Restaurant Guides
Who Owns Cook Out?
The Reaves family, and nobody else. No franchisees, no shareholders, no private equity, and almost no interviews. The founder learned the business running Wendy’s…
Restaurant Guides
Why Is Culver’s Only in the Midwest?
Culver’s grows slowly on purpose. Every store needs a hands-on owner, no owner can have more than four, and candidates train at the original Wisconsin restaurant first.
Restaurant Guides
Who Owns Culver’s?
The Culver family still holds the majority. Roark Capital, the firm behind Subway and Arby’s, has owned a minority stake since 2017. Here is how the ownership works.
Restaurant Guides
Who Owns Jersey Mike’s?
Blackstone holds the majority at an 8 billion dollar valuation. Before that it belonged to Peter Cancro, who bought the shop at 17 with a loan from his football coach.
Restaurant Guides
Why Is Jersey Mike’s So Expensive?
Slicing meat to order adds labor to every sandwich, and it supports store sales of 1.4 million a year against Subway’s 500,000. But the chain has chosen to stop…
Restaurant Guides
Who Owns Whataburger?
BDT Capital Partners since June 2019, with the Dobson family keeping a minority stake. Net new openings went from 5 a year to 88, and here is what else changed.
Restaurant Guides
Why Is Whataburger Only in the South?
It is not any more. The Dobson family kept it regional on purpose for seventy years. Since the 2019 sale it is in 17 states and opening a restaurant every four days.
Restaurant Guides
Who Owns Arby’s?
Inspire Brands, which Arby’s created. The roast beef chain did the acquiring, and one of the things it bought was Dunkin for 11.3 billion dollars.
Restaurant Guides
Why Is It Called Arby’s?
Arby’s does not stand for roast beef. It comes from R.B., the initials of the Raffel Brothers, and only exists because the name they wanted, Big Tex, was taken.
Restaurant Guides
Who Owns Panda Express?
Andrew and Peggy Cherng, through the Cherng Family Trust. No franchising, no private equity, no public shares, and one engineer co-founder who built the systems.
Restaurant Guides
Who Invented Orange Chicken?
Andy Kao created it for Panda Express in Hawaii in 1987, from a Hunan tangerine chicken dish. It is now about a third of everything the chain sells.
Restaurant Guides
Does the Cheesecake Factory Make Its Own Cheesecake?
Yes, but not in the restaurant. Every cheesecake comes frozen from one of two company bakeries, and that bakery is six years older than the first restaurant.