Hello!

This week we’re talking:

• Dunkin's 48-ounce coffee bucket

• An AI named Patty that's coaching Burger King employees

• And Domino's case for pizza category dominance

Read on…

3 Numbers

25%

One-day stock jump for Cava, which reported that it crossed the billion-dollar sales mark for the first time in 2025. The company is doing its best to cover the country with Crazy Feta, announcing this week that it expects to open 74 to 76 net new restaurants this year, with same-store sales growth projected at 3% to 5%.

$4.99

Price of each of the 10 items on Panera’s new value menu, dubbed the Mix & Match menu and inspired by the You Pick Two promo. This marks the first ever value menu in Panera's near-30 year history.

48 ounces

Size of Dunkin’s new “coffee bucket,” which Dunkin confirmed is in test at a handful of stores in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Unbelievable images of the bucket went viral recently, reminding us all that real life is sometimes stranger than AI.

2 Big Stories

1. Domino’s widened the gap with its competitors in 2025, gaining a point of market share thanks to 3.7% same-store-sales growth in Q4. Via Restaurant Business:

Weiner’s bullishness makes sense when considering the fragmented state of the fast-food pizza segment. Domino’s is the category leader and holds 30% of the market (up from 26% in 2019). That’s a dominant position, but still nowhere near Chick-fil-A’s 40% hold of the domestic chicken segment, McDonald’s 50% share of fast-food burgers, and Taco Bell’s staggering 60% stranglehold on the U.S. fast food Mexican category, all of which would suggest that Domino’s has room to grow.

That said, the pizza space is full of beloved mom-and-pops, strong regional players, and a long tail of independents that have survived every delivery innovation Domino's has thrown at them. Weiner is right that the opportunity is there — but meaningfully growing share from 30% means taking it from operators who have deep local loyalty, not just chipping away at Papa Johns and Pizza Hut. That's a different kind of fight.

2. Burger King is launching a pretty robust AI test, via the AP:

Not surprisingly, the final use case — the possibility of Patty reprimanding an employee for not saying “you’re welcome” (or worse, Patty monitoring tone of speech for a passive-aggressive “you’re welcome”) — is getting mixed reviews. Burger King has taken pains to say that the intent is to use Patty as a coaching tool, not a way to track individual employees.

Which, frankly, is an explanation I can buy. A hectoring AI voice in the ear seems to be a great way to have your staff quit en masse, and most restaurants are still shorthanded. Getting a breakdown on a recipe build without having to consult a moldy training book is a bit more useful.

Other Headlines

• Applebee’s showed progress in its turnaround strategy, ending the year with a 1.3% same-store sales increase vs 2024’s 4.2% decline. In explaining the sales improvements, CEO John Peyton pointed to the power of Vibes: “For us, value is not simply price. It’s an all-encompassing experience that includes portion size, food quality, and the overall guest experience. That focus on the vibe — the food, service, atmosphere — represents a meaningful opportunity to drive traffic and strengthen brand relevance.”

• Sonic sold 78 restaurants to mega-franchisee KBP Brands, which makes KBP now the fourth-largest franchisee in the Sonic system. It’d previously acquired 85 Sonic restaurants in 2024.

• Papa Johns plans to close 300 stores and has cut its corporate workforce by 7% as part of a broader ongoing transformation plan. (Also axed: the perfectly named Papadia.)

• Outback posted a 0.9% traffic gain in Q4, its first positive same-store traffic quarter since 2021.

• After another tough quarter, Sweetgreen is reconsidering how it structures its menu pricing, including potentially adding lower-priced entry points.

• And Schlotzsky’s has a shocking new name… Schlotzsky’s Deli.

Name That Chain!

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

• Started in 1963 as a hot dog stand operating out of a small trailer — the founder reportedly had no running water and used a garden hose from a neighboring building

• Its menu reads like a love letter to one specific American city's street food canon

• Went public in 2021 and is now expanding nationally

Find the answer at the bottom of the email…

#Content Recs

• How the restaurant industry is prepping for a broader GLP-1 impact.

• The story of how the Rainforest Cafe landed its first investor involves a prototype built in a Minnesota home, thousands of extension cords, fog machines, and an on-site baboon.

• Taco Bell’s annual Live Mas Live event — essentially an Apple product launch for Chalupa fans — will be streamed this year on Peacock, with hip-hop artist/Sprite aficionado Vince Staples as a headliner.

Power Moves

A very finance-heavy list of notable C-suite moves from the past week:

• GoTo Foods has a new CFO — Brett Ubl, formerly of GoTo’s investment group, Roark Capital.

• Shake Shack named its current company controller, Peter Herpich, as interim CFO.

• First Watch CFO Mel Hope is retiring later this year. The company has begun an internal and external candidate search.

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next week.

NAME THAT CHAIN ANSWER: Portillo’s