QSR Magazine

On August 2, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote an op-ed in the New York Times with the title, “Welcome to the Recovery.” Despite the brash headline, Geithner was cautiously optimistic about the direction of the economy.

“Recoveries that follow financial crises are typically a hard climb,” he wrote. “That is reality. The process of repair means economic growth will come slower than we would like. But despite these challenges, there is good news to report.”

The good news, the secretary said, includes “booming” exports, private job growth (“not as fast as we would like”), a stabilized banking system, and a business sector that has “repaired its balance sheets” and is in “a strong financial position to reinvest and grow.”

Geithner conceded that such positive indicators were “cold comfort to those Americans still looking for work and to those industries, like construction, hit hardest by the crisis.” But he defended the Obama administration’s actions to combat the recession: the $787 billion stimulus package; the Trouble Asset Relief Program, or “bank bailout,” which was set in motion by the Bush administration; and the so-called “auto bailout” of Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford.

Though there is still a tough row to hoe, Geithner said, “we are coming back.”

Some restaurant industry players, however, are far less optimistic than the Treasury Secretary.Read more

Perhaps the biggest splash so far this year in the quick-service sector came in April when KFC’s Double Down, a breadless “sandwich” that features melted cheese, bacon, and sauce between two chicken filets, made its national debut.

The advent of a sandwich that bucked sliced bread—a seemingly indispensible ingredient to one of America’s beloved food items—in favor of chicken (fried or grilled) as the item’s carrier caught a lot of people’s attention. Before the end of last summer’s test run in Omaha, Nebraska, and Providence, Rhode Island, it had become a hot topic in the blogosphere.

“It became kind of this Internet legend,” says KFC spokesman Rick Maynard. “People started posting photos online, and people starting inquiring whether the sandwich was real, or whether it existed. The thing actually took on national and even international momentum while it was in test market.”

The momentum carried over into the Double Down’s first month on KFC’s national menu, during which 10 million customers showed up to give it a try. Despite the impressive consumer demand, the Double Down received plenty of groans from food critics for being greasy and alarmingly salty.

“The Double Down did go all the way down, though not an easy task, but it required lots of water,” wrote Gerrick D. Kennedy, an L.A. Times blogger. “Sadly, within 10 minutes the sandwich caused some physical distress.”

As the Double Down made headlines around the world, concerned health experts chimed in. The British Daily Mail quoted Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Centre for Food Policy and Obesity, describing the sandwich as a “salt bomb.” The fried Double Down has 1,380 milligrams of sodium, more than half of the Institute of Medicine’s daily recommended intake. Surprisingly, the grilled version has more sodium: 1,430 milligrams.Read more

Amid the global financial crisis, with the world’s largest banks reporting losses in the billions of dollars, Duane Clark, a 24-year veteran of the commercial banking industry, did something he never expected to do: He opened a smoothie shop. 

“I always swore I would never go into the restaurant business,” Clark says. “I always called it the beast. You live it, you drink it, you eat it—that’s your life.”  

But in October of 2009, Clark opened a Tropical Smoothie Café in Panama City Beach, Florida. On June 12, he opened a second location further north along the Sunshine State panhandle in Pensacola.

At AmSouth Bank (now Regions Bank), Clark had helped Tropical Smoothie Café, which is based in Destin, Florida, get financing to open several locations. Over the years, he met the company’s corporate officers and gained a nuanced understanding of how Tropical Smoothie operated.

As a banker, Clark knew how to evaluate an investment, and he concluded that a concept offering low-priced food and smoothies was a winner in a down economy. He also liked Tropical Smoothie’s young, health-conscious customer base.     

But above all, Clark was looking for something steady after one of the most chaotic years in the history of global finance, when giant banks teetered and some, like Lehman Brothers, toppled. 

“The draw was the stability, and that quick service has shown such growth trends,” Clark says.

With a money background, Clark says he avoided a common mistake of the upstart restaurant operator: incorrectly assessing costs.

“Most people getting into it don’t understand the financing, and financing is crucial,” he says. “They don’t know how to manage their cash.”Read more

Here's a feature I wrote for QSR Magazine's May 2010 issue about the state of the restaurant industry in Detroit, perhaps the city hit hardest by the 2008 recession. Interestingly, despite many dire indicators -- an unofficial employment rate of nearly 50 percent and a bad outmigration problem -- many restaurant operators and businesspeople in general see Detroit as a worthwhile investment. Enjoy.