ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR
Jan 2022
Jan 20
Yum China Certified Top Employer China for Fourth Year
Yum China is recognized for being committed to employee care and sustainable career development.
Jan 20
Anne Fischer Promoted to CMDO of Papa John's
Fischer joined Papa Johns in 2015 as Senior Director, Digital Marketing, and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Customer Experience.
Jan 19
STUDY: Restaurant Brands with Digital-First Features More Likely to Succeed
Brands need to make it easier and more convenient to order, pickup and pay for today's convenience-driven consumer.
Jan 18
WOWorks Names Brian Farris Chief Development Officer
Previously Farris worked as Vice President of Operations at Schlotzsky's and Vice President of International Operations at Focus Brands.
Jan 18
Panda Express Launches Gaming Experience to Celebrate Lunar New Year
Panda Express' Good Fortune Arcade lets guests learn more about the origin story and food symbolism of Lunar New Year, while also receiving exclusive online offers at each level of the game.
Jan 13
Taco Bell Shares Brand's Values for 2022
The brand shares progress against past purpose goals and outlines new commitments for the coming year, including investing it is workforce.
Jan 13
Franklin Junction Expands Executive Team
Industry veterans Pascal, Pappas, and Maddox join the team.
Jan 12
Helbiz Kitchen Boosts Ghost Kitchen Global Growth With Oracle Cloud
With the success of its Italian operations, Helbiz Kitchen is expanding into the United States in 2022.
Jan 12
Uber Eats' Head of Dark Kitchens Joins C3
Pasha Mehran's diverse industry experience will lead C3 through key joint ventures and strategic partnerships as it plans for explosive growth in 2022.
Jan 11
White Spot Optimizes Food Safety Management
White Spot needed a digital solution for checklists, labels, and temperature sensors to cut down on the time it took to do food safety checks and eliminate the need for storing paper checklists in storage bins.
Jan 10
Campaign Reminds Consumers to Use Gift Cards on January 15
According to Bankrate.com, $15.3 billion in gift cards remain unused. Applebee's, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Melting Pot, Panera Bread and Smashburger are among the brands supporting the promo.
Jan 10
Three Ways Restaurants Can Benefit From Adopting AI-Powered Energy-Saving Solutions
Real-time tools are necessary to help restaurants and hotels combat rising costs and focus on what really matters: customers.
Jan 10
Taco Bell Launches Taco Subscription Service
Available exclusively on the Taco Bell app, the Taco Lover’s Pass allows fans to redeem one of seven iconic tacos a day for 30 consecutive days at participating U.S. locations for $10.
Jan 10
Checkers & Rally’s Rollout Drive-Thru A.I. Voice Assistant
The QSR is deploying Presto’s voice ordering solution at all corporate-owned restaurants this year.
Jan 09
Automation Opportunity: Survey Indicates Openness to Eliminating Human Interaction in the Drive-Thru
With heavy drive-thru volume here to stay, it makes sense to invest in automation and digital ordering.
Jan 07
Michael Healy Appointed President of Bonefish Grill
Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. promoted Michael Healy to President of Bonefish Grill. The 12-year-veteran of the company will be responsible for long-term sustainable growth for more than 180 restaurants across the United States. Bonefish Grill received
Jan 07
Kitchen United MIX Open First Location Co-Located with Grocery Store
The off-premise restaurant kitchen is the first to open after Ralphs' parent company Kroger and Kitchen United announced its national partnership in August 2021.
Jan 07
Reef to Expand to Middle East, North Africa
Reef forms joint venture with Americana Group, which owns exclusive franchise rights for the management and operation of over 1,950 restaurants.
Jan 06
RTN's Start-Up Alley at MURTEC 2022
The most innovative restaurant tech solutions will secure a coveted spot to enter RTN's Start-Up Alley at MURTEC 2022, taking place in Las Vegas March 7-9. The judges' top five will participate in a Shark-Tank style main-stage session.
Jan 06
Redberry Restaurants Promotes Christian Racine to COO
A tenured QSR Industry leader, Racine will provide companywide leadership to the Operations, Marketing, and Development teams, as well as provide his vision and guidance on Redberry’s strategic direction.
Jan 06
Survey: The Pandemic has Permanently Altered the Consumer-Restaurant Relationship
81 percent of restaurant operators are optimistic and plan to invest in technology and real estate to align with consumer preferences, according to TD Bank's survey.
Jan 05
White Castle Celebrates 100 Years with NFT
The collection celebrates White Castle's 100th birthday with a series of 5,000 NFTs by the digital media artist, Che-Yu Wu.
Jan 04
Deadline Extended for Industry Heroes, Top Women in Restaurant Technology Nominations
The deadline to submit nominations has been extended to January 12. Sponsored by Tillster, these awards will be presented live at MURTEC, March 8, 2022.
Dec 2021
Dec 29
Braemar Hotels & Resorts Strikes Deal for Dorado Beach
Braemar Hotels & Resorts Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the 96-room Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Dorado, Puerto Rico.
Dec 29
Trend Report on Online Ordering: Digital Demands Present New Challenges, Opportunities for Restaurants
Digital ordering is here to stay. Here are what leading operators are doing to meet current – and anticipate – future digital demands.
Dec 29
Payments, POS and Drones Top HT’s List of Most-Read Restaurant Stories of 2021
In this special recap, HT counts down the most-read restaurant technology stories of the year.
Dec 28
Denny's Matrix-Themed Promo Touts Brand's Digital Transformation
With streaming platform Twitch and Warner Bros., the brand orchestrated a Matrix-themed streaming activation, which received almost half a million views ahead of The Matrix Resurrections film release.
Dec 27
The Dorm Hotel Updates Guestroom Entertainment
The property implements advanced content casting abilities to meet guest expectations for seamless access to personal content on guestroom televisions.
Dec 22
Lodging Trends, IoT and Incremental Revenue Drivers Among the Most-Read Hotel Stories of the Year.
In this special recap, HT counts down the most-read hotel stories of the year.
Dec 21
Mastercard to Acquire Dynamic Yield from McDonald's
McDonald's continues to scale and integrate the personalization platform to further enhance CX. The deal boosts Mastercard's services.
Dec 21
RTN Corner: Restaurant Technology KPIs Workgroup
This new workgroup meets January 20. Sign up now!
Dec 21
David Kong Receives Arne Sorenson Social Impact Leadership Award
Kong will be among the honorees to be recognized at 2022 Night of A Thousand Stars Gala.
Dec 20
STUDY: U.S. Travel & Tourism Saw Workforce Shortage of 700,000 Employees in 2021
A report from WTTC, which represents the global private Travel & Tourism sector, projects up to one in 13 jobs will likely remain unfilled in 2022.
Dec 20
Darden Restaurants to Switch Up CEO
CEO Eugene I. Lee, Jr. to Retire; Board Elects Ricardo Cardenas as Successor; Lee to Continue as Executive Chairman.
Dec 20
David Chang’s Fried Chicken Brand Expands With Kitchen United
David Chang’s Fuku opens first Kitchen United location in Santa Monica, Calif.
Dec 20
Chipotle Prepares to Open Digital Kitchen Restaurant
Bye-bye dining room. The new format will exclusively fulfill digital orders for pickup or delivery.
Dec 17
Good Times VP of Ops Set to Retire
Scott LeFever, who has been with the company since 1978, will retire effective March 31, 2022.
Dec 17
Restaurant Brands International Inc. Completes Acquisition of Firehouse Subs
Firehouse Subs received an honorable mention in the 2021 MURTEC Breakthrough Awards.
Dec 17
Kronos Hit with Ransomware Attack
Based on UKG’s ongoing investigation, this incident appears limited to four hosted solutions in the Kronos Private Cloud. The systems may be offline for weeks.
Dec 17
BurgerFi Leverages Innovative Tech
In-Car Ordering, Patty the Robot, QR Technology and Ghost Kitchens are among the technologies being rolled out by the fast-casual burger brand.
Dec 17
Wendy’s Franchise Deploys GridPoint’s Smart Building Platform
GridPoint rolls out its technology enterprise-wide to 345 Wendy’s locations to reduce energy use and support sustainability goals.
Dec 16
Little Caesars' Anita Klopfenstein Named Chief Information Officer of the Year
Hot on the heels of winning MURTEC's Breakthrough Technology Award, CIO takes home a coveted honor.
Dec 16
How to Boost Ancillary Revenue and Guest Satisfaction
Virtually all travelers now use facial and fingerprint recognition on smartphones and laptops and expect the same level of service and convenience in accessing their hotel rooms and taking advantage of the on-site amenities.
Dec 16
FAT Brands Buys Fazoli's for $130M
Sentinel Capital Partners sells the Italian fast-casual chain.
Dec 16
McDonald's, Starbucks Make Progress in Reducing 'Problematic Plastic'
WWF’s Transparent 2021 report details where major companies are making progress toward addressing the plastic waste crisis.
Dec 15
Marcus Wasdin Joins PAR Technology Management Team
The industry veteran is GM of the Data Central solution.
Dec 15
Curator Hotel Selects New POS
The preferred partnerships with Aireus and Silverware will to provide member hotels access to best-in-class bar and restaurant point-of-sale technologies.
Dec 14
Smokey Bones Launches New Rewards Program
Smokey Bones partners with Personica to roll out new rewards program.
Dec 14
AT HT-NEXT: Carnival Corp.'s John Padgett Delivers Keynote
HT-NEXT 2021 is going on now through Dec. 16. Here's a preview of some of the stellar sessions.
Dec 14
Galgorm Resort Onboards New Properties with Maestro PMS
The luxury hospitality group is deploying additional properties with Maestro, and it is leveraging Maestro PMS’s contactless mobile tools to welcome guests to its many properties.
Dec 14
Domino's India Leverages AI to Strengthen Customer Engagement
The partnership will help Domino’s scale engagement across its massive customer base through an insights-led engagement strategy across touchpoints.
Dec 13
C3 Arabia Hires Ian Toal as CEO
The ghost kitchen is set to introduce 40 international brands to the region including including Umami Burger, Sam’s Crispy Chicken, Krispy Rice, Sa’Moto, Cicci di Carne, El Pollo Verde, Kumi, EllaMia, Plant Nation, 12 Caviar and more.
Dec 13
EnsembleIQ Promotes Derek Estey to EVP of Operations
New role includes expanded operations oversight of event business -- delivering in-person, virtual and white-label experiences to fulfill evolving education, networking and sourcing needs of technology decision makers and suppliers.
Dec 13
US Foods' Ghost Kitchens Playbook Program Receives Innovation Award
The free program was launched in response to dine-in restrictions created by the pandemic to help guide restaurant operators launch a new ghost kitchen revenue stream within their existing brick-and-mortar location.
Dec 13
AHLA Foundation Taps Veteran to Lead Hotel Industry's Workforce Programs
With more than 20 years of experience in the workforce arena, Sarah Cozewith comes to the AHLA Foundation after driving programs for the multifamily housing and retail industries.
Dec 13
Minneapolis Moves to Make Delivery Fee Cap Permanent
Third-party delivery marketplaces provide increased reach and marketing power for brands big and small. And consumers have embraced the convenience of delivery; off premises sales show no signs of slowing down.
Dec 07
POS Software Vendors Dish on Trends Impacting the Future of POS Software
In this online exclusive, HT asked POS software vendors to dish on trends impacting the future of POS software.
Dec 07
REEF Buys Virtual Kitchen Operator
2ndKitchen is a virtual kitchens for hotels, offices, buildings, venues and other hospitality companies. Reef and 2ndKitchen’s existing businesses will be combined under the Reef brand
Dec 06
Jack in the Box to Buy Del Taco
Jack in the Box says both brands will benefit, gaining greater scale to invest in digital and technology capabilities, and unit growth.
Dec 03
MOOYAH Burgers Hires Doug Willmarth
Doug Willmarth joined the fast-casual burger brand as president, effective Dec. 2.
Dec 03
Soulman’s Bar-B-Que Introduces New App
The Soulman’s Bar-B-Que app allows North Texans to purchase their favorite slow-smoked barbecue online for pickup or delivery.
Dec 02
Platform Helps Travelers Identify Eco-Friendly Hotels
Tripkicks is an add-on to SAP Concur, and provides travelers with insights and guidance as they book their trip, so they can make informed decisions.
Dec 01
STUDY: Direct Online Ordering Surges 54% in 2021
Direct online ordering grows 54% year-over-year as restaurants take ownership of guest relationships and leverage integrated technologies.
Dec 01
Domino's Takes a Stand on Delivery Fees
The pizza giant takes to the airwaves to educate consumers about third-party delivery fees and what it is doing to help local restaurants.