Hospitality

Los Angeles -- PizzaRev, a fast-casual build-your-own pizza concept, is adding five franchise groups to develop the brand throughout Denver, Washington D.C., Las Vegas, Long Island, New York and Columbus, Ohio. PizzaRev plans to open at least 40 franchise locations across the markets.   Beyond its 12 corporate locations in greater Los Angeles, PizzaRev currently operates franchise locations across four states.  

Seattle –- Starbucks Corp. topped off a generally successful fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 by swinging to net income of $587.9 million from net loss of $1.23 billion the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year. The removal of a one-time arbitration charge of $2.8 billion helped bring Starbucks into the black.  

Tampa, Fla. -- Outback Steakhouse is introducing Click Thru Seating. With Click Thru Seating, customers visit Outback.com from any connected device to view the current wait time at their local Outback restaurant and put their name on the waitlist for now or later.    Unlike a traditional reservation, late customers will not be dropped from the wait list or penalized. The service will also soon be available on the Outback mobile app.  

New York –- Online footwear retailer Zappos is ranked the simplest brand in the U.S. And that’s a good thing. According to the new Brand Simplicity Index ranking of U.S. brands from brand advisory firm Siegel & Gale, the top 10 list is dominated by retailers. The list includes Amazon.com at number two, Subway (#3), Pizza Hut (#4), Netflix (#5), Trader Joe’s (#6), Kroger (#7), McDonald’s (#8), Chipotle (#9) and Dunkin’ Donuts (#10).

Dallas –- Bar Louie will open its newest location at the Shops at Park Lane in Dallas. Bar Louie will occupy the 7,332-sq.-ft. former Park Tavern space and open mid-November.   UCR’s Stan Lotridge represented the tenant, BL Restaurant Operations, and UCR’s Ashley O’Malley represented the landlord, Northwood Retail.  

Beijing, China -- Alibaba Group is rebranding its Taobao Travel online travel business as an independent business and brand named “Alitrip.” Alitrip will be another marketplace platform under Alibaba Group with a new independent web domain, www.alitrip.com.   

Oak Brook, Ill. -- McDonald’s is collaborating with mobile commerce provider Softcard. Customers will now be able to tap and pay both in-restaurant and in the drive-thru lane at all U.S. McDonald’s locations, marking the largest deployment of NFC-based mobile commerce in drive-thru.