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Red Robin Gourmet Burgers announced positive results for 2012’s Q4, including a 1.4% same-store sales increase (1.1% of which came from check increase). It also provided an update on its ongoing efforts to make the chain more appealing to adults dining without children. This includes a shift this year to serving its burgers on china [...]

A single McDonald’s restaurant in Warilla, Australia, this week began a limited, five-week test of offering dine-in customers food brought to their table served on china, accompanied by glassware and cutlery. According to a story in the Illawarra Mercury, the test has been given the green light by McDonald’s Corp. Anyone ordering a Grand Angus, [...]

In his interview with BurgerBusiness.com earlier this month, J.M. Owens, president of the Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Operators Association, said that one challenge keeping McDonald’s from offering breakfast all day is simply space limitation: There isn’t enough grill space in a standard McDonald’s kitchen to prepare two menus—breakfast and lunch/dinner—at once. In Rockford, Ill., northwest of [...]

McDonald’s is testing lower pricing for its Mighty Wings bone-in chicken wings and not just consumer interest in its test of the item in Chicago. The wings test that began last July in Atlanta moved to Chicago this week with a tweak in pricing. According to a GrubGrade report last summer, in Atlanta the wings [...]

McDonald’s is making significant strategic changes in Japan where the chain sees a shift in consumer dining toward in-home dining. As a result, it plans a national rollout of home delivery service as well as expansion of McCafé in its second-largest market. McDonald’s Holdings Company (Japan), Ltd., an affiliate company 50% owned by McDonald’s Corp., [...]

In Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, McDonald’s is testing the Egg White Delight McMuffin, a lower calorie (260 vs. 300), more healthful version of the iconic Egg McMuffin. In September, when it unveiled its new menu boards with calorie info, the chain had announced earlier that it intends to make an egg-white sandwich available nationally in [...]

Continuing its strategy of rebuilding its menu with waves of new items rather than with one LTO at a time, Burger King is readying Phase II of its new menu. Where the Phase I Summer Menu, introduced in June, was about beef, pork and BBQ flavors, the next wave—which should go national by or shortly [...]

[Updated with McDonald's Corp. comment] With quick-service restaurant competition heavily dependent on the buzz and interest generated by new products, both McDonald’s and Burger King are auditioning new limited-time menu stars. Getting a tryout at McDonald’s is a three-item line of McWraps, while Burger King is looking at a new value-priced item, the $1 BK [...]

McDonald’s is taking aim at quick-service restaurants’ last unconquered frontier: late night sales. And it is doing so by treating the time from midnight to 5 a.m. as an early-breakfast opportunity rather than a late-dinner or snack period. In 127 24-hour central Ohio locations, the chain has launched a Breakfast After Midnight program, offering such [...]

The “mini” trend seemed to have played itself out last year when BK Burger Minis came and went at Burger King, but the increasing popularity of snack items—especially chicken snack foods such as Chicken McBites—is making small big time again. Apparently not satisfied with the success of the McBites, McDonald’s is again testing the popularity [...]

Itself the target of a territory invasion by Pizza Hut’s P’Zolo, Subway is breaking down restaurant category barriers, too, with its take on burgers. A three-item line of Angus Melt sandwiches is being offered this month in 1,236 Subway restaurants in Atlanta, Detroit, Nashville and Macon and Northeast Georgia. The line includes Classic Angus Melt, [...]

Craig Bahner may only have started as Wendy’s chief marketing officer in April, but he’s already weighing significant changes to strengthen the brand. Speaking to analysts at Wendy’s Investors Day program on June 28, Bahner outlined plans to accelerate new-menu-product development, revise its 99¢ value menu into a two-tier pricing structure, increase its use of [...]

Is there a more curious cross-cultural mashup than an American fast-food chain hawking a Taiwanese beverage in Germany? Meet “Chan McTi” a Chinese character who may cross the border into caricature as he introduces bubble tea—tea with tapioca pearls—to McCafé in Germany. In his lemon-lime suit, Chan’s antic energy will make you wonder what’s really [...]

McDonald’s is testing a new, toppings-heavy version of its third-pound Angus burger in San Diego. The test of the Clubhouse Angus was disclosed today by McDonald’s executives in a Manhattan meeting with Wall Street analysts and was reported first by Mark Kalinowski, restaurant analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott. Actually, the burger in test isn’t really [...]

That was fast. On May 4, BurgerBusiness.com reported that McDonald’s had filed a federal trademark application for the name “McCruncher.” Apparently the name is just too good not to use. In selected markets including several in Alabama, McDonald’s has begun testing a—you guessed it—McCruncher cheeseburger. Two things are interesting about it. One is that it [...]