On the Front Burner

• What 1 restaurant company's numbers say about the economy
  Darden Restaurants reported a 5% rise in revenue in the most recent quarter, compared to the same period last year, and a detailed evaluation of the data offers a snapshot of the current economy, this story says. Sales were strong at high-end chain Capital Grille and more mixed at mid-priced chains Olive Garden and Red Lobster; additionally, labor costs declined as high unemployment made it easier for chains to attract talent. The Washington Post (9/21)      

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• Hardee's parent puts off IPO plans
  CKE Restaurants likely won't launch an IPO this year, putting plans to go public on hold until after the presidential election. Rising health care and commodity costs are deterring investors this year, said Andrew Puzder, CEO of the company that owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Bloomberg Businessweek (9/21)      

• Other News

• Fazoli's franchise incentive plan cuts fees, royalties
  QSRMagazine.com (9/21)      

• CEO: Shake Shack eyes multiple units in Boston
  American City Business Journals/Boston (9/21)      

• KFC closes all 60 eateries in Pakistan amid anti-American protests
  CNNMoney (9/21)      

• Sodexo teams with app to help clients keep fit
  Sodexo has teamed with nutrition and fitness application MyFitnessPal, making the dishes it serves at 1,800 corporate campuses available on the app's database to help users make better choices, executive Bill Mitchell said. "[Sodexo has been] providing consumers with nutrition information for a number years on our café websites and signage, but we really wanted to make that information more actionable for consumers." SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Food & Beverage (9/24)      

• Social tools made just for the restaurant industry
  VenueLabs offers restaurant marketers a way to pull social media buzz from profiles on Yelp, Facebook and other sites. It's one of eight new tools that aim to help restaurants better navigate social media and make it work for them, writes The Karcher Group's Nate Riggs. FastCasual.com (9/21)      

• The greening of America's restaurants
  Michael Oshman founded The Green Restaurant Association in 1990, and has since signed 850 members and designated 450 of them as Certified Green Restaurants. "When I looked at the auto industry or aviation or refrigerators, I felt consumers have less ability to influence those directly. A restaurant has to be supersensitive to consumers. There's a manager on site, a real human being there you can talk to," Oshman said, explaining why he decided to focus his efforts on the restaurant industry. Wine Spectator (9/21)      

• Defining sustainability for the restaurant world
  When it comes to food, sustainability is a complex tree that can be divided into branches including organic, local, seasonal, green and ethical, writes toxicologist, chef and dietitian Suzy Badaracco. "Consumers are the last branch and while they fully support sustainability, they have a healthy distrust and want companies to 'prove it' and are confused by the many definitions put forth by media." FastCasual.com (9/20)      

• Domino's to debut pan pizza this week
  Domino's Pizza will jump into the $6.4 billion pan pizza category on Monday, with the rollout of its thicker-crust offering at the chain's nearly 5,000 U.S. stores. Pizza Hut leads in the pan pizza category, which accounts for about 20% of total U.S. pizza sales, according to Technomic. USA TODAY (9/23)      

• Celebrity chefs talk up new airport food options
  Airport food is slowly losing its bad reputation as new chef-driven offerings replace the stale burgers and other unappetizing fare of the past, say chefs Wolfgang Puck and Masaharu Morimoto in this video. Both have recently opened new eateries at Los Angeles International Airport. Los Angeles Times (tiered subscription model) (9/21)      

Top five news stories selected by Restaurant SmartBrief readers in the past week.

McDonald's hopes cult sandwich will save Q4 sales (Advertising Age (tiered subscription model))

Big 3 pizza chains poised to grab a bigger slice (PizzaMarketplace.com)

McDonald's launches new global menu flavors (BurgerBusiness.com)

Survey: Smaller burger chains rate higher (Los Angeles Times)

	Dallas cuts restaurant inspections, diverts fees (The Dallas Morning News (free content))
Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

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