Skip to content
Restaurant Rewind cover art

All Episodes

Restaurant Rewind — 128 episodes · page 1 of 2

#
Title
1

Kentucky Roast Beef? When KFC was in the concept creation game

2

Restaurants have had their share of true-crime horrors, including these

3

How much updating can Chi-Chi's stand without losing its soul?

4

Meet the U.S. father of mac 'n cheese. You know him as Thomas Jefferson

5

If past is prologue, what's next for Jersey Mike's?

6

Is that the Big Boy driving my Uber?

7

TGI Fridays needs to get its bad rep back

8

Decades later, Jack in the Box's E. coli outbreak is still being recalled. Here's why

9

The pioneer of daytime dining is a chain you've likely never heard of

10

Don't be surprised if your kids may follow you into the restaurant business

11

Hurricane Milton was expected to be nearly as bad as Katrina. Here's why the comparison should scare restaurants

12

Norman Brinker also ran a pretty good CEO prep school

13

Carl Karcher's rags-to-riches story would make a killer mini-series. Here's the outline

14

How the restaurant industry winced when butts were kicked

15

Winston Churchill's role in winning World War II is well known. His launch of a restaurant chain, not so much.

16

Meet the reclusive force behind casual-dining standouts Hillstone and Houston's

17

How 3 years of union organizing has changed Starbucks

18

Has there ever been a CEO change as bold as Starbucks' appointment of Brian Niccol?

19

Here's what the industry may have forgotten about Buca di Beppo

20

Here's what happened in McDonald's past attempts to go big

21

If you don't know the name 'Joe Lee,' stop right now and listen

22

Good thing Paul McCartney didn't live to see these restaurant tales take hold

23

Think we're seeing deep discounts today? Here's when the price shifts really hit the fan

24

Looking for relief from inflation? History taught us this isn't the remedy

25

Maybe restaurateurs need to worry about their own health more

26

Thermometers say its time to give air conditioning its due

27

How Domino's broke new ground with a tell-all ad campaign

28

Here's why restaurant chains are selling one another's products

29

Never mind Endless Shrimp. How about all the booze you can hold?

30

The restaurant business has produced its share of criminals, including these

31

At age 59, San Francisco's Scoma's restaurant still defers to its elders

32

How we all came to scream for ice cream

33

There's enough color in TGI Friday's past for a month of Sundays

34

How the Restaurant Leadership Conference came to be

35

In a business of nonconformists, Popeyes founder Al Copeland broke the mold

36

The saga behind the illegal Jell-O shot

37

Remembering the best of restaurants' April Fool's Day pranks

38

The industry is abuzz about dynamic pricing. Maybe it forgot these examples

39

True crime fans may not know how a restaurant figured into an infamous murder

40

What you might not know about Jacques Pepin

41

Think recent closings were dramatic? Here's the whole chain Darden had to shutter

42

When reports of a restaurant-Mafia connection were more than rumors

43

Who was this James Beard guy?

44

Remembering a social crusader named Bill Darden

45

How the once-mighty are falling in casual dining

46

Having C-suiters spend time in stores is great—provided they know what's really going on

47

How customers came to be routinely asked, 'Cash or credit?'

48

How popular diets have rewritten restaurant menus

49

Long before diversity became an industry goal, these women were delivering it

50

CosMc's wasn't McDonald's first attempt at a second concept

51

Don't even think about asking these restaurant operators to bend the rules

52

How restaurateurs came to speak the way they do

53

Here’s why some Thanksgiving turkeys are getting tanked

54

What happens when promos don’t work as expected

55

How Hilltop Steak House would draw 3 million guests a year

56

Long before there was fast casual, there was Tad's, a specialist in $9 steaks served Chipotle-style

57

Restaurants needed a kick to be mindful of the environment. Here's who provided it.

58

Jimmy Buffett wasn't wasting away in Margaritaville

59

Restaurant chains have been the subjects of crazy rumors. Here are some standouts.

60

How far can buzz take a restaurant? Here's a cautionary tale.

61

The restaurant and film businesses have long overlapped, and no one's yelling 'Cut!'

62

What can Bloomin' Brands expect from disgruntled shareholder Starboard Value?

63

Will $30 replace $15 as the target for minimum-wage increases?

64

'Ain't that a dilly!': How Dairy Queen became a small-town favorite

65

Why Boston Market was once what other chains wanted to be

66

Revisiting the life of Benihana founder Rocky Aoki, you may need to wear a helmet

67

What stamp did Norman Brinker leave on the restaurant business? How much time do you have?

68

If you don't know who Norman Brinker was, hit the play button

69

Why every restaurateur should remember Joe Baum

70

Remembering 3 MLB superstars who ran the base paths into the restaurant business

71

What happened the last time restaurants were this smitten with IPOs

72

There’s nothing sweet about the mobile ice cream wars

73

For a real New York City dining experience, look inside the bun

74

How the last cookie craze crumbled

75

Remembering Ruth's Chris founder Ruth Fertel

76

At 110 and counting, this NYC dining landmark is still going strong

77

McDonald's franchise strife deserves barely a Grimace compared with Quiznos' past

78

How'd BK's revamp of the Whopper go? Don't ask.

79

Remembering the restaurant boom that fooled investors 20 years ago

80

How the restaurant napkin came to be

81

Remembering the great product bombs of the past

82

What's so special about In-N-Out?

83

Remembering Jerry Richardson, the football star who built Hardee's

84

Which restaurant brand really invented the drive-thru? Here are some clues.

85

Think to-go-only restaurants are a new thing? You're off by 70 years

86

Restaurant marketing is time-warping back to the future

87

Will Chipotle's new concept be the one that gets traction?

88

Restaurants rethink how long their business day should be

89

How Steak and Ale and Red Lobster invented casual dining

90

Remember the pandemic? What a difference 3 years make

91

How restaurants used to yell their identities from the rooftop

92

How supper clubs are keeping the past alive

93

Are these the weirdest concepts the restaurant industry has ever seen?

94

John Y. Brown was famous for many reasons. One is spelled K-F-C.

95

Wish a restaurateur was running Congress? Here’s as close as you’ll come

96

Politics and restaurants haven’t always mixed well

97

Is this the biggest restaurant jerk of all time?

98

Take the rollercoaster ride that was Shoney's

99

Why the automat has inspired so many modern copycats

100

What Starbucks has tried and scrapped over the years