Subway’s newest look is a hybrid of McCafe and Starbucks, with perhaps a dash of Panera. Subway Cafés blur the lines between a sandwich store and a coffee bar, with a menu that goes beyond sub sandwiches to embrace baked goods, espresso and frozen blended beverages. The concept, aimed at office buildings and other upscale…

Value-pricing and special deals are helping profit margins for at least a few chains. Crowd control has seldom been an issue, though. Except when it’s In-N-Out Burger launching in a new state. In May, the Irvine, Calif., chain finally—after much anticipation—made its Texas debut. Two units opened on the same day in Allen and Frisco,…

What are the business and service models of leading U.S. E&S distributors? These details and more are contained in FER‘s June issue and provide an in-depth look at many of the largest E&S dealers and distributors. Our nearly 20,000 large operator and consultant recipients will find these details useful as they evaluate potential distribution partners.…

The National Association of College & University Food Services holds its 2011 National Conference July 13-16 in Dallas. The 53rd annual national conference,

Two long-standing New York foodservice consulting firms, Beer Associates and Jacobs/Doland Associates, have merged their businesses. The new firm, to be known as Jacobs/Doland/Beer, will remain in its New York offices as well as continue operations at its Woodmere, N.Y., location. The three principals, Ira Beer, Gary Jacobs and Robert Doland, will continue to consult…

The Middleby Corp. announced May 31 that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of UK-based Lincat Group plc for about $90 million. The Lincat Group has annual revenues of approximately $50 million. In addition to Lincat, which manufactures a broad range of cooking products including ranges, ovens, fryers, toasters and counterline cooking equipment, the…

In spite of the bite of rising gasoline and food prices, the restaurant industry continued to expand in April, according to the latest Restaurant Performance Index data from the National Restaurant Association. The overall index fell only slightly to 100.9, essentially unchanged from the 100.1 reading in March. Any reading above 100 indicates expansion versus…

The U.S. economy produced only 54,000 new jobs in May, disappointing many analysts and investors, who took the news as a sign of the weakness of the current economic recovery. The unemployment rate also crept up 0.1 point to 9.1%. The number of unemployed and underemployed still numbers 22.4 million. The small gain came on…

After soaring more than 30% since last September, prices for stainless and carbon steels, as well as for some key nonferrous metals, fell back a bit in May. The commodity price index for metals maintained by The Economist was off 8.1% for the past month ended May 24. Of course, the metals index is still…

Consumer confidence finished with a split decision in May, while gasoline prices continued to fall from their highs in April. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index fell more than five points to 60.8 in May. On the other hand, the Consumer Sentiment Index from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers was up in May,…