. “To have a great, healthy, thriving franchise system, our units have to be profitable. They have to deliver for guests every single day.”
Waste is a Restaurant Killer, but Often the Last Thing Owners Fix
Obsessions with loyalty can backfire if guest experience isn’t consistent.
How much waste is there in a restaurant? While so many restauranteurs are focused on getting more people in the door with loyalty programs and taking more orders faster with point of sale upgrades, all that new money coming in the front door is flying out the back door. Once the waste starts affecting diners’ experience, no amount of loyalty can save a brand from the bad reviews. It turns out, waste is hidden across all areas of the restaurant. The wasted time spent prepping food that won’t end up being used. The wasted resources, training new employees when a chaotic kitchen creates high turnover. The wasted money sunk into paper tickets. The wasted opportunities when staff is bogged down and can’t function efficiently. And, the wasted potential guests getting the wrong orders, suffering long wait times, and ultimately leaving bad reviews about their experiences, never to return.
So how do back-of-house solutions keep guests coming back? ConnectSmart® Kitchen is QSR Automations flagship software, used in 21 of the top 25 casualdining chains around the U.S. This system automates operations, helping cut down on food waste from day one.
Delayed routing lets orders queue in the most efficient ways, so guests get the optimal food experience with the least wait. Additionally, customizable routing, pacing, and prep stations cleanup workflow and reduce ticket times. And it integrates with over 80 point-of-sale systems, so there’s no need for a massive tech overhaul to see results.
ConnectSmart Host is software created specifically for full-service restaurants. Now, key information can be digitally communicated from the kitchen to the front-of-house and vice versa. This way, everyone can better manage rushes, seating, and more.
ConnectSmart Go helps restaurants supercharge their off-premises program. It enables users to mark guests and delivery drivers as “arrived” and automatically notify back-of-house staff through ConnectSmart® Kitchen screens. With ConnectSmart Go you can also release and fast track orders from your to-go stand, plus, send updates to the kitchen in real-time, and can give you the data to make smart operational decisions.
Finally, ConnectSmart RecipesPlus digitizes your brand’s recipe book. It’s searchable and keeps orders consistent across locations. New recipes can be quickly added across the entire system from one centralized location. And this software even makes training employees easy, translating recipes automatically so a diverse staff can understand.
When planning the restaurant’s strategy, don’t forget to balance improvements to marketing, POS, and back of house so the restaurant can grow successfully without potential setbacks. RET
Lighting the Way: How Classic Foods is Modernizing Wendy’s® Marketing Across Idaho and Utah
Grab attention, increase traffic, and reinforce brand presence.
Few things matter more to a Wendy’s® franchise than delivering a consistent, on-brand experience at every location. That’s where Braeden Ricks, DMA marketing manager for Wendy’s of Idaho, comes in. His role spans multiple franchise locations across Idaho and the Salt Lake City area, with a focus on driving marketing cohesion and operational excellence. One of those standout groups is Classic Foods Inc., a forward-thinking franchisee that has embraced the power of digital signage to modernize customer engagement and streamline brand messaging.
Classic Foods has made digital signage a cornerstone of its marketing strategy. Nearly 60 percent of its restaurants already feature dynamic LED displays from Watchfire, and the company plans to increase that to 90 percent by the end of 2025. For Braeden and the franchisees he supports, this shift is about more than aesthetics—it’s about helping local operators remain nimble while staying tightly aligned to Wendy’s national brand standards.
“Partnering with Watchfire for our digital signage needs has been a game changer for Classic Foods and other franchisees in our region,” Braeden says. “We are now able to provide approved assets and product photography straight from corporate that operators can easily download and schedule at their locations almost instantly. That level of control and speed has brought a new level of consistency and professionalism to our marketing.”
Prior to adopting digital displays, most franchise locations relied on static reader boards, which limited the ability to promote new products or respond quickly to market changes. Now, when Wendy’s corporate introduces a new product or launches a promotional push, franchisees like Classic Foods can mirror that messaging immediately on their restaurant signs. The ability to update content remotely ensures operators stay current and on brand without missing sales opportunities.
“Having the flexibility to switch out content for the hottest items—whether it’s a limited-time promotion, such as the SpongeBob SquarePants collaboration last fall and Girl Scouts Thin Mints™ Frosty® from this spring, or highlighting breakfast
options during morning commute hours—means stores can adapt to customer demand in real time,” Braeden says. “We’ve seen firsthand that locations with LED signage consistently outperform those without. It grabs attention, increases traffic, and reinforces brand presence.”
Beyond driving sales, the digital signage program also alleviates the workload for individual operators. With pre-approved graphics and Watchfire’s OPx cloud-based content management software, franchisees spend less time managing signs and more time focusing on operations. “It has truly cut down on labor and made it easier to maintain an on-brand look at every restaurant,” Braeden adds.
For Classic Foods, the investment has paid off in both brand strength and business results. “They’re a huge proponent of the program because they’ve seen the difference,” Braeden says. “Digital signage elevates the customer experience, promotes the right products at the right time, and helps the entire Wendy’s system maintain a cohesive, modern image.” RET
DIGITAL READER BOARDS. DRIVE TRAFFIC. INCREASE SALES.
Increase your QSR’s foot traffic and drive sales by promoting new menu items, limited-time specials, and loyalty program perks. Display eye-catching, dynamic brand-approved messages that uphold your QSR’s brand standards.
Easily manage content with Ignite OPx, our content management software. Schedule updates months in advance or make last-minute changes and streamline your sign messaging for one location or many.
Our reputation is built on your digital reader board's ability to look great and perform reliably, not just for one day but for its lifetime.
Is Theft Eating Your Restaurants’ Earnings?
Here’s how restaurants are fighting back against cash loss.
Running a quick-service restaurant is tough work with tight margins. While many payment options are out there, cash is still a major part of daily business. In fact, cash remains a consistently strong choice for U.S. consumers, holding its ground as the third-most-used payment type last year. Its usage has remained stable since 2020, demonstrating its enduring presence in daily transactions, according to the 2025 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice. So, while digital transactions are a popular choice, plenty of consumers still rely on cash.
With so much cash flowing through your doors, protecting it requires foresight to prevent what the retail and restaurant industry calls ‘shrink’—unaccounted losses of inventory or cash. Partnering with a cash services provider is your best strategy to safeguard your hard-earned money. Let’s break down the options you have as a customer of these services.
SMART TECHNOLOGY CUTS DOWN ON CASH TOUCHPOINTS
Think about all the times cash is handled: counting, recounting, preparing deposits, and trips to the bank. Each of these steps is
an opportunity for error or vulnerability. A smart safe refines these processes, optimizing cash flow and enhancing its security. It’s like having a built-in security guard and accountant across daily operations.
Beyond simply securing your cash, smart safes give you high visibility. You’ll know exactly when a deposit was made, by whom, and for what amount. Tracking ensures accuracy and holds employees accountable without needing extra training or time-consuming new processes. More advanced smart safes boost security even further with features like a contact center and remote support, making cash processing quicker and more accurate. Another big benefit is individual employee PINs. This gives you full tracking of every transaction, helping you pinpoint exactly where any shortages might occur. Plus, the best smart safes include built-in tutorials to get your team up to speed fast, so they can focus on customers, not complicated cash procedures.
PROTECTING YOUR PROFITS
A smart safe is a strong start, but a truly comprehensive approach to cash handling goes further. The right partner offers a complete, technology-driven solution. This means everything from smart safe technology to secure cash-in-transit services and reliable IT and customer support.
Take Papa Johns, for example. They faced the complexity of managing over 400 bank accounts and vast cash flow across many locations. By partnering with Loomis and implementing SafePoint solutions, they were able to consolidate accounts and significantly improve their cash management efficiencies. This real-world success shows how the right partner turns cash handling from a weakness into a strength.
When you have a partner who understands the unique demands of the quick-service restaurant world, you’re actively protecting profits and driving business forward. RET
CASH— The Secret Ingredient.
How the biggest names in the industry handle their cash.
Running a busy restaurant, you know that every detail matters—from nailing lunch rush and customer satisfaction to keeping costs in check. Top brands in the industry face the same challenges, and many have found a smart solution with SafePoint® by Loomis.
They rely on SafePoint® for the accuracy, speed, and reliability needed to handle high volumes of cash without the usual headaches. It’s a smart business decision: less time spent on manual counting, fewer discrepancies at the end of the day, and even faster access to funds. It’s a solution that works for those at the top, and it can work for you too.
The Oven Innovation That’s Helping Productivity Soar
How ImVection is changing the game by increasing speed, versatility, and efficiency.
As consumer demand for faster service increases and the foodservice landscape picks up its already frenzied pace, operators are turning to equipment, products, and solutions that can speed up the time it takes to get high-quality dishes out the door. Factor in labor and space challenges, and it’s easy to see why efficiency, versatility, and improved workflow are at the forefront of operator needs.
Recently, innovation in the industry has centered on helping operators address these concerns, including the release of a new oven from industry leader Blodgett. Their awardwinning ImVection Oven allows operators to achieve higher levels of productivity, all with a single, space-saving unit.
IMPINGEMENT AND CONVECTION IN ONE
The ImVection Oven begins with a revolutionary design. It features four cooking chambers, each of which can individually function as either an impingement or convection oven, all in a single unit. Driven by patent-pending moveable air plates that switch between impingement and convection, the oven gives operators the ability to cook chicken wings, pizza or other quick-turn items under intense, high-speed heat at the same time they’re making chocolate chip cookies or salmon under gentle airflow. And even with four different foods cooking in such close proximity, the unique design prevents flavor transfer between dishes, ensuring truer finished flavors.
HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY LOWER COST
By incorporating ImVection Ovens, kitchens can expect an increase in overall productivity while reducing costs. For starters, the ventless, compact footprint is
a highly efficient use of space. The unit is controlled by an intuitive, intelligent display, and temperatures between chambers can vary by 175 degrees, making it versatile for preparing a variety of items at once, increasing throughput. The four-chamber, two-door configuration offers faster cook times and higher efficiency thanks to better heat retention. And operators can save on investment costs by purchasing and maintaining a single unit, with the added benefit of reduced utility costs.
SETTING A HIGHER BAR
With its combination of quality, technology, design, and ingenuity, the ImVection Oven has already received accolades for groundbreaking innovation. At the 2024 National Restaurant Show, it was recognized with a Kitchen Innovations Award, demonstrating its ability to transform back-of-house environments and assist foodservice operations as they strive to meet the times.
CHANGING THE GAME
The ImVection Oven is just one of many quality, reliable products from Blodgett. Backed by over 175 years of experience, they’re known across the industry for setting the standard of excellence with best-in-class ovens. With this newest innovation, Blodgett continues to build upon its legacy, boost kitchen performance, change the game, and once again prove why they are the Greatest Ovens of All Time. RET
The revolutionary, versatile ImVection Oven
Four chambers can individually function as either an impingement or convection oven, allowing you to cook quick-turn items in high-speed heat at the same time you’re baking other foods under gentler, circulating hot air. That’s a huge win for kitchens. And that’s why we’re known for making the Greatest Ovens of All Time.
COOK 4 DISHES AT 1 TIME
Smart Tech, Seamless Service: The New Standard in Restaurant Operations
How next-gen technology is elevating efficiency and exceeding diner expectations.
The distinction between physical and digital retail is increasingly blurring, particularly within the food service and hospitality industries. To remain competitive, restaurants are implementing significant operational changes, including a wider variety of payment options, optimizing service methods through technology, and enhancing overall customer experiences. As retail continues to evolve, operators must navigate ongoing challenges related to fluctuating consumer demand, labor dynamics, and shifting market trends.
The State of the Industry: Future of In-Restaurant Dining report by Incisiv, in collaboration with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, highlights how restaurants must go beyond basic convenience to accelerate operations and meet evolving expectations of diners. According to the study, 38 percent of restaurants have implemented POS systems that can handle both in-store and online orders to streamline operations and ensure a smooth guest experience across channels. The industry is moving toward more integrated operations, with 57 percent of restaurants now managing multiple order types.
The key question remains: how can restaurants adapt to rapid
change and deliver seamless experiences in both a cost effective and efficient manner?
Restaurants continue to evolve in response to shifting consumer preferences and buying behaviors. Businesses must remain aware of these changing expectations and deliver experiences that align with diverse customer needs. While some guests seek the full-service experience of dining in, others prioritize the convenience and efficiency of takeout or contactless transactions. To enhance customer satisfaction, businesses should focus on minimizing friction throughout the shopping experience by leveraging advanced technology solutions and retail-hardened POS platforms. Seamless, integrated systems ensure a consistent and engaging experience across all channels.
Rising wages and labor shortages are compelling restaurants to make significant adjustments to staffing strategies and employee engagement. Employees are being reallocated to roles with expanded responsibilities, including curbside pickup and delivery. Implementing flexible technology solutions allows smooth transitions between associate-led POS systems or self-service kiosks. Intuitive and user-friendly restaurant technology can also streamline employee training and improve retention, ultimately enhancing overall operational efficiency
Investing in a future-ready POS solution is a strategic decision for long-term operational success. The restaurant industry requires POS technology that is durable, engineered to withstand extreme temperatures, humidity, vibrations, impacts, and frequent cleaning. Beyond physical resilience, retail-hardened technology must also deliver the processing power and flexibility needed to integrate with emerging digital applications and future peripherals. Implementing robust, retail-hardened solutions can minimize downtime, optimize service efficiency, and enhance the overall customer experience.
Toshiba delivers retail-hardened technology, specialized services, and expertise to help restaurants adapt to changing customer preferences, maximize profit, and enhance operations. With a broad hardware, software, and services portfolio, along with an extensive network of partners, we take a collaborative approach to make sure businesses have the tools they need to meet their goals. RET
CREATE YOUR TOMORROW WITH TOSHIBA
Drive growth and innovation with flexible solutions
A Big Task that Can Be Easily Automated
Something the full-service sector has been doing for a long time.
Turnover has long been an issue for quick-service brands. According to Black Box Intelligence, fast casual and quick-service restaurants have seen employee turnover soar from 133 percent in 2019 to 173 percent in 2022. Rising wages have also complicated plans for fully staffing restaurants. With staff in short supply, operators can find themselves redeploying revenue generating team members to handle critical but non-customer-facing tasks like washing wares. “Quick service restaurants are feeling the impact of rising wages,” says Gretchen King, Vice President of RD&E—Global QSR at Ecolab.
Whereas many full-service brands have long since automated warewashing, the quick-service segment has been slower to make that change, which presents several issues for quick-service brands. First, handwashing wares can be inefficient, King says—a warewashing machine uses up to 75 percent less water. Second, there can be inconsistencies when handwashing wares. When employees are rushed, wares may not be properly cleaned. In addition to food safety risks, restaurants could disappoint customers if partially cleaned items like lobby trays make it into the rotation.
Now is the time to make the switch to automate warewashing, King says, touting Ecolab’s KAY QSR Machine Warewashing Program as the perfect solution for quickservice brands. “Ecolab now offers the XL-RW machine tailor made for quick-service restaurants that delivers a valuable combination of speed, strength, and capacity needed to make machine automation a valuable addition to the quick-service back of house,” King says. With an oversized 10-inch higher door opening, the machine fits wares more common in quick service, like lobby trays and sheet pans. Combine that increased capacity with faster throughput from a speedy 60 second cycle time, and you have the right solution for quick-service restaurants.
King and her team leverage Computer Aided Design (cad) programs to identify where a machine would work in any restaurant. “That’s an area where we differentiate ourselves,” King says. “We do all the work for restaurant brands in terms of how to retrofit a back-of-house and identify where everything can fit. We want operators to understand that this is possible.”
Ecolab’s full portfolio of machines come with the expertise and support of Ecolab’s national service team, who are experts on the machine itself, as well as the overall warewashing program. The machine, along with the support from Ecolab’s team, help make restaurants more efficient. It is also a morale boost for team members and managers who don’t want to stay late washing wares after an already long day.
“Having peace of mind, that we take care of everything with machine design, high performing products, and a robust service team, is hugely impactful to restaurant operators,” King says. “We understand the industry and how hard it is right now; we believe this solution is incredibly valuable for quick-service restaurants.” RET
Palmer Digital Group Raises the Canopy for Dual-Concept Fast Casual Restaurant Chain
Palmer Digital Group, a full-service supplier and installer of custom indoor and outdoor digital kiosks, display enclosures and drive-thru digital menu boards, continues to win quickservice restaurant modernization projects throughout North America, with especially strong momentum in its hometown region. On the heels of a recent wins announcement with Chicagoarea barbeque chain The Patio, Palmer Digital Group announces that Chicago-area fast casual chain Bouna Beef will install its turnkey outdoor digital menu board systems at most locations, beginning with two dual-concept locations with Rainbow Cone.
Founded in 1981, Bouna Beef brings Chicago flavors including its signature Italian beef sandwich to 26 restaurants in surrounding communities. In late 2022, Bouna Beef joined forces with regional institution Rainbow Cone, which in 1926 opened its
drive-thru operations. The marketing team was equally invested in the idea, given the challenge of updating multiple, differently sized static message boards in a timely manner.
“It’s not easy to replicate signage for limited time offers when some signs are one to three inches shorter than others, and your signs vary between single, double and triple-panel configurations,” says Mark Kearins, IT director for Bouna Beef. “That leaves the marketing team scrambling to create temporary signage for a variety of dimensions, many of which are unique to one site.”
The Bouna Beef team found their answer upon entering Palmer Digital Group’s booth at the 2022 National Restaurant Association Show. The company soon ordered two triple-panel canopy systems for its Valparaiso location—one for each drivethru lane—and soon after committed to a larger order for Orland Park, which adds single-panel preview boards. PDG will also customize the Orland Park canopy menu board structure with the brand’s enduring pink and purple colors famous to its customers.
original Chicago location and today operates 10 stores, including one in Florida. One of these locations, in Valparaiso, Illinois, represents the first Bouna Beef/Rainbow Cone dual-concept franchise; a second in Orland Park opens in June.
The dual-concept franchise initiative, along with changing consumer habits, inspired Bouna Beef to re-evaluate their
Kearins said that while Bouna Beef managed the Valparaiso installation in-house, they are outsourcing the Orland Park installation work to Palmer Digital Group. “They have an installation team with experts that understand the electrical and network infrastructure, so we don’t need to bring in a lift to put the canopy systems in place,” says Kearins. “As we start rolling out menu board systems to other locations, which we intend to do, we won’t really have the bandwidth to carry the load ourselves.”
Kearins expects to use PDG’s QSRDSMB346CANOPY systems at most locations, which have three integrated 46-inch Samsung displays and offer overhead shade and protection from wet weather as customers place their orders. Preview systems will favor single-panel pedestal designs that can be lifted into place and securely mounted by two technicians. They are also in talks to install indoor digital menu board systems at several locations, along with “marketing TVs” for promotional digital signage inside Rainbow Cone locations. RET
with PDG’s all-in-one, turnkey digital menu board solution
From Screen to Strategy: How vMenu Turns Menus into Revenue-Driving Tools
Where digital menus meet real business growth.
At Vistify, we believe digital menus should be more than displays—they should help your restaurant grow.
When we talk to quick-service restaurant operators, the same challenge comes up: managing menus across locations is a hassle. It’s time-consuming, hard to scale, and often not connected to the data you need. That’s exactly why we built vMenu—a powerful, all-in-one digital menu platform designed specifically for quick service restaurants. With vMenu, your team can take charge of your screens— no developers or designers needed. Our easyto-use, drag-and-drop builder makes it simple for anyone to create, update, and launch sleek, fully on-brand menus. Whether you’re rolling out a limited-time offer, changing up prices, or updating nutrition info, it’s all just a few clicks away.
vMenu isn’t just about updating menu screens—it’s about turning them into moneymakers. With real-time performance data and smart insights, you can see exactly which items are driving revenue, which combos are lagging, and how your screen layout affects what guests choose. So instead of going with your gut, you’re making moves backed by real data. Want to spotlight high-margin items, localize offers, or A/B test layouts? It’s all possible—fast and easy. It also plugs right into your existing tech stack, from POS to back-of-house systems, so there’s no need to rip and replace. And if you ever need help, our U.S.-based support team is here for you 24/7. Whether you’re running one location or hundreds, vMenu helps your screens work smarter, scale effortlessly, and drive results around the clock.
Our solution is designed to work across all quick-service restaurant verticals—fast casual, coffee shops, pizza joints, and more. We’re proud to support some of the most forward-thinking brands in the business, like Flame Broiler, La Madeleine, Coffee Fellows, Slice House, and others.
Your digital signage should be doing more than showing content—it should be working for you. That’s why we built vMenu: to help your team move faster, communicate better, and turn every screen into a smart, strategic tool. Whether it’s pushing out a promo in seconds, updating menus across your entire system, or using back-of-house screens to streamline operations, we make it all possible—without needing a tech team or a complicated process. It’s not just about looking modern. It’s about unlocking the real power of your digital presence—boosting revenue, improving efficiency, and staying ready for whatever comes next.
Ready to level up your digital menu game? Let’s do it. Visit
OWN THE EXPERIENCE
START TO FINISH
Todd Broaderick
Founder & CEO
KNUCKIES HOAGIES
What do most people not know about you?
I am a two-time cancer survivor. In 2013, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 neck and throat cancer. I underwent 7 rounds of chemo and 35 treatments of radiation. In 2016, the cancer returned—this time limited to my tonsil—and I underwent a radical tonsillectomy. I’ve now been cancer-free for nine years!
What’s your favorite menu item at Knuckies Hoagies?
I love a lot of our hoagies, but if I had to pick just one, it’d be our Cheesesteak – it melts in your mouth.
What’s your favorite cuisine aside from Knuckies Hoagies? As a native Floridian, I am definitely a seafood guy! I love fish blackened or “crusted” fish –especially with a great sauce to complement it.
How do you maintain a work-life balance?
Early on in my career, I made a commitment to not let money be my passion. My passion was the Lord, my wife, and my kids.
What’s the best piece of advice that other restaurant executives should hear? Stay true to your personal convictions and never compromise. Build meaningful relationships along the way.
What are some of your interests outside of work?
I love serving as a Doorholder at Passion City Church Atlanta and spending time with my incredible family. I love being Papa T to our three little grandsons.
The restaurant industry has been a central part of my life for more than three decades. What began as a simple passion for hospitality has grown into a career that’s taken me across nearly every corner of the business – from full-service fine dining to quick-service restaurants. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of launching and operating a variety of concepts, each one teaching me invaluable lessons about leadership, creativity, and perseverance.
When I first acquired an award-winning pizza concept, one thing was clear: the crust was easily the star of the show. That fan-favorite dough sparked an idea – what else could we create with it? After some experimenting, I developed a prototype for a hoagie roll in collaboration with a renowned bakery who gave their stamp of approval. After that, I knew we had something special.
That experience became the foundation for Knuckies Hoagies. From the beginning, Knuckies has been more about great sandwiches – it’s
about creating a space where food brings people together and restaurants feel like part of the neighborhood. Today, I focus on developing our leadership teams, overseeing operations, collaborating on restaurant design, and crafting menus that keep guests coming back for more. One of the things I’m most proud of is our commitment to consistency and quality across every location, made possible by strong vendor relationships and attention to market trends.
Building Knuckies has deepened my faith, strengthened my gratitude for family and friends, and given me a greater sense of purpose in both life and business. Through it all, I’ve held fast to my core values. I never wanted the pursuit of success to overshadow what matters most – my relationship with the Lord, my incredible wife of 32 years and our three amazing children. That foundation has kept me grounded, no matter where the business takes me.
Knuckies isn’t just a brand. It’s a reflection of my personal and professional journey.
