There are 356 LongHorn Steakhouses across America. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it. You likely soon will. 

The chain’s owner, Darden Restaurants, which also owns Red Lobster and Olive Garden, is looking to expand it, according to the Chicago Tribune, and this year will be the first year its annual sales hit $1 billion. Not too shabby for a company that Darden bought along with Capital Grille back in 2007 for $1.4 billion.Continue reading...

Fast-food burgers and pizza restaurants have long been a staple of dining in the United States, but American diets are changing. Fast food joints and family restaurant chains are having “their lowest sales all year,” according to ABC News, but another inexpensive dining category is growing quickly: fast casual.

“In the last year alone sales in the fast casual sector reached $18 billion,” ABC reports. One of the things driving this trend is sudden explosion of celebrity chefs from such television shows as Iron Chef, Top Chef, and The Chew.

"We're seeing people interested in all sorts of tastes ... Mexican, Asian, Indian is really big right now," said Blair Chancey, editor of QSR (quick-service restaurant) magazine, according to ABC.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, which uses chickens that are fed a vegetarian diet and naturally raised pork beef has been one of the category’s leaders since it launched in 1998. Now, it's expanding into Asian cuisine with the ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen fast casual concept it's testing in Washington, D.C. (Perhaps McDonald’s, a majority owner in the chain until it divested in 2006, got out too soon?)

"Americans want high quality, but they want it to be an affordable value and inexpensive, and that's what I think the fast casual industry is trying to do," said Jonathan Kaplan, creator of the Flip video camera, who is starting a chain of grilled cheese restaurants called The Melt, according to ABC. "There's really a niche there where restaurants are able to offer high-end quality ingredients, artisanal breads, really high quality cheeses, but they can do it at a fast casual price point."

This week, Domino's Pizza tried to get a slice of the action by launching 'artisanal' pizzas to appeal to foodies on a budget. And the founder of Domino's, Tom Monaghan, is starting a new restaurant that will only serve a two different gourmet burgers, ABC reports.

“My philosophy is not to try to be all things to all people — to do one thing and do it extremely well, better than anyone else can possibly do it and I'm hoping that will spell success," Monaghan told the network.

Continuing on our pizza theme, "Artisanal" is probably not the first word people think of when they think of pizza-delivery king Domino’s.

Whether their line cooks are artisans or not, 51-year-old Domino’s is attempting to push it into a market that would order such pies rather than depending on your basic pepperoni/mushroom/cheese pies.

The Michigan-based company today adds Domino's Artisan Pizza to its menu, and a Twitter and Facebook promotion is touting its three new pie flavors: Spinach & Feta, Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio, and Tuscan Salami & Roasted Veggie.Continue reading...

Chipotle Mexican Grill is going Hollywood to shed light on the importance of a sustainable food eco-system as seen in the above video, “Back to the Start.”

Featuring a moving cover of Coldplay's The Scientist by music legend Willie Nelson, the two-minute stop-motion animated short follows a farmer who turns his family business into an industrial animal factory, reaping disastrous results before coming to his senses and choosing a more sustainable future. 

The film by Irish animator Johnny Kelly and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle in their first foray into branded entertainment, and will be shown in 5,700 theaters across the United States starting in September.

The video also supports the brand's increased commitment to promoting sustainability via a new foundation and a first-of-its-kind event.Continue reading...

Double dip or a single dip with sprinkles on it, the recessionary feeling of the economy is something that Americans may be getting used to. And increasingly, quick-serve and fast-casual restaurant brands are adjusting to this "new normal" and simply trying to do business in spite of it, instead of assuming that better days are ahead.

Take Bennigan's. One of the original definers of the modern fast-casual restaurant segment, the 80-unit chain knows a thing or two about hard times, and by its own admission the Irish pub chain had grown rather stale and lifeless. It filed for bankruptcy-court protection in 2008, closed its corporate-owned stores across the US, and last November relaunched under new ownership. And certainly the three-year slump in the restaurant industry hasn't helped.

But instead of crying the blues, the Dallas-based chain, which now operates about 100 stores in the US and internationally is bringing out the green: It is launching a deep overhaul that includes re-connecting with the Irish green that was a key part of the optics of the original Bennigan's brand.Continue reading...

Philippine President Benigno Aquino likes to travel with quite the entourage. He took 270 pals with him when he went to Beijing this week to drum up business opportunities in China. One of the folks traveling with him, Jollibee Foods Corp. Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong, has apparently found some good news in the more than 4,000-year-old civilization.

The Filipino-owned hamburger chain has more locations and more sales than McDonald’s in the Philippines. And now it's aggressively expanding its brand in China. AllHeadlineNews reports that Jollibee, which currently has 278 restaurants in China, plans to open 100 more there in 2012.Continue reading...

McDonald's USA President Jan Fields has kicked off the brand's first ever "listening tour," at the BlogHer conference in San Diego.

The Hillary Clinton-style move to engage parents (particularly moms — ideally, those who blog with vast Twitter and Facebook networks) was promised as part of its new nutrition commitment that was announced on July 25th. That's when the company announced its menu overhaul a "series of town hall style meetings (that) will connect us directly with parents and nutrition experts for important dialogue about how McDonald’s can continue to play a role in children’s well being."

McDonald's executives also talked up its new Family Arches online community, signing up members of the private community at a boot at the conference. Above, listen to Fields field questions — and, well, listen.

For three years, Coca-Cola Freestyle fountains have been quietly doing their work for the soda giant. Soon it will be Freestyle’s time in the spotlight.

Freestyle, for those not keeping score at home, can produce up to 125 different beverages (soft drinks, flavored waters, sports drinks, you name it) while also digitally shipping info on consumer behavior back to Coke headquarters for later analysis, according to AdAge.

There are currently more than 1,500 machines nationwide in such places as Wendy’s, Burger King, and Five Guys, and they will appear in more than 80 U.S. markets by year's end as the interactive machine goes national.Continue reading...