QSR July 2022

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FOR 25 YEARS

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CLIMATE CONTROL FOCUS

Just Salad and Chief 6XVWDLQDELOLW\ 2ɏ FHU 6DQGUD 1RRQDQ DUH UHGHɍ QLQJ ZKDW LW PHDQV WR (DW :LWK 3XUSRVH

/ 20 MISSION POSSIBLE / P.20

INSIDE: RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY /P.47

Plus

Green-Savvy and Green Sincere P. 28 Where the Supply Chain Factors In P. 36 Autonomous Delivery Rises Again P. 43

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July

TABLE OF CON T E N T S J U LY

CLIMATE CONTROL FOCUS

2 0 2 2 # 2 9 3

QSR / LIMITED-SERVICE, UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

N E W S

10 SHORT ORDER 18 FRANCHISE FORWARD Change, One Straw at a Time

Noodles & Company is paying closer attention to its impact on the environment. BY BRYAN REESMAN 43 INNOVATE Delivery, Done for You The world of autonomous fulfillment has taken flight. BY TREVOR GRINER I N S I G H T 11 FRESH IDEAS Waste Not, Want Not A fresh wave of quick-service operators are doing their part to keep food waste down. BY AMANDA BALTAZAR 16 ONES TO WATCH Cousins Maine Lobster Sustainability and product care was in the upstart brand’s DNA since day one. BY BEN COLEY 46 START TO FINISH Dave Wetzel Farmer Boys has its sights set on growth and plenty of innovation.

20 / FOR JUST SALAD AND CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER SANDRA NOONAN, CLIMATE RESPONSIBILITY REMAINS AT THE FOUNDER AND CEO NICK KENNER (LEFT)

FOREFRONT OF THE BRAND’S MISSION.

LIZ EIDELMAN

20 The Sustainability Savant BY DANNY KLEIN Just Salad’s Sandra Noonan is proof one fast casual is taking environmental issues to heart.

28 Enviormental Essentials BY CONNIE GENTRY Restaurants are learning how to be green-savvy and green-sincere.

36 How to Sustain a Chain BY NICOLE DUNCAN Recent bottlenecks and shortages have restaurants reevaluating their supply chains—and sustainability might just be part of the solution.

2 BRANDED CONTENT

4 EDITOR’S LETTER

80 ADVERTISER INDEX

ON THE COVER Sandra Noonan has taken Just Salad’s reusable program and broader goals to new heights. PHOTOGRAPHY: LIZ EIDELMAN

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www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | JULY 2022

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BRANDED CONTENT

E D I TOR I AL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, FOOD NEWS MEDIA: Danny Klein danny@qsrmagazine.com MANAGING EDITOR, FOOD NEWS MEDIA: Nicole Duncan nicole@qsrmagazine.com DIRECTOR OF CUSTOM CONTENT: Peggy Carouthers peggy@qsrmagazine.com CUSTOM CONTENT ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Charlie Pogacar charlie@qsrmagazine.com CUSTOM CONTENT ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kara Phelps kara@qsrmagazine.com CONTENT EDITOR: Ben Coley ben@qsrmagazine.com STAFF WRITER: Trevor Griner Trevor@qsrmagazine.com ART & PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR: Tory Bartelt tory@qsrmagazine.com ONLINE ART DIRECTOR: Kathryn “Rosie” Rosenbrock rosie@qsrmagazine.com ADVERTISING 800.662.4834 NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR // EXTENSION 126 : Eugene Drezner eugene@foodnewsmedia.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER // EXTENSION 149 : Edward Richards edward@foodnewsmedia.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER // EXTENSION 141 : Amber Dobsovic amber@foodnewsmedia.com NATIONAL SALES MANAGER // EXTENSION 148 : John Krueger john@foodnewsmedia.com CIRCULATION WWW.QSRMAGAZINE.COM/SUBSCRIBE CIRCULATION COORDINATOR: N. Weber circasst@qsrmagazine.com ADMINISTRATION GROUP PUBLISHER, FOOD NEWS MEDIA: Greg Sanders greg@foodnewsmedia.com PRESIDENT: SALES SUPPORT // EXTENSION 124 : Tracy Doubts tracy@foodnewsmedia.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Erica Naftolowitz erica@qsrmagazine.com PRODUCTION MANAGER: Mitch Avery mitch@qsrmagazine.com

IN THIS ISSUE BRAND STORIES FROM QSR

6 I’m Not Pasta: The Story Behind a Popular Paneer “Lasagne” Chef Manish Tyagi

14 How to Choose the Right Site for Your New Restaurant Location selection

CALIFORNIA MILK ADVISORY BOARD

McBRIDE REAL ESTATE / JONATHAN MULKEY

believes in wholesome, sustainable California dairy ingredients. SPONSORED BY THE CALIFORNIA MILK ADVISORY BOARD

has little margin for error. An expert shares insights on how to get it right. SPONSORED BY McBRIDE REAL ESTATE

47 Restaurant Equipment & Technology, July 2022 As restaurants continue to combat new challenges, here are some of the companies and vendors offering solutions.

Restaurant Equipment & TECHNOLOGY 2022

THIS YEAR, FOODSERVICE OPERATORS are facing chal lenges like never before. With vast supply shortages, rising costs, and the toughest labor market the restaurant indus try has ever seen, it’s no wonder restaurants are searching for relief any way they can. It comes as no surprise, then, that many restaurants are looking to technology for solutions that can take pressure off their labor force. And, thanks to the innovation of vendors serving the restaurant industry, operators are finding that support in the form of back-of-house automation, smarter cooking equipment, improved communications tools, and software that provides incisive guest and crew insights. Here, vendor partners explain how their technology can not only help restaurants operate more efficiently despite the industry’s challenges, but they also explain how their support can give staff and managers back time to do what they do best: serve customers. Read on to learn more about how technology can help your brand.

48 Acrelec Double Check: The Power of AI Meets the Precision of a Scale Sponsored by Acrelec 50 You Need Takeout Efficiency, and Customers Demand It

58 Preparing For

48 Acrelec 50 Apex Solutions 52 Botrista 54 ChargeNet Stations 56 Clark Foodservice 58 Ecotrak 60 Intellihot 62 Loomis

64 Peerless-AV 66 R.F. Tech 68 Restaurant Tech 70 Transact Tech 72 UPM 74 Watchfire Signs

Growth, Mendocino Farms First Did This Sponsored by Ecotrak 60 How Tankless Water Heaters Can Cut Energy Usage by 40 Percent

76 Welbilt 78 Xenial

ADOBE STOCK

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RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT & TECHNOLOGY JULY 2022

70 Battling Labor Shortages and Rising Food Costs with Technology Sponsored by Transact Technologies— BOHA! 72 Labeling Innovation Helps Companies

Reduce Environ mental Impact Sponsored by UPM 74

ADOBE STOCK

Sponsored by Intellihot

62 How To Beat the Labor Shortage In Time for the Summer Surge Sponsored by Loomis 64 Choosing a Digital Menuboard Sponsored by Peerless-AV 66 Why Operators Are Moving Toward Repair Plans Sponsored by R.F. Technologies, Inc. 68 How a 20-Unit Franchisee Saved $8,000 Per Store Sponsored by Restaurant Technologies

Secret Ingredient for Post- COVID

Webb C. Howell MANAGER, IT SERVICES: Jason Purdy ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATE: Carole Ogan

APEX SOLUTIONS

Sponsored by Apex Solutions

52 The Automated Beverage Program Helping Restaurants Increase Guest Check Sponsored by Botrista 54 Chargenet Stations Beefing Up The Quick-Service Bottom Line Sponsored by ChargeNet Stations 56 Intuitive. Accelerated. Delivered. Sponsored by Clark Foodservice

Restaurant Success: Digital Reader Boards Sponsored by Watchfire Signs 76 How to Maximize Restaurant Efficiency with the Internet of Things Sponsored by Welbilt 78 The End-to-End Solution that Will Increase Drive-Thru Velocity and Sales Sponsored by Xenial WATCHFIRE SIGNS

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Climate on the Menu It’s not a topic

A s we were planning our 2022 cal endar, the notion of a climate issue gave me some pause, I have to admit. Not that I’m not a believer in the topic, but I just wasn’t sure where to go with it. In some ways, it reminded me of diversity and a conversation my colleague Ben Coley and I had with Dr. James Pogue a few months back. James is the president and CEO of JP Enterprises, a company that helps coach inclusivity at the leader ship and team level. One of their banner phrases is, “The Right Kind of Uncom fortable.” We talked about that frame work and the role of media in all of it. How it often can feel forced or fake, and in turn, sail the intended impact. So, in the end, you’re left trying to fur ther a message and yet do it for the right reasons. It’s a complex line. My initial response to a magazine dedicated to climate and the industry’s role in it was, “what can we at QSR bring to the table that hasn’t been talked about already?” My boss’ answer was simple: We need to stir the conversation. You can’t expect or promote change without giving a voice to it. And that’s really where I began. Who were the thought leaders and innovators in this space, from the back ( page 36 ) to the front ( page 28 ) of it. I asked Just Salad chief sustainability officer Sandra Noonan what mattered to her. And what was going to matter next year ( page 20 ). Throughout our conversation, from the circular economy to food waste, the notion of leading from an uncomfortable position kept surfacing. Namely, I floated a pretty common theme in her direc tion—“are customers asking for this?” Noonan’s answer wasn’t what I expected and she quickly dispelled it. While the

answer has hints of “yes” in it, and you can read stats to back that up all over Google, the larger implication and directive is that it doesn’t matter. Whether or not surveys and random polls return that point, Just Salad was going to invest, and invest heavy, in sus tainability and climate-centric initiatives. On the topic of reusables, for instance, Noonan put it this way: “It’s a matter of operators’ ability and willingness to par ticipate; it’s a matter of policy; and it’s a matter of shifting public opinion. When those three reach a critical level, we will hit a tipping point.” But Just Salad isn’t waiting around. Noonan admitted an inflection wasn’t quite in sight, which is why the company incentivizes climate-friendly behavior like some brands might a visit. Use a reusable bowl, get a free topping. On the brand’s app there’s a carbon label filter that recently allowed Just Salad to discount pricing for an Earth Day deal. The idea of rewards and loyalty evolving into sustainability programs is something Noonan says the brand is headed toward, and she thinks others should, too. “To be clear, we don’t come in every day and say the customer wants more sustainability from us,” Noonan said. “We come in every day and we say we’re doing sustainability. And brands need to lead.” Dressed down, it’s the message I was given to make this issue happen. While we might not all be eager or ready to take sustainability steps or have debates, the answer isn’t to shelve it for further review.

every restaurant is comfortable talking about, but that might just be the point.

DANNY@QSRMAGAZINE.COM QSR MAGAZINE

Danny Klein, Editorial Director

ROSIE ROSENBROCK

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JULY 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com

y , he believes it’s a higher quality prod uct than chefs can find elsewhere. He also believes in sustainable practices, and, according to the California Milk Advisory Board, California farmers are more than halfway to a statewide goal of 40 percent less methane emis sions by 2030. The California dairy industry’s carbon footprint has shrunk 45 percent over the past 5 decades, and about 40 percent of a California dairy cow’s diet consists of byproducts from food and fiber production—like almond hulls and grape pomace—keeping these byproducts out of landfills and reducing the amount of water needed to grow additional feed by around 1.3 trillion gallons per year. For these reasons, Tyagi relies on

CALIFORNIA MILK ADVISORY BOARD

CHEF MANISH TYAGI BELIEVES WHOLESOME, SUSTAINABLE CALIFORNIA DAIRY INGREDIENTS Y MAKE HIS SIGNATURE INDIAN FUSION DISH THAT MUCH MORE COMPELLING.

CHEF MANISH TYAGI has always done things his own way. That was never more evident than when, in the midst of the pandemic, he opened his restaurant, Aurum, in Los Altos, Cali fornia. It was a risky move, coming at a time when more independent full service restaurants were shuttering rather than opening. But Aurum has been a smash hit in the Bay Area, thanks in large part to Tyagi’s innovative takes on tradi tional Indian dishes. Tyagi’s artistry is on full display in Aurum’s best-sell ing dish: a spinach and paneer pasta dubbed “I’m Not Pasta.” The entreé uses thinly-sliced Real California pan eer cheese to mimic lasagne noodles, sandwiched around a filling of brown garlic, fenugreek leaves, and California

mozzarella. The lasagne-like creation is cooked and then plated atop a spicy tomato sauce and finished with basil oil and chili threads. “At any Indian restaurant, you’ll find a paneer dish,” Tyagi says. “But I don’t do any Indian dish the way you’d find it in a traditional Indian restaurant. I

add my own style to it. It’s a very old culture and cuisine, but there’s always room to present it as a new version. So when somebody sees ‘I’m Not Pasta’ on the menu, there’s a surprise element to it, but the color, texture, and taste of the dish speak for themselves.” The REAL Makers video series spotlights chefs using California dairy For more, visit realcaliforniamilk.com/foodservice Real California Cheese and trusts that it performs as well or better than any thing a restaurant could make in house. “I like California dairy for both its consistency and taste,” Tyagi says. “And because it’s from here, the taste is California.” BY CHARLIE POGACAR

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JULY 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com

I FOUNDED THE BLACK FoOD COlLECTIVE TO BRING LIGHT TO SMAlL BUSINEsSES AND HELP THEM GROW.

InNOVATION BUbBLES UP AT CHEF RASHAD ARMSTEAD’S OAKLAND GHOST KITCHEN.

WE’RE “DELIVERY ONLY,” SO FLAVOR IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT, AND CALIFORNIA CHeESES MAKE MY FoOD TASTE THAT MUCH BEtTER.

I USE FIVE OF MY FAVORITES IN THIS JAMBALAYA MAC & CHeESE!

WATCH IT IN REAL TIME: realcaliforniamilk.com/foodservice

California Asiago, Sharp & Mild Cheddar, Colby-Jack, and Monterey Jack. Flavor, delivered.

©2020 California Milk Advisory Board, an instrumentality of the CA Department of Food and Agriculture

˪˪˪ʡ˕˜˗˩˜˧˔ʡ˔˜

ˊ˛ˬ ˜˦ ˧˛˘ ʿ˔˥˚˘˦˧ ʹ˥˔ˡ˖˛˜˦˘ ʶˢ˦˧ ˧˛˘ ʿ˘˔˦˧ ʾˡˢ˪ˡʲ ʵ˜˗ˉ˜˧˔ ˔˟˟ˢ˪˦ ˢ˪ˡ˘˥˦ ˧ˢ ˚˘˧ ˖ˢˡ˦˧˥˨˖˧˜ˢˡ ˖ˢ˦˧˦ ˙ˢ˥ ˔ˡˬ ˟ˢ˖˔˧˜ˢˡʟ ˠ˔˥˞˘˧ʟ ˖ˢˡ˗˜˧˜ˢˡ ˔ˡ˗ ˦˖˘ˡ˔˥˜ˢ ˜ˡ ˥˘˔˟ʠ˧˜ˠ˘ ˪˜˧˛˜ˡ ˠ˜ˡ˨˧˘˦ʡ

ʺ˘ˡ˘˥˔˧˘ ˅ˢˬ˔˟˧˜˘˦ ʧ ˀˢˡ˧˛˦ ʹ˔˦˧˘˥

˂ˣ˘ˡ ˆ˧ˢ˥˘˦ ʤʤʬ ʷ˔ˬ˦ ʸ˔˥˟˜˘˥

ʼˡ˖˥˘˔˦˘ ʹʷʷ˦ ˕ˬ ʦʣʘ

SHORT ORDER

Domino’s (and its marketing materials) found a home in this past season of “Stranger Things.”

Stranger Than Fiction? Domino’s created an immersive ordering experience for guests that was out of this world.

MIND-ORDERED PIZZA? Domino’s made this otherworldy notion a reality in May around the premiere of “Stranger Things’” new season. The brand’s “mind-ordering app” placed test subjects inside Hawkins National Lab in Hawkins, Indiana, transporting them to the center of the show, circa 1986. Users could explore the lab, uncover Easter eggs, use telekinetic powers to gain control of certain objects, and place a Domino’s Easy Order. The chain deployed facial recognition and eye-tracking technology so guests could use their “powers” to order pizza by making certain facial expressions and head movements. “We’re geeked to launch this first-of-its-kind mind ordering app, just in time for the premiere of ‘Stranger Things’ new season,” says Kate Trumbull, Domino’s senior vice president of brand and product innovation. “Now hungry customers and ‘Stranger Things’ fans across the U.S. will get a taste of what it’s like to be Eleven, and they may find some hidden surprises along the way, such as the Noid or Demogorgon.”

DOMINO’S Got timely and newsworthy photos? Submit them to ShortOrder@qsrmagazine.com.

www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | JULY 2022

9

SHORT ORDER

Food waste can fast become a convoluted debate. There are enough statistics and survey points to bury even the most informed operator. So we’ve cut through some of the noise to bring you a collection worth highlighting.

U.S. restaurants generate an estimated 22–33 billion pounds of food waste each year. About 4–10 percent of food purchased by restaurants is wasted before reaching the consumer ( NRDC ).

WHERE OUR WASTE COMES FROM:

43 %

Ahalf a pound of food is wasted per meal in restaurants , whether it’s from what is left on a customer’s plate, or in the kitchen itself (GreenBlue).

HOMES

RESTAURANTS, GROCERS, FOODSERVICE COMPANIES

2 % 16 % 40 %

FARMS

U.S. food waste is responsible for the equivalent of the emissions of 37 million, or one in seven, cars (Natural Resources Defense Council).

MANUFACTURERS

(Feeding America)

$ 162 ƛ

The restaurant industry loses $162 billion annually thanks to wasted food ( USDA ).

55

%

85 %

40 %

Roughly 85 percent of the food that isn’t used in a typical restaurant is thrown out. With more than 42 million food insecure people in our country, there’s no mystery why this is a problem (GreenBlue)— reducing food waste by 15 percent could provide enough sustenance to feed more than 25 million people , annually ( USDA ).

On average, diners leave 17 percent of their meals uneaten and 55 percent of edible leftovers are left at the restaurant (Cornell University Food and Brand Lab).

America wastes roughly 40 percent of its food ( NRDC ).

While the world wastes about 1.4 billion tons of food every year, the U.S. discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 80 billion pounds every year ( EPA ). That equates to 219 pounds of waste per person.

= &

The biggest concerns for most restaurants when it comes to food donations (41 percent of respondents in a ChefHero survey) are liability and transportation .

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Fast casual Kitava takes care to cross-utilize ingredients wherever it can. | FOOD WASTE | fresh ideas

REDUCING FOOD WASTE

Waste Not, Want Not A fresh wave of quick-service operators are doing their part to keep food waste down. BY AMANDA BALTAZAR J ust over a year ago, fast casual Kitava hired Preethi R as culi nary director. One of her day one tasks? Reduce waste. “Food waste is huge, and in a company it’s a cost,” says the culinary director. So as she worked on the menu, R looked at the yield of every ingredient and what the concept could get out of it—“truly get out of it,” she says. Food waste is a growing problem, and food is the largest con tributor to landfills, where it produces methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than CO2. But many counter-service brands are taking every effort to curb the growing problem. Kitava, a two-unit brand based in San Francisco, sells food

through ghost kitchens. Its cauliflower florets go into three differ ent dishes—za’atar cauliflower and hummus; za’atar cauliflower (fried florets); and the mezze harvest bowl—and the stalk is shred ded for cauliflower rice. Avocados were proving to be a problem since they were incon sistent with brown spots, so R blitzes the problem areas into a sauce with lime and cilantro, and it’s added to the tacos and elim inated waste. As an added bonus, this boosts the nutrition of the tacos. Kitava also takes care to use every part of herbs. Stems of softer herbs like parsley or cilantro go into a green goddess dressing;

KITAVA

www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | JULY 2022

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| FOOD WASTE | fresh ideas

heartier herbs are added to stock. This broth also contains chicken bones and leftover vegetable scraps—onion, carrot, celery—and cooks overnight, then is blended with ginger and turmeric. R removed items from the menu, as well as added them. Shredded carrots in some of the bowl menu offerings added a nice earth iness but didn’t last long enough, so now the concept pickles them. “They last longer, they bring a great texture, feel, taste, and health benefit,” she points out. Respecting food Fat Choy, in New York City, is also as zero waste as possible. Chef and owner Justin Lee developed several menu items to reduce food waste through repurposing. “At Fat Choy we put in the extra work to make the most out of every part of the plant,” Lee says. “So much goes into growing and transporting that plant, it seems wasteful to only use the most ‘desirable’ parts. Hopefully we can show people simple techniques they can easily adopt into their lives.” Fat Choy is a vegan, “Chinese-ish” restau rant, through which Lee hopes to encourage people to eat less meat, while still being omnivores. Lee had a lot of waste of stalks and leaves from his salt and pepper cauliflower. So he now cuts up the cauliflower cores very small and thin and fries them along with the flo rets. “By understanding they’re more fibrous we can fry them and increase our yield from that product,” Lee says. And he grinds up the leaves in the food processor along with stems from collard greens and uses them in sticky rice dumplings. Mushrooms also have more than one use. Lee uses the caps of king oyster mushrooms in specials such as “Fun Guy Stew” and “Fun Guy Salad,” but can’t include the woody

Lee enjoys the task. “This is a different challenge—to make scraps taste good. The first step is to put everything into a stock, but we’re taking further steps and making that into solid food,” he says. What is tricky is knowing how much of this to share with customers and do it in a non-preachy way. Lee is aware using food scraps might encourage some guests to come back and might deter others. “Every now and then on Instagram we might talk about it. The idea behind Fat Choy is this menu can exist anywhere in the world,” he says. Keeping inventory low Shouk is an Israeli street food fast casual with three locations in Washington, D.C., and one in Bethesda, Maryland. “We run at little to no waste,” says co founder and CEO Ran Nussbächer. He achieves this by having a very lim ited set of SKUs and using them to create as many menu items as possible. “We’re fairly aggressive in keeping it tight,” he says. “We’re always asking ourselves what more we can do with what we have. We try not to bring in anything that’s single-use because if it’s a perishable item and I’ve ordered too much of it I can’t use it for anything else. If I have two or three items with the same perishable item I’m unlikely to run into that problem.” Oyster mushrooms, for example, are used in two very different ways and customers don’t even realize they’re the same, he says. The mushrooms are seasoned and grilled for mushroom schawarma; and breaded and deep fried for fried schouk’n. “The pro file of the dishes couldn’t be any different,” Nussbächer explains. “That way we are able to have the flexibility to use the product for both without any leftovers.” Likewise with chickpeas, which are used

FAT CHOY WANTS TO ENCOURAGE GUESTS TO EAT LESS MEAT, WHILE STILL BEING OMNIVORES.

stalk. Instead, he braises and purees them and they add flavor to sauces, along with acting as a thickening agent. This goes into both dishes as well as soups such as stone soup, and hot and sour soup And in perhaps the most innovative idea, Lee is confit-ing gin ger skins and scallion roots then blending them into a paste. “We use that to flavor fried rice or to start up a braise or a soup, so that’s a really useful technique,” Lee says. Other scraps go into stock or flavored vinegars. He steeps jalapeño cores and seeds—or what ever he has on hand—in vinegar than uses it to make a house hot sauce. “It changes slightly in flavor depending on the season and what scraps we put into it,” he says.

in hummus, falafel, and the Shouk veggie burger. “They all taste different and feel different. We have a fairly limited set of SKUs and we’re fairly aggressive in keeping it tight.” Shouk’s menu is 100 percent plant-based, which means, Nuss bächer says, “that our products aren’t as perishable as animal proteins. We have more time on items; a tomato doesn’t go bad as quickly as a steak and if goes beyond 24 hours that’s OK.” Nussbächer also enjoys the challenge of being as zero-waste as possible. “It’s good for the planet, good for business,” he says. q

Amanda Baltazar is a regular contributor to Food News Media and is based in Washington.

FAT CHOY (4)

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How to Choose the Right Site For Your New Restaurant

At a time with little margin for error, an expert shares insights on targeting the right locations. /BY CHARLIE POGACAR

perform for the dinner or weekend business. Operators should ideally look for sites with high counts for both categories.” What are key things franchisees and opera tors should inquire into when negotiating commercial real estate? “Aside from rent, a big concern for most restaurant operators is their initial cash investment in the space. Borrowing is get ting more expensive while, at the same time, construction costs continue to rise. A second generation restaurant space can be a very good option, if you can find one. For new developments, the operator can submit a work letter to the landlord. This work letter could include stipulations like having a grease trap, patio with railing, upgraded elec trical panel, and high tonnage HVAC installed. Most franchisors should be able to provide a detailed landlord work letter for their brand. Rent and investment are the two most critical items in the landlord proforma as well, so compromise is key. Operators should expect to pay a premium in rent if the landlord is prepared to invest additional capital in their restaurant buildout.” Z

B oth a commercial real estate broker and a longtime restaurant operator, Josh McBride is better equipped than most with insights into the quick-service site selection process. And, as the industry evolves at a rapid pace, there’s been no better time to revisit some of the fundamental calculations that should be on every operator’s mind when looking for real estate. Below is an edited version of a conversa tion between McBride and QSR magazine. “I began my restaurant career with Chick fil-A in 2004, where I served for over 9 years, including as an owner-operator. I also spent time as vice president of development for what was, at the time, the largest Pieology Pizzeria franchisee group. More recently, I co-founded Hogwood BBQ in Franklin, Tennessee—one of the highest-rated BBQ restaurants in the Nashville area. Since launching McBride Real Estate a few years ago, I’ve brokered over $50 million in What is your background in the restaurant and real estate industries?

retail and restaurant leases across the South eastern U.S., and have evaluated over 1,000 raw land development opportunities, resulting in a net lease asset sale value of over $75 million” What are key things franchisees and opera tors should look for when targeting sites? “When analyzing an opportunity, there is nothing more critical to understand than how the restaurants in the immediate vicinity are performing. There are some very sophisticat ed software programs today that can provide operators with real-time customer traffic data that wasn’t accessible 5 years ago. Operators should use these tools to understand how their competitors are performing at a specific location and then target the sites with the highest probability for success. Employee population in a trade area typi cally correlates to how the restaurant should perform in the breakfast and lunch dayparts. Residential population in the trade area typi cally correlates to how the restaurant should

Connect with McBride on LinkedIn, or follow his LinkedIn page: McBride RE.

McBRIDE REAL ESTATE / JONATHAN MULKEY

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DEPARTMENT ONES TO WATCH

Cousins Maine Lobster From Shark Tank to a nationwide fleet of food trucks, sustainability has always been at the heart of the growing fast casual. BY BEN COLEY

In the 10 years since, Cousins Maine Lobster has grown to roughly 40 food trucks nationwide and a handful of restaurants, from Maine and Massachusetts to Califor nia and Nevada. While the concept is still relatively young, the regulations it abides by to obtain prod uct are more than 100 years old, says Annie Tselikis, who leads marketing and franchi see engagement. She refers to the Maine lobster business as the “gold standard in sustainability.” “This industry has been sustainable since before the word was ever a buzzword,” says Annie Tselikis, a 15-year veteran of the Maine lobster industry. There are roughly 4,500 licensed lob ster fishermen in Maine, and the entry/ exit procedures are strict. If one wanted to start fishing tomorrow, they would have to undergo a two-year apprentice program with a licensed fisherman, the majority of which would be documented fishing time on the water, in addition to gear work and learning navigation. After that, they would be eligible for a lobster license, but they would likely sit on a waitlist in most parts of the state for at least 10 years. That’s because the Maine Department of Marine Resources, which manages the fishery, will not let new fish ermen into the industry until some come out. And usually, those licenses aren’t given up until someone is in a nursing home or passes away. “I have friends that have sat on the wait list for 10 years,” Annie Tselikis says. “That is a big deal.” Once a person is in the fishery, they start with 300 traps and can add 100 each year until the 800 maximum. In terms of actual lobster, the industry is intently focused on maintaining the next generation. For instance, fishermen return egg-bearing females to the water and CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

and were reminded of all those great times they had as kids. But it was more than just reminiscing; the passion for Maine and its lobsters ran deep, and the cousins felt there was opportunity to spread that familial love to the rest of the country. In 2012, the idea ballooned into a Cous ins Maine Lobster food truck in L.A., and not too long after, they found themselves being courted by ABC’s Shark Tank. “We said no twice, and then eventually, an executive producer called and said, ‘you guys will be making the worst decision of your lives if you don’t do this,’” Jim Tselikis recalls. “So about 2.5 months into business, we were on the set of Shark Tank . We had targeted Barbara [Corcoran], believe it or not, and that is who we eventually did our deal with.”

COUSINS JIM TSELIKIS AND SABIN LOMAC SPENT much of their formative years—weekends, summers, and holiday breaks—hanging out with family members and enjoying lobster, a staple in the state of Maine. The two went their separate ways in college, but reconnected years later in Los Angeles. They instantly fell into old habits FOUNDERS: Jim Tselikis and Sabin Lomac HEADQUARTERS: Portland, Maine YEAR STARTED: 2012 ANNUAL SALES: $54,757,000 (in 2021) TOTAL UNITS: 36 trucks and seven brick and mortar restaurants FRANCHISED UNITS: 38 Franchised units total

COUSINS MAINE LOBSTER

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DEPARTMENT FRANCHISE FORWARD

Change, One Straw at a Time Noodles & Company’s efforts to get greener are spreading throughout the system. BY BRYAN REESMAN

In the company’s report, it noted it had removed artificial colors and sweeteners from food. Moore says the company is dedicated to providing guests with high-quality, fresh, and delicious products, and the decision to remove artificial colors and sweeteners emerged a decade ago “to ensure our menu delivered guests the highest-quality food possible with only the best ingredients.” The drinking straw initiative was first con sidered by Noodles back in 2021. “We are constantly looking at all elements of our busi ness, and the conversation around compostable straws came up about a year ago,” Moore says. “Before implementing the new straw, we tested it to ensure it would uphold our high standards and we were pleased with the quality and our guests’ reactions.” Last fall, Noodles announced a partnership with Hoffmaster Group Inc., a 66-year-old com pany known for specialty disposable tabletop products in brands like Linen-Like, Fash nPoint, and CaterWrap. Its brand of Aardvark Straws are certified BPI-compostable, FDA approved, naturally degradable, and made in the U.S. Martin Stone’s original patent on

Noodles & Company is developing plans to reduce water and energy usage.

W ith climate concerns weighing more and more on consum ers’ minds today, Colorado-based Noodles & Company decided to generate its first impact report, which was released in October. As the company notes, the report outlined the initiatives taken “in the areas of food, people, planet, and commu nity” to improve the world and offer environmentally sustainable solutions to the fast casual’s business model. One way it will affect change is through disposable paper drink ing straws, and more green-conscious updates are also happening across Noodles’ more than 450 locations nationwide. “As a values-led company, we believe in transparency, and it is important to us to share our journey as well as our path forward,” says Danielle Moore, director of communications. “Our first report served as a baseline to show what we’ve accomplished over the past 25-plus years and where opportunities lie moving forward. As a female, I was especially proud to see that females comprise 56 percent of our operations team and 50 percent of our executive team, and I am continually proud of Noodles’ dedication to inclu sion and diversity.”

paper straws dates back to 1888, and the straws were re-intro duced into the marketplace back in 2007 when Aardvark saw a growing need because of the anti-plastic movement that included restaurants, hospitals, and other service industries. Indiana-based Precision Products Group Inc. was asked by Aardvark to create a straw that was more environmentally friendly. Hoffmaster pur chased Aardvark in 2018. “[Hoffmaster] is a leader in developing environmentally friendly products, and we were very impressed with the quality of their straws and the other products they offer,” Moore says. As reported this past January, this change will remove nearly 21,000 pounds of plastic from the company’s waste stream annually. Last year also found Noodles developing a fresh plan to reduce water and energy usage. The company began installing a new dripper system chain-wide that Moore says reduces water usage by more than 30 percent. The dipper wells Noodles recently installed have restricted waterflows, which will improve the amount of water usage into each location using them. The company is also exploring new high-efficiency faucets it hopes to bring to CONTINUED ON PAGE 45

NOODLES & COMPANY

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THE REUSABLE BOWL

SANDRA NOONAN JOINED JUST SALAD WITH A MISSION TO BETTER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD AND THE PLANET.

The Sustainability Savant Just Salad’s Sandra Noonan is proof one fast casual is taking environmental issues to heart. But she’s ready to start a broader movement. / BY DANNY KLEIN S andra Noonan doesn’t typically cold email CEOs. But she recognized something about Just Salad the company itself likely didn’t. In the emerging conversation on circularity, the New York City-based salad chain was a decade ahead. This was 2019, about 13 years from when Nick Kenner and childhood friend Rob Crespi debuted the brand as a way to serve healthy, quick food in a market that lacked accessibility. The goal, as Kenner said then, to become the “Trader Joe’s of fast food,” or a restaurant where organic on the menu didn’t signal breaking the bank. A year earlier, Noonan read an article in the New Yorker on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (the largest of five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans) and was disgusted. She took one statistic, in particular, to mind—a finding in Science Magazine that claimed 275 million metric tons of plastic waste was generated across 192 coastal countries. “I had a, ‘I did not sign up for this moment’ as a consumer,” Noonan says. “And started doing more research and learned that only 9 per cent of all plastic has ever been recycled, according to scientific literature.” It made her think of Just Salad. In addition to Kenner’s aim to bulldoze barriers to healthy food, he devised a reusable con tainer prototype in hopes of limiting the plastic salad vessels stuffing waste baskets throughout the city. Kenner and Just Salad execs oversaw the program, yet they also were trying to run a growing restaurant chain that had scaled to about 40 stores (there are 60 today). Naturally, one often preceded the other.

LIZ EIDELMAN

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | JULY 2022

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

Earlier in her career, Noonan served as VP of digital strat egy at Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing. She also worked as a reporter with Bloomberg, independent marketing consultant, and adjunct instructor at NYU’s School of Professional Studies. But when she came upon Just Salad’s reusable bowl, Noonan was spending all of her free time on an advocacy group she founded in 2019 called Zero Waste NYC, which had grown to a few hundred members. “He answered within a day,” Noonan says of her email. Kenner told Noonan to come by and trade thoughts. So she slipped out of work one day and took the subway to Just Sal ad’s Manhattan HQ. “I didn’t really know what I was doing there,” she says. “But I said listen, I am really passionate about this reusable bowl program … I realized that he was totally engrossed in what I was saying.” A few months later, Kenner asked Noonan to join in. She accepted on the spot, which is how the fast casual became one of the few (it’s challenging to find any) restaurant brands in America to employ a chief sus tainability officer in its C-suite.

ics got buried over the past couple of years by COVID-19. Just for restaurants, the rush to serve off-premises guests—often with single-use plastics—raced ahead on the priority chart. But similar to how consumers tapped comfort food early and have begun to return to health-minded goals, the same is true of watching their environmental impact, Noonan says. A study from Unilever showed 72 percent of U.S. diners care about how restaurants handle food waste. Forty-seven percent added they’d spend more at restaurants with an active food recovery program. A CHANGING MESSAGE, WILLING CONSUMER While that might be anecdotal in scope, Noonan says hard data is where change is really beginning to unfold. It’s central to sus tainability communication with customers, she adds, almost to the point where calling this directive “storytelling” doesn’t fit anymore. “It might imply spinning a story,” Noonan says. “That’s not what we’re talking about at Just Salad.”

What Noonan wanted to accomplish from the outset was increase the cultural relevance of reusables—to tell Just Sal ad’s story and how it all connects with a broader dilemma. In a 2021 report by United Nations Environment Programme, an estimated 931 million tons of food waste was generated in 2019, globally. The U.S. throws away more than any other country in the world, with nearly 80 bil lion pounds of food wasted per year, an estimated 30-40 percent of the country’s entire food supply. Nearly 9 million tons of single-use food service items are used every year, too, equivalent to the weight of 25 Empire State Buildings. Circling the restaurant sector, per the USDA, the industry loses $162 billion annually thanks to wasted food. Right away, Kenner asked Noonan to help Just Salad along many of these fronts, starting with composting. And it’s only gained over the years. Eco-label ing; a Sustainability Champion program for in-store staff; becoming the first U.S. chain to display carbon labels on its menu. Before exploring some of Just Salad’s nuanced directives, it’s worth pulling back. Noonan says the chain, and restaurants as a whole, are only scratching the surface on storytelling when it comes to climate. It’s taken years, but the ceiling is nowhere in sight. Still, the juncture at hand holds prom ise. One reason being sustainability, reusables, and other environmental top

Here’s an example: It took Just Salad roughly a year to run a third-party envi ronmental impact assessment with the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology to measure its reusable bowl benefits compared to disposable con tainers. The goal being to capture the “break-even point,” or number of times the bowl must be used for its impact to be less than fiber disposable bowls. To do so, the LCA evaluated the carbon emissions and water use associated with each bowl at each stage of its life cycle. The LCA showed, on average, Just Sal ad’s reusable bowl resulted in lower global warming (greenhouse gas emissions) and water consumption impacts than dispos able fiber bowls after two uses. Alter three, the global warming impact was equivalent to 42 percent of the impact of the fiber bowl. Four in and it dropped to 34 percent. With water consumption, the impact after three uses measured to 55 percent that of the fiber bowl, while after four, it fell to 46 percent, on average. Perhaps the most concise and repeat able way to explain it—and share with guests—is a customer who washes and reuses their bowl once per week for an entire year could create 89 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and use 78 per cent less water, on average, compared to the same number of uses of disposable fiber bowls, according to calculations published in Just Salad’s impact report.

DISPOSABLE PACKAGING

In 2021, as part of an internal audit guided by SASB (Sustainable Accounting Standards

Board) standards, Just Salad estimated 91 percent of its dis posable food service packaging was made from recycled and/or renewable materials, and 90 per cent of its packaging was recycla ble, reusable, and/or compostable. In an effort to provide multiple ways for customers to access reusable packaging solutions, Just Salad expanded its partnership with Deliver Zero to offer reusable containers for pickup and delivery orders on DoorDash and Caviar. Through Deliver Zero, customers can choose to have their order built in a reusable DeliverZero container. Then, they can return it to the Just Salad location they ordered from or any store within the DeliverZero network.

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

It was a painstaking, lengthy effort, Noonan says. Yet invaluable. Just Salad has offered reusable bowls since the open ing of its first location, making it home to one of the longest running programs in the U.S. restaurant industry. How could the brand turn a trait into a movement? Over the years, Just Salad’s “MyBowl” guests purchase the signature blue bowl for $1, and the chain gives them a free topping each time they use it. The impact last year measured at more than 3 tons of single-use plastic bowl waste avoided. Keeping to a Big Apple theme, you could have stacked enough single-use plastic bowls to create a tower 15 times taller than the Empire State Building. Also, amid the pandemic, Just Salad launched a pilot program at a Murray Hill store that offered guests a way to access reusable bowls for online pickup orders. Just Salad’s “BringBack” platform enabled customers to receive their online salads in a green reusable bowl and return it to a restaurant, where Just Salad employ ees took care of the washing. The brand expanded the platform to Midtown and initial analysis found BringBack users ordered from stores twice as frequently per week versus non-BringBack guests. As this scales, Just Salad plans to make it available on the company’s mobile app. The data story, however, continues to thread throughout. Not just in Just Sal ad’s decision-making, but also in the way it’s courting customer frequency. Leaders met with Anna Keller, a PhD candidate in environmental psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, who has published research on the vari ous stages of behavior change during an individual’s transition from single-use to reusable cups, to tap her methodology. Just Salad then surveyed customers and found 65 percent were interested in using fewer single-use containers, yet either have not started reducing, did not know how, or didn’t think it was possible.

tric way.” Noonan does want to make one point clear, though—Just Salad doesn’t show up and say, “the customer wants more sustainability from us.” Although feedback and demand are always golden eggs to chase in hospitality, a topic like sustainability—akin to diversity—is one that idles if there’s no driving force. “We come in every day and we say, ‘we’re doing sustainability,’” she says. “And brands need to lead.” This is a critical notion, Noonan adds, in understanding where restaurants go from here. Simply by having a CSO, Just Salad is sending a message that’s it’s going to try to skate ahead versus responding only when consumers ask for it. However, there is an intersection. “For 16 years, we’ve had a very loyal cohort of consumers who have used the reusable bowl millions of times,” Noonan says. Would Just Salad have witnessed this kind of activity and stability if not for the fact it gives free toppings away? The answer returns to Noonan’s point about the brand’s need to carry the sustainabil ity banner on its own back. The program owes some measure of its success, arguably a good deal of it, from the fact it offers an incentive to guests for doing something that’s not necessarily convenient. But that’s not a negative spin, Noonan explains. Rather, it’s something she hopes more restaurants adopt. The pay-off is worth the price tag. CLIMATE ON THE MENU The company’s September 2020 call to introduce a seven-item “Climatarian Menu” that allowed customers to cal culate greenhouse gas emissions with build-your-own salads, offers a blueprint. Come October, Panera Bread started doing something similar, although there were visible differences, like the unit of

MORE PACKAGING

BRING YOUR OWN CUP:

Last year, Just Salad relaunched its Bring Your Own Cup ( BYOC )

program for smoothie orders, giving customers the choice to avoid single-use paper cups.

SINGLE-USE UTENSIL OPT-OUT: On the Just Salad

app and orderjustsalad.com, customers are asked to indicate yes or no for disposable utensils. Just Salad offers a 10-cent dis count on delivery orders that opt out of utensils. In 2021, the utensil opt-out feature on orderjustsalad. com avoided over 2,200 pounds of unnecessary waste.

DINE-IN BOWLS: Often in fast casual, customers receive

their orders in disposable packaging even if they plan to dine on-site. Just Salad continues to introduce dine-in bowls at locations with sufficient seating capacity.

measurement Just Salad was using, kg CO2e. When guests ordered an item online at Just Salad, they saw the estimated carbon footprint compared to that of a quarter-pound beef patty, for context. On the incentive note, the day Just Salad’s “Eat for the Earth” campaign launched, it changed the price of its Clima tarian Menu items to reflect their individual carbon footprints. So a salad with a carbon footprint of 0.41 kg CO2e cost $4.10. This year, any salad or warm bowl was $8.99 for customers

Just Salad also enlisted the help of eco-rapper and content creator, Hila the Killa, to leverage influencer marketing. To put it plainly, Just Salad is spreading its message with more ammo than ever. “Data is the foundation of good story telling,” Noonan says. “And I think before Just Salad had a CSO, it didn’t have the bandwidth or resources to do that. … I think the next two or so years at Just Salad we’re going to be able to talk about the benefits of reuse in a much more data-cen

JUST SALAD, BRING YOUR CUP: ADOBE STOCK / VERONIKA KORNIENKO, UTENSIL ICON:ADOBE STOCK / YLIVDESIGN, SALAD BOWL ICON: ADOBE STOCK / VECTORWIN

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