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3 Numbers

90%

Consumer brand recognition for Jersey Mike’s, which has invested heavily in national marketing in recent years. The latest and greatest effort: a sponsorship deal with the NFL, giving Jersey Mike’s “the exclusive right, among sub-sandwich chains, to use the NFL’s trademarks in its advertising.”

2,000

Stores that Dutch Bros Coffee believes it can operate by the year 2029. The company — which currently has just over 1,000 locations — opened 27 new locations in Q1 of this year. It also recently announced a new CPG line of packaged coffee.

4

Fresh dough manufacturing facilities closed by JAB Holdings-owned Panera Bread. Panera is down to 9 facilities from a peak of 24 in 2016. The company says it’s streamlining operations and moving to a model where bakery items are partially made off-prem, frozen, then finished in a café oven.

What’s On My Mind

This week, Industry Bites is stealing borrowing an old bit from now-retired sportswriting legend Peter King, who’d “open his notebook” every Monday morning to free associate on football and whatever else came to his mind.

In his honor, here are 3 things I think I think about the restaurant industry this week…

1. I think Big Hot Honey hired the world’s greatest agent — you can’t throw a rock without hitting a QSR joint advertising a new hot honey LTO. Subway is the latest to join the trend, debuting Hot Honey Pepperoni and Hot Honey Chicken sandwiches.

   a. Anyway I’m not complaining, and if Chipotle doesn’t add Honey Chicken to its permanent protein lineup then we riot.

2. I think that major Chinese brands opening up shop in the U.S. remains an underrated story... despite the current tensions between the two countries.

   a. A couple of weeks ago, Industry Bites covered Luckin and Mixue’s U.S. plans, and this week, the massive Chinese tea concept Chagee filed for a U.S. IPO. The concept will also open its first U.S. location in LA this spring, with a menu that includes drinks like tea lattes and iced lemon tea.

   b. Chagee may be the most intriguing concept among the Chinese brands coming to America. It fully admits in its SEC filing that its founding was inspired by lifestyle coffee brands like Starbucks. It’s added 6,400 teahouses since its founding *checks notes* eight years ago. And it’s quite profitable for a chain in hypergrowth, generating $344mm in net income in 2024 on revenues of $1.7b.

   c. Tea is also more of virgin territory than the coffee vertical, which Luckin is attempting to compete in. Regional brands like HTea0 have shown there is a market for tea-centric concepts.

3. I think this WSJ piece on Zipline has convinced me that the future of delivery services will be drones. Why?

   a. The story begins with a city clerk born in 1952 who orders 6 drone deliveries per week through Zipline. (Sure it’s one anecdote, but that’s an unusual profile for super-early tech adoption.)

   b. Zipline is trying to make drone delivery cheap and omnipresent. Its drones — which can be manufactured in just a few hours — can fly up to 70 mph and make deliveries “by lowering a small cooler on a 300-foot cable. By staying high in the air, the system makes less noise,” according to the WSJ.

   c. Chipotle has signed up as an early customer, Walmart is testing near its Bentonville HQ, and other retailers and restaurants have signed contracts.

Headlines

Uber and DoorDash are lobbying for President Trump’s ‘no tax on tips’ campaign promise to include their drivers. Hooters of America has filed for bankruptcy, with a plan to bring back its original founders in a management capacity. Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs will retire in early 2026, while newly-public brand Twin Peaks is seeing its CEO Joe Hummel resign to pursue other opportunities. McDonald’s is opening a 2,000-person global support center in Hyderabad, India. Chick-fil-A is expanding its solar-powered microgrid test to a third California store.

Name That Chain!

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

• This brand started with just one flavor before expanding into a rotating menu.

• Its founders are two cousins who used A/B testing to finetune their recipes.

• The company has a signature, trademarked color.

Find the answer at the bottom of the email…

#Content Recs

• The Grand McWrap with Algerian Sauce, and other fine things to eat if you ever find yourself at a McDonald’s in Tangier.

• A big ole pot of beans and other recipes that were actually served in Old West saloons.

• Reviewing Taco Bell’s “Toasted Cheddar Street Chalupa.”

• How Maggiano’s plans to take a page out of fellow Brinker concept Chili’s and boost its traffic counts.

‘Member When?!

Industry Bites added a good number of new subscribers over the past few weeks, to which I say… welcome.

Many of you have asked if I’ve ever written an explainer on the Burger King Kid’s Club. Oh, you’re in luck.

Here are several hundred words on Kid Vid, J.D. the Dog, and the rest of those rapscallions.

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

Andy

GUESS THAT CHAIN ANSWER: Crumbl