Bad timing, but who knew?

You can’t help but sympathize with Max & Erma’s, the 100-unit casual-dining chain. It announced a line-up of fall menu specials last Tuesday with the usual drum rolls and trumpet blasts. No fanfare was likely need for one of the limited-time items. Who wouldn’t notice a ravioli dish made with baby spinach, when health authorities were posting daily updates of how many people had been sickened and hospitalized from eating the green?

The unfortunate timing certainly wasn’t Max & Erma’s fault. No doubt its new Italian array was under development for months, starting back in the days when spinach was viewed as something that fostered health. And the menu is slated for the fall; who knows what the status of the spinach situation will be next week, never mind early December? Would it have made sense to hold back on a ravioli dish that features spinach when the vegetable might be re-designated as safe by the time guests roll into restaurants to give the new menu a try? Perhaps. But, for the sake of prudence, why not forego a mention of the product, at least in press announcements that the media will likely pass along to consumers?

Of course, Max & Erma’s is hardly the only chain to put the spotlight on an item that might have better been left under wraps. On Aug. 25, just about the time state health officials were fielding reports of people getting sick from eating spinach, Applebee’s scored the publicity coup of disclosing that celebrity chef/TV star/heartthrob Tyler Florence had developed four menu items for the mega-chain. One is an interesting poultry dish, called Crispy Brick Chicken, which is made by splitting a chicken and pressing it against a red-hot grill, according to the announcement that flooded the media. But in a regrettable twist of timing, it’s accompanied by a fresh spinach salad.

Applebee’s apparently kept the chicken, but smartly pulled the accompanying salad.

There’s no word yet on what Max & Erma’s plans to do if the spinach crisis continues, as it likely will to some degree. Fortunately, the new Italian menu includes three other dishes that can be touted. But it’d be a shame that all that the outcome of all that R&D work might have to be a raincheck.

WARNING: Writer is not responsible for this content

The most telling proof to date that corporate-governance watchdogs desperately need to be put on a leash: CBRL Group, the parent of Cracker Barrel and Logan’s, today issued a statement declaring its quarterly dividend. The actual disclosure of the financial information required 97 words.

The qualifiers, disclaimers and other defensive statements required by lawyers extended to 656 words.

The notable excerpts included an explanation that “forward-looking terminology” could include such words as would, could, regular or continue—“or the negative or other derivatives of each of these terms”; the warnings that business could be affected by avian flu or mad cow disease; and the heads-up that an executive’s inadvertent glimpse of a black cat could bring nine years of bad luck.

Okay, we made that last one up. But it kind of fits, doesn’t it?

The other side of the dark underbelly

Covering the restaurant business may not be war correspondence, but it has its unsettling experiences, be it writing about spinach poisonings (after you’ve consumed one of the brands cited by authorities as suspect), recounting the random shooting of 24 people in a Texas Luby’s, or reporting the illegal shenanigans of a CEO whom you regarded as a friend. And then there’s the story of Drago’s, the seafood restaurant in Metairie, La.

Like most of the dining establishments in and around New Orleans, the place was walloped by Hurricane Katrina last year. Two employees had insisted on staying inside the restaurant during the storm, which spared it from looting or vandalism. But they and colleagues from the area knew all that choice seafood, meat and frozen supplies they had on hand would spoil long before the restaurant could even dream of re-opening—a tragedy, given how many people in the area were without anything to eat. They figured they might as well serve it up. But here was one problem: They had no power to run a stove, oven or even a microwave.

But they improvised, doing whatever they could. Within a week, the staff was feeding the Coast Guard personnel who were struggling to plug the infamous 17th St. Levy levy breach. When Drago’s supplies ran out, proprietor Tommy Cvitanovich pressed his suppliers to pony up their supplies before that food went bad. Before long, he was hitting up every supplier and vendor he could. “We didn’t even buy from some of these people,” he would later say.

Yet the food donations poured in, as did a refrigerated trailer where the food could be kept. When locals came by for a hot meal, they’d stop by the trailer afterward to pick up cold cuts or other ready-to-eat foods they could bring to whatever shelter they were using. A trip would yield two or three meals.

It was an offer too good for the hungry and newly homeless to resist; At one point, Drago’s was feeding 3,500 meals a day, though it settled into a routine of a mere 1,500 a day. All supplied free, prepared free, and consumed for free.

As conditions improved, the restaurant raised its scope. It served 400 steak dinners to policemen, firemen and other recovery workers on Thanksgiving. And it started holding charity benefits to help out the fisherman who’d supplied the restaurant in better days. A Sunday lunch generated $21,000, all of which went to local oyster men.

By the time the restaurant was ready to resume commercial operations, it had fed an estimated 77,000 people for free.

Drago’s efforts led to its selection this year as a winner of the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Neighbor Award, an honor bestowed annually on four operations that embody the association’s core principle that restaurants are the cornerstones of their communities. Yet when Cvitanovich was presented with the $5,000 check that comes with the award, he said he couldn’t take it.

Instead, he explained, the restaurant was going to match the prize with $5,000 of its own money, and pool that with the matching awards Cvitanovich had successfully solicited from three other parties in the industry. “And I’m not done yet,” he said. The funds are already earmarked for a New Orleans-area high school that had to be rebuilt. “We want to make sure it has a kitchen in it when it reopens,” so youngsters could develop the skills needed to bring the area’s renowned foodservice industry back to what it was pre-Katrina.

At check presentation, an NRA official ad-libbed that he wished the industry’s detractors would think of Drago’s social contribution before they slam the trade as a bunch of burger flippers.

A negative side effect of this job is the cynicism if fosters. Then you hear of a situation like that, and the battle-weariness lifts. You realize it’s not always about money, ego or any other of the baser motivators. The bad may still seem pretty bad, but the good seems so dramatically underscored.

'When did the industry stop beating its spouse?'

If the Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives this November, as many pundits predict, what can the restaurant industry expect from the presumably anti-business shift in power? Perhaps not what you’d think.

The victory would likely be a squeaker, not the sort of rout that would enable the Dems to ramrod sweetheart legislation through the system, according to John Gay, who heads up lobbying for the National Restaurant Association (and hence for the industry as a whole.). In a briefing with Nation’s Restaurant News at our New York headquarters last week, Gay speculated that the new Congressional captains would have a tough time mustering sufficient votes to pass controversial measures like healthcare mandates.

But, he warned, the industry may still feel plenty of heat, much of it radiating from TV cameras and blistering attacks in newspaper op-ed pages. The Democrats would likely use their control of the committee system to schedule high-profile hearings on exposed-nerve issues pertaining to restaurants, like acrylomides, the suspected carcinogen that can be found in French fries, or obesity, and specifically how soft drinks might contribute to the problem. He asserted that restaurant executives could be summoned to the Hill for a public grilling or the forced application of a black hat. Ditto for some suppliers. The battle would shift from pushing legislation that makes the industry wince, to fostering an impression that the trade kicks puppies.

The antidote, speakers agreed during the NRA’s Public Affairs Conference earlier in the week in Washingon, is getting involved, at least to the point of casting a vote. Or as Richard Snead put it, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Snead was speaking as chairman of the NRA’s SAFE initiative, a grassroots lobbying program that you’ll no doubt be reading about more frequently in Nation’s Restaurant News as we get closer to the elections. His day job is running Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, the mega-sized parent of T.G.I. Friday’s and Pick Up Stix.

That sounds like a nearly overwhelming job. And yet he’s assumed the added duties of overseeing a $2 million political-action fund. And he asserts, very convincingly, that his political efforts may have to extend considerably beyond that role. As he puts it, “I will not let unreasonable legislation upset the growth of our company.”

You may not agree with the industry’s pro-Republican slant. But it’s hard to argue with Snead and other leaders about the importance of acting on your convictions, at least to the point of learning the issues and responsibly placing a vote.

You can find a roundup on the industry-specific matters at the NRA’s website, www.restaurant.org.

Tall double-shot of trouble

These haven't been the best of times for Starbucks.

First the caffeine specialist finds itself in hot-tea water because of a promotional giveaway that goes awry. Employees were invited to pass along a chit for a free iced latte to friends and relatives. So many staffers obliged that the chain decided to rescind the offer. Bad, bad move.

Caribou, a small but plucky competitor, tweaked the tiger’s tail by offering to honor Starbucks’ coupons. Then a Starbucks customer filed a lawsuit seeking redress for the discontinuation of the deal. She’s asking for $114 million, which is a lot of coffee even at Starbucks’ prices. But she asserts the chain would’ve spent that much on the free lattes, and wants to collect the money through a class-action suit for distribution to the people who were left dry.

Then some of the chain’s baristas decided that enough was enough; they couldn’t keep idly watching while customers bilked the chain. It seems that some patrons were asking for lower priced menu options, then doctoring them with Starbucks’ free milk to made a close approximation of pricier quaffs. Add enough half-and-half to an iced Americano, stir vigorously, and you have a more-than-passable ersatz iced latte, for half the price of the genuine item..

Employees decided to blow the whistle on the cheats by disclosing their ploy an a website for devoted Starbucks followers, www.starbucksgossip.com, But instead of rousing outrage, the postings opened an easy path to the Dark Side for heretofore honest customers. Some hardcore fans no doubt figured they’d give the trick a try and order the lower-ticket drinks.

It’s another indication the chain may be getting some pushback on its prices. Earlier, reports had surfaced of die-hard fans rethinking their preference after noting how they burned through money loaded on their Starbucks cards. You may not appreciate the aggregate outlay to the chain when you casually spend four or five dollars at each visit. But with the cards, you can’t help but notice that a $50 balance is gone in a week.

As if financial outrage wasn’t bad enough, Starbucks found its morals being slammed after headquarters resurrected the brand’s original logo for an anniversary celebration. Like the present-day version, the retro trademark features a mermaid. But you’re reminded much more, um, pointedly in the older incarnation that the Starbucks mermaid didn’t wear a bikini top. It’s hardly a Paris Hilton commercial, but it was racy enough to outrage an elementary school principle in the chain’s home state of Washington, as extensive press coverage attested.

But wait—there’s more.

News emerged this weekend of yet another lawsuit filed against the latte maker, this time by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for violating the rights of a disabled former employee. The woman parted with the chain in May 2004 because, the EEOC asserted, her psychiatric conditions weren’t accommodated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It contends that Starbucks knew the woman had issues when it hired her three years earlier. Concessions were extended to her during the early years of her tenure, but that tolerance changed when a new manager assumed responsibility for the plaintiff’s store, the suit alleges.

Even if all that agitation is counterbalanced by the purchase of 46 coffeehouses from Diedrich Coffee for a mere $13.5 million, it still has to be a bitter brew to swallow.

Meanwhile, in McDonald's outer boroughs...

Some of the most interesting news about McDonald’s these days is coming from abroad, where the chain seems more willing to take a risk. Consider the reports that surfaced just in the last two days:

In Japan, notes a website where visitors can post science and technology news, Big Mac is trying high-tech food wrappers. Each is embossed with a barcode-like pattern that the camera in a patron’s cell phone can decode into a URL. A web-enabled phone automatically connects to the website, where nutritional information about the item in the wrapper is displayed. From the user’s standpoint, you hold your phone to the wrapper, and calorie and fat info is instantly depicted on the handset’s display window.

Interestingly, said one reader who commented on the posting, the technology has been around for a long time—six months. Others indicated that such a system could work in Japan because everyone there has web-enabled picture phones. In comparison, Americans are still turning a crank on a wall unit and asking Clara the Operator to connect them.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s found itself in a pickle in Europe because of a new program it’s trying there. Employers are provided with a McPassport, which allows them to work in any McD’s unit within the European Union if a job is available, a set-up similar to one used by T.G.I. Friday’s in the States. McDonald’s said it regarded the McPassport as a perk, a benefit that gives its employees greater mobility. If a college-aged crewmember was leaving his or her job to travel, the chain might still pick up an hour or two a week from that individual during the roadtrip, or after they’ve relocated elsewhere for school.

It sounded like a positive gesture. Yet critics all but hanged Ronald. They alleged that McPassport is just a diabolical ruse to lure lower-paid workers from Eastern Europe into higher-wage jobs in the western part of the ECM. They portrayed the McPassport as a chit entitling the bearer to one (1) job.

It’s unclear—to me at least—why McDonald’s couldn’t attain the same end merely by offering jobs to the easterners. Why is a McPassport needed to hire them? Of course, I never understood Jerry Lewis’ popularity among the French, either.

Finally, news reports from Ireland say McD’s is making a bold move there to address health concerns. The stories say McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland have offered to halve the salt content of a French fries serving within a matter of weeks. The sodium in McNuggets has already been cut by 30 percent, and the McChicken Sandwich is 20 percent less salty than it was, according to the reports.

And what news did the chain disseminate here in the U.S. during the same timeframe? Boy, those $1.29 Snack Wraps are sure selling well.

We'll always have Paris

I’m on my knees, imploring you for mercy. But I realize forgiveness will be hard to muster. Seldom is a blogger afforded an opportunity like the situation that arose last week. Paris Hilton is arrested for driving with a snoot full en route to indulging her burger jones at an In ‘N Out Burger, not an outlet of the chain that paid her to savor its burger with near-orgasmic delight in a soft-porn commercial last year. And I almost miss it and the opportunity to note it here. If it weren’t for a heads-up from West Coast editor Lisa Jennings, I might’ve torn up a winning lottery ticket, so to speak.

But four days after non-stop coverage of the lodging heiress’ arrest for driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent, I’m hoping to redeem myself by recounting the rest of the story. It seems that Hilton insisted she was merely famished, not smashed. She explained to a Los Angeles radio station that she had a craving for a burger, an In ‘N Out burger, to be exact. She not only mentioned that brand name, but seemingly stressed it.

And, no, she hadn’t suffered any blows to the head before offering that explanation. There’s a reason stars have handlers.

Poor Carl’s, the chain that paid her to appear in one of the industry’s most controversial commercials. It catches more than a little heat for airing the spots. And then it’s dissed by Hilton after she downs what she insists was only one margarita. It should buy the Taco Bell chihuahua and sic it on Hilton’s exalted rat.

Of course, it could try spin-doctoring. It could put forth the idea that it’s burgers are so large and nourishing that Hilton only eats them after working up a sweat while washing her car or vigorously doing other chores around the house. No doubt in a bikini. Soaked.

Jokesters unmasked

Regular readers know that we at Nation’s Restaurant News have been trying to deduce who’s been lampooning us—admittedly gently—in an irregularly published electronic newsletter called Food Channel Month Daily (“Fake Insights for Restaurant Executives.”) As gumshoes, we’re not fit to carry Columbo’s raincoat (explanation for younger readers: He was a popular TV detective back in the days before every cop show started with “CSI” or “Law & Order.” We’d watch it on the Philco after parking the DeSoto and slipping off our spats).

We couldn’t figure out who the jokesters were, but this is a good time for apologies to my friend Bill and the others we suspected. Though, truth be told, they should be flattered we adjudged them capable of chicanery of that league. FCMD made us laugh, sometimes loudly, and we can be as mirthless and cynical as tax collectors.

But the Zoros who’d been good-naturedly jabbing us have taken off their masks at last. Turns out the satire was the brain discharge of an off-beat ad agency called G&M Plumbing, best known for the “Dan” campaign it developed for Del Taco. In a note you can read for yourself at www.foodchainmonthdaily.com, the daffy lot acknowledged they were hoping to snag some publicity and thereby land a customer or two in the restaurant field.

As you can imagine, parties of all sorts are constantly trying to con, cajole or blackmail us into giving them coverage. Usually, the very attempt leaves us all huffy (see our Food Writer’s Diary blog, written by my colleague Bret Thorn, for tips on how not to write a press release or otherwise pitch us).

But in this case, it doesn’t feel so bad. If you’re going to fall victim to viral marketing, it’s best to go down laughing.

The Wal-Mart way

The Great Price Rollback is officially underway.

Exhibit 1: A press release issued last Thursday by T.G.I. Friday’s, touting new riffs on appetizer staples like Buffalo chicken wings, quesadillas and loaded potato skins, along with such new meal starters as Fried Mac & Cheese and a sizzling cheese dip. The price: just $4 if you pop for an entrée, too, at least through mid-October. That’s such a small fraction of Friday’s usual appetizer price that a buyer would have enough left over to afford gas for the trip home. Which is, of course, the point.

Exhibit 2: Shoney’s has lifted the silver dome off its new sandwiches, including such hot options as a Philly cheesesteak and a pot roast selection, as well as a turkey club. The price: $4.99, until the end of October. Five bucks for a hot sandwich served by a waiter or waitress at your table, though you have to settle for potato chips instead of fries. I recently had a cheesesteak at Denny’s that cost me at least 40 percent more, though it was accompanied by hash browns.My usual sandwich from a Subway is more than $6, and you’d be lucky to get out of McDonald’s or Wendy’s for a mere five spot.

And the clincher, the sure-fire indicator that should have margin-minded restaurateurs wondering how far the pricing retreat will go: The quote two weeks ago in USA Today from Outback president Paul Avery, about the price cuts set to be adopted by the steakhouse chain in November: "We've lowered prices from time to time, but never this magnitude."

More alarming than the depth of the discounting may be the duration. Are gas prices ever going to fall below $2.25? The automobile manufacturers aren’t betting on it; they’re radically shifting their showroom mixes in anticipation for a prolonged, perhaps permanent adjustment in the way consumers shop.

And is the credit situation going to ease overnight? The economists have been warning about a blow from that dynamic for years. To assume it’ll be gone in a blink is just wishful thinking.

Perhaps the better fodder for thought is how to present value to consumers, without too much of a sacrifice in margins.

Chill pills

Burger King was recently sued in California for not warning customers about the potential risks of eating meat that’s been broiled over flames, a process presently being scrutinized for health risks. What’ll be the next concern to preoccupy the public? Sunshine?

Try water.

From here and there come indications that persnickety consumers are thinking heatedly about that most basic of pours—not just to avoid the slim threat of contamination, but because H20 represents an opportunity to promote wellbeing, like everything else they eat (from Whole Foods), drink (pomegranate-based, please), or do (drive their Prius to a spa, where they’re bake in a seaweed wrap). Standard tap issue, or even a bottled mass-market brand, just isn’t loaded with enough positives. But ice melt from a glacier, perceived to be as pure as angels’ tears, is another matter. Ditto for cubes made from water that could best be described as having a pedigree. Maybe it came from purified rainwater, or was taken from a spring, frozen, and sealed in an airtight container, all without being touched by the walking petrie dishes known as humans. Some of the suppliers are already talking about enhancing their water rocks with vitamins.

They may blast common ice and the purported detriments to health and flavor it poses, but they’re certainly willing to embrace old-guard marketing techniques. The alternatives to the mundane output of commercial ice makers have been christened designer ice, and priced accordingly, at about a dime a cube.

Right now, it’s still a novelty, largely limited to specialty retailers and presumably the kind of nightclub club where you wait outside behind a velvet rope. But is there any doubt it will arrive at a certain echelon of restaurants before long, satisfying patrons who fear they’ll fall out of the avant-garde, into the dreaded class of the merely trendy?

It may take awhile for the public’s interest to reach that point, but there’s already pressure building to use something better in a drink served on the rocks. NRN consumer insights editor Erica Duecy recently returned from Tales of the Cocktail, a relatively new conference that brings together cocktail enthusiasts from both sides of the bar. The restaurateurs there, Duecy reported, compared notes about how to meet mounting demand for harder ice delivered in more functional shapes, with the completely neutral tate that makes them an ideal complement to super-premium spirits or the cocktails made with them.

Think about it: If we’d told you three years ago that flavored foam and similar touches of food chemistry would be all the rage within fine-dining, you’d suggest a first-hand look at continuing-care feeding, from the patient’s viewpoint. And now that’s one of the driving forces behind the high-end sector. It’s already trickling down to lower-priced places through flavored sprays. Might this be something that hits the broad market even faster?

Makes you want a scotch on glacier ice.

And now, a word about gender equality

Before we shift the discussion to world peace, it’s essential that we right the wrong that’s been visited by the industry upon dads in recent months. During this age of shameless hype, when marketers can pump smoke through all sorts of media to snag attention for their brands, why shouldn’t the old man get a chance to be part of the publicity ploys?

But it’s Mom, Mom, Mom. Look at KFC’s announcement of two weeks ago, about the formation of a kitchen cabinet to counsel executives on the brand’s direction. Promising “a meaningful agenda,” the chicken chain said “the Advisory Board will meet in person bi-annually, hold quarterly conference calls and host monthly dinner meetings to gain information and advise KFC on everything from trends that affect families to new product ideas.” And what type of individuals is it seeking for that essential work? You can have an MBA, a resume listing one blockbuster feat after another, or a wand given to you personally by Harry Potter. But unless you’ve experienced childbirth, you’re not getting on the panel. Dubbed, in typical marketing reserve, the KFC Moms Matter! Advisory Board, it’s the panel of all mothers. KFC says it plans to draw them from all walks of life, starting with your typical author, radio personality, former TV anchor, and family-communications theorist, Julienne Smith.

Of course, cynics might say the panel was formed to shape KFC’s image more than its policies. But, regardless, why shouldn’t Dad get his time in the spotlight, even if it’s the modern-day equivalent of flag-pole sitting? Besides, the 13 members have already been treated to an all-expenses-paid trip to Louisville, Ken., KFC’s hometown.

Then again, it’s not as if Dad’s unaccustomed to this sort of rejection. In May, McDonald’s trumpeted the formation of a new advisory panel of consumers drawn from all over the world. They were selected as founts of advice from all walks of life, and duly celebrated in McDonald’s announcement of the initiative. The one unifying factor: They were all moms. The group is called the Global Moms Panel. Not the Global Parents Advisory Team, or the Childhood Savants Braintrust.

Clearly a pattern is forming here. Maybe it’s because no trust is left in men’s restaurant judgment after the start-up of Hooters.

The plot thickens

In yesterday’s posting, I mentioned that the foodservice industry has a mystery on its hands. Someone is anonymously publishing an electronic newsletter that satirizes restaurant-industry news and how it’s presented in the trade’s media, including Nation’s Restaurant News. The Food Chain Monthly Daily, available at http://www.foodchainmonthdaily.com, features stories like “Upcoming Multi-Unit Operators Conference to Focus Mostly on Golf and Drinking,” or “Taco Bell Jr. Marketing Executive Accused of Thinking Inside the Bun,” both from today’s edition.

As I noted yesterday, I sent an e-mail to the anonymous parties who had sent us the e-letter, asking who they were. Here was the response I got today:

“To answer your question as to who we are, that mystery will be solved very soon. There is a method to our fun poking which we plan to reveal after the next issue.”

So stay tuned.

Who is that masked jokester?

Jon Stewart draws millions of viewers with his nightly lampooning of major-media news broadcasts. Now someone is borrowing that “Daily Show” approach to take a satirical look at developments in the restaurant industry, with some fun poked at Nation’s Restaurant News in the process.

The question is, who’s doing it? As you’ll see by visiting http://www.foodchainmonthdaily.com, the presenter has invested a fair amount of time in creating what purports to be a new industry e-letter, Food Chain Monthly (“Fake Insight For Restaurant Executives,” reads the positioning line under the title). He, she or they also clearly know the business and how it’s been covered on the pages of NRN.

We learned of it from an anonymous e-mail. I’ve asked the author(s?) to tip their mask, but I’ve yet to field a response.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the first installment. You can read about how KFC is shielding itself from the possible fallout of avian flu by removing the “C” from its name and rechristening itself KF.

Readers also learn that Jack, the cue-ball-headed star of Jack in the Box commercials, suspects his wife is fooling around with The King mascot from Burger King’s spots. We also learn that the wife of Popeye’s director of menu development is sick of hearing about exciting new dipping sauces.

Also included in the premier edition is a story about IHOP franchisees’ inability to agree on the impact of a new ad strategy. Gathered for their annual meeting, they shifted their energies instead to an argument about napkin vendors.

The slice of sarcasm is a direct take-off on an NRN item written by marketing editor Gregg Cebrzynski, who also authors our Ad Watcher blog. He wrote an article some time ago about IHOP franchisees reaching a consensus on an ad effort.

The lampooning in that and other blurbs is more humorous than abrasive, and the e-letter does sport some wonderfully surreal touches. The closing article is headlined, “Exhaustive Three Month QSR Research Project Confirms ‘Bacon is Delicious’.”

A disclaimer carefully spells out who is not behind the venture: The e-letter and the website that houses “is in no way associated with Chain Leader magazine or its various associated publications,” says the teensy-weensy type at the end.

Doest it protest too much?

Bi-coastal opportunities

After four days of eating in California, my grease deficiency is gone. The state may be renowned for its fresh, lighter fare, but after hitting the dining landmarks of Los Angeles, from Pink’s hotdog stand to the Milton Berle-esque Cantor’s Deli, it’s clear the current partiality for salads and such masks a weakness for dripping meats mounded with bacon, cheese, sour cream, more bacon, and, if you think blood circulation is over-rated, pastrami. And I offer that assessment without trying Tommy’s, the hallowed downtown burger stand that is to gut-bombers what the Sistine Chapel is to ceiling art. I held off because a man has to dream.

But while my NRN colleagues and I stifled sobs because none of us had thought to order fries or onion rings at Pink’s, we spied the next wave of fresh-and-healthy places to dot the Los Angeles market. Some of them seem to be at least inspired by Japan, if not imported from there. Another sort is clearly an adaptation of the new hotspots where droves of office workers line up at midday back home in Manhattan. Indeed, it seems as if a bi-coastal concept swap is in the offing, with profound implications for lunch as we know it.

Right now, the trade appears to be unequal. Southern California is already enjoying a taste of New York’s ongoing made-to-order salad boom, whereby small Big Apple chains like Chop’t and not a few neighborhood delis allow professional women and other salad-loving lunchers to spec the ingredients of an entrée salad. Typically you pay $4.99 and up to choose a lettuce and four toppings to be mixed with it. Request a protein, from chicken to shrimp, and you can expect to spend at least $2 more. A staffer behind a counter adds whatever dressing you specify, tosses the whole thing, and perhaps even chops it on a cutting board. It’s scooped into a carryout container and off you go. And, typically, you leave with relief because you’ve waited in a long, long line to get your meal.

The adaptation I spotted in downtown L.A. was called Loose Leaf Custom Built Salads. No doubt similar salad specialists are in the works elsewhere in the city and state, prodded along by the strong appeal to entrepreneurs as well as consumers. When you’re offering cold dishes, you don’t have to install costly cooking equipment. Nor do you have the development complications of running gas lines, or providing the requisite venting. The cost of a venture drops.

But while Los Angeles embraces that concept, it’s keeping a jealous grip on a lunch option that seems to be popping up there like traffic jams. Drive by two or three strip malls or downtown office centers and you’re likely to see at least one sparkling new quick-service place sporting a Japanese-sounding name (I had intended to write them all down during our tour of the city’s quick-service icons, but ended up with nothing but grease stains on a paper and a pen too slick to hold). The ones I saw featured portable choices like rice bowls, teriyaki selections, some noodle dishes, and soups. The places were extremely clean and fresh looking, and the food looked and tasted the same. It was also an astounding bargain. I had a small bowl of rice topped with fresh vegetables and a teriyaki sauce at one for $4.

The places embody the big-three traits that fuel more mainstream fast-casual concepts: Freshness, flavor and value. With that kind of potent appeal, it’s just a matter of time until they hope across the coast to storm New York.

But if Los Angeles wants to send us a branch of Tommy’s instead, hey, we’ll make do.
Bico

A name of shame?

A journalist crosses a certain threshold when he uses the term “female genitalia” in an article. So it was for me yesterday when I wrote about the latest restaurant venture from Hard Rock Cafes co-founder Peter Morton.

Morton, whose publicist acknowledged that the entrepreneur and his relatives have garnered $1.2 billion from the sale of restaurants, casinos and hotels, wants to tout the new venture by putting its name atop the Arizona Cardinals’ pro-football stadium. He’s already offered $3 million for the naming rights, and underscored his seriousness—or so his press release said—by flashing a check for $5 million before the eyes of Cardinals officials.

That situation is extraordinary enough. But as Morton might say, in a decidedly hipper way, "Wait! There's more!"

The topper in this case is the name that would show in lights above the facility: Pink Taco Stadium.

If you’re one of those people who crook their pinkies when they sip coffee, you may not be aware that “pink taco” is slang for a part of the female anatomy that probably shouldn’t be mentioned in a family-friendly blog like this one (hence the afore-mentioned reference to genitalia.) And that’s the phrase that’ll greet families as they file into the stadium to root for their Cardinals.

Morton professes that he doesn’t see why the use of that name should be controversial, which is why he’s proudly using it for his new chain of Mexican restaurants (two open, seven under development). Which, by the way, is being run by his 25-year-old son, Henry, better known to the younger staffers here at Nation's Restaurant News as the boyfriend of Lindsay Lohan.

The Mortons characterized the fuss as “foolish,” noting that the Pink Taco has been used without any rub at the prototype in Las Vegas for six years.

Who’s opinion are they soliciting, the guys from Hooters?

They acknowledge that the brand name is a strong draw for men aged 21 to 34, which explains why the second Pink Taco, in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a phenomenal hit.

Yet father and son are astute enough to acknowledge that they’d settle for Morton Stadium if the community finds the other designation to be too explicit.

You’ll find the story in the Breaking News section of our website, nrn.com.

A match made to be?

Wendy’s is searching for a new CEO who can bedazzle Wall Street, pull droves of consumers off Main Street, and convince franchisees they’re heading for Easy Street. Could it have the ideal candidate in Claire Babrowski?

Babrowski, if you’ve forgotten, was the up-and-comer at McDonald’s who was seemingly put through a special Hamburger U. prep course for a top job at the burger chain, if not the CEO’s post. But the board passed her over to choose Jim Skinner for that lofty perch instead.

Babrowski subsequently quit, parting with McDonald’s for the first time since her teens, when she worked at a unit franchised to a girlfriend’s father. The dad would often join the girls as they sat chatting in a booth, raising their embarrassment to a life-threatening level. For the sake of their reputations, the pair opted for a job in the parent-free zone behind the counter.

For the next 31 years, Babrowski would rise through McDonald’s ranks, eventually overseeing a region’s operations, then operations for the whole U.S. The company dispatched her to run its 7,500-unit Asian/Pacific, Middle East and Africa territory, presumably as a way of further seasoning her. She was serving as worldwide chief restaurants operations officer when Skinner, a longtime veteran of the chain's overseas operations, got the nod instead of her.

She took six months off, then surfaced last summer as chief operating officer of RadioShack, the chain of electronic-gizmo shops (curiously, working under another restaurant expatriate, executive chairman Len Roberts, formerly of Arby’s and Shoney’s). When “misstatements” were discovered early this year on the resume of CEO David Edmondson, he left the company, and Babrowski was tapped to serve as acting CEO. She inherited a mess. But her handling of the situation made her the hands-on favorite to get the job on a permanent basis.

But, as was the case at McDonald’s at the time of Babrowski’s departure, and now Wendy’s, the company had lost credibility on Wall Street. The board opted to bring in a turnaround specialist from Kmart and Sears, whose background might buoy RadioShack’s stock price more quickly. Julian Day was a prime figure in the miraculous turnaround of both Kmart and Sears (in part through their merger), and RadioShack desperately needed a similar touch of retailing magic.

That was five weeks ago. On Friday, RadioShack announced that Babrowski had resigned.

The official statement said she would pursue outside interests. But an unnamed RadioShack official was cited in some news reports as saying he didn’t know where Babrowski was going. That suggested she has a destination in her sights.

Which, perhaps, brings us back to Wendy’s. The company is being led on what it insists is an interim basis by Kerrii Anderson, its former CFO. She has the financial chops that please Wall Street, which all but lynched her predecessor as CEO, Jack Schussler. What she lacks is operational experience. Indeed, she’s the first chief in the company’s history to have worked her way to the top post through anything but operations.

And that’s Babrowski’s specialty, though she also has experience in overseeing marketing, menu-product development and the franchise operations of major geographic territories. As president of McDonald’s Asian, Middle Eastern and African turf, she was responsible for more units than Wendy’s has worldwide.

Her most notable achievement at McDonald’s—and what some might also call the blackest mark against her—was the development and rollout of Made For You, a high-tech prep system that took the chain out of a batch-cooking mode and squarely into the mass customization—a longtime signature of Wendy’s. By conservative estimates, the set-up cost the McDonald’s system a quarter of a billion dollars. And as was reported in this space a week ago, McDonald’s is currently leapfrogging away from that “platform” in a two-phase overhaul.

Now Wendy’s is in the midst of a prep-system re-do. It’s trading out its grills for high-speed two-sided versions, as executives never fail to stress in their confabs with financial analysts. They typically also note that the chain is adapting other high-tech systems for maximizing unit efficiency.

It may not be a rehab on the scale of Made For You, but Wendy’s is still Number Three in the burger-chain size rankings. How many CEO candidates out there have experience in a retrofit of that scope, using technology that advanced, specifically for a grill-based quick-service restaurant chain?

The bigger question about Babrowski is why she was passed over by both McDonald’s and RadioShack for the top job. If you’ve ever seen her address gatherings like the Women’s Foodservice Forum, or observed her in action at headquarters, you’ve likely witnessed her considerable leadership skills. She’s spent enough time in the trade to have ketchup in her veins, an intangible steeped-in-the-business sense that would no doubt have pleased the likes of Dave Thomas, Jim Near and Gordon Teeter.

McDonald’s and Radio Shack didn’t reveal any reasons for choosing someone over her. But in both instances, the winning candidate was more experienced, with a deeper background in finance, and just more time logged on earth. Babrowski is 49 years old. Skinner is 61. Day, the man who edged her out at RadioShack and said he’ll assume her duties there, is 54.

But Wendy’s would have the option of a more rounded, fire-hardened Babrowski, who’s actually worked as a CEO for a company out of favor with Wall Street. She was only at RadioShack’s control switches for six months, but during that time she was the one who signed off on the company’s dismal financial statements, and no doubt had to deal with irate shareholders. All of that street schooling would likely serve her well at Wendy’s.

And what of Anderson, who appears to be serving the Number Three chain well? Wendy’s has said she’s serving on a interim basis, but chairman Jim Picket has stated publicly that Anderson is in the running for the permanent posting. Would the company risk her loss to bring in Babrowski? Or might Anderson be willing to step back into her CFO role, shoring up what seems to be the least developed aspect of Babrowski’s management abilities?

Babrowski won’t leave RadioShack until the end of the month. And after that, time will tell.

Site for sore eyes

So much ho-hum is passed off as gee-whiz that we editors tend to filter claims of innovation through a Shaquille O’Neal-sized layer of cynicism. Then someone manages to yank your attention to something truly progressive, and there’s the same uplift you get from watching “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

That’s how it went when the folks from Johnson & Wales University came to our office recently to showcase a new website they’ve developed with the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance under a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The site, whatsnext4me.com, was conceived and painstakingly designed to illuminate a path into foodservice for high school students intrigued by the possibility of a career in that field.

The site intends to give the youngsters a taste of life in the business by telling the story of someone who’s actually doing the job that interests them. J&W is building a library of profiles, each keyed not only to a particular hospitality position but also to a company that could eventually offer employment of that sort to the interested teen. For instance, if a visitor thinks he might like to work as an executive chef, he’d be led to a bank of profiles, where various real-life executive chefs describe not only their lives, in and out of work, but also what it’s like to work in their capacity for their particular employer, be it Marriott International, Compass Group or Capital Grille.

If the visitor wanted more information on that company, he can click on a link that takes him to a landing page hosted by the concern. There he’ll find indications about benefits offered specifically for students, such as scholarships, or internships.

For that soft-sell opportunity, the employers pay the non-profit site a sponsorship fee, which has yet to be revealed by J&W.

The profiles include detailed information on the amount of education needed to land a position, as well as an indication of the pay.

Of course, few of the site’s target audience have realized at their tender age that they’d like to work in marketing, or that being a unit manager could be far more satisfying and lucrative than being a chef. The site leads them to the appropriate job or industry discipline by asking broad-based questions about the lifestyle they’d prefer—being financially secure, for instance, versus having more free time.

The site isn’t a pitch for Johnson & Wales; indeed, the school is prohibited by the terms of its Labor Department grant from wooing applicants. Rather, the objective is promoting foodservice as a career choice, so that all parties see their pool deepening.

It’s a worthy cause, and a notable, noteworthy attempt to deliver.

If you’d like more information about the site, just drop me a note at promeo@nrn.com, and I’d be glad to pass it along to J&W.

Love ya, Nelson

Whatever possessed me to suggest that Nelson Peltz may be a tad money-focused? The man is a veritable Mother Theresa in Armani, helping corporations find their way, giving hard-pressed lawyers a chance to step up a tax bracket, proudly watching while his Arby’s chain upgrades its bread. Instead of taunting him to grant an interview, or covering developments like Standard & Poor’s downgrade of a holding’s credit rating, I should be scouring film art houses to find a replay of “Ocean’s Twelve,” so I can jump up and cheer when he appears for a millisecond in a crowd scene. (His other film appearance was in Brian DePalma’s 1970 epic, “Hi, Mom!” If you ask me, he stole the flick from DeNiro.)

Why the change of heart, the regular readers among you might ask? It has absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt nothing to do with Peltz’s shift in investment focus from your world to mine. So what if he recently bought 2.8 million shares in The Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Newsday and other places where I may someday work? Or that he may be hungry for other media acquisitions? And that I hope to stay in the media?

Even if he did end up buying a company where I was plinking away at the keyboard, why would I worry? He has to know I’ve only been kidding with all this commentary about his management abilities, and how his Triarc operation, the parent of Arby’s, is a Mini Cooper compared with Wendy’s, CBRL and the other companies whose directions he’s insisted on plotting. It’s all been just a lot of joshing. Diverting his attention away from restaurant or food chains may be great for you. But it’s not necessarily awful for me. Right?

Work with me here, people.

Well, just wanted to get that out there. Now I’m off to have an Arby’s sandwich, with some Heinz ketchup on it.

Chain mothers

Long before the industry appreciated the need to foster opportunity for women, Esther Johnson was finding plenty of it. In 1947, when many of her gendermates were resigning their wartime factory jobs to make room for homecoming soldiers, she managed the day shift of a restaurant in Seattle, where she’d landed after serving as a surgical nurse for the WAVES, the Navy’s female auxiliary. Among the 27-year-old’s vendors was a baked-goods salesman named Harry Snyder. In short order he switched from pushing breads and buns to pitching her on becoming his wife. He was a good salesman.

Within a year, they were married and living in southern California, planning to make a living by feeding the suburban-minded Americans who hoped to drive away memories of the war with the comforts of raising a family. They opened a restaurant in 1948 where Harry worked the counter and manned the grill while Esther chopped and prepped, hand-forming burger patties from fresh ground beef. They called it In-N-Out Burger, and its six-item, low-priced menu was a hit.

Before long, the Snyders were opening more restaurants. Esther managed the books and the paperwork while Harry functioned as the outside man, looking for sites, hiring the managers, cutting the deals. Along the way, they found time to raise two children, Guy and Richard, who were pressed into the business at an early age.

The family empire prospered and grew, expanding company unit by company unit until it stretched to several dozen drive-thrus, then more than 100. Around the time the Women’s Foodservice Forum set a goal of having at least three women in every restaurant-company executive suite by 2010, In-N-Out hit the 200-store mark. By that time, Harry, Guy and Richard had all passed away at early ages, but Esther was still tending to their brainchild, now as president and chairman.

It’s unclear if business or her extensive charitable activities led Esther Snyder to an acquaintance with the former Margaret Heinz, for whom the line between family and a restaurant company had also been erased, in her case by an impromptu act of capitalization. In 1941, her husband, Carl Karcher, had taken a $311 loan against his Plymouth to raise funds for a hotdog stand, but was still a few dollars short. Margaret took $15 from her purse, and the deal was consummated.

The cart would later be put in display in the lobby of what is now CKE Restaurants, the $1.2-billion-a-year parent of the Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, La Salsa and Green Burrito fast-food operations. Margaret Heinz Karcher saw it grow from that first hotdog venture, through a power struggle that pushed Carl out of operations, to his triumphant return, to its takeover by an associate. Along the way, the Karchers would have 12 children.

Esther Snyder died on August 4 at age 86. The company she’d been crucial in building has been left to her sole granddaughter, Lyndsi Martinez, age 23.

Margaret Heinz Karcher had passed away almost exactly a month earlier, at age 91. She left behind 51 grandchildren, some of whom have worked in the business.

Today, smart companies spend far more than $15 to steamroller whatever barriers tend to keep women from rising into leadership positions. But 40-odd years before that commitment became a veritable business commandment, women like Esther Snyder, Margaret Heinz Karcher and Allie Marriott were already proving that gender matters less in the restaurant trade than hard work, dedication and partnership. Their efforts may not have been widely known, but they were true trailblazers, before there were awards to recognize such a contribution, or publications to laud their achievement in a pants-centric business.

It’d be woeful to overlook the loss of such true pioneers, and the differences they quietly made in the lives of so many in foodservice.

Kitchen synching?

Less than a decade after retrofitting its kitchens in the costliest capital-improvement program ever undertaken in foodservice, McDonald’s is overhauling its back-of-the-counter set-up again. Twice, in fact.

Management told a handful of analysts last week that it plans to supplant its ballyhooed Made for You prep system with a more adaptable ordering and cooking “platform,” tech-ese for “design.” Until that new set of equipment and procedures is fully developed, the chain is outfitting units in troubled overseas markets with a temporary configuration known internally as the Bridge. It combines elements of Made for You with aspects of the chain’s traditional grill set-up, which dates from Ray Kroc’s days.

Executives say the two-phase update is necessary because the business varies so widely today on a global basis, with different sorts of restaurants serving far-different products to diverse groups following their own peculiar schedules. “We’ve learned that one size does not fit all,” said CEO Jim Skinner. “So we’re working on a next-generation operating system,” with “flexible components that can be plugged in, depending on the restaurant’s needs.”

Ironically, customization and flexibility were the two main rationales for the switch to Made for You, a highly computerized set-up that holds burgers in special heat-and-moisture-controlled cabinets. Introduced with considerable fanfare, the system was expected to end the chain’s reliance on batch-cooking, whereby a few dozen hamburger patties were grilled at one time. Because the sandwiches were wrapped and held until someone ordered them, they often cooled considerably before being consumed, leaving customers dissatisfied with the taste.

With Made for You, each sandwich would be prepared to the customer’s specifications at the time an order was placed. It was expected to improve perceptions of McDonald’s food without an increase in serving times.

Made for You was also seen as more versatile, in that it could be used for a broader array of menu choices than McDonald’s offered at the time.

But the system failed to meet the hopes of investors and franchisees, who, according to McDonald’s per-unit cost estimates, collectively paid several hundred million dollars to install Made for You.

McDonald’s didn’t offer a cost estimate for either the Bridge or the Phase Two platform, tentatively dubbed the Flexible Operating System. But Skinner did tout the payback, including a capability to handle new types of menu items. He also said the Flexible configuration would “enhance the work environment of the crew,” but did not provide an explanation.

The Bridge is already being tested in “countries that need help with their operations now,” said Skinner, citing the examples of the United Kingdom, France and Germany. He added that 1,500 more outlets, franchised and company-run, will be retrofitted with a Bridge system during the next year.

No timeframe was given for the development of the Flexible Operating System, nor how many units might be ultimately retrofitted. “This is not something that we’ll be doing in every market,” Skinner said.