Trending on YouTube lately, and added a week ago with over 1 million hits, is the King of Cone-ing himself, Alki Stevens.

The Australian comedian proves there actually is fun to be had with fast food. Cone-ing, a trend he singlehandedly (sometimes doublehandedly) created as a viral sensation, is when a person orders an ice cream cone (say at a McDonald's drive-thru window) by grabbing it by the ice cream end, instead of the cone... And then filming it for all of the web to laugh at.Continue reading...

Since 1931, the family-owned Cipriani brand, which got its start in Venice, has been known for its quietly elegant and luxurious bars, restaurants and clubs.

Five of Cipriani locations are in New York City, with eight others scattered around the world (London, Hong Kong, Porto Cervo, Venice, Abu Dhabi, and Istanbul). The firm's New York properties also includes the Cipriani Club Residences at 55 Wall Street and two event venues in Manhattan.

Now, Cipriani is leveraging its reputation in another area — hotels — with the launch of Mr. C, a new brand that kicks off with Mr. C Beverly Hills, which opened June 1st.Continue reading...

Au Bon Pain spent $1 million redesigning several of its Boston stores recently and found such success with the redo that the company is planning to do the same to 26 more units.

FastCasual.com reports that now the bakery café chain will launch a “major café remodeling program.” In the New York City area, five of its stores have been totally redone and another 13 have “undergone a refresh.”

The overhaul isn't just cosmetic, but includes employees using iPads to move ordering along faster, a new sandwich bar and salad station, and redesigns of café layouts to speed up service. Employee uniforms are changing to black with orange-sunburst aprons and dining rooms also will be refurbished.Continue reading...

What way to engage customers works more than a giant billboard? A giant interactive billboard offering food, no less!

This isn't a human version of the GranataPet dogfood-dispensing billboard in Germany. This one's courtesy of McDonald's in Sweden, which has been engaging customers Stockholm with a game of classic Pong via a mobile app.Continue reading...

Jonathan Kaplan, who gave us the Flip — the web-ready video camera sold to Cisco for nearly $600 million in 2009 before its demise this year — has flipped to a new business, a "Chipotle-style chain" of grilled cheese restaurants called The Melt.

You might say that Kaplan, the former CEO of Pure Digital Technologies, has an app-etite for innovative ideas.

Four outlets for his new gourmet sandwich concept (which comes with its own app) will be open in the San Francisco Bay Area by Labor Day, with a goal of 500 nationwide by 2015.

Backers have so far put $10 million in his coffers, including a $500,000 to $1 million stake by Sequoia Capital, whose previous investments were Apple, Google, YouTube, and PayPal.Continue reading...

Last week, McDonald’s basically told activists against childhood obesity to go jump in a burning hot Fryolater if they thought they were going to get rid of Ronald McDonald. This week, Burger King and its new ad agency are telling its mascot to take a vacation.

In fact, Burger King is getting a much bigger change than giving the guy with beard and crown a rest. The Miami Herald reports that the chain’s advertising, menu, and even stores are getting revamped.

Don’t worry, Whopper fans. The burger isn’t going anywhere, but the restaurant will try to go healthier with its menu choices and add such things as mango and mixed-berry smoothies with 100% all-natural fruit purees and Asian chicken salad with baby edamame, red cabbage and sesame lime vinaigrette, among a slew of others.

As for its visual branding, red and black will become the new dominant colors of the restaurants, the Herald notes.Continue reading...

One of chef/restaurateur Daniel Boulud’s many restaurants, DB Bistro Moderne, turns 10 this week. So he took the opportunity to tell the Wall Street Journal how the French chef managed to work himself into being a worldwide brand.

Something that helps is either owning the actual real estate or holding extremely long leases on the location. With Daniel, his signature restaurant in New York, Boulud owns it outright as well as the apartment upstairs. He holds leases for 15 more years at the rest of his New York eateries.Continue reading...

When it comes to hot dogs, New Yorkers can be a very tough audience. That's why Papaya King is so impressive.

While the name suggests its fame would be associated with fruit drinks, the 80-year old establishment is renowned for something else — hot dogs, some of the best if not THE best in the city. These dogs have been praised by the likes of Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain, and Martha Stewart. A New York legend, they've shown up in Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother episodes as well as in several movies.

So it only makes sense that the celebrated dog would come to Hollywood. Papaya King just opened an outpost smack dab in the center of Hollywood, not far from the Walk of Fame. It didn't take long for lines to form.Continue reading...