RESTAURANT CONFIDENTIAL
If you’re like us, you’ve probably eaten in a chain restaurant once or twice. And if that’s the case, you’ll probably enjoy reading these gossipy facts about your favorite (or least favorite) dining establishment.
OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE
Outback is an American restaurant chain. So why is it Australia-themed, displaying boomerangs and other “Down Under” memorabilia on the walls, and offering “Aussie-Tizers” on the menu? Because it was founded in 1988. That was right around the time when all things Australian became hot in the United States, thanks to media exposure, such as Paul Hogan’s TV ads for Australian tourism (“I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you”), his 1986 blockbuster movie Crocodile Dundee, and Australian football player Jacko’s popular battery commercials (“Energizer! Oi!”). Some Florida restaurateurs looking to open a steakhouse needed an angle… and they found one.
OLIVE GARDEN
In 2014 Olive Garden received a hefty cash infusion from an investment company called Starboard Value. Representatives of that firm tried to change the way the restaurant did business because it was losing a lot of money, particularly because of its all-you-can-eat garlic breadsticks (probably the most popular thing Olive Garden offers). At the time, the chain produced about 675 million breadsticks annually, but the vast majority got thrown away because they tend to turn stale if they go uneaten for more than five minutes. Starboard suggested that Olive Garden serve just one breadstick per person, but executives figured that would drive business away. So, Starboard and Olive Garden compromised: the breadstick policy would remain in place, but they’d save money other ways…like cleaning the carpets of each of its hundreds of locations only once a month.
CHI-CHI’S
Chi-Chi’s was one of the first major Mexican-inspired restaurant chains in the United States, and exposed millions to their first-ever tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. It also exposed people to hepatitis. In 2003 the biggest outbreak of hepatitis A in American history was the result of tainted green onions served in dishes at a Chi-Chi’s in Pennsylvania. More than 650 people fell ill, and four people died. Also tainted: Chi-Chi’s. It never recovered after the hepatitis outbreak, and the chain’s entire American operation went out of business in 2004.
There are about 750 individual tiny flowers called florets on the head of a sunflower.
The Briad Group is a consortium that owns more than two dozen TGI Fridays in New Jersey. In 2013, thirteen of those restaurants were raided by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control office. Reason: bait and switch. Fridays was putting cheap booze into high-end brand bottles, and charging customers premium prices for it. One TGI Fridays even sold “scotch” that consisted of rubbing alcohol and brown food coloring. The company pleaded no contest to the criminal charges and paid a $500,000 fine.
RED LOBSTER
How much snow crab can people really eat? That’s what executives at Red Lobster wondered in 2003, completely underestimating how much shellfish people will consume during an all-you-can-eat promotion. The seafood chain offered its “Endless Snow Crab” just as wholesale crab prices started to skyrocket, severely cutting into profit margins. The company wound up making no money at all on the deal. In fact, Red Lobster actually lost $3 million, forcing the company’s president to resign.
CRACKER BARREL
In 1991 a dozen employees at various locations were fired under mysterious circumstances…and then the news emerged that the corporate office had just sent out a memo to managers ordering them to terminate any wait staff that didn’t present “normal heterosexual values.” In other words, they fired gay people, and they had to backpedal and eliminate the policy after protests erupted. In 2002 the company updated its nondiscrimination policy, officially adding sexual orientation to the list, a policy it now puts on display in every location.
APPLEBEE’S
In 1971 Julia Stewart got her first job: as a server at IHOP, or as it was known at the time, International House of Pancakes. As her work life progressed, she remained in the restaurant industry, working her way up the corporate ladder at Applebee’s, eventually becoming president, the second most powerful person in the restaurant chain. But when she was passed over for the biggest job, CEO, she quit and returned to IHOP in 2001 as its new CEO. Six years later, she led IHOP’s takeover…of Applebee’s.
THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY
Three things that this restaurant is known for: It has an insanely long and varied menu, it’s a common setting on The Big Bang Theory, and its dining rooms are extremely dimly lit. There’s a reason for that last one. Multiple psychology and marketing studies show that eating in low light leads people to eat (and thus order) more food than they usually would.
There’s enough concrete in the Hoover Dam for a two-lane road stretching from Seattle to Miami.