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3 Numbers

13

Items ditched by the Cheesecake Factory in its latest menu revamp. The discontinued products include the Loaded Mashed Potato Omelette, Taco Dorados and Eggs, and the Bistro Shrimp Pasta. But in case you were worried Cheesecake Factory has changed, the restaurant chain is making room for 20 new dishes.

300

Units &pizza wishes to reach by 2030 as part of its first-ever franchising push. The DMV fast-casual staple has moved to consolidate its store base, shift its in-house tech to outsourced providers and tweak its recipes to better hold up off-premise. (Sign o’ the times: pre-Covid, &pizza saw 70% of its business be dine-in; now, that percentage has fully flipped.)

3x

Increase in international unit count planned by Taco Bell, which historically has lagged behind Yum’s other brands in overseas expansion. The chain aims to hit its ambitious growth goal in just five years through partnership with large international operators and a new marketing strategy … which, among other things, will teach people in some countries to not eat a taco from the top-down.

What’s On My Mind

Founders has been an excellent recent addition to my podcast feed. Each week, David Senra does a book report on a biography of an entrepreneur — typically an historical figure like Andrew Carnegie or Conrad Hilton. Over the course of hundreds of episodes, he’s become adept at connecting traits common among those who’ve ‘made it.’ You learn something with every listen.

This past week, Senra covered Todd Graves and Raising Cane’s. It was catnip for this newsletter, and maybe the best recap I’ve heard yet of one of the restaurant industry’s better rags-to-riches stories. Here are 10 of the best things I learned:

• Graves submitted his original Cane’s business plan as a college paper; it earned him the lowest grade in the class.

• Banks had a similarly low opinion of his chances. In their ‘expert’ opinion, Graves needed to take a page from the 1990s’ McDonald’s/Burger King playbook and offer a larger, diversified menu. Graves stuck to his guns.

• Graves went to extreme lengths to finance his first location. You’re probably somewhat familiar with this story if you’ve been to a Cane’s — it’s recapped on each location’s wall. But after being spurned by the banks, he raised equity capital by working 95 hour weeks as a boilermaker, then fishing for sockeye salmon off the coast of Alaska.

• His bookie — and a fellow worker named Wild Bill — also contributed some angel financing. (I really hope both were able to roll over their stakes into the broader Cane’s empire.)

• Cane’s was able to be nimble during a devastating moment for the Louisiana-based company: Hurricane Katrina. 21 of 28 locations were damaged and had to close. The company pushed hard to reopen shuttered locations quickly and was able to get some open even while their communities were under boil-water notices. This helped them garner significant good will (and market share).

• Graves was — and is — hyper-focused on keeping both the menu and the operation simple, attempting to do a few things very well. The podcast noted that a winning idea can work for decades; it’s not necessary to come up with a new “winning” idea every six months.

• An example of this push for simplicity: Graves did a show with Snoop Dogg a few years ago. It was advertised at the Canes drive-thru menu board. The company determined that this advertisement was slowing down the line by a few seconds each car; the ad was pulled.

• When you limit the number of details to perfect, you’re better freed up to make every detail perfect. To that end: the podcast shares an anecdote of Graves personally approving each Instagram Reel that Cane’s posts.

• It’s cliche, but Graves has said that if you’re going to start something, it better be something you love. You’ll never stop doing it, and you’ll never interrupt the long-term compounding effects of your efforts. Which matters because most companies see their real big-time profits years or decades after their founding.

• Graves has said ‘no’ to many buyout offers — for either minority or majority stakes. He now reportedly owns 90% of the company, which is valued at around $10 billion. (You can do the math there.)

Headlines

Insomnia Cookies is using in-store promos to drive foot traffic during March Madness. Zaxby’s has begun rolling out (indescribably good?) AI drive-thru cameras. Chipotle joins the hot-honey trend with its new limited-time protein. Olive Garden’s quarterly same-store-sales grew slightly while Darden’s fine-dining brands saw sales fall. Regional divides continue to die — McDonald’s is making its bagels available nationwide.

Name That Chain!

You’ve got three guesses to name this week’s mystery chain:

• Two Californian gentlemen lent their names to its brand.

• It’s the largest chain of specialty shops of its kind in the world.

• It’s really into the number 31.

Find the answer at the bottom of the email…

#Content Recs

• Nvidia founder Jensen Huang crashed an Acquired podcast recording to share favorite treats from his former employer, Denny’s.

• Trying every international menu item — including the intriguingly named Masala McShaker Fries — at the McDonald’s located in the company’s HQ.

• Inside Golden Corral’s pivot with its fast-casual offshoot brand.

• What we know about Tesla’s diner and drive-in theater that’s being built in Los Angeles.

• Interesting read on Cinnabon and Auntie Anne’s future in co-branding (which is making a surprising comeback).

‘Member When?!

Chick-fil-A’s new LA restaurant is where you’d imagine Don Draper nursing a hungover coffee on a West Coast swing:

The company bought and is renovating a restaurant formerly known as Corky’s in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. The building is considered one of the area’s finest examples of post-war Googie architecture.

Via Restaurant Business:

Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next week with more Industry Bites.

Andy

GUESS THAT CHAIN ANSWER: Baskin-Robbins