Food & Beverage News

Darden announced that dine-in traffic at flagship brands Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse has led to an improvement of more than 10 percentage points in same-store sales. As of Sunday, 49 percent of dining rooms were open in a limited capacity. The company expects more than 65 percent to be open by the end of…

Restaurants have had to adjust to a completely new set of circumstances since the novel coronavirus pandemic struck in mid-March, and most of them are still trying to build back sales that were devastated as dining rooms were required to close and people were told to stay home to avoid contracting or spreading the virus.…

Major restaurant chain customer transactions have continued improving as more dining rooms reopen. Transactions were down 18% year-over-year in the week ended May 31, up 3% from the previous week, according to data from NPD. Transactions at major full-service chains were down 37% year-over-year, a 15% improvement from the prior week. Quick-service restaurant chain transactions declined…

Krystal filed for bankruptcy in January and was put up for sale as part of the reorganization process. Fortress emerged as the successful bidder of the business. Thomas Stager was named president of Krystal, effective immediately. He replaces Tim Ward, former president and chief operating officer. Mr. Ward, along with former chief financial officer Bruce Vermilyea, are…

The European food delivery company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of Grubhub in an all-stock transaction. Combined, the two companies will create the largest online food delivery service outside of China, measured by gross merchandise value and revenues. The announcement comes after several weeks of negotiations between Uber and…

Starbucks Corp. announced plans to accelerate the transformation of its store portfolio in the United States through the integration of the physical and digital customer experience. Over the next 18 months, Starbucks will increase convenience-led formats in company-operated locations with drive-thru and curbside pickup options, as well as new Pickup-only locations. The store experiences will…

As restaurants reopen across the country, operators are tempting consumers with new menu items and limited time offers. Some chains did release LTOs during the quarantine, but most of those products were in the pipeline before the spread of COVID-19. Now that chefs and menu developers are back in the kitchen, the pace of launches…

The news means every drive-through restaurant in the UK and Ireland will reopen between Tuesday and Thursday next week. Customers face a £25 cap on their orders, while each franchise has been asked to make sure its staff are fit and able to work. A McDonald’s spokesperson said: “We can today announce that by 4th June,…

The parent of Le Pain Quotidien agreed to sell its U.S. locations of the bakery-cafe chain to New York-based multiconcept operator Aurify Brands LLC for about $3 million. The agreement came as PQ New York Inc., operator of 98 Le Pain Quotidien restaurants across the U.S. before the pandemic, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. As part…

The new CEO of the Wahlburgers restaurant chain isn’t letting the pandemic get in the way of ambitious expansion plans. As John Fuller researched the company before interviewing for the CEO job at the Hingham-based group, he was surprised to learn it only had 37 locations, given its widespread name recognition. There’s a good reason…