Fast Casual Restaurant

New York -- Canadian burger chain Big Smoke Burger has leased its first New York City location at 70 Seventh Ave., between West 14th and West 15th Streets in Chelsea, according to Winick Realty Group who represented Group 868 Inc., the landlord in the transaction.

The 2,380-sq.-ft. property includes a 500-sq.-ft. basement and an 880-sq.-ft. outdoor courtyard.

Big Smoke Burger plans to open the restaurant within the next four months. RKF represented Big Smoke Burger.

Canton, Mass. -- Dunkin’ Brands Group is giving its Dunkin’ Donuts stores a big makeover. The chain has been rolling out a “café-style” store redesign that includes a new, earth-toned palette, to make its locations resemble those of rival Starbucks, according to Bloomberg.

Dunkin’ Donuts, which plans to double its current store total to 15,000, is adding features such as more comfortable seating and music to increase its afternoon customer traffic.

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. retailers added almost 28,000 new jobs in May, according to statistics from the Department of Labor. This followed 20,000 new retail hires in April.

Restaurants hired another 38,000 people last month.

New retail and restaurant hires helped drive the addition of 175,000 total new jobs to the U.S. economy in May.

Atlanta -- Construction of a new Brixx Wood Fired Pizza is underway at The Avenue East Cobb in Marietta, Ga., just north of Atlanta. Cousins Properties manages the development.

Approximately 3,600 sq. ft., the new Brixx will seat about 140 inside and 45 outside on a patio. Franchisees Nick and Raj Vadgama will open the new restaurant, the first Brixx in Georgia, in the fall.

Brixx has also announced plans for a second franchised Georgia location in the Avenue Peachtree City, another Cousins property.

Arlington, Texas -- Papa Murphy’s has leased a 1,340-sq.-ft. space at Lamar Crossing Shopping Center in Arlington, Texas, according to WindStar Properties.

The Take ‘N’ Bake pizza shop, which prepares fresh pizzas for customers to bake at home, has 1,350 shops in 38 states and ranks as the fifth largest pizza company in the United States.

Charlotte, N.C. -- Training consultant Tortal said that it has forged a test agreement with Bojangles Restaurants to create a point-of-sale training program to support the new POS rollout for its company and franchise restaurants.
 
The training program, said Tortal, is intended to strengthen the restaurant chain’s existing training processes.

The launch of the new online training program is slated for summer 2013.

Atlanta -- Restaurant brands Boneheads Grilled Fish and Piri Piri Chicken has announced a new senior management team and board of directors, intended to ramp up the five-unit chains’ expansion plans.

Boneheads franchisee Ron Barber has been appointed chairman of the board, and Beef O’Brady’s and Brass Tap chief development officer James Walker has been named to the board of directors.

Chicago -- Ebay, Walmart and McDonalds are tops when it comes to in-store charity donations, according to a study by Cause Marketing Forum that ranked the largest consumer donations at the point-of-sale last year. More than $358 million was raised in 2012 through a total of 63 corporate-backed charity checkout campaigns identified by Cause Marketing.

Melville, N.Y. -- Sbarro is expanding its international growth with plans to open 20 eateries in Ontario, Canada. This announcement is the latest in a series of franchise agreements that have recently expanded Sbarro's presence across Europe, the Middle East, South America, Asia and the Pacific.