Restaurant Rewind Winsight Podcast Network

All-you-can-eat deals can be risky, as Red Lobster’s current plight attests. But there was a stretch 50 years or so ago when the danger extended beyond business fallout, to actual physical peril for customers and neighbors using the same roads.

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind looks back at that era when a flurry of upstart concepts used the promise of unlimited beer and wine as their main draws. Today, adult beverages offer restaurants an extremely attractive profit margin. Back then, they were the cheapo giveaways, the bait for luring in patrons willing to pop for a steak or burger. That’s where the money was.

Join as we look back at a day when $10 could get you drunk and decently fed, and why those times mercifully ended quickly.

Federal regulators have brought a new battery of charges against Andy Wiederhorn, chairman of Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones parent Fat Brands. It’s not the first time he’s been accused of violating federal security regulations. Nor is he the lone high-level restaurant executive to have served jail time, as this week’s episode of Restaurant Business’ Restaurant Rewind podcast reports.

The installment looks back at several of the most publicized instances of executives crossing the line into criminal territory, including the scandal 20 years ago that rocked Buca di Beppo. There’s also a deeper dive into what landed Wiederhorn in prison around that time, where he earned a $2 million bonus on top of a CEO-scale salary.

Press “Play” for a recount of the curious criminal records of past chain CEOs.

The Beatles were still newcomers to the music scene when Scoma’s served up its first bowl of cioppino on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The Fab Four would disband in less than a decade, but the restaurant remains a star of the local restaurant scene at age 59, the payoff from navigating the latest currents in dining while remaining true to the operating philosophy and standards set by founder Al Scoma in 1965. By design, the experience of today’s customers is not radically different from what Al sought to deliver decades ago to their grandparents and great-grandparents.

It's a common goal of landmark dining establishments, but not an easy one to attain, given how widely generations’ preferences can diverge over time. On this week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind, Scoma’s President Mariann Costello shares how her charge has handled that challenge of balancing the new with the revered, and what has kept Scoma’s successful for six decades.

She also shares her thoughts on how the San Francisco market has changed in the 40 years she’s been affiliated with the restaurant (and, no, she’s not the longest-serving member of the team, as she’s quick to point out).

Press “Play” for a download of how a restaurant with sales exceeding $11 million a year has sustained its success through wars, recessions, a pandemic and the loss of a fishing boat.

With summer just a few heatwaves away, the restaurant business is within a Maraschino cherry toss of prime ice cream season. Is there any better time to retrace how a treat that began as honeyed snow has morphed into an all-American restaurant staple?

This week’s episode of Restaurant Rewind is betting “no.” The installment looks back at the origins of the frozen treat and its twisty evolution over the centuries that followed. In what other account might Nero, Thomas Jefferson and Howard Johnson all play memorable roles?  

So scoop yourself a bowl of rum raisin, bury it in whipped cream and press Play.

Even the name suggests a climb out of a rut: TGI Friday’s, as in it’s time to cut loose and have some wicked fun. The casual-dining trailblazer didn’t disappoint, aiming from Day One to offer a different sort of experience to children of the conformity-conscious '50s.

If you’ve been in the chain restaurant business for an appreciable stretch, chances are you’ve either attended or heard about the Restaurant Leadership Conference.

It’s the top-to-top event where you might see Magic Johnson jump off the stage to give someone a hug, two chain builders lay the groundwork for a merger (Cava and Zoes Kitchen, 2018) or a big-name CEO careening around a Go Kart track. Be mindful of who may be behind you in the coffee line, because it could be a best-selling author checking out the tech demonstrations in the tradeshow area.

Yet even longtime attendees are likely unaware of how the conference, now hosted by Restaurant Business parent Informa, came to be. In those roots are the reasons why the RLC continues to reign as an event where you’re likely to be surprised by what happens on the stage and the number of industry all-stars you’ll meet.

This week’s edition of our Restaurant Rewind retro-focused podcast revisits how the conference got started, why it zigged when other conferences zagged, and some of the brush-with-greatness presenters who left attendees a-buzz.

Check it out, whether you are there or want to be.