Free Republic

It will also provide more funding and create a task force of business leaders to help promote the programs across new sectors, as well as assess the effectiveness of the job-training programs now in place. Trump plans to sign an executive order that would reorient and expand ApprenticeshipUSA, a grant program that was previously championed by the Obama administration and has been supported by Democrats and Republicans alike. Trump's executive order also requires all federal agencies that participate in apprenticeship programs or workforce training to examine whether their efforts are duplicative or could be combined with other programs to greater...

With everyone running off to various parts of the world for exciting spring or summer plans, it seems only natural to address an issue regarding the lack of international franchise success within the U.S. Aside from all the McDonalds’, Starbucks’, and KFC’s lining most street corners of metropolitan locations worldwide, other countries have a few delicacies they’ve been covertly keeping to themselves all this time. It’s okay, we’re here to reveal these mouthwatering fast food restaurants from all over the world in efforts to finally bring them to the United States. I don’t know about you, but I could go...

In a pair of affluent coastal California counties, the canary in the mineshaft has gotten splayed, spatchcocked and plated over a bed of unintended consequences, garnished with sprigs of locally sourced economic distortion and non-GMO, “What the heck were they thinking?” The result of one early experiment in a citywide $15 minimum wage is an ominous sign for the state’s poorer inland counties as the statewide wage floor creeps toward the mark. Consider San Francisco, an early adopter of the $15 wage. It’s now experiencing a restaurant die-off, minting jobless hash-slingers, cashiers, busboys, scullery engineers and line cooks as they...

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said on Friday hackers used malware to steal customers’ card data, including account number, expiration date and internal verification codes, from payment systems at some of its restaurants over a span of three weeks.... ... The information could be used to drain bank accounts, if a debit card was used, or to make credit card purchases, said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

If you're a white person, you have no business running a restaurant that serves Asian, Latin, African, or Indian cuisine. That's according to the creators of a "white-owned appropriative restaurants" list, which accuses several Oregon establishments of engaging in cultural appropriation—a tool of "a white supremacist culture." The list, a Google Docs spreadsheet, includes about 60 Portland-area restaurants, the names of their white owners, and the kind of cuisine they serve. (For example, the list informs us that Burmasphere "was founded by a white man who ate Burmese food in San Francisco.") The spreadsheet also lists competing restaurants that are...

However, another rule is set to take effect soon that might just take the cake. Or pizza, in this case: The nation’s franchise restaurants are about one month away from the imposition of new nutritional-labeling rules dreamed up by the Obama administration, another gift of the grievously misnamed Affordable Care Act. For outlets of brands with 20 or more locations, that means posting signs in the shop with calorie counts for every item on the menu and for every variation on that item. That’s probably not such a big deal if you are, say, Raising Cane’s, and your menu ranges...

This seems to be a perennial argument in the food service industry but it never fails to attract my interest. The Washington Post picked up the story of an an upscale Italian restaurant in North Carolina called Caruso’s. They had run into a number of issues with parents bringing young and too often horribly behaved children into the eatery for dinner who then wound up annoying the rest of the clientele. As they tell the story, the straw which broke the camel’s back was a young girl with an i-Pad who was playing videos at full volume despite being asked...

SanctuaryRestaurants.org sent me an email that listed the restaurants that are supporting the sanctuary movement. If any of these places (see link) are your favorites, you might wish to avoid them.

Restaurant diners are footing the bill for rising minimum wages. In lieu of steep menu price increases, many independent and regional chain restaurants in states including Arizona, California, Colorado and New York are adding surcharges of 3% to 4% to help offset rising labor costs. Industry analysts expect the practice to become widespread as more cities and states increase minimum wages.

Numerous restaurants across the country have joined a Sanctuary Restaurants Movement to offer safe and tolerant spaces to restaurant workers, employers, and consumers that face hate and harassment in the restaurant industry. As a collaborative project between the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC United) and Presente.org, the Sanctuary Restaurant Movement seeks to not only create solidarity, but also to provide support and resources like job training and legal advice to individuals and their families impacted by hostile policies.

I first saw Pour Vida’s "Anaheim-style burger taco" in my Instagram feed. Despite sounding like something Taco Bell might have dreamed up, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to have it. Pour Vida is chef Jimmy Martinez’ gourmet taco stand in Anaheim. And the picture he posted on Instagram showed a handmade flour tortilla completely glazed with melted yellow cheese, which was then topped with a pan-fried clump of hamburger meat, a flurry of shredded lettuce, some more cheese, a slice of tomato and Thousand Island dressing. It was a work of art. So I went...

The chief executive of a popular fast-casual burger chain may have stumbled upon a highly effective, yet slightly painful, way to motivate employees. Last summer, Denny Marie Post, the CEO of Red Robin, encouraged location managers to improve overall restaurant scores on customer surveys given to diners at the end of their meal. If those numbers (diners graded their experience on a scale from 1 to 10) were improved before the end of 2017, Post promised employees she'd get a tattoo of a Red Robin burger.

DENVER (CBS4) – Denver restaurants are facing an employment crisis with the crackdown on immigrants from south of the border. It has estimated that at least 20 percent of those who work behind the scenes in restaurants are illegal immigrants.

For 25 years, China Fun was renowned for its peerless soup dumplings and piquant General Tso’s chicken. What left a bad taste in the mouths of its owners and loyal patrons was the restaurant’s sudden Jan. 3 closing, blamed by management on suffocating government demands. “The climate for small businesses like ours in New York have become such that it’s difficult to justify taking risks and running — nevermind starting — a legitimate mom-and-pop business,” read a letter posted by the owners in the restaurant’s front door. “The state and municipal governments, with their punishing rules and regulations, seems to...

Chicago's Honey Butter Fried Chicken is among a couple of dozen restaurants across the country to sign onto a new "sanctuary restaurant" movement meant to offer safe workplaces for immigrants, Muslims and other communities they feel are under threat in the current political climate. The movement is a joint project of ROC United, a national group that advocates for higher wages for restaurant workers, and Presente.org, whose mission is to "advance Latinx power" (Latinx is a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina). According to a news release Wednesday, sanctuary restaurants do not allow harassment of individuals based on immigrant or...

•CBRL reported a decent Q1. •Comps were positive but only because of strong pricing; traffic and the retail stores were weak. •Margin growth continued but at nearly 21 times this year's earnings, the stock is way too expensive. Cracker Barrel (NASDAQ:CBRL) has long been an example for others in the restaurant sector. The company has bucked weak trends in casual dining and its retail stores have helped shoulder the burden as well. CBRL's unique model has worked extremely well over the past few years and it pays a sizable dividend to boot. After a nice Q1 report, the stock is...

HOUSTON, TX - Many restaurants are having fun this election season with Trump and Clinton-themed foods but one Texas eatery is being anything but subtle about its choice for president. On Thursday, Bellville Café—located in Bellville, Texas about 60 miles from Houston—officially changed its name to Trump Café in honor of the businessman-turned-GOP presidential hopeful. “He loves America and we hope he will be president,” the café’s co-owner Su Hawa told The Houston Chronicle. “People like the name, they’re supporting him.” Before the name change, Belvillle Café served modern takes on casual French fare but the new menu features only...

Kyle Bailey is Andrew Crush's pro-bono pig broker.Sgt. Major is a big player. The enormous pig with proportionally enormous balls is the male hog responsible for fathering the majority of the pigs at Spring House Farm in Lovettsville, Virginia. The property, run by farmer Andrew “Boss Hog” Crush, spans 400 acres in Loudoun County’s wine country. Goats, rabbits, chickens, cattle, and honeybees are also integral to the operation, but Spring House Farm is a true pig paradise. Pigs there are raised on pasture land feeding on grubs, grass, and supplemental feed until they reach 100 pounds. “When they’re big enough...

On October 3, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which owns Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for bankruptcy. The company, owned by private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners, said it will close 20 to 30 of its 124 locations and put itself up for sale. On September 30, Restaurants Acquisitions, the operator of Black-eyed Pea and Dixie House restaurant chains, converted its Chapter 11 filing to Chapter 7 liquidation. The bankruptcy court order noted the company had shuttered its restaurants and management had resigned. On September 29, Cosi Inc., a fast-casual chain with 1,100 employees filed for bankruptcy. It closed 29 of its...

They dot the landscape in this working-class New Jersey city, popping up every few blocks with names like US Fried Chicken, Royal Fried Chicken and New York Fried Chicken and Burger and giving immigrants a foothold in a new country. One of these fried chicken restaurants, First American Fried Chicken, was thrust into the international spotlight on Monday when authorities arrested the owner’s son, Ahmad Rahami, after a shootout with police. Rahami is suspected of planting several explosives in New York City and New Jersey, including one that blew up on Saturday night in Manhattan and injured 29 people and...