SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AUDIENCE GROWTH Greg Sanders gsanders@wtwhmedia.com
CONTENT STUDIO
VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT STUDIO Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER, CONTENT STUDIO Drew Filipski dfilipski@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER, CONTENT STUDIO Ya’el McLoud ymcloud@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER, CONTENT STUDIO Abby Winterburn awinterburn@wtwhmedia.com
ART & PRODUCTION
SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Tory Bartelt tbartelt@wtwhmedia.com
FSR ART DIRECTOR Erica Naftolowitz enaftolowitz@wtwhmedia.com
SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
VICE PRESIDENT SALESFOOD, RETAIL, & HOSPITALITY Lindsay Buck lbuck@wtwhmedia.com
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Eugene Drezner edrezner@wtwhmedia.com 919-945-0705
NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Edward Richards erichards@wtwhmedia.com 216-956-6636
NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Amber Dobsovic adobsovic@wtwhmedia.com 757-637-8673
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Mike Weinreich mweinreich@wtwhmedia.com 561-398-2686
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Guy Norcott gnorcott@wtwhmedia.com 854-200-5864
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Tracy Doubts tdoubts@wtwhmedia.com 919-945-0704
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Brandy Pinion bpinion@wtwhmedia.com 662-234-5481, EXT 127 FOUNDER Webb C. Howell
Celebrating Female Leadership
This edition of QSR magazine marks our first issue dedicated to women in restaurant leadership. The idea, sparked by our VP of editorial Danny Klein, is much needed. The industry is filled with opportunities, but it would be disingenuous to suggest those chances are split evenly between men and women.
McKinsey & Company’s 2024 Women in the Workplace study found that women make up 58 percent of entrylevel positions in the restaurant industry and 49 percent at the manager level. However, the number dips to 29 percent at the C-suite level.
Although there is a long way to go, the industry has seen signs of progress. Since the start of 2024, several women have become CEOs of prominent quick-service concepts, including Debbie Stroud at Whataburger, Heather Neery at Taco John’s, Jennifer Schuler at Handel’s Ice Cream, Denise Nelsen at Smashburger, and Elizabeth Williams at El Pollo Loco. The casual-dining industry has seen some progress too, with Kelli Valade heading Denny’s—the fourthlargest sit-down chain in America—and Julie Masino, who leads Cracker Barrel. In August 2024, Mohaimina “Mina” Haque became the first female CEO of Tony Roma’s, a 52-year-old brand.
Cracker Barrel is particularly interesting since Masino took over for Sandy Cochran. This means the roughly 660unit brand has been led by a woman for the past 14 years. I’m not sure of this in a historical sense, but I don’t know of any other chain of that scale that’s had a female CEO for that long of a stretch. It’s something I’m sure Cracker Barrel takes great pride in, and something others in the industry should strive for. Not in the
sense of handing over the role to prove something, but in ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.
We aim to uplift women in the food and beverage segment not only by sharing stories in this magazine but also by hosting our annual Women in Restaurant Leadership Summit. The event featured workshops, learning sessions, and networking opportunities for women across all ranks of hospitality. The response—in terms of attendance and on social media— has been overwhelmingly positive. It proves that women are yearning for a space where they can mentor each other, uplift each other, and brainstorm strategies to make headway in restaurants.
As we continue to spotlight these initiatives, it’s crucial to recognize the ongoing challenges and work collectively toward a more inclusive future. By providing equal opportunities and support, we can ensure leadership within the restaurant industry reflects the diverse and talented workforce that drives it.
In this issue, we delve into stories of trailblazing women who have broken barriers and set new standards in restaurant leadership. Their journeys offer valuable insights and inspiration for aspiring leaders. Our goal is to not only highlight the achievements of women in the industry but also to provide resources and guidance for organizations aiming to cultivate and empower female leaders. Together, we can create a restaurant industry that values and benefits from the strengths and perspectives of all its members.
We can always do more.
Ben Coley, Editor
WiRL Power
The second annual Women in Restaurant Leadership Summit was a huge success.
THE WOMEN IN RESTAURANT Leadership (WiRL) “Together Summit” unfolded over two days, February 19-20, at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville, bringing together female leaders from across the restaurant industry. The summit was designed to foster connections, inspire leadership, and equip women with actionable strategies for career advancement.
Keynote speaker Shannon Hennessy, CEO of The Habit Burger & Grill, captivated the audience with her journey of transforming the brand into a global powerhouse. Her insights on modernizing off-premises dining and achieving industry-leading margins offered a blend of inspiration and practical strategies.
Sessions on imposter phenomenon and self-advocacy encouraged attendees to confront self-doubt and negotiate confidently for their careers. Roundtable discussions facilitated by advisory board members allowed for intimate, focused conversations on leadership, marketing, and financial acumen.
The second annual Women in Restaurant Leadership Summit took place in February.
The Q4 2024 Deep-Dive Report by Revenue Management Solutions examines post-pandemic restaurant trends based on a survey of 792 U.S. consumers conducted in November 2024. It highlights key shifts in dining habits, digital ordering behavior, and consumer preferences in both QSRs and full-service restaurants.
KEY FINDINGS
RESTAURANT VISITS ARE STILL BELOW PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS
• QSR DECLINE: Nearly half of consumers (45 percent) report visiting QSRs less often than before COVID-19. This suggests lingering behavioral shifts despite the segment’s affordability and convenience.
HYBRID WORKERS AND HIGHER-INCOME CONSUMERS ARE DRIVING RESTAURANT VISITS
• HYBRID WORKERS BOOST FULL-SERVICE TRAFFIC: One in four hybrid workers has increased their visits to full-service concepts, making them a key audience for sit-down restaurants looking to grow.
• INCOME GAP IN DINING FREQUENCY: Higher-income consumers ($100,000+) are more likely to increase restaurant visits, whereas lower-income groups have significantly cut back on dining out due to financial constraints.
• QSR APPEAL AMONG HYBRID WORKERS: Over one-third of hybrid workers have reported increased QSR visits, the highest among all work segments, making them an essential target for fast-food brands.
51% of Gen Z and 49% of millennials have increased their takeout orders since the pandemic
• FULL-SERVICE DECLINE: 51 percent of consumers say they dine at full-service restaurants less frequently, with inflation and cost concerns likely influencing decisions. Meanwhile, a smaller 18 percent have increased visits, primarily for social occasions.
DIGITAL ORDERING CONTINUES TO SURGE
• YOUNGER GENERATIONS DRIVE DIGITAL ORDERS: 51 percent of Gen Z and 49 percent of millennials have increased their takeout orders since the pandemic, showing a strong preference for app-based and mobile ordering.
• FAMILIES ARE ADOPTING ONLINE ORDERING: Nearly half of family households report using digital platforms more frequently, reinforcing the importance of easy-to-use mobile apps and quick service.
• DELIVERY VS. TAKEOUT TRENDS: While both are growing, delivery remains dominant among younger consumers, while takeout is a preferred option for older generations looking for convenience without extra fees.
• CONSUMER HESITANCY: While many have returned to dining out, a segment of the population remains cautious, particularly lower-income groups and those who developed new at-home dining habits during the pandemic.
CONVENIENCE
AND SOCIALIZING
ARE TOP MOTIVATORS
• CONVENIENCE DRIVES QSR VISITS: Among those increasing QSR visits, 58 percent cite convenience or lack of time as the primary reason, highlighting the need for fast service and easy ordering.
• FULL-SERVICE CONCEPTS ATTRACT SOCIAL GATHERINGS: While QSR visits are motivated by speed, FSRs have seen an uptick in visits for social occasions, including business dinners and casual meet-ups.
• SPECIAL OCCASIONS MATTER: Consumers who increased their fullservice visits pointed to birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations as key reasons, making experience-driven marketing a valuable strategy.
WORK ENVIRONMENT AND INCOME INFLUENCE DINING HABITS
• REMOTE WORKERS DINE OUT LESS: Fully remote employees reported the sharpest decline in restaurant visits, likely due to the availability of home-cooked meals and less need for on-the-go dining.
• LOWER-INCOME CONSUMERS CUT SPENDING: Those earning under $50K have significantly reduced dining out, making affordability and value-driven promotions essential for QSRs and full-service concepts alike.
• HYBRID WORKERS SPEND MORE: This segment is more likely to visit restaurants than those who work exclusively from home or in an office, making them a crucial demographic for both fast-casual and full-service restaurants.
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fresh ideas
|BRAND INNOVATION|
Healthy, Fast, and On the Rise
Better-for-you brands are doubling down on variety and speed.
ABY SAM DANLEY
s consumers increasingly seek out fresher, healthier options in a quick-service setting, brands positioning themselves as better-for-you alternatives are working to make nutritious eating as easy and accessible as possible.
For Salad House, a 20-unit franchise based in New Jersey, that means offering a wide variety of flavors and ingredients while ensuring the menu remains approachable and familiar.
“Our menu is staples done right,” says founder and CEO Joey Cioffi. “You don’t have to Google the ingredients. I’m a big foodie, but I’ll still walk into some of these better-for-you concepts and
go, ’What is that? What does it taste like?’ Before I put that on my salad, I have to figure out what it actually is.”
While many guests want options that support wellness, they don’t necessarily want to feel restricted. Cioffi compares it to the rise of non-alcoholic beverages—people still crave the taste of a great beer, but may opt for a low- or no-alcohol version. The key is striking a balance where healthy choices are satisfying and don’t feel like a compromise.
To that end, salad chains are expanding their offerings to broaden appeal and eliminate the veto vote. Sweetgreen, for example, has
Just Salad diversified its menu as it expanded into new suburban markets.
fresh ideas
introduced Protein Plates and Ripple Fries to shake off its salad-only image. Others are pushing beyond their core offerings with items like grain bowls, sandwiches, wraps, indulgent desserts, and more.
This menu diversification isn’t a departure from health-focused branding but an adaptation to attract a wider audience and drive frequency, says Nick Kenner, founder and CEO of New York-based Just Salad. That’s important as the 100-unit chain extends beyond the dense urban markets where it started.
“We’ve learned a lot from going from a primarily urban concept to a primarily suburban concept,” Kenner says. “It’s more clear than ever that our customer doesn’t necessarily care whether it’s a warm bowl or salad or wrap. They just want it to be healthy, fast, affordable, and great tasting.”
Salad House was built with that philosophy in mind from the
start. The idea for the concept stemmed from Cioffi’s wife, who noticed plenty of chopped salad shops in the city but few in the suburbs. To fill that gap, he knew the brand needed a diverse menu with chicken sandwiches, tenders, wraps, and other familiar items that appeal to the whole family.
“Some people might want a salad every day, but that’s a small percentage,” Cioffi says. “You’ve got the people that don’t care at all. Then, you’ve got everyone else in the middle that still indulges here and there while being interested in healthier options, too. I think that middle ground is the perfect place for us.”
Chicken Salad Chick doesn’t fit neatly into any one segment. It’s not a salad concept, a traditional chicken chain, or a standard sandwich shop. But it occupies a unique space on the spectrum between indulgence and health. While the nearly 300-unit brand
Salad House founder Joey Cioffi emphasizes the need for menu variety to engage all guests.
Chicken Salad Chick occupies a unique space between indulgence and health.
Convenience is in store.
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doesn’t lead with a better-for-you message, CEO Scott Deviney notes that its scratch-made approach, fresh ingredients, and protein-forward menu naturally carry a health halo.
The brand introduced its first big menu addition a year and a half ago when it introduced the Chicken Melt, a warm option that added variety without introducing new ingredients. The sandwich features chicken salad and a flavored slice of provolone cheese on a buttered croissant. The only operational change? Bringing in a toaster.
The item was an immediate hit with customers and has helped drive traffic during dinner hours and in colder months. Building on that success, Chicken Salad Chick has experimented with new variations, including a bacon cheddar melt introduced late last year. The company sees room for additional hot sandwich offerings but plans to keep them aligned with its core identity.
“Where we can really highlight the chicken salad as the hero, that’s where we’ll play,” Deviney says. “Different cheeses, different toppings that you could toast— that’s where we see that product line going.”
Looking ahead to 2025, the biggest menu change won’t be about food but rather how guests navigate the ordering process. The company sees an opportunity to streamline the menu layout, making it clearer and more intuitive.
“There’s some confusion on how and what to order,” Deviney says. “Is it a scoop? Is it a sandwich? What does the meal look like? We’re working with focus groups to nail how the ordering process works and make sure that guests know what to do when they walk in the door.”
While a more streamlined approach will bring some operational efficiencies, the primary goal is improving the guest experience—especially in new markets where brand awareness is lower.
“Because we’re not having to educate on how to order, we can talk about the great chicken salad flavors, and not as much about how to bundle it,” Deviney says. “There will be a throughput gain on that, but right now, the focus is making it easier for the guest to know how to order every time.”
This focus on improving the ordering experience isn’t unique to Chicken Salad Chick. Brands that fit more squarely into the salad segment are also rethinking accessibility—not just in terms of menu variety but in how easily guests can order and receive their food. In a category that hasn’t always been synonymous with speed and convenience, salad concepts are evolving to match the frictionless experience consumers now expect in quick service.
Just Salad took a major step in that direction in January when it debuted a new drive-thru location, the first of several planned for 2025.
“I think the customer wants convenience, whether they’re eating healthy or having coffee,” Kenner says. “They want to save time. We want to disrupt fast food. And it’s pretty hard to disrupt fast food without the drive-thru.”
Other salad and healthy bowl brands are making a concerted push into drivethru lanes and other convenience-driven formats. CAVA plans for a significant portion of its new locations to feature digital order drive-thru windows, while Sweetgreen is expanding its automated Infinite Kitchen model and rolling out more pickup-only and drive-thru stores. Salad & Go has rapidly scaled its footprint in recent years thanks to its streamlined, drive-thru-only prototype. Some, like Chopt Creative Salad Co. and Salad House, are leaning into self-order kiosks, allowing guests more control over customization without slowing down service.
Kenner says that in the short-term, Just Salad’s drive-thru units are an addon to how it densifies existing markets. They could play a bigger role in expanding the brand’s reach down the line, especially as it continues pushing into more suburban areas and planting flags in new regions.
“There aren’t as many sure-fire trends as you might think out there, but people wanting to eat healthier is a trend that’s growing pretty rapidly—not just on the coasts, but all over this country,” he says. “I think the category is really well positioned to serve those changing customer needs.”
Sam Danley is the associate editor of QSR. He can be reached at sdanley@wthwmedia.com
Just Salad opened its first drive-thru location in 2024.
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85°C Cafe
Bringing its signature sea salt coffee, fresh-baked pastries, and commitment to quality at affordable prices, the brand continues its rapid expansion across the U.S.
BY TALLULAH HAWLEY
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eral public.
“What he wanted to create was a bakery that had five-star quality products—pastries, bread, cakes, coffees, and boba milk teas—but at affordable prices where it could become an everyday item,” says Dave Lazaro, director of marketing. 85°C Cafe opened its first location in Taiwan in July 2004.
cuting those things,” says Lazaro. “So it was sort of that inspiration.”
After the brand’s success in Asia prompted expansion into China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Australia, moving to America was a logical choice. “A lot of Asian bakeries, and especially Taiwanese brands, have been moving to the U.S.,” Lazaro says. The initial location in Irvine, California, had a two-hour-long line during its grand opening.
Abroad, the brand is called 85°C Daily Cafe. In Taiwan, Lazaro notes, the drinks are “the driver” for customers, while in the U.S., bread and drinks are equally popular. In America, its best-selling food items are the Milk Pudding Bread and ChocoBun treats, while its biggest drinks are the famed sea salt coffee, strawberry matcha latte, Thai tea, and Vietnamese coffee.
Lazaro joined 85°C Cafe in February 2020, but says he had been visiting the cafe “pretty much since they opened.” Before Lazaro joined the team, 85°C Cafe had already begun taking off across the West Coast, with locations in Arizona, Utah, and Hawaii.
Now, the brand is at 83 American locations. Last year, the East Coast was finally given a taste of the brand’s best-selling Sea Salt Coffee with Cherry Hill, New Jersey, soon followed in January by a Queens, New York, location in Flushing’s Chinatown neighborhood.
KNOWN ABROAD AS THE “STARBUCKS OF TAIWAN,” 85°C Cafe moved across the ocean in 2008 and is enthralling customers coast to coast with its well-priced yet high-quality baked goods and specialty beverages.
In 2003, founder Wu Cheng-hsueh, was inspired by his various visits to bakeries within nice hotels and restaurants, wondering if he could create similar products but at a much lower price to cater to the gen-
The 85°C moniker comes from what Cheng-hsueh considered to be the perfect temperature to brew espresso. With its standard of excellence built into the name, this motto would flow into the creation of 85°C Cafe’s other items as well. “Try[ing] to do things perfectly when you’re baking, when you’re decorating cakes, when you’re brewing coffee, when you’re serving guests, trying to be as perfect as you can when you’re exe-
“When we went to Flushing and New Jersey, we weren’t sure what to expect,” Lazaro says. “We weren’t sure if our brand recognition would be there. But surprisingly, it turned out well. We had lines wrapped around the mall and a one to two-and-ahalf-hour wait.”
“Typically, our grand openings will do about $20,000 to $30,000 in one-day sales on each of the days of a Friday, Saturday, Sunday grand opening,” he continues. “That gives you a sense
Making Food Cleaner and Easier
Lily Rivkin is proving that simplicity is the future with her startup concept, Rooted.
BY SATYNE DONER
Lily Rivkin always loved cherries—until she bit into one while sitting at her desk as an intern and suddenly couldn’t breathe.
After a terrifying trip to the ER, she learned she had developed adult-onset allergies. That meant many of the fast foods favored by busy young professionals—fried chicken, french fries, and hamburgers—were out of the question.
At the time, the 20-year-old Yale student was on a fast track to success in finance and tech in New York City. While immunotherapy helped her manage her allergies, her approach to fast food changed forever. She now had to carry an EpiPen in case she consumed dill, a commonly used spice. Eating out became a challenge due to the lack of ingredient transparency.
“I’m a foodie, and I never had to think about what I was consuming, so this experience threw me for a loop,” Rivkin says. “I learned that menus aren’t what you see, and the only kitchen you can trust is your own. But there’s a growing amount of Americans who want to know what’s in their food and who need simplicity and transparency.”
Rivkin felt a growing desire to challenge
restaurant norms and redefine how Americans approach fast food. She wanted to provide ingredient-conscious consumers with a menu rooted in simplicity, transparency, trust, and taste.
In a bold move, she left the fintech world for hospitality, juggling her MBA studies with learning how to cook and training under former Restaurant Daniel chef Robin Ferrier. While taking classes, the idea for Rooted began to take shape.
“The first thing I did on campus was go to the Venture Lab, which helps entrepreneurs build businesses. I was learning how to pitch to investors while also taking classes on how to create a brand focus based on consumer behaviors. My professors were advisors to me … I felt like I was in an incubator,” Rivkin adds.
Her idea earned spots in Wharton’s VIP-C and Food Innovation Accelerators, secured funding from its venture capital arms, and reached the semifinalist round of the Wharton Startup Challenge. She used feedback from her professors and fellow students to refine the Rooted concept, developing a transparent restaurant experience that eliminated the guesswork from fast food. She tested menu items by hosting dinner parties in her apartment.
Inspired by better-for-you consumer packaged goods brands like RXBAR, which champion minimalistic, straightforward food, Rooted’s menu stands out by using seven household ingredients or fewer in every dish, cooking exclusively with olive oil, and listing all ingredients clearly.
Customers can customize their meals by mixing and matching vegetables, proteins, legumes, starches, sauces, and sides. Rivkin wanted Rooted’s proteins made to order rather than sitting in warming trays. She envisioned a restaurant without an assembly line—where customers order from a kiosk, wait two and a half minutes, and receive a freshly prepared meal.
“Simplicity doesn’t make something difficult or boring. I think it elevates the natural flavors of a dish,” Rivkin says. “I don’t think you need more ingredients to make something delicious. Customers can see every ingredient listed when they order on the kiosks, with pictures and a team member there to guide them through if needed. I wanted Rooted to have a higher level of
Simplicity doesn’t have to mean boring, according to Rooted founder Lily Rivkin.
The Power of the
Pivot
The Habit Burger & Grill CEO Shannon Hennessy discusses embracing change and empowering others to do the same.
While flying to Los Angeles in early January, The Habit Burger & Grill CEO Shannon Hennessy looked out the window and saw fires raging across the landscape, devastating the Palisades and surrounding areas.
Her heart sank. The Habit has deep roots in California, dating back to its first location in Santa Barbara in 1969. The brand operates throughout the state, often competing for the top spot alongside In-N-Out Burger.
Interwoven with the people of California, The Habit was in a position to help during the fires. And in that moment, Hennessy knew they had to act. The situation was far worse than the news had originally reported.
She quickly reached out to her daughter’s friends at the Los Angeles Fire Department to find out how The Habit could provide meals and donations. But when she told her team, “I want to feed L.A.,” she faced resistance. They believed their first priority should be assessing which stores were open, organizing the crisis team, and determining costs. But Hennessy refused to compromise.
“I feel my best as a leader when I’ve done something brave and unpopular that I knew in my gut was the right thing to do. I’m at my worst when I question that confidence and allow the voices in my head to water me down,” Hennessy says. “At that moment, I was unrelenting in my conviction. They wanted to talk about margins … I wanted to feed L.A. because this is our home. This is where we come from, and these are our people.”
Under her leadership, The Habit mobilized food trucks across the city, serving free Charburger meals to L.A. evacuees and first responders. More than 17,000 hot meals were delivered, providing comfort to those facing an unimaginable crisis. A small gesture created an immense impact.
As a leader in a fast-changing restaurant industry, Hennessy has learned to shift strategies under pressure. But adapting to unexpected challenges is nothing new for her.
A nonlinear career path
Hennessy began her career as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm known for helping businesses and organizations achieve performance goals. Over nearly two decades, she worked her way up to partner, thriving as a consultant until 2020.
One day, her longtime friend and mentor Chris Turner—then CFO of Yum! Brands—suggested she check out an open CFO role at KFC Global. He knew how heart-led Hennessy was and how
/ BY SATYNE DONER
much she valued people, and figured it would be a good fit. At the time, she had no expectations but quickly became intrigued.
“After spending just a few hours with the executive team, I called my husband and told him I wanted to try this. He didn’t think I was serious … but I had never seen a brand talk about people the way they did at Yum!, and it completely captured my imagination,” Hennessy recalls.
In what she jokingly describes as a “criminally insane” career pivot, Hennessy leaped into the restaurant industry at the height of a global pandemic. On top of that, she hadn’t used her finance degree since college, adding an extra layer of uncertainty to her new role as CFO of KFC Global. She was tasked with ensuring continued growth and profitability while overseeing global financial planning, supply chain management, and strategy.
She quickly immersed herself in the science of franchise partnerships and unit economics. But the biggest lesson she learned had nothing to do with finances—it reaffirmed why she had joined in the first place: restaurants are, above all, a people business.
“I think being a great CFO in restaurants is about finding a way to say ‘yes,’ finding a way to be able to test ideas or put resources where they belong,” Hennessy adds. “I was nervous going into it, but it’s not rocket science. I learned that finances are not the hardest part of being a CFO. It’s making sure you have the right people supporting and educating you.”
After two years, Hennessy was ready for a role that allowed her to work across more functions, including marketing and development. When the position of brand president for The Habit became available, she jumped at the opportunity. Everything she had loved about her work at KFC—shaping growth initiatives and driving digital transformation—would be key to The Habit’s success.
The biggest challenge? Transitioning from a large global franchise to a smaller but rapidly expanding brand. It was a test of leadership, requiring her to navigate major strategic pivots and rewrite the brand’s playbook in an unpredictable environment.
As president, she led franchising, development, marketing, and international expansion while strengthening company culture and cross-brand collaboration. By March 2023, she was named CEO, succeeding Russ Bendel and building on the brand’s strengths.
Becoming CEO of a legacy burger chain was never part of her plan, but Hennessy believes career growth isn’t about chasing titles—it’s about staying curious and open to opportunities. Looking back, she sees career ladders more as webs, and her own journey is a testament to that mindset.
“In my late 20s, I was struggling with this choice of doing
something a little bit off of my ladder. I was curious about moving in a different direction even if it wasn’t the fastest path to the top. My mentor at the time told me to try it and see where it leads because it’s really what I wanted to do,” Hennessy says. “It’s been powerful to me because when I think about continual learning and growth, it’s more about skills, creating options, trusting your gut, and enjoying the ride. It’ll probably lead to an even better place, even if it’s not a straight line.”
Transforming a legacy brand for the future
Today, the 56-year-old burger chain operates over 385 locations across the U.S. and internationally—80 percent of which are company-owned—and is best known for its diverse, California-style menu featuring chargrilled burgers, onion rings, and tempura green beans.
Historically an in-restaurant business, with over 60 percent of transactions coming from the dining room, the brand recognized the need for change when over two-thirds of its sales shifted to offpremises. The demand for convenience had never been greater.
With Yum!’s backing, Hennessy has leveraged cutting-edge technology to rework key customer touchpoints without losing the brand’s true north. For example, when ordering curbside, customers can give The Habit a 10-minute notice through the app or website, ensuring the same high-quality cook-to-order experience. By pushing the boundaries of its technological capabilities, the brand recently surpassed 40 percent digital sales mix.
“We are experiencing major channel shifts in our business as we go from dine-in to off-premises, but we’re pivoting around a strong central point, and that comes from understanding what our superpowers are,” Hennessy says. “We’ve always stood for quality and convenience for our customers, who are busy families. But our way of delivering those two things is understandably evolving as we look to modernize our systems.”
Hennessy is also harnessing technology to navigate a major industry challenge: in April 2024, California imposed a $20 minimum wage for fast-food employees, set to increase annually with inflation. This change is expected to result in a $10 million operating loss. With over two-thirds of The Habit’s restaurants located in California, adapting quickly became critical.
Although the company anticipated the law, the speed of its implementation required immediate action. Hennessy assembled a comprehensive task force to revolutionize The Habit’s labor strategy at both the restaurant and corporate levels.
“We heavily leaned into kiosks, making them one of our top order input channels. While we had them all along, we needed to increase their usage by positioning them in customers’ sight lines and making them more user-friendly,” Hennessy says. “We are also playing around with voice AI tools, but we haven’t fully rolled that out yet.”
One of the biggest breakthroughs for The Habit was restructuring restaurant roles. The original labor guide was designed for high-volume California locations but hadn’t been adapted to reflect the brand’s broader restaurant profile. From a cross-training perspective, the guide was adjusted for greater flexibility, breaking down some of the barriers between roles.
“We feel passionately about people having a career path, joining us as a cashier or cook and then being able to work their way up to general manager and above,” Hennessy says. “So we wanted to preserve that employee journey, but we realized we had too many steps in the ladder. We realized we could streamline it while still protecting the path to success and having the kind of wage separation that we needed.”
Hennessy also challenges the notion that innovation requires sacrificing heritage. She sees the idea of giving up a brand’s core characteristics to scale as a false trade-off. Instead, she believes in pivoting and adjusting while staying committed to key strengths—an approach she has embraced at The Habit as it aims to become a category disruptor.
In August 2024, she launched a light rebranding campaign, changing the name from “The Habit Burger Grill” to “The Habit Burger & Grill” to highlight the brand’s evolving menu beyond just burgers. This shift serves to modernize the brand, communicate its variety, and reinforce Hennessy’s vision of “more magic and more margin.”
“It’s not one or the other for us. It’s about figuring out how to get both, and a part of that is investing in changing hearts even more than you change minds,” Hennessy shares. “The journey to achieving more magic and more margin [for The Habit] has been an exercise in understanding where the resistance to change
THE HABIT BURGER & GRILL HAS OVER 385 UNITS.
is coming from, acknowledging the fear, recognizing the passion of our team, and communicating what things are possible to innovate and what we refuse to compromise on.”
With Hennessy at the helm, The Habit hopes to break the “craft ceiling,” solidifying itself as a leader in the better-burger category through its Better By Char philosophy—a radical commitment to cook-to-order food quality—and a culture of teamwork, because, as Hennessy believes, burgers are best served by an orchestrated symphony of both people and ingredients.
“On this journey to unlocking a better way to do business, I actually undersold what the team was going to be capable of accomplishing,” Hennessy says. “When you empower your team and unleash them to go look at the way we buy beef, think about packaging, or plan labor in the restaurants, they come back with an incredible answer every time.”
Embracing the power of the pivot
The reality is, there is no end in sight to industry changes; the restaurant space has always been and will continue to be in flux. This presents a unique opportunity for leaders to prepare for unpredictable change and lead with agility and resilience.
Similar to how Hennessy has evolved The Habit around its true north, she has also embraced the power of the pivot— understanding her leadership strengths, harnessing their range, and allowing for flexibility in an environment of intense change.
“If you engage the same way in every meeting, with every person and every team, you’re going to get the same result. If you’re getting frustrated, you might need to ask yourself how you can show up differently and be more flexible while staying true to yourself,” Hennessy adds.
She acknowledges that change can feel exhausting, especially when it’s constant. When she craves stability and routine, she finds strength through self-care, viewing it as a necessity rather than a luxury. This can mean an exercise regimen or simply surrounding herself with people who bring positivity and energy into her life.
“I still struggle with thinking it’s selfish to take time for myself, but I do think our energy as leaders is contagious. If you are feeling wobbly or down, your team is only going to amplify those emotions and become stressed,” Hennessy says. “And sometimes we’re so fixated on getting everything perfect, but we should be embracing imperfection and learning what does and doesn’t work. I know that’s uncomfortable for a lot of us former A-plus students.”
As a leader, Hennessy strives to empower her team in a relentlessly positive way, encouraging them to embrace the power of the pivot as well. She believes people are the secret ingredient to success and need to be coached based on their unique strengths and perspectives.
“Representation matters. The Habit’s team looks very different from a few years ago … It’s half women, half men. People who self-identify as immigrants and LGBTQIA+. Having a set of people with diverse experiences gives you different viewpoints,” Hennessy says. “It’s like a recipe in my mind, and having the right ingredients matters. I think you have to figure out how to
put people together in a way where everyone feels comfortable expressing their point of view.”
Supporting and uplifting her team happens on both a micro and macro level, starting with paying attention to who contributes in meetings and actively listening to those who haven’t spoken yet. Hennessy also prioritizes empowerment at the policy level, implementing family leave policies, domestic partner benefits, ERGs, and restaurant campaigns that send a strong message about inclusivity—such as the Rainbow Shake LTO.
“When I think about teaching my team to be proactive instead of reactive to industry changes, we have to become a lot more comfortable with doing things faster and scrappier,” Hennessy says. “We have to shift our mindset to view change as an opportunity to unlock a different way of thinking. We don’t sit around and wait for the change to happen. We figure out how to get better during a crisis and leapfrog from those moments where we got handed something we didn’t ask for.”
Advice for taking the leap
When making big decisions, career pivots, or taking risks, Hennessy first listens to her gut and asks herself whether the change aligns with her true north.
“Trust your instincts. I love data and information, but I think there’s something in your gut that knows things your brain isn’t smart enough to figure out,” Hennessy says. “Listen to those feelings; if it’s telling you to lean forward or backward, don’t ignore it.”
Inspired by a TED Talk by Molly Graham, Hennessy encourages others to incorporate fearless leaps into their careers—even if they fall at first, they will ultimately soar. The key, she says, is learning not to give up during that initial descent and recognizing the difference between a learning curve and a true catastrophic fall.
“I learned how to listen to myself because I’m more often talked out of good ideas than I am otherwise, but it’s also important to have the right advisors and fresh eyes to help reinforce some of my gut feelings,” Hennessy says. “At the end of the day, it’s about finding the confidence to be able to contribute as your real self, viewing that as unique and advantageous. Don’t hold yourself back from taking risks … for every one person that oversteps, 100 people are just holding themselves back.”
If there is one thing Hennessy has leveraged most in her career, it’s her curiosity. She’s often asked by those early in their careers what classes they should take or what opportunities they should pursue, and her answer is to always take the nonlinear approach.
“The strongest leaders have pushed themselves in many different directions and asked smart questions along the way. They have taken risks, positions that went off of their resume, and roles that nobody wanted,” Hennessy says. “You have to follow your curiosity and explore various functions and concepts to build your understanding of what lights you up as a person as well as your aptitude for building a team and pointing them in the right direction.”
/ BY BEN COLEY
RESILIENCE, RISKTAKING, AND RISING TO THE TOP
Jess Reicher and Rasheeda Clark carved their paths to leading the Arby’s and Wendy’s brands for Flynn Group. Their journeys offer a blueprint for women aiming to break barriers in the male-dominated restaurant industry.
Jess Reicher’s biggest challenge as a woman in the restaurant industry is that she’s a processor. She’s quiet.
When people get to know her, it becomes clear she’s an inspirational leader. But oftentimes at the seat of the table, Reicher is more reserved because she prefers to listen and then respond. As she advanced to Arby’s brand president for Flynn Group, the world’s largest franchisee organization, she realized those character traits had to evolve.
“You can’t do that when you have a seat at the table—so getting
ahead of the information, arming myself with all the information that I need so that I can have a strong point of view when I get there and be able to be a lead contributor was instrumental,” Reicher says.
Rasheeda Clark, brand president of Wendy’s for Flynn Group, doubted herself several times. She compared herself to male peers—something that frustrates her in hindsight. Clark felt she had to minimize her own successes “to not rock the boat of my counterparts.” That began to change with mentorship, allyship, and taking ownership of her own development.
Clark also expanded her network outside of her immediate work group.
“For me, that’s when I believe I started to really lean into being authentically myself and being comfortable in my own leadership and embracing what makes me unique,” Clark says. “And I think it’s so important to be able to be authentic because you create space for others. You have to have the diversification and the leadership within the room. And that’s not so much about our gender or the color of our skin. It really is just in our approaches and how we solve problems and how we show up for one another. And then it just creates more room for others that come after you.”
classes, she worked in restaurants and had a boss who challenged her to lead shifts and participate in some management. It was at this moment she discovered her love for building teams.
Reicher and Clark, after years in restaurants, have come away with several lessons as women in the industry. A significant one is that life is far from linear.
Neither were born into restaurants, but the fast-paced, teamoriented nature of it has a way of taking hold and never letting go.
That’s the case for Reicher, who had a biology degree and thought she would attend medical school. While attending
Reicher also loved school but struggled with how to apply her degree. With medicine, she was curious because it was a potential way to make a difference in people’s lives, but she didn’t love that insurance companies seemed to control what you could do for patients. The academic route was more about research than people. Neither option completely aligned with her value set.
“I had that boss that pushed me into thinking differently and
FLYNN GROUP IS THE LARGEST OPERATOR OF ARBY’S RESTAURANTS WORLDWIDE. REICHER OVERSEES MORE THAN 360 RESTAURANTS AND 7,500 TEAM MEMBERS IN 10 STATES.
said, look, the restaurant industry is an industry that is untapped and you can do anything that you want to,” Reicher says. “And with your love of people, imagine the impact that you can have on people’s lives. And when I saw that translating through experience, it pulled my heartstrings. I always said biology was the head and restaurants were the heart.”
Reicher took a break from school, and the restaurant superiors in her life, “pounced on that and said, ‘Hey, let’s take this to the next level.’” She spent much of her early career with Red Robin, rising to area director and traveling around the U.S. fixing troubled locations.
Every time it seemed like Reicher would hit a place where she wanted to go back to school, her boss would give her another challenge to solve. Repeatedly seeing results from her efforts— changing people’s lives as she had wanted—simplified her full jump into restaurants.
“That’s really where I built this gene of, you get the right people in place, you get really great plans, and that’s the magic that creates success,” Reicher says.
When Reicher’s boss from Red Robin moved to Fuddruckers, he recruited her to join him. Here, she rose fast within the executive ranks, taking knowledge from her early career and putting it to action. After moving up to senior vice president of operations at Fuddruckers, she became the director of operations for Pizza Hut’s international fleet before transitioning to Taco Bell in another senior operations role. This is where she was first introduced to Flynn Group, which also franchises Taco Bell. Reicher leaped to Nando’s PERi-PERi as COO for four years before looping back to
CLARK LEADS OVER 300 WENDY’S RESTAURANTS FOR FLYNN GROUP. THE FRANCHISEE BECAME AN OPERATOR OF THE BRAND IN 2021 AND HAS ACQUIRED OVER 100 LOCATIONS SINCE THEN.
the franchisee and Arby’s in June 2020.
Meanwhile, Clark came up through collegiate sports and even spent time playing in the WNBA. Through basketball, she recognized her love of leading teams but also understood the necessity of gathering ground-level experience. Clark entered roles where she learned how to be resilient within the corporate structure and what purpose-driven leadership looked like. She kicked off her career at a Target warehouse, a traditional operating environment where she picked up knowledge on process, accountability, and operations.
She then moved to Frito-Lay where her focus was team management and delivering results at scale, and followed that up with PepsiCo, where she had an opportunity to “spread my wings” and discover how to lead dynamic teams, cross-functional work groups, and heavy strategic execution. Next, Clark landed at Advanced Auto Parts, which taught her the balance of longterm vision and day-to-day achievement.
The executive has now been with Flynn Group for three years.
“I spent the majority of my career working in an environment as an athlete—where teamwork and collaboration lead and where you have this competitive fire and sense of urgency and resiliency,” Clark says. “And game after game, it’s like you put up a ‘W,’ you’re feeling great, but then you’re right back to the drawing board to build your strategy for the next competitor. If you suffer a setback, you learn how to overcome it. Setbacks, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back at it.”
While being an athlete offered “highly transferable” skills, it wasn’t always easy, Clark says.
“You’ve grown up with sports your entire life, and it’s like letting go of your first love when you decide you’re going to hang up the laces,” she says. “You really have to have this exploratory period where you try to identify what is going to make you happiest … My career hasn’t been linear, and the reason for it is you’re trying to find that same level of excitement that you experienced as an athlete in your world today. So I do think it’s important to have a network of folks, and Jess and I always say this, have someone that you can be bluntly honest with, very vulnerable with, to help you identify where you are going to best serve others as well as yourself.”
The duo is still striving for more on behalf of Flynn Group.
The franchisee group is the largest operator of Arby’s restaurants worldwide. Reicher oversees more than 360 restaurants and 7,500 team members in 10 states.
According to the executive, Arby’s is focused on evolving what makes it special and unique, trying to unlock value, and determining how it can create innovation and offers that resonate with customers. At Flynn Group specifically, she continues to lean into people.
Reicher says she is proud of the work her team has done in building excitement and stability so that her contingent of restaurants can grow meaningfully.
At the same time, Arby’s is bracing for wage and commodity inflation. The brand’s response is to create a value proposition that goes beyond price point and elevates the experience a customer receives through every channel.
“I do think that we have a unique advantage, especially with Flynn Group, because the culture of being premier is not just a tagline,” Reicher says. “It lives each and every day within our brands. And so what that means is, how do we make sure that we have the people in each of our brands that are going to make a difference and are going to strive every day, every week, every year, to be better and better and better, especially when it means building that connection with our teams and our consumers?”
Clark leads over 300 Wendy’s restaurants for Flynn Group. The franchisee became an operator of the brand in 2021 and has acquired more than 100 locations since then.
Clark feels it’s her responsibility to empower others to reach their potential, and a major piece of that is being her true self. She says 2024 was the best year yet for Flynn Wendy’s, and as she stares down 2025, she believes continued success hinges on culture. That means getting out from behind the laptop and being shoulder-to-shoulder with GMs inside restaurants. Clark wants to see the business through their eyes—that’s the best way to develop their leadership skills and frontline training.
Additionally, Wendy’s is busy integrating technology but dealing with a multigenerational workforce who may have a difficult time catching up to speed.
“Guests can come through dine-in, drive-thru, pickup on first party, third party. Having dynamic teams and leadership agility combined becomes the linchpin for us to be able to unlock premier guest experiences,” Clark says. “ … We’re bringing tablets to restaurants, we’re asking folks to understand more about the DoorDash merchant portal. And some of our leaders at restaurants, some of them don’t even have iPhones. Some of them still have flip phones. So just think about that. So I think that’s one of the challenges. Continuing to lean in with your L&D teams to ensure that we can stay dynamic and agile enough to be able to serve the landscape within our own restaurants.”
Clark and Reicher each had mentors who helped fulfill their career destiny. For Clark, it was Derek Lewis, the former president of North America for PepsiCo, David Orr, a former senior director of sales and management for PepsiCo, and Ron Bellamy, COO of Flynn Group. For Reicher, it was Roger Byers, who had the most influence in her career at Red Robin, Matthew Licciardello, who recruited her to Fuddruckers, Tony Lowings, her boss while working at Yum!’s international division, Brad Pettinger, COO of Flynn Group, and Bellamy as well.
It’s not lost on Reicher or Clark that all of their mentors are men. As Clark points out, it’s “reflective of the landscape of who occupies a lot of those positions across the industries and organizations I’ve worked for.”
However, the brand presidents have advice for women to rise as far as they have—don’t wait for permission to lead, approach your career with a sense of urgency, take risks, and believe in your journey.
“You can do more than you think you can,” Reicher says. “Take on the challenges. Sometimes there’s that challenge out there that nobody else wants to do. Do it so that you can broaden your scope and what you know. It just makes you a better leader.” Ben
L e ading f rom t he
/ BY SAM DANLEY
B ack of HousE
Meet four women at the forefront of culinary innovation.
From crafting innovative new products to breaking down barriers in a male-dominated industry, women in the quick-service culinary space are reshaping what it means to rise to the top from the back of the house. These experts have tackled obstacles, sparked change, and are taking their respective brands to new heights. They are making their mark on the menu, and more opportunities remain.
I love that I’m not limited by any one cuisine or specific elements within the culinary world. There are no limitations here. I love that freedom.
VENECIA WILLIS
Tacos Beyond Boundaries
As the director of culinary at Velvet Taco, chef Venecia Willis has the creative freedom to pull from a wide range of global flavors. The brand was founded on the idea that tacos don’t have to be limited to Tex-Mex, and for Willis, that means blending diverse ingredients to create a multicultural flavor experience.
“With a tortilla as the vessel, you can make anything a taco,” she says. “I love that I’m not limited by any one cuisine or specific elements within the culinary world. There are no limitations here. I love that freedom.”
Recently, she has been leading a menu expansion test to see how a bowl might fit within Velvet Taco’s offerings—a significant departure for a brand that “has never been anything but tacos.” With international expansion into London on the horizon, she’s also refining recipes and adjusting flavor profiles to suit an entirely new market.
That work is the culmination of a lifelong passion for food. She recalls declaring at a young age that she would grow up to be a chef. Her grandmother, reflecting the norms of her time, gently told her that women typically didn’t pursue careers as professional chefs.
“Back then, it was kind of frowned upon for women to be in the industry,” Willis says. “There wasn’t a pathway already charted. So, she would say, ‘I don’t know about that, but you’ll figure out what you want to be.’”
Willis shifted gears and set her sights on becoming a surgeon. But after graduating with her bachelor’s degree, she felt the kitchen calling her name and made a last-minute decision to apply for culinary school instead of medical school.
She took a part-time kitchen job at Roti Mediterranean Grill while earning a degree in culinary management. Not long after, she was opening the fast-casual chain’s fifth unit as a back-of-house manager. She quickly climbed the ranks from there, transitioning from an hourly employee to a corporate managerial role and eventually leading culinary operations at Roti, and later, at Protein Bar and Kitchen. In 2021, she joined Velvet Taco.
“I came in and it just clicked,” she says. “I love getting to do very out-of-the-box things. That’s just who I am.”
Velvet Taco’s boundary-pushing approach is
most evident in its Weekly Taco Features (wtf), an LTO program that introduces a new taco 52 times a year. But constantly rolling out new flavors without adding unnecessary complexity is a challenge. Willis must find ways to introduce fresh flavor profiles while keeping the process manageable for restaurant teams.
“I try to be in the restaurants as much as I can,” she says. “That’s a big part of who I am. I like staying connected to the restaurants and working alongside team members.”
One of her biggest challenges is managing culinary execution across a growing number of locations. Unlike fine dining, where chefs can make on-the-fly adjustments in a single kitchen, her recipes must be flawless before rollout.
Sourcing ingredients consistently across multiple distribution centers is another hurdle. Willis often has to tweak recipes to accommodate regional
availability or find creative ways to use existing ingredients to achieve a desired flavor.
“You have to be very operationally focused with fast casual, because the last thing you want is the ops team to come in and go, ‘What the heck were you thinking? We cannot do this,’” she says.
“What I love about that is that it comes with feeding so many people, much more than I would at a Michelin-starred restaurant with 24 seats. I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
Willis’ success is proof of how much has changed since her grandmother’s time. But being a woman in the industry has still shaped her experience, especially early in her career.
“Proving my capabilities and creativity to leaders early on was a challenge,” she says. “It took a while, but I was relentless. I never gave up. If I thought of something, I’d cook it on the weekend. I’d bring ingredients to my apartment, make stuff I thought would be great to expand the menu, and present it to people. I would do whatever I could to get food in front of someone.”
• VELVET TACO’S VENECIA WILLIS OFTEN FINDS CREATIVE WAYS TO TWEAK INGRIEDIENTS TO FIND THE RIGHT FLAVOR.
Modernizing the Menu
Few quick-service menu items are as iconic as KFC’s original fried chicken. But the women of the KFC U.S. Food Innovation and Technology (fit ) Lab do far more than safeguard the classic recipe—they’re also shaping the brand’s future and developing new strategies to attract younger customers.
Heading up those efforts is Diane Miller, director of food innovation at KFC U.S. Miller didn’t set out to build a career in the restaurant industry. After earning a degree in biology, she landed a job in Papa Johns’ quality assurance lab, a position she initially found puzzling.
• DIANE MILLER HAS LEARNED THE IMPORTANCE OF CONFIDENCE AND SPEAKING UP AS KFC U.S. DIRECTOR OF FOOD INNOVATION.
“Why does Papa Johns need a lab position? I remember being confused by that posting,” she recalls. “At this point in my life, I’d never even heard of food science. I didn’t know that was even a career, but I had all the qualifications to work in a lab with my biology degree. So I started, and on day one, I was introduced to this whole new world that meshes both science and food in such a fun way. I immediately fell in love.”
Miller went on to earn a master’s in food science and joined KFC as a senior commercialization manager before stepping into her current role in 2018. Today, she oversees the entire food innovation process, from ideation and testing to full-scale commercialization. Along the way, she’s learned more than a few lessons about what it takes to succeed in food innovation, including the importance of confidence and speaking up.
… I was introduced to this whole new world that meshes both science and food in such a fun way. I immediately fell in love.
DIANE MILLER
•
CLAIRE BRANDENBURG, KFC U.S. PRODUCTION MANAGER, SAYS THE INDUSTRY SHOULD BUILD MORE AWARENESS AROUND FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATION.
I grew up in the KFC company with women in leadership telling me to be bold, brave, and use my voice.
CLAIRE BRANDENBURG
“You can aspire to whatever level you want through hard work, consistency, and being yourself,” she says. “There are so many opinions in food, so when you’re tasting, you have to be honest.”
Early in her career, Miller noticed a tendency among junior team members to stay quiet during tastings when senior leaders were present. Now, when mentoring the next generation, she emphasizes the importance of offering genuine feedback.
“The reality is you’re there to give your opinion, so be honest,” she says. “That’s how I was taught early on in my career, and that’s what I stand by, versus just following suit with what others are saying.”
Curiosity is another key trait for anyone looking to thrive in quick-service culinary innovation, says Claire Brandenburg, a product innovation manager at KFC who has been with the company for 15 years.
“You need to be an avid learner, want to know what’s new, and keep track of what competitors are doing,” she says. “If you have that curiosity, then everything else falls into place.”
Brandenburg’s role involves working closely with culinary experts and suppliers while studying emerging food and flavor trends to integrate them into KFC’s menu. In recent years, much of that work has focused on making the menu more portable and introducing bolder, spicier options. One of the team’s latest innovations is Saucy, a new spinoff concept centered around sauces and chicken tenders.
“It’s exciting how the younger generation seems to be more curious about food,” Brandenburg says. “It keeps us on our toes, questioning what we should bring to our menu to continue pushing the limits for those consumers, because that’s what they’re all about.”
Beyond creating new flavors and formats, the FIT Lab team is passionate about introducing younger generations—particularly young women—to food science. Like Miller, Brandenburg didn’t know food science was a viable career until she stumbled into it, and she believes the industry needs to do a better job educating students about the opportunities at the intersection of food and science.
She also encourages women to have the confidence to carve out a space for themselves in the industry.
“I grew up in the KFC company with women in leadership telling me to be bold, brave, and use my voice,” Brandenburg says.
“That’s how you move forward and get a seat at the table.”
Unlocking Innovation
departments more than she ever has before. One part of the job that she especially enjoys is collaborating with the training team when new products are introduced. She often steps in to help with field training, lending an extra set of hands when needed.
For the first time in Shipley’s history, the brand is leaning into product innovation to drive engagement and increase sales. Overseeing the development of those new menu items is her favorite part of the job.
We’re turning 89 years old this year, I’m the first chef hired for the brand, and innovation is new.
KAITLYN VENABLE
Kaitlyn Venable never imagined leading a Texas culinary institution. Dining out was rare, but a single taste of risotto at a fine-dining restaurant sparked her passion for cooking and set her on a path to becoming a chef.
By 16, Venable began working at Brennan Family Restaurants to gain experience while finishing high school. After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America and the University of Houston, she joined Luby’s, a Texas staple, where she worked her way up from assistant manager to corporate chef. Venable later joined SPB Hospitality, overseeing culinary strategy and innovation for nearly a dozen brands.
In 2023, she became Shipley Do-Nuts’ first-ever executive chef at just 35 years old.
“Shipley is the doughnut I grew up eating,” she says. “It’s another Texas legacy brand, so it’s really cool to be part of something that’s so iconic.”
As a one-woman team, Venable works cross-functionally with finance, supply chain, and marketing, interacting with leadership and other
“Product innovation is my heart and soul,” she says. “We’re turning 89 years old this year, I’m the first chef hired for the brand, and innovation is new. So, how do we bring new items to the brand, but preserve that heritage and legacy at the same time?”
Under Venable’s leadership, Shipley has introduced its first new limited-time products in decades, including doughnuts featuring Skittles and Oreo cookies, as well as its first-ever limited-time holiday menu in November. Additionally, the brand added egg as a protein to its kolache platform, a move that introduced savory pastries filled with meat, cheese, jalapeños, and more.
“That has been the most successful category launch in the brand’s history,” she says. “It was new to the system and it was new operationally, so it actually took us probably nine months of development to get it right. It was really cool to see that come to life and blow all the projections out of the water.”
The brand is maintaining momentum into 2025 with the introduction of new mini beignets. Next up, Venable is turning her attention to beverages, which she believes will be key to Shipley’s expansion beyond the breakfast daypart and into snacking occasions.
Venable takes pride in the work she’s done to introduce innovation and help push Shipley into the future and says the title of “executive chef” holds the most meaning to her. Seeing it on her name badge for the first time was a significant, emotional milestone—one that carries weight because “not many women have reached that level.”
“I’m getting a little more seasoned,” she says. “I have some wrinkles and gray hairs now, but I would say the combination of my age and my gender has been my overall biggest challenge in my career.”
Venable credits her mentors for helping her overcome self-doubt. Their guidance not only fostered her professional development but also instilled in her the importance of knowing her own worth. Now, she strives to do the same for the next generation of women pursuing careers in the culinary world.
Looking back on her early days in the industry, Venable remembers her first executive telling her to “always be a sponge”—staying open to new ideas, embracing challenges, and absorbing as much knowledge as possible. “That’s always stuck with me,” she says. “Also, especially for kids that are coming out of school and looking for jobs, I always tell them to be open to unexpected opportunities, because they may open doors that you can’t see right now.”
Sam Danley is the associate editor of QSR. He can be reached at sdanley@wthwmedia.com
The CEO Who Came Back to Win
Veteran restaurant executive Tom Stager came out of retirement to lead Popeyes franchisee TICE Florida, implementing bold strategies to enhance operations and culture.
BY TALLULAH HAWLEY
TICE Florida may not be a household name yet, but the franchising power that helped propel the brand to one of the top Popeyes franchisees was enough to bring Tom Stager out of retirement and into a new role as CEO.
Stager has been in the quick-service restaurant industry for more than 35 years. One highlight of his extensive experience was his role in helping to rejuvenate Arby’s during his almost two decades as the sandwich chain’s regional vice president. While working with RTM Restaurant Group, Stager helped oversee about 750 Arby’s restaurants.
“So after that,” he says, “I left—I kind of retired—took some time off, did some personal things for about four years.” After his children had all gone off to attend college and play softball and baseball at the collegiate level, Stager decided it was time for him too to get his head back in the game. He started his own sports performance and training academy, joined as a partner for Golden Child Holdings Group, and then became the CEO and president of Krystal Restaurants (which Golden Child had recently acquired). After three years at the helm of Krystal, Stager again retired.
Upon meeting with Fernando Amaro, founder and chairman of TICE, Stager was again drawn back into the QSR world from retirement. Stager says, “When [ tice ] first asked me to reach out, I said, ‘No, I’m kind of retired, I’m good.’ So, when I met Fernando [for] the first time, [I thought] this guy is really interesting. I like what he’s thinking, I like where he’s going, and I like his plans.”
“I’m at the point in my life where it is about leaving a legacy. TICE is Fernando’s legacy,” Stager continues. “[Amaro] comes from Guatemala, where his family operates all the Domino’s out there. So they have a real good legacy with Domino’s. So when [he started] talking about his legacy and everything he wants to do… [he was] singing my tune.”
TICE is based in Florida and operates 46 Popeyes locations across the Sunshine State. The brand itself has two divisions—Stager is the CEO of all Florida operations, but TICE also has 16 restaurants in Alabama and Georgia, headed by Esteban Amaro. TICE was recently purchased by AIM Capital, a private equity group based out of Coconut Grove, Florida.
Throughout his experience in QSR, Stager says he’s focused on people, sales, profit, operations, and culture, which he refers to as his “five buckets.” Stager says, “It is people first and cultures last. I don’t mean cultures last overall, but they’re my bookends. If I have good people and a good culture, the other three things in the middle are easy. So I focus on my bookends.”
“My game plan is always focusing on people, making sure you’ve got the right people, you’ve got the right development because people don’t care about how much you know,” Stager says. “They just want to know that you care about them.” Following through on his promise to put first those who have dedicated their career and time to TICE, Stager notes that his first move as acting CEO was to give every general manager and district manager a raise.
Another tenet of teamwork, integrity, commitment, and excellence, is to “find a way.” “As for long as I’ve been doing this business, ‘find a way’ has always been Tom Stager’s model,” he says. “We’re going to find a way to win. Sometimes you don’t have enough capital, sometimes you don’t have enough research. We’re going to figure it out.”
The second thing he concentrated on was the
Tom Stager has worked in the restaurant industry for more than 35 years.
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Profitability.
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Ghost Kitchens Aren’t Dead Yet
Marco’s Pizza is expanding its delivery-only presence as it rethinks nontraditional growth.
BY SAM DANLEY
Not too long ago, ghost kitchens were hailed as the future of food delivery. Then restaurants started questioning their long-term viability once the pandemic was in the rearview mirror.
In some ways, ghost kitchens were a victim of their own success. Initial excitement and surging delivery demand led to rapid expansion before operational challenges were ironed out. As a result, many brands pulled back, and the model lost some of its luster. Now, only one in five quick-service operators surveyed by the National Restaurant Association expect delivery from ghost kitchens to become more common within the segment in 2025.
Some brands, like Marco’s Pizza, still see a bright future for the model. The company inked several fresh ghost kitchen deals late last year that have led to recent openings in Cleveland, Denver, and Austin.
That’s just the start. More units are in the works for cities including San Antonio and Charlotte as Marco’s looks to add delivery-only kitchens nationwide. Chief development officer Gerardo Flores sees ghost kitchens as a key player in driving multi-unit restaurant expan-
sion and creating new pathways for growth.
Marco’s first got into the ghost kitchen game in 2020 with two sites in Houston, back when they were the solution of the moment for navigating through the pandemic. It didn’t race to add any more after that, but those initial units were still plugging along when Flores joined the company two years later.
“I started looking at the strategy there from a 10,000-foot level,” he says. “The stores that opened up in Houston were still performing very, very well. As we were looking into that, we realized this is a good opportunity for us to really look at another channel of distribution where we can put stores in locations at a fraction of the cost—probably about a third of the cost of a normal store.”
With a smaller upfront investment and the potential for higher returns on invested capital, ghost kitchens provide a more efficient model for franchisees seeking lower operating and real estate costs. They allow Marco’s to infill existing markets and enter new areas where a traditional brick-and-mortar store wouldn’t make sense— particularly in dense urban settings.
“We are very much an evening and weekend concept, so we’re not going to go into an eight-to-five office environment, but we can put one right outside of that,” Flores says, pointing to the new Austin location as an example. “It’s near downtown and near the University of Texas. Normally, there’s not a lot of traditional real estate in that area. So, it allows us to capture not just some of the university traffic, but also allows us to capture the business in the surrounding area.”
Beyond real estate flexibility, there are broader advantages to a delivery-focused model. Flores points to data from Deloitte and NerdWallet showing that customers spend 20 percent more when ordering via technology, and those who place online orders visit a restaurant 67 percent more frequently than those who don’t. Additionally, shifts in dining habits—such as the rise of remote work—have increased demand for lunch deliveries and familystyle meals. Ghost kitchens allow Marco’s to quickly adapt to these changes while optimizing order times and logistics costs.
The company has a non-exclusive partnership with CloudKitchens, which houses multiple concepts in its buildings. All of Marco’s ghost kitchens are franchised, though the com-
Marco’s Pizza opened its first ghost kitchen in 2020.
transparency, service, and efficiency in the fast-casual space, and you don’t necessarily have to have an assembly line to do that.”
She also scrapped the standard takeout bowl commonly associated with fast-casual restaurants. After five months of research and development, Rivkin introduced what she calls the Bounty Box—a compartmentalized container designed to keep each dish separate during transit, preserving quality and freshness.
“Sometimes flavor profiles don’t mix well in a bowl, and I wanted to stay away from an unappetizing cafeteria tray type of look,” Rivkin says. “I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could create a sleek box that kept food separate and gave customers the optionality of deciding exactly what goes in there.”
In summer 2023, Rivkin brought her idea to life with a pop-up shop at Olly Olly Market in New York. Six weeks later, her permanent location opened, incorporating insights from Wharton and the market. The storefront echoed everything Rivkin envisioned—kiosks, flat-top grills, and a simple yet warm and inviting interior. Floor-to-ceiling windows reflected Rooted’s philosophy of transparency.
Rivkin documented her journey from business proposal to pop-up market to permanent storefront on TikTok, gaining a massive following in the process. She went viral, amassing more than 22,000 followers as she shared behind-the-scenes insights into launching a restaurant.
“I posted five days a week for the entire summer [since the pop-up], and towards the end, we had our first viral video hit over 40,000 views,” Rivkin says. “It changed everything. Our online orders quadrupled, people were flying in from other states, our first day open had a line out the door … It was an eye-opening experience and allowed me to have a direct line of communication with my customers. It’s created this incredible, friendly community rooted in transparency.”
While her journey into the fast-casual world is just beginning, Rivkin has big ambitions. She believes everyone has a right to ingredient transparency and aims to provide access to simple, clean food across the U.S.
guest experience. With more than 50 percent of customers choosing the drive-thru, Stager decided to reshape the experience.
TICE Florida has made a huge effort to step up its curb appeal. Most of its locations have been re-landscaped, with more lights added to the attached parking lot as well as additional music being played on outdoor speakers. Stager says, “We even put down fake grass, like Disney World grass. And when you’re [approaching] one of our buildings, you can hear the Popeyes’ music, which is really cool.”
Stager also helped install Easy to Run Kitchens in every unit. The setup, according to a press release, “provide[s] a streamlined workspace that enhances speed of service, improves order accuracy, and ensures that guests receive delicious food in a timely manner.” So far, Stager says the changes in the packaging line have allowed for the food items to hold better, leading to an uptick in product quality, and have simplified employees’ daily routines, resulting in an increased flow.
Multiple times a month, Stager says he makes time to visit the brand’s locations across the state. “Getting out to see the team and to see what’s going on out there is very impactful,” Stager says, not just for him and his staff, but also for creating a productive work environment shaped by the TICE principles that he has strived to implement.
While the TICE Florida team has done a lot to grow its numbers for 2024 and beyond, Stager also gives a hand to the culture that surrounds Popeyes. “I believe that they have the best chicken in the business. It’s battered in-house, it’s cooked in-house. It’s great,” he says. “[Popeye’s] wants to make sure that we continue to focus on having the best quality. That’s where the [Easy to Run Kitchens] come in, and I think we were one of the first ones to take a leap into it, by [re]doing about 80 percent of our restaurants ourselves.”
For 2025, Stager makes it clear that the brand does not want to stay at 46 units. “We believe that Popeyes is the right brand for us, AIM Capital and TICE. We’d like to continue to grow, and to continue to grow. We have to make sure that we lead in a lot of categories,” Stager says.
pany is considering corporate locations in the future. Franchisees sign a kitchen agreement that gives them 150 to 200 square feet of space. Because of the compact footprint, the kitchen setup differs significantly from a standard location.
“We’re used to working with a 1,000square-foot kitchen, and we have to condense it down to around 250 square feet,” Flores says. “We work very closely with our ops partners when we sit down and design the space. That includes different types of equipment, a different oven—just anticipating the flow of the space. The layout of the kitchen is the one thing that really sets this piece apart. We connect with our franchisees, our partners, our design team, and really drive towards making it functional at the end of the day, because we’re literally working with 25 percent of the normal space we would operate in.”
Another key challenge is raising brand awareness and clarifying that this isn’t a walk-in location for pickup, he adds.
“That, along with the tech advances that we’ve done with our POS system, have really helped us considerably in driving growth here,” Flores says. “Our Marco’s Order Management system is really intuitive and helps us wrap these stores up.”
Two years ago, the company introduced Marco’s Order Management (mom), a proprietary cloud-based tech stack developed in-house. By building its own system, the company eliminated the need for external tech vendors. The system integrates POS functions, labor scheduling, inventory management, and real-time dashboards, giving franchisees and store employees better operational insights.
Ghost kitchens are just one piece of a broader effort to diversify Marco’s real estate strategy.
Last summer, the company unveiled a flexible prototype designed for various footprints, including endcap and inline locations. Now, it is exploring how insights from its ghost kitchen operations can inform new formats and unlock additional nontraditional opportunities.
Flores aims to sign at least 10 more nontraditional deals this year, with ghost kitchens serving as a springboard into other high-traffic venues.
Sam Danley is the associate editor of QSR. He can be reached at sdanley@wthwmedia.com
Tallulah Hawley is a staff writer for QSR magazine. She can be reached at thawley@wtwhmedia.com
of how popular our openings are.”
Despite making the big move to the East Coast market, the uniqueness of the bread and specialty espresso coffees already seem to have made their mark.
Peter Sun is an area manager for 85°C Cafe and is based in the Dallas area. Helping out at the new and already bustling NYC store, he has spent two weeks training recent hires in the front of the store.
“The breads and cakes, everything is made fresh. It’s a challenge,” Sun says. “Every morning when I come in, I’m so excited. I get to learn something.”
With over 55 varieties of bread and 30 different pastries available in store, Sun says that before the pandemic, the display cases were open with tongs to grab items like a traditional Taiwanese bakery. Now, all treats are packaged in a thin layer of plastic, which has boosted takeout orders.
“Anything with the sea salt whipped cream, I love it,” Sun says. Lazaro and Sun both say the sea salt beverages are their favorites. Lazaro is a fan of the sea salttopped matcha while Sun’s go-to is the sea salt coffee, which is a sweetened Americano with a heaping layer of salty foam.
Any big matcha fan will know that quality is key. “The matcha we sell is a representation of the belief that Mr. Wu had in the beginning of high-quality products at affordable prices.” While there could have been easier and cheaper methods, 85°C Cafe, always set on perfection, uses premium-grade Shokakuen Matcha sourced from Nishio, Japan.
Currently, there are about 40 chefs who help create and sustain the bakery menu.
In May, 85°C Cafe will launch multiple flavors of a new blended drink as well as a bubbly soda series, with flavors like grapefruit, yuzu, and lavender. Lazaro says the brand will sell bottled coffees and milk teas in select retailers by the end of the year, but that by May the bottled drinks will be available in-store as well.
The brand has over 80 shops and only three are franchised—two in Hawaii and one in Utah. 85°C Cafe is looking for strong franchise groups that can efficiently run multi-units, with some in Chicago and Louisiana actively at work. The brand is on track to add 15 new stores in 2025.
These special reports in the pages of QSR help busy restaurant operators understand current trends and sources in a variety of areas vital to your business.
OUR
Tallulah Hawley
BY DREW FILIPSKI
rive-thru dining has shifted from simple conveniences to essential drivers of e ciency and revenue. When optimized with the right technology, they improve order accuracy, reduce wait times, and create a seamless customer experience. But many operators still face challenges—outdated systems, ine cient workflows, and a lack of strategic planning can limit their potential.
Industry leaders from brands like Coates Group, DSA Signage, Mood Media, and The Howard Company share what it takes to get drive-thru operations right. They discuss why AI-powered ordering and data-driven content management are just as important as hardware choices, how to avoid common mistakes, and the importance of future-proofing technology to adapt to changing customer expectations.
From enhancing speed and e ciency to personalizing customer interactions, explore how the latest innovations in drive-thru strategy are helping brands stay competitive—and how leading companies are making it happen.
JEFF MILLER Chief Product Officer
What key tasks are being enhanced through drive-thru?
A data-driven content management system and digital signage in the drive-thru are transforming how quickservice restaurants brands engage customers. Beyond improving order accuracy and driving upsell opportunities, brands can create highly personalized experiences by integrating loyalty data. Real-time content adjustments optimize promotions, menu e ciency, and strategic segmentation, ultimately increasing average check sizes and delivering measurable ROI. This isn’t just about displaying content; it’s about simplifying complexity to create seamless, data-powered experiences.
What misconceptions exist about drive-thru today?
A common misconception is digital signage in the drive-thru is just a one-time investment in hardware. In reality, it’s a dynamic tool that—when powered by a robust CMS and realtime analytics—evolves with customer behavior and business needs. Operators who view it as a growth engine—
play into a dynamic growth engine. Reliable technology, proactive monitoring, and intuitive content management free brands to focus on what matters most – delivering seamless, engaging customer experiences that strengthen loyalty.
SHO SHAFIEI CEO
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thru today?
Cash flow remains a critical factor in the quick-serivce restaurants and fast casual space. The cost of capital has risen significantly in recent years, making it more challenging for franchisees to secure a ordable financing. This
sales, quick-service restaurants have a prime opportunity to modernize. The return on investment is significant, with studies showing higher revenue per customer, even without higher foot traffic—a win-win for most businesses.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thru?
impacts both the overall financial landscape of their business as well as their expansion plans. Digital signage has the potential to boost sales and customer engagement, but restaurant operators must work diligently to ensure their investments yield a return.
How are these challenges impacting the industry?
: When hardware and software fail to work seamlessly together, the results can be costly. It can lead to wasted time, increased expenses, and missed opportunities to enhance customer experiences. Fortunately, with interest rates stabilizing and growing evidence that digital signage drives
It’s easy to be influenced by the latest restaurant trends, especially as leading brands adopt cutting-edge, AIdriven, fully digital solutions. However, it’s important to consider whether this approach truly aligns with your brand’s needs. Before you spend tens of thousands of dollars, evaluate specific factors like your market and menu. Rather than following trends, focus on your brand’s unique situation to make informed, strategic choices.
Is there anything else you would like the QSR audience to know?
Before you jump into any big decisions, do your homework. Talk to di erent brands, see what’s working for them. Chat with a few solution providers and get the inside scoop. Don’t let anyone pressure you into a quick sale. Take your time, weigh your options, and find the perfect fit. After all, a little research goes a long way.
ROBERT HEISE
Executive Vice President & General Manager
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thrus today?
The primary challenges revolve around speed of service and maintaining order accuracy. Drive-thrus are becoming the primary point of customer interaction, so restaurants not only need to inte-
grate technologies like digital menu boards but also look to add AI and audience metric systems as part of the CMS without disrupting their operational flow.
How are these challenges impacting the industry?
The industry is experiencing a divide between those who can adapt and those who cannot. The pressure to innovate is accelerating advancements in technology and service models, and more options are becoming available to provide better customer service in the drive-thru.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for quick-service restaurants in the next 10-20 years?
Looking ahead, the biggest challenge will be balancing personalization with e ciency. Customers will expect tailored experiences while still valuing speed. However, the opportunities are immense. Enhanced data analytics, voice recognition ordering, and sustainability initiatives can revolutionize the drive-thru experience, turning it into a competitive advantage.
How are operators addressing these challenges e ectively?
Operators are investing in CMS technologies like AI-driven menu boards that adapt to real-time factors such as inventory or weather. They’re also rethinking layout designs to handle increased tra c and deploying training programs to ensure sta are equipped to handle complex, tech-driven processes.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thrus?
One common mistake is focusing solely on speed while neglecting the overall customer experience. Fast service is essential, but ignoring accuracy, screen clarity or personalization can lead to dissatisfaction. Another issue is underestimating the value of flexible, future-proof technology investments.
How have customer expectations for drive-thrus changed in recent years?
Customers now expect drivethrus to o er more than speed—they want accuracy, personalization, and convenience. Features like digital preordering and loyalty integrations are becoming increasingly important in meeting these evolving expectations.
Why is partnering with a trusted brand more crucial now than ever?
With the rapid pace of technological advancements, a trusted brand ensures access to reliable, scalable, and adaptable solutions. They bring industry expertise and innovation, helping restaurants navigate challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for quick-service restaurants in the next 10-20 years?
Labor availability will remain a struggle for the next decade but may ease after that. The biggest opportunities lie in using technology to replace labor, improve e ciency, and introduce menu innovations that drive repeat visits.
How are operators addressing these challenges e ectively?
GARY KURTZ
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
SARA
SINA President and CEO
AI in drive thrus and kiosks instore help reduce labor needs, speed up orders, and cut errors. A strong digital content strategy with e ective upselling can also increase ticket totals by guiding customers toward high-margin items.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thru?
Adding digital signage without a clear plan—turning it into a digital “poster” rather than a strategic tool.
How have customer expectations for drive-thru changed in recent years?
Customers now expect the same experience regardless of how they receive their product. The brand story must be consistent across all ordering channels.
What misconceptions exist about drive-thru today?
The drive thru doesn’t have to be overly fast—accuracy and attentiveness matter more than pure speed.
Why is partnering with a trusted brand more crucial now than ever?
Getting caught in long SaaS contracts can stunt your business for years. Brands need versatile partners who can pivot quickly with changing needs.
Is there anything else you would like the QSR audience to know?
In every customer interaction, a story is told. Brands must ensure a consistent experience across drive thru, interior, curbside, and third-party channels.
adjusting dining spaces. While managing new technology grows more complex, rising labor costs will push restaurants to find creative solutions that maintain quality service.
wait times. Some quick-service restaurants o er too many ordering options without the capacity to handle them, while congested drive-thru lanes slow service when processes aren’t optimized for mobile pickup.
What key tasks are being enhanced through drive-thru?
AI-powered ordering systems capture details accurately, reducing drive-thru communication errors. Dedicated mobile lanes keep tra c flowing, while food lockers and flexible delivery options provide convenience without sacrificing operational control.
KEVIN JONES
Vice President of North America Sales at Mood Media
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for quick-service restaurants in the next 10-20 years?
Quick-service restaurants will need to stay nimble as consumer preferences and technology shift. Chains face tough decisions about modernizing stores, like rethinking kitchens and
How are operators addressing these challenges e ectively?
Quick-service restaurants are adopting AI-powered phone and drivethru systems to boost accuracy and reduce team workload. Automating order-taking allows employees to focus on food prep and customer service, making better use of limited sta time.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thru?
Operators often choose new technology without considering long-term maintenance or support reliability. Prioritizing speed over quality and accuracy can hurt satisfaction more than brief
How have customer expectations for drive-thru/o changed in recent years?
Customers want flexibility and quality on their terms. They expect restaurants to remember preferences, o er personalized deals, and provide seamless ordering—via app, drive-thru, or delivery—without compromising food quality.
How should operators communicate to consumers that their needs are being met?
Smart digital menu boards and promo displays keep drive-thru customers informed about new o ers and deals in real time. Clear order confirmation
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screens give customers confidence their orders are right, while user-friendly mobile apps make ordering simple and quick. Together, these tools show customers that restaurants are paying attention to what matters—accuracy, convenience, and value.
Why is partnering with a trusted brand more crucial now than ever?
Restaurants need reliable partners to manage technology systems. A single provider handling interior and exterior tech solutions lets quick-service restaurants focus on core business while keeping operations running smoothly.
cial to ensuring e ciency across multiple locations.
How are these challenges impacting the industry?
If digital signage isn’t optimized for drive-thru needs—like being outdoor-certified for visibility and integrated with a CMS for real-time updates— operators risk customer confusion, longer wait times, and ine ciency. Unreliable hardware can lead to costly repairs and lost revenue.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities in the next 10-20 years?
Quick-service restaurants will struggle to maintain consistency while adapting to rapid tech advancements. AI and data analytics will enable highly personalized drive-thru experiences, integrating digital menu boards with mobile apps and loyalty programs to enhance customer retention.
JEFF BLANKENSOP
Senior Director, Central Region
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thru today?
Managing high volumes of customers with accuracy, maintaining organization during peak service, and providing real-time updates to menu o erings. Seamless technology is cru-
How are operators addressing these challenges e ectively?
Many are investing in cloud-based CMS platforms that integrate with point-of-sale systems, ensuring real-time menu consistency and promotional updates across all locations. Scalable hardware solutions also prevent expensive, frequent upgrades.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thru technology?
A major mistake is treating digital signage as a one-time investment instead of a long-term strategy. Failing to leverage outdoor-certified digital menu boards and real-time analytics prevents restaurants from adapting pricing, promotions, and content to maximize e ciency and profitability.
How have customer expectations for drive-thru changed in recent years?
Today’s consumers expect faster, more personalized, and interactive experiences. Digital menu boards should update dynamically—adjusting based on time of day, promotions, or even stock availability—to streamline ordering and enhance engagement.
How should operators communicate to consumers that their needs are being met?
Real-time messaging through digital signage, personalized promotions, and interactive customer
feedback tools reinforce that brands are adapting to consumer preferences while enhancing the overall drive-thru experience.
BRIAN M c CLOSKEY
National Sales Director
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thru today?
Quick-service restaurants face major hurdles in expansion, including construction delays, supply chain bottlenecks, and zoning regulations. Real estate scarcity forces operators to rethink store layouts, reducing dining areas and increasing drive-thru
ing and curbside pickup have become essential.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for quick-service restaurants in the next 10-20 years?
AI will revolutionize the industry through predictive ordering, dynamic menu boards, and personalized ads. Voice-activated ordering and real-time analytics will enhance e ciency and reduce wait times. Fully automated systems will track customer behavior, process orders, and personalize experiences, fundamentally transforming quick-service restaurant service models.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thru?
Failing to implement queuing strategies like dual lanes or separate pickup lines can lead to congestion and lost sales. Errors at the speaker or payment window delay operations and frustrate customers. Closing drive-thrus early or limiting delivery hours misses revenue opportunities.
Why is partnering with a trusted brand more crucial now than ever?
A reliable supplier ensures high-quality solutions, reducing downtime and maximizing e ciency. Whether
it’s drive-thru windows, technical support, or essential parts, a trusted partner prioritizes performance, keeping quickservice restaurants running smoothly in an increasingly competitive landscape.
capacity. Labor shortages and rising wages accelerate automation and AI adoption, while security concerns drive investment in enhanced locking systems and impact-rated windows. The industry is also adapting to extreme weather events and increased competition from smaller, disruptive brands.
How are these challenges impacting the industry?
The quick-service restaurant industry is focusing on agility and innovation. Modular construction is reducing build times and costs, while automation and AI-driven kiosks help o set labor shortages. Real estate constraints are pushing the rise of compact, drive-thruonly formats optimized for o -premises dining. Technology-enabled queue management and dual-lane drive-thrus improve e ciency, while mobile order-
ANNA ELLIS Sales and Marketing Manager
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thru today?
I believe all chains are seeing faster delivery of building material, as manufacturers recover from the challenges of COVID-19. However, many are very concerned with the rising cost of the buildouts and operations.
What key tasks are being enhanced through drive-thru?
The biggest news in drive-thru is the addition of walk-up stations for Mobile Order Pick Up to take pressure o the drive-thru lane. This can also be used for service when the dining room
Is there anything else you would like the QSR audience to know?
On the design front, there is a trend to set the windows in a lot of glass (vs masonry) for a friendly, clean, and open feel and some are purchasing the windows with all surrounding glass directly from the manufacturer along with the window to get control of this cost (as opposed to having it wrapped in a package with the storefront or buildout).
customers are more accepting of new technology, like mobile ordering and AI, while older customers still prefer a more traditional approach to ordering.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for quick-service restaurants in the next 10-20 years?
The biggest challenge the industry faces in the next twenty years is going to be with sta ng. With a decline in younger workers and the increasing retirement of older workers, we are left with fewer people to fill more jobs. Technology will fill some of that gap, but restaurants will need to find new and creative ways to serve their customers.
How are operators addressing these challenges e ectively?
AI ordering in drive thru has been gaining ground in recent years. The AI becomes a force multiplier allowing smaller sta s to function as well as larger sta s. Mobile ordering decreases the strain in the drive-thru lane, increasing speed of service and customer satisfaction.
What mistakes do operators make with drive-thru?
The biggest mistake an operator can do is to do nothing. When the pandemic hit, the operators who adjusted to the chaos the fastest did
is closed. As apps and delivery services continue to play a major role in how restaurants take orders, many chains are adding walk-up service windows to their architectural plans.
How have customer expectations for drive-thru changed in recent years?
There are concepts that have eliminated the dining room entirely for a smaller footprint and less sta ng. These concepts may have a single drive-thru window or a drive-thru window and multiple walk-up stations.
BOB COLLINS
Product Development Manager
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thru today?
One of the biggest challenges for drive-thru restaurants today is dealing with a changing demographic without alienating the existing demographics. One size does not fit all. Younger
the best. To see the challenges ahead and start planning for them today will be crucial to a successful and prosperous future.
How should operators communicate to consumers that their needs are being met?
Reputation is everything. Word gets around when you deliver a good
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product at a good price with a smile. When a customer feels valued, they become more than a customer. A valued customer becomes an ambassador for your brand.
What misconceptions exist about drive-thru today?
The most common misconception is that today’s drive thru is sta ed by high school kids who just don’t care. There was a time when you would avoid the drive thru because they never got your order right. Restaurants know the value of a well-run, e cient drive thru and focus on order accuracy and customer satisfaction.
CORENE HARLEY
Senior Vice President of Operations
What are the biggest challenges for quick-service restaurants with drive-thru today?
From a manufacturing perspective, one significant challenge is ensuring the scalability and durability of equipment and structures to handle increasing demand. Restaurants require drive-thru canopies, menuboards, and digital displays that can withstand harsh environmental conditions while maintaining a sleek brand image. Supply chain disruptions and material shortages further complicate production timelines.
How are these challenges impacting the industry?
These issues are driving increased costs and longer lead times for implementing new or updated drive-thru systems. Operators often face delays in launching or upgrading locations, which can hinder competitiveness. Additionally, poorly manufactured components can lead to increased maintenance costs and
negatively impact brand perception.
What do you think will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for quick-service restaurants in the next 10-20 years?
The need for sustainable and innovative manufacturing solutions will be a critical challenge. Opportunities lie in adopting eco-friendly materials, modular designs, and smart technologies— including solar energy—to improve eciency and reduce environmental impact. Customizable and easy-to-install products will also help operators adapt to changing market demands.
What key tasks are being enhanced through drive-thru?
Manufacturing advancements have streamlined the production of digital menuboards, modular canopies, and integrated lighting systems. These enhancements improve installation
e ciency, reduce maintenance needs, and provide a polished, cohesive appearance that aligns with branding goals.
Why is partnering with a trusted brand more crucial now than ever?
Trusted manufacturing partners provide expertise in creating durable, scalable, and aesthetically pleasing solutions. They also o er critical support in navigating supply chain challenges and ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget.
Is there anything else you would like the QSR audience to know?
The manufacturing side of drive thru solutions plays a vital role in shaping the customer experience. By prioritizing quality, innovation, and sustainability, operators future proof their operations while strengthening their brand identity.
START TO FINISH
Elisia Flores
CEO
L&L HAWAIIAN BARBECUE
What was your first job?
My first job was as a cashier at my local L&L. I ended up being terrible at the job, but I will never forget the lessons I learned interacting with people and relationship building.
What’s your favorite menu item at L&L?
My favorite has always been the Chicken Katsu. The crunch of the panko, the tenderness of the chicken, topped with the sweet and tangy Katsu sauce—it’s my go-to.
What’s your favorite cuisine aside from L&L?
Growing up in Hawaii, we are lucky to have a lot of different Asian cuisines. I don’t think I can choose a favorite! I love pho, sushi, dim sum, poke.
Who inspires you as a leader? My greatest mentor has always been my dad. Knowing the stories of his childhood–you would think the chances of someone like him being successful were so slim. But he was born an entrepreneur, full of great ideas and the ability to execute them.
What’s the best piece of advice that other restaurant executives should hear? As a franchise organization, we build meaningful partnerships with our franchisees. What has made us so successful are the authentic relationships we build.
What are some of your interests outside of work?
I have a 2-year-old son who keeps me very busy! It is such a joy to watch him grow up and I love getting him involved with L&L.
By now, you may have heard of Hawaiian Barbecue, a cuisine rooted in Hawaii that has made a big splash nationally, the way surfing did back in the 50s. I am proud to lead L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, a Hawaii-based franchise that’s leading the way in and bringing the plate lunch to the world. L&L has grown from modest roots in Honolulu to a now global chain with nearly 230 locations across the United States and the world. As I enter my fifth year as the company’s CEO, I pause to reflect back to “why” we’re doing what we do.
L&L’s roots, like many businesses in Hawaii, started from the dream of immigrants who came to the United States for a better life. For our founders, Eddie Flores, Jr. ( my father ) and Johnson Kam, a new life in America was challenging— resources were few, language barriers persisted, and interpersonal networks were non-existent. The restaurant industry provided them the
opportunity to prove their work ethic, flex their ingenuity and build their foundation.
Their partnership in the venture blossomed into success with the L&L restaurant not only succeeding but multiplying from the mid 70s and into the 80s. Seeing first-hand how the restaurant industry could lead to a brighter life, L&L started franchising in the 90s allowing others, including many immigrants, to own and open their own restaurants. From those humble beginnings, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue has grown into the No. 1 Asian Franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine and in 2024 was ranked by Yelp as No. 21 on its list of Top 50 fastest growing brands in America. Despite our accolades and accomplishments, as CEO I proudly carry forward our mission of creating opportunities and perpetuating the Aloha spirit. This job is truly a joy as every day I get to help other individuals and families achieve their American Dream.
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The XL Warewash Program
FOOD SAFETY
90% MORE SOIL REMOVED* compared to manual only process*
LABOR SAVINGS
WATER SAVINGS
REPURPOSE 2 HOURS OR MORE labor per day*** vs. traditional dump/fill machine
Where Performance Meets Value
Designed specifically for QSR applications, the XL has a higher wash chamber, 50% faster cycle time, faster dry time, and delivers productivity and food safety at a lower total cost.
6,400 GALLONS OF WATER SAVED PER YEAR** Standard Height
