Fast Casual Restaurant

Whole Foods Market has made a minority investment in a fast-growing California restaurant chain, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

As part of the deal, Whole Foods plans to test the opening of Mendocino Farms outlets in select market locations, according to the publication.

Photo by Dominic Savini

For honeygrow founder Justin Rosenberg, the idea was simple: create a business based on his passion for fresh, healthy, wholesome and interesting food.

Snellville, Ga. -- Olshan Properties announced two new retail tenants have signed leases at The Shoppes at Webb Gin in Snellville, Georgia. Orangetheory Fitness opened earlier this month and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop announced plans to open in early fall at the center.

Chick-fil-A is taking on the Big Apple—in a green way.

The fast-casual eatery will open a three-story 5,000-sq.-ft. restaurant, its largest location yet, on Saturday, Oct. 3 at the corner of West 37th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan’s Garment District.

The restaurant is built to LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) specifications,and incudes water and energy efficiency features, air quality control and waste diversion efforts, among other initiatives.

Former Save-A-Lot CFO Rob Anderson has joined PetSmart as CFO.

Anderson assumes his new role at the nation’s largest pet specialty retailer on Oct. 5 amid rumors that PetSmart and Petco are exploring a merger. Anderson is a veteran financial executive who most recently served as CFO of the $4.8 billion discount grocery chain Save-A-Lot.

Johnny Rockets is launching a fast-casual concept that the company hopes will appeal to time-starved millennials on the run.

Called Johnny’s Burger Factory, the 1,000-sq.-ft. eatery is located at the Walden Galleria mall, in Buffalo, New York, and will open on Sept. 26.

Burger King Germany deals with orders more complex than customers requesting Whoppers “their way.”

Operating 700 franchised stores, the Munich-based Burger King subsidiary must process 1,800 daily orders from a diverse set of franchisees. Thus the retailer needed a stable, centralized back-end logistics platform.

A little over a year into his tenure as Target’s chairman and CEO, Brian Cornell has added new responsibilities as a member of the board of directors at KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands.
 
Cornell’s appointment to the Yum board comes 13 months after he was named to the top job at Target and just three months after Target sold its pharmacy business to CVS Health for $1.9 billion. The latter is noteworthy because two executives with strong ties to CVS Health serve on Yum’s Nominating and Governance Committee.
 

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is questioning whether to use a broader definition of the term “joint employer,” a move that could bring sweeping changes to the restaurant and retail/wholesale franchisor model. Whether a large fast-food company exhibited more control than it should have over its franchisees was the most recent catalyst for the proposed change, but several earlier cases have challenged the more than 30-year-old standard for determining joint employment.