Hello!

This week we’re talking:

• The Burger King exec who published his phone number

• A birria bet from the investors behind Dave's Hot Chicken

• And the question of what happens next at Wendy's

Read on…

3 Numbers

(305) 874-0520

The actual, real-life phone number of Burger King’s head of its U.S. and Canada business, Tom Curtis — who is now personally taking customer calls for at least four hours a day.

A stunt you say? Maybe, kinda, sorta: The calls will be recorded for two weeks as part of a digital marketing push. But Curtis says he'll continue taking calls after the cameras are off, because what better way to hear pure, unmediated feedback from 7,000 restaurants? (Don’t sleep on BK, by the way: it’s outperformed the broader fast-food sector for nine of the past 12 quarters, with U.S. same-store sales up 2.6% in Q4. The chain also brought on Amy Alarcon — the former Popeyes head chef behind The Chicken Sandwich — to upgrade the food.)

210 million

Number of 90-day active users on McDonald's loyalty app, which McDonald’s calls its “single most important digital metric" — and for good reason: they visit more frequently and spend more over time. McDonald's says systemwide sales to loyalty members hit roughly $20 billion in 2025 (double 2023’s amount).

One stat that jumps out: app users played McDonald's annual Monopoly game 500 million times, an insane level of engagement for what is, at its core, a restaurant rewards program.

$1.55 trillion

Projected restaurant and foodservice sales for 2026, per the National Restaurant Association's annual State of the Industry report — a 4.8% increase over last year. But don’t get too excited: most of that increase can be chalked up to an increase in menu pricing, not traffic. 2026 inflation-adjusted growth is expected to be a more modest 1%.

2 Big Stories

1. Mike's Red Tacos is a two-unit birria chain out of San Diego, which, on paper, would not really be an Industry Bites-worthy headline. But the people involved make it one. Via CNBC:

Phelps and Feghali’s track record is pretty, pretty good: Phelps co-founded Wetzel's Pretzels, was a founding investor in Blaze Pizza, and then helped take Dave's Hot Chicken from a pop-up to a roughly $1 billion valuation as CEO. Feghali was one of the first Dave's Hot Chicken franchisees and is also one of the nation's largest Little Caesars operators. Together, they've formed Four Wall Partners, a franchising investment firm — and Mike's Red Tacos is their next play.

The playbook will be familiar to anyone who watched Dave’s meteoric growth: find a concept with a passionate core following, bring in experienced multi-unit operators as franchisees, and grow aggressively. They've already secured development deals for more than 200 locations, from California to New England, with some openings possible by year-end.

Is birria big enough to support a national chain? The data suggests runway: Birria appears on 3.7% of U.S. menus, more than quadruple its penetration four years ago. And the menu looks to be slightly deeper than Dave’s extremely streamlined list: Mike’s offers burritos, loaded nachos, fries, and birria ramen alongside the core tacos.

One thing I like immediately: the simplicity of the name. It’s probably not a coincidence that Phelps has invested in chains that all have memorable, evocative names. (The Founder put it best: “It’s not just the systems, it’s the name… the glorious name.”)

2. Wendy's posted an 11% decline in same-store sales last year — its steepest drop since COVID — and has been without a permanent CEO since Kirk Tanner left. The chain is closing 5% to 6% of its U.S. system. And this week, things got more interesting. Via Restaurant Dive:

Wendy's stock is down 60% in the past five years. You can snatch up a share for $8 today.

Peltz has a long Wendy’s track record: he served as Wendy's chair for 17 years until 2024, and his investment firm, Trian, first invested in Wendy’s in 2005. In 2008, his holding company Triarc purchased Wendy's in an all-stock deal. He considered another takeover in 2022 but didn't follow through.

Wendy's board responded by saying it would "carefully evaluate" any proposal, and pointed to its ongoing turnaround efforts:

On its Q4 earnings call, the company said it will focus on menu development this year — an improved chicken sandwich lineup and burger innovation — as well as franchisee profitability. But the bigger question remains unanswered: who's going to actually lead this thing? Peltz knows Wendy's well, but familiarity and results are two different things. And Wendy’s is too beloved to be hung out to dry.

Other Headlines

• Jack in the Box reported a 6.7% same-store sales decline in fiscal Q1 2026 — an improvement from the 7.4% and 7.1% drops of the prior two quarters, but still very much in “sad clown” territory. The brand is trimming its portfolio and working on value improvements, food quality upgrades, and cosmetic improvements.

• Wingstop posted its first negative comps in 22 years: Same-store sales fell 3.3% in fiscal 2025 and 5.8% in Q4. The company is framing it as an anomaly and is targeting flat to low-single-digit comp growth this year, betting on an AI-enabled "Smart Kitchen," an upcoming loyalty program, and a new marketing campaign.

• The Cheesecake Factory had a rare same-store sales decline of 2.2% in Q4. Execs attributed the shortfall to a brutal winter weather season — the company closed 120 of its locations on a single day due to bad weather.

• Ovation raised $3 million … from its own customers. With a VC-free funding round consisting entirely of restaurant operators, Ovation’s total funding now stands at $12 million.

• Smoothie King is doubling down on food: Building on the toast lineup it launched last August — the chain's first food items in its 52-year history — Smoothie King is rolling out bowls and adding ovens to its locations.

Name That Chain!

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

• It started as a pizza concept in the 1960s before pivoting entirely to a different product — one that outsold pizza so well that the founder decided to change the whole business

• It's family-owned and closes every location by 2 p.m. daily

• Its customer base is fiercely loyal and primarily in the Carolinas and Virginia.

Find the answer at the bottom of the email…

#Content Recs

• The New York Times explores the world's first AI dating cafe, a Valentine's Day pop-up in Hell's Kitchen where guests went on dates with chatbot avatars. One AI date introduced herself as a marketing assistant from Harlem, a proud Virgo, and an Abbott Elementary fan. (Specific!)

• A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit claiming Buffalo Wild Wings misled consumers by calling its boneless wings “wings.” The judge went extremely heavy on the chicken puns.

• Best argument I’ve seen yet for phone ordering.

Power Moves

Here are some notable C-suite moves from the past week:

• David McKillips has been named CEO of Topgolf International. McKillips most recently served as president and CEO of CEC Entertainment (Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza).

• Burgerville named Kyle Welch as its new CEO. Welch was already a Burgerville board member and is co-founder of Chicago Scoops, the nation's largest Cold Stone Creamery franchise group.

What’s New at FS Supply

A theme running through a lot of this week's headlines is that operators are under real pressure to protect profitability without cutting into the guest experience.

That's where we tend to get pulled in. Packaging isn't the biggest line item on a P&L, but it's one of the most controllable. We've had a few conversations recently with chains looking to tighten up their packaging programs as part of broader cost efforts — consolidating vendors, rationalizing SKUs, looking at products that haven't been revisited in years. If that resonates, it's usually worth the conversation.

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

NAME THAT CHAIN ANSWER: Biscuitville