Food for Thought

Last week’s deal to take Burger King private caught few by surprise, given the intense focus of PE on the restaurant sector and the many struggles of BK.  A few months ago, Mill Road announced a deal to buy Rubio’s.  In late April, another firm (Apollo) came over the top of Thomas H Lee to [...]

Starbucks Free WiFi offering is all over the news today.  Andrew Hickey at CRN had the most interesting analysis we’ve seen, giving 5 reasons why Starbucks is making this leap.  Reasons range from competition with McDonald’s to the simple fact that (short of trapping customers on an airplane) it’s becoming so you can’t charge for [...]

One of the most common comments we hear from restaurant CMOs/CCOs is “we test, but our tests aren’t as predictive as they should be”.  Here’s a case in point.  Per the Wall Street Journal, Burger King is running out of ribs for their LTO. Just three weeks ago, we wrote that BK Ribs was an [...]

Taco Bell has now launched a petition for the Federal Reserve to issue more $2 bills, accessible through Taco Bell’s Facebook page.  There’s a full-page ad in USA Today, and the write-up on a Wall Street Journal blog is today’s most popular article on WSJ.com.  Of course, this is marketing the 3-item $2 Meal Deal promotion [...]

.. newspapers were used to market restaurants and retail stores.  Now, here’s an example where an In-and-Out Burger gift card is being used to sell the LA Times.  Not good, the newspaper business these days.

The crew over at Serious Eats did a taste test on fast food breakfast sandwiches, with an unexpected winner.  The interesting thing was why the winner came out on top: a freshly cracked and cooked whole egg.  They even mention the sound of “the magical crack that only a real egg could make”. It makes [...]