Iconic restaurant companies are unique to the U.S. restaurant industry. Every major U.S. city has restaurant companies that have developed multi-brands and have established a special position in the city, like Union Square Hospitality…
My last few columns have dealt with non-traditional restaurant venues. What is significant about them is they create more revenue sources. It is not that people, if they had their druthers, wouldn’t prefer traditional…
I had difficulty finding Mucci’s the first time. There is no signage on the building, only something small in the window stating its name and the hours. I had already read a number of…
In the 18 months I’ve written this column, I’ve reviewed approximately 15 new restaurants, so I thought it would be a good time to reflect back and discuss how they found the money to…
Probably the best known nontraditional restaurant sites—and maybe, in some ways, they are traditional—are food courts. In my quest to get a handle on them, I have come to the conclusion I’m not sure…
When you walk in the Commodore Bar and Restaurant in St. Paul you immediately look around to see if F. Scott and Zelda are sitting at their usual corner table in the bar sipping…
There has been a great deal written about nontraditional restaurant sites (NTS), but not about their economic viability. While traditional restaurant sites are defined as stand-alone, inline or first floors of hotels and office…
As you can see from the Monitor’s annual Top 200 ranking of the largest franchisees, a significant share are multi-concept operators. Multiple concepts seem to be the trend and a way for the large…
Just over two years ago, Blake Verdon and Jeremy Hale left their corporate jobs to pursue the dream of starting their own brewery and taproom. On June 4, 2014, their efforts came to fruition…
