Raising a glass to Happy Hours

If you doubt the Happy Hour is making a comeback, consider the sales elixirs two heavy-pouring restaurant chains are currently sucking down.

The pair acknowledged this month that they’d uncorked what’s again becoming the most common sales lubricant in casual dining. Brinker International was the more recent to join the likes of P.F. Chang’s and Cheesecake Factory, announcing Wednesday that its Chili’s chain was rolling a “full-blown Happy Hour program,” in the words of CEO Doug Brooks.

Speaking to investors, Brooks was sketchy on details. But he divulged that the lures for the post-work crowd would include sangria, an upgraded version of Chili’s signature margaritas, and new food offerings at the bar.

He described the push for evening guests as one of Chili’s “very big initiatives” for rebounding from the Great Recession, which walloped all of casual dining. The rollout is right up there in strategic importance with the redesign of the concept and the changeover to more efficient kitchens, he stressed.

The financial analysts listening to Brooks refused to let his tease pass without amplification. Pressed a bit, Brooks described the new program as a natural outgrowth of Chili’s re-imaging, which extends to such bar enhancements as the installation of better flat screen TVs. He also spoke cryptically about changes that put the bartender in a position to field more drink orders.

But Brooks rebuffed requests for any sales info from the program’s market tests, which he characterized as having just concluded.

Three weeks earlier, Ruby Tuesday provided a few details about its Happy Hour program, which is already in place at the diversified company’s namesake chain (Ruby Tuesday now has more brands in its portfolio than some of the bigger private-equity firms.) CEO Sandy Beall noted that the draws include half-price appetizers and $2 tacos and sliders.

“The investments we've made in our beverage lineup and bar program should help us reach our long-term goal of increasing alcohol sales to 12% of revenue,” Beall said in Ruby’s conference call with investors.

Looks as if Ruby Tuesday is going to have a lot more competition in getting there.

Some of what I learned at Summer Camp

People Report’s Summer Camp made my two weeks at Boy Scout camp seem like a wasted piece of 1968. All I learned back then was how to smoke, spit and talk like someone who had sex four or five times a week—with a partner.

I took home a lot more from the past week’s version of camp. Consider, for instance, these info nuggets from Dallas:

*Red Robin has been using E-Verify, the controversial network for validating job applicant’s legal hiring status, for three years. The ramp-up was tough, but the company would never think of going back, said Bill Streitburger, vice president of human resources for the chain. “We had two state audits” and “there was no problem,” he recounted. Recruitment is a little more expensive because referrals from staffers have thinned, but wages haven’t risen as some critics had predicted, said Streitburger.

*The National Restaurant Association intends to raise the number of high schoolers enrolled in its ProStart foodservice prep program to 300,000 in any given year. The 90,000 currently participating get an early grounding in the culinary arts or foodservice management, typically before moving to an institution like the Culinary Institute or Johnson & Wales. It’s like a farm system for tomorrow’s restaurant talent—and as much loved by the kids as it is by the industry.

*Firehouse Subs is testing the use of QR codes as a tabletop marketing tool. Diners-in customers can use their smart phones to scan the little black-and-white markings. They’re instantly connected to information about the concept.

*Taco Bell, in contrast, is using the codes as a way of connecting to prospective employees. Potential job applicants who scan the markings call up a video on their phones about what it’s like to work at the chain.

*Also beginning at Firehouse is a bus tour for the fast-casual concept’s co-founders and CEO. The brass is rolling from unit to unit as a way of meeting as many crewmembers as they can, explained director of brand marketing Kristen Majdanics. She characterized the tour as a way of bringing the brand to the frontlines of customer interaction.

*The dark side of social media is the friction it can foster with labor regulators. As several speakers noted, a restaurant employee might cap a bad day on the job by slamming his restaurant employer via Facebook or Twitter. That’s the employee’s Twitter account or Facebook page, not the restaurant’s. If the place fires the youngster for sounding off, is it within its rights? It’s a matter that’s already come to the attention of the National Labor Relations Board.

*Remember the name James Fripp. He’s currently the young senior director of diversity and inclusion for Yum! Brands. During his time onstage at Summer Camp, Fripp showed an insight, knowledge and astute humor that makes me think he’ll be a superstar in the business before he ever has to even consider Grecian Formula. He did a pretty good job on the drums, too, wailing away as part of the Summer Camp band.

*The husband of Kelli Valade, Chili’s chief operating officer, frequently sits at Wally Doolin’s old desk. Yep, you read that right. But he’s not imagining that Wally’s job as CEO of Black Box Intelligence is really his. Joni Doolin gave Valade the desk years ago because the latter had no furniture after moving out of Roz Mallet’s home, where she’d lived for free in exchange for watering the plants. That’s Roz Mallet, as in incoming chairman of the National Restaurant Association. Valade revealed that she’d kept the desk all these years and that it now resides in her husband’s study. I’m not sure what any of this means, but it’s not the usual tidbit you get at a conference.

*Meanwhile, Valade’s son is showing clear restaurant-CEO potential, though he’s still in grade school. As the COO recounted, the boy recently informed her, “I’m having a service problem with the school cafeteria. Could you help me with that since that’s what you do?” And, of course, he stands to inherit a veteran CEO’s desk.

*Eighty-three percent of the generation known as Millennials sleep with their cell phones. See earlier observation, about interesting but not-so-useful morsels.

*Peanut-butter-and-bacon sandwiches are not going to be the next big menu craze, despite how nostalgic certain Campers waxed for that lunchtime flashback to their childhood camp days.

They might’ve been the ones sneaking out to smoke and spit, too.

So long to a legend

One of the establishments that shaped the U.S. restaurant industry—the trade’s own Chuck Berry—will shut its doors for good on Dec. 31. After 91 years, Regas Restaurant will no longer show the business how important service can and should be.

You might not have heard of it, but the chances are extremely high that you’ve felt its influence. If you dined at a P.F. Chang’s, for instance. The company is co-led by Rick Federico, one of the many, many industry standouts who learned the business from paterfamilias Bill Regas, a true legend.

When I was the editor of Restaurant Business magazine, we ran an annual feature called the Undercover Service Report, where the editors and our freelancers acted as finicky customers to test the service mettle of various restaurant chains. Bill wrote me a letter, saying that the story would be a yawner if places could just remember to put the customer first. By all accounts, his family’s Knoxville institution never forgot that imperative.

Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, would remember his education at Regas decades later. Thomas started working there at age 12. According to the legend, he was fired in short order because he didn’t agree with management. He supposedly vowed never to repeat his mistake and lose another job. Working with management became a hallmark of his time at KFC, where he first became a multi-millionaire, and then Wendy’s.

Despite the trajectory of Thomas’ career, the Regas’ influence was felt mainly in casual dining, not quick service. Indeed, Brinker International, the parent of Chili’s, bought rights to build a chain of Regas-inspired restaurants. The name was changed to Grady’s, and the concept was watered down, starting with the ice cream, then moving to other aspects.

It proved to be a bomb for Chili’s, which sold the rights to Quality Dining, a Burger King and Chili’s franchisee,
which completely re-engineered the DNA.

The times apparently caught up with the Regas, however. Business by all accounts has been down, so the current owners decided to shut down with the close of the year.

But fans should take heart: The restaurant closed once before, in 2000, only to reopen in ’02.

It’s been navigating the changes in consumer tastes and its local market place ever since. That process may end, but the restaurant’s influence lives on.

Ruby Tuesday's new seafood concept

As if Ruby Tuesday didn’t have enough choices on its menu of development options, the casual-dining giant is prepping one more type of restaurant it can use to replace weak namesake stores. The company alerted investors earlier this week that it will open a “seafood health concept” later this year.

Management didn’t divulge the name or many particulars about the venture, saying only that it would be one more option for salvaging underperforming Ruby Tuesday sites. Executives lumped it together with the two replacement concepts that were identified earlier, Jim ‘n Nicks and Truffles.

Like those, they explained, the seafood restaurant could replace a played-out Ruby Tuesday at a cost of under $500,000, and generate annual revenues of more than $1 million.

CEO Sandy Beall explained that 23% of a Ruby Tuesday’s guests, or roughly one in four, already order seafood. “It’ll just be a more seafood-oriented Ruby Tuesday, really,” he said during the conference call with analysts. “And it’s very relevant based on what people are eating and their health and so forth.”

The big benefit, he said, would be differentiation from all the other so-called grill-and-bar concepts, like Chili’s, T.G.I. Friday’s and Applebee’s

An analyst voiced his concern that Ruby Tuesday would be entering a sector where even long-established brands are facing considerable challenges. “We can all think of the biggest fish in the sea who is struggling with difficult trends,” said Robert Derrington, the restaurant analyst for Morgan, Keegan. He didn’t name that brand, Red Lobster, by name.

He noted, however, that Ruby Tuesday had experience with seafood restaurants.

Yes, said Beall. The company ran the L&N Seafood Grill chain when both casual-dining brands were part of Morrison, a large contract-feeding company.

Investors also heard the Ruby’s plan to use several young concepts as its expansion vehicles. It recently secured rights to develop units of Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, a fast-casual chain that currently has six stores open.

“As far as the economics go, it's really very, very similar to Chipotle,” said chief marketing officer Mark Young.

Wok Hay, a fast-casual brand that Ruby’s acquired several years ago and subsequently upgraded into a full-service operation, wasn’t mentioned. Ruby had cited it several months ago as a possible replacement concept for tired Ruby Tuesday outlets. It also cited it at that time as a restaurant that could be built on new sites.

Meanwhile, management noted that the first Jim ‘n Nicks is open and generating sales that should top $1.5 million on an annual basis.

They said Ruby’s first Truffles, an upscale casual format, would open next month.

Flapjacks for flyers?

IHOPs may soon be firing up the griddle at airports, travel plazas and other alternatives to the usual street-side location. The pancake chain said it plans to pursue nontraditional sites as a result of hiring Bill Alexander, a longtime Brinker International veteran, as its new vice president of franchising and business development.

Brinker’s workhorse brand, Chili’s, has been a standout success among full-service concepts in developing airport locations. Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Alexander’s previous charge, recently started opening units in those venues.

IHOP didn’t say if the push for alternative locations will bring more IHOP Cafes, the mini-units that a franchisee has opened in San Antonio. The two stores currently open feature a limited menu of items like “mini-melts,” wraps, smoothies and coffee based drinks.

Family specialists like IHOP have lately been pursuing alternative sites and more engaging formats as means of reinvigorating the wheezing segment. Denny’s, for instance, has been experimenting with grab-and-go variations of the familiar coffee shop, and recently agreed to take over more than 130 truck-stop restaurants that had been operated by the bankrupt Flying J chain. It also opened one a scaled-down unit on a college campus in San Bernardino, Calif.

Who should be buying Carl's Jr.

I’m sure the Vegas odds-makers are already taking action on who'll be the next owner of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, the two main brands in the portfolio of CKE Restaurants. Thomas H. Lee is the favorite, with a deal already on the table to buy it for about $928 million, including debt. Then came word yesterday that Nelson Peltz, the bwana who deftly bagged Wendy’s in 2008, was giving CKE’s slightly bald radials a kick.

They may be the most likely buyers. I keep thinking about who might be the most appropriate buyer, from the standpoint of all parties concerned.It makes me wonder if the big casual-dining companies have the Poppers to reconsider their longstanding pledge never to veer out of that market.

It’s almost a reflex with concerns like Darden, Brinker and OSI (the parents of Red Lobster, Chili’s and Outback Steakhouse, respectively). Ask what new businesses might be a worthwhile acquisition or start-up and they’ll invariably conclude with, “…and of course it’d have to be something in casual dining, since that's where we want to stay.”

Meanwhile, they’re having their turnips mashed by quick-service and fast-casual concepts.

They should consider the bold move of buying a quick-service brand and supercharging it with their casual know-how to create the ultimate fast-casual player—a contender genetically engineered to provide cloth-napkin-caliber service and food, with the value, speed and less-processed foods that have established concepts like Panera and Chipotle as the brands of choice among younger consumers. It’d be the veritable Mike Tyson of the sector.

Carl’s would be the perfect subject for the experiment. It’s been trash-talking for years that it offers a burger comparable to what patrons would find in a casual restaurant, for less than two-thirds of the price. To launch the Six Dollar Burger (it actually sells for under $4), the chain even set up a fake restaurant where patrons were charged $6 for the sandwich. Patrons paid without complaint.

Sure, the acquisition would put those casual-dining giants squarely in franchising, a realm where they’ve at most dabbled before, preferring to grow through corporate development and joint ventures. But their current business models aren’t exactly the envy of the business world. Becoming full-fledged franchisors would really open the valve on cash flow.

Meanwhile, the Carl’s and Hardee’s systems would greatly benefit from the training, research and awesome support services provided by the likes of Darden and Brinker.

It’s a deal casual-dining hunter and quick-service should pursue, especially when you consider that CKE might change hands for just over $1 billion. It’s a buyer’s market, to be sure.

Mind the recent signs of improvement

Be careful where you drop your gloom because you don’t want to crush any of the green shoots that sprouted in the restaurant industry last week.

Let’s recap:

McDonald’s, a chain that looked as if it’d finally been tripped up by the economy, explained to investors that it’s paying attention in 2010 to building check averages, a surprising admission given the discounting that’s still rampant in fast-food. The segment’s leader isn’t abandoning its quest for bargain hunters. To the contrary, it’s rolling out a Dollar Menu for breakfast and the Mac Snack Wrap, an item so low priced that execs term it a “fourth-tier” item, below your run-of-the-mill bargain.

Still, officials are pushing items like the Angus burger and continuing the rollout of frappes and smoothies because of the boosts they’ll deliver to tabs and profits. Even the Mac Snack, essentially a Big Mac served in a tortilla wrap, fits the strategy. The chain believes the item’s low price will convince customers to buy it as an add-on to what they normally get, putting more money in the till.

McDonald’s wouldn’t be devoting attention to that end of the pricing barbell if it didn’t feel the opportunity is there.

Panera Bread, meanwhile, said the restaurants it manages took in 9.4% more year-to-date in January than they did during the same period of 2009, after rising 9.6% in December. The January figure is particularly encouraging because McDonald’s mentioned to investors that bad weather probably depressed sales for the first half of the month by 3% a day.

Starbucks’ comp sales increase for late 2009 wasn’t quite as robust, with “just” a 4% gain. But a full percentage point came from increased traffic, a term that wasn’t been heard much last year, unless you were talking about the situation at unemployment offices.

In the full-service sector, Chili’s lifted the dome off a new menu that’s as radical—and sensible—as anything the chain’s ever done. What makes it so bold is the surrender to simplicity. For one thing, the bill of fare runs to only eight pages, a 50% cut from the tome it replaces.

But what’s really significant is the Doh! that must have precede it. The chain is basically a grill, like a neighborhood bar, with good burgers, ribs and other relatively simple preparations. The items left on the menu aren’t cutesy-named knock-offs of the trendy stuff someone dressed in black might hunt in the casual hotspots of New York or Chicago. Chili’s recognized what it was, and what it should become again, and shifted back there.

A smaller, simpler menu means better execution and a shot at better food. The side benefit is presumably quicker service, since the kitchen staff can prepare more of a relatively few items, which become that much more familiar.

Quicker kitchen output gives customers an option of getting in and out of the restaurant quickly, if that’s what the occasion warrants, or hanging back with a few more margaritas, if that’s the preference that night. Executives of the chain’s parent company, Brinker International, have been talking for some time about the need to let patrons decide the pace and extent of a visit. Presumably that objective was brought to light by research. In any case, it appears the chain has taken a big step toward complying with the desire.

Chili’s traffic and sales are still declining, executives acknowledged, but the downdraft has moderated appreciably. And they cited the new menu as a foundation for the chain’s identity going forward. The brand appears to have found itself.

Chili's to run tacos through the shrink ray

The menu miniaturization craze will get a mainstream boost when the Chili’s casual-dining chain adds a line of tiny tacos in, well, a short time.

Executives say the array will include pulled pork, pecan-smoked chicken, spicy beef and shrimp versions. But they were mum about the price and how the minis will be packaged into a selection (all of one, a sampler, pick two, etc.).

The addition is part of the menu and prep re-do that Chili’s announced a few weeks ago. That effort that is already revamping the way two signature items, baby back ribs and burgers, are cooked. The former will now be smoked longer, over pecan wood, while the latter will be hand-formed from fresh ground chuck rather than pre-portioned into patties.

Changes have also been made in Chili’s kitchens to ensure that French fry orders are always fresh and hot, according to executives of the chain’s parent company, Brinker International. But, in a conference call with financial analysts yesterday, they didn’t divulge how the preparation was upgraded.

The mini tacos are being added to the menu despite an overall trim in Chili’s bill of fare. The Brinker officials declined to say how big of a cut the menu will get. They characterized the likely deletions as item that fail to differentiate Chili’s from its competitors.

The execs would also not divulge how much the menu and prep overhauls would cost. But they noted that at least some of the profits from the recent improvement in Chili’s margins would be used to pay for kitchen tweaks and additional training.

“Wee are talking about small costs there,” Brinker CFO Chuck Sonetsby told participants in the conference call. “We are not talking about anything that is that expensive. We have had some things that cost $175 apiece.”

All told, he said, the investment should trim earnings by a penny or two per share.

The addition of mini tacos would be the latest in an ongoing shift by the industry to more Lilliputian fare. Uno Chicago Grill, for instance, debuted a pulled pork slider just last week.

It's now possible to have a complete meal out of Munchkin Land. You can get in your Mini Cooper, dash a short distance to the smaller restaurants chains are now building, have a slider for your meal, wash it down with sampler-sized cocktails or beers, and follow it with the shot-glass desserts that are now ubiquitous. It's the check that may not be so tiny.

My thanks to Seeking Alpha for making available a transcript of Brinker's quarterly conference call.

Random thoughts III

When everyone’s giving away food that’s remarkably similar in the first place, service becomes the real way of differentiating restaurant chains that compete at a given price level. That underappreciated fact was underscored today by coverage of how both Boston Market and Chili’s are trying to shake off their lethargy.

A USA Today story revealed that Boston Market is moving toward the classic fast-casual model by testing table delivery. Guests place their order, take their seat, and wait for the food to be brought to their table.

CEO Lane Cardwell also noted that the concept will strive to be more of a true market, vis-à-vis Eatzi’s and the gourmet food shops that inspired both it and Boston Market.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal ran a super-premium story on how Chili’s is hoping to get its pizzazz back. Last week the chain started serving a different sort of burger, made from chuck and formed by hand to retain more of the meat’s juices, the article noted.

It also reported that the recipe for its Baby Back Ribs has been rewritten. The ribs are now smoked for a longer stretch, using pecan instead of mesquite to impart more flavor.

Service enhancements are also part of the revitalization effort. The story noted that restaurant-level employees were required to partake of a distance-learning program on service. Among the upshots is a requirement that servers now look all guests in the eye and cite new features of the menu.

Rest in peace, Norman

A day I’ve long dreaded has come to pass: Norman Brinker, one of the most extraordinary persons I’ve had the privilege to interview, follow and know, died this morning at age 78.

It was a stroke of luck for the restaurant industry that Norman chose our business to make his mark. Had he chosen retailing, he no doubt would today be mentioned in the same breath as Sam Walton. Had he focused on the military (he served in the Navy), people would talk about Nimitz, Nelson and Norman. Whatever path he chose, he’d have been the Babe Ruth, just as his love of horses translated into a slot on the Olympic equestrian team, or his boyhood business of raising spaniels would have been the lifetime measure of success for most people.

But Norman seemed destined for restaurants. He learned the business from Jack in the Box while stationed in San Diego for the Navy. That led him to Dallas, where he opened an everyday sort of place called Brink’s. It would be a prototype for what we now know as casual dining.

But that was just the warm-up. He decided to launch a non-pretentious restaurant where your average middle-income family could have a steak and a few drinks without going broke. Because a movie called “Tom Jones” had left the nation infatuated with Merry Ole England, Norman called his place Steak & Ale.

The concept was such a success that Brinker would sell the multi-unit brand and a spin-off, a pub group called Bennigan’s, to The Pillsbury Co. for the sort of fortune that leads to private jets, Riviera retreats and ample time on the golf course, if not a course of your own. But Brinker made what he suggested was a bad choice, agreeing to work for Pillsbury, essentially a flour company, in its Minneapolis headquarters.

He never spoke warmly of that post, which was unlike him. Instead, he’d glow as he’d talk about some of the young restaurant execs he’d spotted for Steak and Ale. Among the talent he nurtured were future standouts like Dick Frank, Lane Cardwell, Dick Rivera, Wally Doolin, Chris Thomas, Bob Basham, Hal Smith, Rick Berman, Jeff Campbell and Herman Cain.

It was dealing with those sorts of talents, inspiring them to build a business, that appealed to Brinker. So he stepped down from his high-falutin Pillsbury job to buy a start-up concept called Chili’s. It’d be like a U.S. senator resigning his post to become the mayor of his 200-person town because that’s what he enjoyed.

And if that ex-senator had been Norman, cities from all over the world would soon be taking notice of what he was doing in Podunk, because he had a gift for leadership. Chili’s became, well, Chili’s, then Brinker International, a titan of casual dining.

But Brinker never lost his connection with the ground. He’d often recount how he’d stand outside a Chili’s in Dallas and ask the exiting customers if the place was worth a visit. It became such a ritual, he said, that people started recognizing him.

He became one of the richest men in America, yet never lost the spark, the uniqueness, that prompted some of the best in the business to follow him into whatever endeavor he set for the team.

As one explained it, “Norman would point at a mountain and say, ‘Look at that mountain! I bet it’d be great to climb that mountain. What do you say we climb that mountain?’ And before long you’re saying, ‘yeah, let’s climb that mountain. I really want to climb that mountain. Let’s go climb that moutnain!”

My wife would tease me that Brinker was my superhero, and she was right. We journalists are supposed to remain neutral, and I maintained that objectivity in covering him and his companies, even when the news or analysis wouldn't have been well-received. He was, after all, extremely human.

But you couldn’t help but feel that urge to climb a mountain when you were with him.

So I’ll celebrate Norman with my two favorite memories of him, both of which underscore his humility and uniqueness.

One came to light when I was dispatched with a team of Nation’s Restaurant News reporters to Brinker International’s headquarters, where we were to spend about three days interviewing executives for a full-issue profile of the company. As team leader, I gave myself the plum of profiling Brinker and shadowing him a bit.

When I approached his office that first morning, he was standing by the desk of his longtime assistant, Margaret, watching something on a VCR. I could see it was a tape of a high school marching band.

“I just can’t get enough of it,” he explained. An employee’s child had competed in a band contest and had brought in a tape to show the boss. Brinker was watching it over and over, analyzing and relishing it as much as the employee, who stood nearby, beaming.

Here was the chairman of a multi-billion-dollar public company, spending hours watching a high-school marching band on tape, as proud as any parent. You could tell he was sincerely interested in the competition, the child, and the parent.

As the day progressed, he would periodically wonder aloud about what prompted teenagers to work so hard, what had motivated that marching squad to give up mornings, weekends and evenings to drill. You could see the wheels turning. He was trying to figure out how to glean an insight and apply that lesson to Chili’s motivation efforts.

The other story was an anecdote he told at MUFSO, where he had a standing gig as the moderator of a CEO’s panel. It was magical to watch him, in part because of the brilliant off-the-cuff observations he’d serve up.

This time in the late 1980s, he was talking about how important it was for a CEO to get into a chain’s stores and see what was really going on. Why, just that past Saturday, he explained, he and his buddy Sam Walton had spent their day in a Walmart, standing at an end-cap to watch the people shop.

Two of the richest men in America, each a business icon who forever changed his trade, spending their Saturday in the household cleaners aisle of a Walmart to watch factory workers, housewives, mechanics and clerks. Brinker offered the anecdote off-handedly, as if there was nothing unusual about it. And for him, there wasn't.

I, for one, shall miss you terribly, Norman.

Has the sizzle gone out of their fajitas?

Casual-chain execs should stop worrying about when the recession might end and turn their attention to the real issue of their segment: Has casual dining jumped the shark?  

There’s a mindset taking hold that young people in their late teens are forsaking the Chili’s, T.G.I. Friday’s and Applebee’s of the world. As a longtime veteran of that sector observed, his 19-year-old daughter wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those places. She and her friends prefer fast-casual specialists like Panera, Pei Wei or Chipotle—concepts that promise better, less-processed food at a more affordable price, without the complications of sit-down service. 

Drinks, a big part of casual restaurants’ appeal for Baby Boomers, aren't that much of a draw to the younger set. You can get a water, tea or Red Bull just about anywhere.   

Fellow blogger and casual-dining stalwart Lane Cardwell has similarly heard the rumblings. As he wrote in a recent posting…   

It appears from conversations with a large number of restaurant operators that there is a generational divide that exists between fast casual and casual dining. The younger Gen X'ers and older Millennials (ages 18-35 ) seem to prefer fast casual and Baby Boomers seem to prefer casual dining.

He speculates that younger patrons are drawn by the newness, faster pace and pricing of fast casual, while those of us with a few more miles on the chassis appreciate the familiarity of the big casual brands and the comfort of table service.   

It’s a generational divide the industry has seen before, ironically when casual dining really caught fire in the 1980s. Beforehand, one of the dominant chain sectors of the business had been family dining, populated by brands like Howard Johnson, Denny’s, Coco’s/Carrows, Village Inn/Bakers Square, Bob Evans, Big Boy, Shoney’s, JB’s and a host of others.   

It’s no secret that those concepts had the sort of experiences in the 1990s that could fuel a thousand blues songs. They had their fans, but their fans were growing older and older. The diehards' sons and daughters just didn't have the same regard for the brands.

Some are altogether gone today, and the others are far different animals than they were in their heyday.   The market moved on to other concepts, and they were left behind. 

Is the same thing happening to casual dining?   No one really knows. But it’s a much more deserving target of mental energy than trying to guess when consumers will spend again. 

Another ex-Quiznos heavyweight resurfaces

Steve Provost, the one-time George H. Bush speechwriter and longtime executive of KFC, has joined Brinker International's Maggiano's Little Italy chain as senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy. But the real point of dramatic interest is that he's no longer with Quiznos, which he served as chief marketing officer.

The announcement from Brinker, better known as the parent of Chili's, doesn't say when Provost (pronounced "pro-voe") left Quiznos. He was part of the dream team that Greg Brenneman, the turnaround specialist who led Burger King through its comeback effort, had assembled after buying a big stake in the franchisor. Among them was longtime Yum! operations chief Dave Deno, who was brought in as Quiznos' president in January 2008 and ultimately succeeded Brenneman as CEO. He was out five months later.

Provost, who joined Quiznos as CMO in 2007, was presumably one of Deno's direct reports.

Theno resigned for "personal reasons" in February, when Quiznos announced that top day-to-day responsibilities would be given back to Rick Schaden, a prior owner and franchisee of the company and still a significant stakeholder. Brenneman remains involved as executive chairman.

The other big-name member of the Deno team was Clyde Rucker, a Burger King alumnus who joined the sandwich franchisor at almost the same time as Provost did. In September, Rucker was named chief operating officer of Quiznos.

Quiznos, a virtually all-franchised chain, has been beset by rocky franchise relations for years. It recently has been very aggressive in marketing itself against competitors like Subway. Recent steps include the introduction of $5 toasted subs, which matched Subway's discounted price, and, more recently, the rollout of new sandwiches called Torpedos, as in the things that sink subs. They're priced at $4.

Quiznos has about 5,000 stores. Maggiano's has 45. Provost reports to Maggiano's president Wyman Roberts, who also serves as CMO for all of Brinker.

Why YOU need a Romeo Decoder Ring

Orders for my patented Restaurant Industry Decoder Ring have fallen sharply since the economy tanked. Perhaps a live demonstration would reverse the trend. And what better opportunity than this evening’s announcement from Brinker International?

The statement hails the “organizational changes” that were undertaken by the parent of Chili’s and Maggiano’s to “maximize leadership talent and create additional synergies.”

Wow!! I'm not sure of what that means, but it sounds big. A groundbreaking new business model, perhaps? With an org chart that looks like the playbook diagram for a triple quarterback sneak?

Nope. Indeed, all the statement could’ve been de-hyped into what is now the fifth paragraph, with two follow-up sentences. Dave Orenstein, president of Brinker’s On The Border brand, is parting with the company. His duties are being assumed by Todd Diener, who’ll continue to lead Chili’s, as he has for 10 years. I know that because Brinker felt obliged to tout his 27 years of leadership with more spin than a rinse cycle.

Less clear is why Wyman Robert, president of the Maggiano’s chain, is also assuming the duties of chief marketing officer. Two for the price of one, maybe?

Sorry. Let me put that in corporate-ese: To optimize payroll expenditures with synergistic governance and minimized potential for miscommunication within the leadership ranks, two positions were synergized into a lone assignment.

I don’t understand why Corporate America still believes anyone would be fooled by language straight out of a script for “The Office.”

Okay, back to perfecting my next invention, the Summer Snuggie. With the right catalog photography, no one's going to think, "hospital gown."

Restaurant bars: The devil's YouTube?

I don’t know why the nation is preoccupied with fluff like the economy or wars when our very future is being threatened—-by Chili’s, no less. Our youths are probably imperiled by the likes of Applebee’s, T.G.I. Friday’s and Ruby Tuesday, too, but they weren’t singled out by the president of Utah’s senate, who wants walls built between restaurants’ bars and the areas used by the public. Otherwise, fears Republican Michael Waddoups, youngsters can see drinks being made! Why not just sit ‘em down and slide a cosmo their way?

In any other state, such a suggestion would be dismissed as outlandish showboating for the fundamentalist right. But not in Utah, where headlines announced yesterday that full-strength beer can now be sold. Because of the Mormon population, drinking can be as contentious there as abortion is elsewhere.

Places that serve liquor already have to isolate drink prep areas with a partition, known locally as a Zion curtain. But it can be a short partition made of glass, which still exposes young people to the glamour of alcohol, in the view of abundant pro-temperance forcese.

Waddoups learned that firsthand when he visited a Chili’s in January, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The paper reported that a bill introduced this week would require the construction of a wall at least 10 feet high between bartenders' work areas and where patrons mill about. It was introduced not by Waddoups but by a fellow Republican, state Sen. John Valentine.

The initiative does provide for an alternative: Mix and pour the drinks away from public view in a back room. Which, in at least some instances, might have to be constructed.

The measure has already been approved by the Senate Business and Labor Committee, according to the Trib.

The proposal to halt public drink preparation was filed as Utah pols were considering a measure that would eliminate the need for even the Zion curtain. Proponents like the governor argue that Utah has to catch up with the times if it wants to foster tourism, and that means loosening up the state’s serving laws. For instance, restaurants’ bars would be acknowledged for what they are, not private clubs nestled check-to-jowl with dining rooms, as the law currently regards them. Visitors wanting a beer would not have to go through the charade of joining a “club.”

The Senate is debating the perils of drinks being mixed in full view after passing a measure Tuesday that permits employees to bring guns into the parking lots of the places where they work.

Seems to me they may want to rethink priorities.

A news sampler to start the week

The last few days brought a number of interesting yet little-noticed developments within the restaurant industry. Taken separately, they’re mere curiosities. But as connected dots, they form a picture of how the business is changing with brutal times.

Gordon Ramsay said to be in financial trouble: The New York Post reported Sunday that stardom hasn’t shielded the ill-tempered chef from the economic free-fall. Foxtrot Oscar, his celebrated London restaurant, is now closed two days a week, and two of his other eateries there are rumored to be for sale, though Ramsay insists he’s not looking for a buyer, according to the tabloid.

“21” loosens its dress code: The famed New York playground of the rich and wrinkled has reportedly dropped the requirement that men wear neckties at dinner. Spats, however, are still recommended. Okay, I made that last point up. But the tie rule was equally as outmoded. Most old-guard restaurants would let you dine buck naked these days to put a butt in a seat. What’s covering said butt shouldn’t matter in an economic situation as dire as the present. It’s enough to make you fall off your polo pony—which, by the way, can no longer be valet-parked.

No more lunches for Boston’s Locke-Ober: The Beantown landmark has been keeping its doors shut until dinner since Jan. 1, but even a hometown newspaper didn’t notice until last week. That may explain why the service was discontinued. But it must’ve been a monocle-dropper to all the old Brahmins and blue hairs who’d been lunching there since the riffraff and nouveau riche started showing up. Where can a guy in tie and spats eat comfortably in a big city these days?

Pigall’s nee Maisonette fires down its ovens: The lone restaurant in the heart of the Midwest to earn a four-star Mobile rating has thrown in the napkin. Jean-Robert at Pigall’s, the Cincinnati restaurant that replaced the city’s famous Maisonette, is reportedly closing Feb. 28 because of strife among its partners and weak finances, which seem to go hand-in-hand these days. As a local newspaper notes, the announcement came on the same day the place was awarded its fifth four-star designation from the Mobile dining guide. It was reportedly the only eatery in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky to earn that lofty assessment. The closing speaks volumes about the state of fine dining outside the coastal enclaves that serve an international trade.

Gladstone’s to open in LAX: A riff on the mega-volume Malibu landmark is scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday in Los Angeles’ Marquis de Sade-sanctioned airport. The outlet will be run by contract feeder HMSHost Corp., which is also operating a La Brea bakery inside LAX, whose lone redeeming quality is being only a shuttlebus away from an In-N-Out.

Brinker’s in-store gift-card sales tanked: Not all of last week’s news tidbits were cooked up by independents. The parent of Maggiano’s and On The Border told investors last week that its workhorse Chili’s brand suffered a 14% drop in sales of gift cards within the chain’s restaurants.

The impact was tempered, CEO Doug Brooks explained, by year-over-year increases in sales of the cards by retailers and other third parties. A major factor for the in-store decline, Brooks said, was the discontinuation of a “bounce-back” deal--exactly like the ones countless other chains adopted this year. Persons buying a card were given a $5 credit, a sort of commission, that they could redeem during a later visit.

Brinker determined that the incremental business wasn’t worth the give-away. So it dropped the deal for 2008—a year marked by the availability of similar come-ons from other chains.

Was there a full moon?

I knew I should’ve brought a satellite phone on the trip. No sooner do I leave the country than an unprecedented run of weirdness besets the domestic restaurant industry. My eye was off the business for a mere week. Who knew that’d be long enough for a push to rechristen edible fish as “sea kittens,” a dissing of Chili’s by Drew Carey, a clever parry from Chili’s in the form of a job offer, and a seafood restaurant’s reprieve of a 20-lb. lobster? Next you’ll be telling me Chuck E. Cheese is taking steps to discourage parents from misbehaving.

Given the peculiarity of those developments, it should come as no surprise that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are involved in two.

The savants leading the well-intentioned but obviously deranged group are really begging for committal this time. They’re mounting a campaign to spare more fish from human consumption by recasting swordfish, haddock and the like as personable critters that might bat around a ball of yarn if they could. “Fish need to fire their PR guy—stat,” explains a mission statement of sorts. “You’ve done enough damage, buddy. We’ve got it from here. And we’re going to start by retiring the old name for good…who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?”

And who wouldn’t doubt that Tara the Tuna is every bit as cuddly an appealing as Whiskers, Aunt Sarah’s tabby? Especially when PETA’s website features a bedtime story about Tara, who “loves to squeeze herself into tight spaces and snuggle up close to her Sea Kitten pals.” In the words of Dave Barry, “Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.”

Perhaps the group is merely feeling its oats—er, grain bunnies. As CNN and countless other major media have reported, PETA announced Friday that City Crab restaurant in New York City has acquiesced to demands that a 140-lobster known as George be taken from its tanks and released into the ocean. “Yay!” exclaims PETA blogger Liz Graffeo. “Next step: ban catching lobsters completely.”

George might’ve slipped away, but Chili’s isn’t letting Drew Carey off the hook. The comic and game-show host gave the industry a nudge in the ribs by telling the Washington Post he probably would’ve been a restaurant manager if he hadn’t succeeded in showbiz. In his glibness, Carey seemed to suggest any schlub could manage a casual-dining restaurant, even if he or she started as a server.

The implication for any server who doesn’t rise to restaurant GM: You’re a loser.

Chili’s president Todd Diener decided to give Carey a taste of what a GM’s job is really like—and snag considerable press in the process. He released a letter Friday that invited Carey to manage one of the chain’s 53 outlets in Los Angeles for a few hours. Carey’s pay would be donated to a charity of his choice—“perhaps the Cleveland Public Library?” (part of Carey’s schtick is having grown up in Cleveland).

The letter said it was accompanied by a $100 gift card so Carey could at least enjoy the chain’s hospitality and fare.

There wasn’t an edge or even a hint of irritation in Diener’s letter. But anyone in the industry would know what a rude change in perception awaits Carey if he accepts the offer.

For the publicity value, and the chance to maintain the industry’s weirdness streak, you have to hope he accepts.

Okay, time to track down the now-removed YouTube video of the fight that erupted recently in a Chuck E. Cheese’s in Pennsylvania. According to a local news report, fights often erupt in the concept because adults bump into one another. Kids’ parties often bring together estranged mothers and fathers sharing custody, and sparks sometimes fly between the parents.

A subsequent report indicates the restaurant is now hiring off-duty policemen to serve as safety monitors.

“It’s madness, absolute madness,” local police chief Robert A. Martin is quoted as telling The Patriot-News.

Indeed.