July Will Bring Another Step Up In Minimum Wage Rates
Around the country. As July brings another round of phased-in minimum wage increases in various states around the country, the debate over the tip credit also remains in play in some markets. In Chicago on Monday, state lawmakers and labor activists plan to celebrate the phase-out of the tipped wage there with a release of a report on its impact, with hope the legislation will be adopted statewide. According to the activist organization One Fair Wage, tipped workers have earned $137.2 million in new wages since the phase-out of the tip credit began a year ago. Since then, restaurant jobs have increased, the group said, 856 new restaurants have opened in Chicago and business license cancellations have been cut in half. On July 1, the hourly wage for tipped workers will increase from $11.02 to $12.62, which the group says will be the single largest annual pay increase for tipped workers in Chicago history. In Washington, D.C., meanwhile, voters had passed a ballot initiative to phase out the tip credit, and the city is two years into a three-year phase-out. But city lawmakers earlier this month voted to pause the phase-out while it considers a repeal of the law. Mayor Muriel Bowser last month called for a return of the tip credit in her proposed budget next year, arguing that restaurants in the city are already facing a “perfect storm” of increased operating and supply costs, higher rents, and unique labor challenges. As a result of the pause, D.C.’s tipped wage will remain at $10 per hour, and will not be increased to $12 per hour in July, as previously scheduled. In Michigan, where lawmakers earlier this year agreed to a compromise that kept the tip credit alive there, One Fair Wage is reportedly seeking a ballot initiative in a new attempt to repeal the tip credit again and increase the minimum wage, which is already set to increase to $15 per hour by 2027, with annual inflation adjustments after that. In February, Michigan’s minimum wage increased to $12.48 per hour. In Los Angeles, opponents of a plan to increase the minimum wage for hotel and restaurant workers near Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, to at least $30 per hour by 2028 are also gathering signatures in an attempt to bring the issue to voters via ballot initiative…
Seven Questions Restaurants Should be Asking About Insurance Coverage
National Insurance Day on June 28 encourages businesses to shop around. Every industry comes with its own unique set of challenges when it comes to insurance, and the food industry is no exception. Each restaurant is different, and there’s no one-size-fits-all insurance solution. While it’s certainly possible to work with an agent who’s either a friend or family member, it may be advisable to look for an agent who has specialized knowledge in the food service industry and the unique risks and challenges that come with it. Getting to know your agent and the areas they specialize in is an important part of protecting your business. You don’t want to wait until something inevitably goes awry, raising the need to file a claim to realize your agent isn’t fully prepared to deal with the unique challenges of the restaurant industry. As you start shopping for the best coverage for your business, consider these seven questions when consulting a new insurance agent. 1. What Carriers Do You Represent that Specialize in the Food-Service Industry? The coverage available to you and the protection your business receives will depend partially on the insurance carriers your agent represents. Your agent’s ability to articulate why they represent certain carriers can tell you a lot about the level of service you’ll receive from them, and the protection your business can expect from different carriers. Most carriers have a niche of business they represent, so if you fall under that niche you can expect knowledge and expertise. 2. What Kinds of Coverage are Unique to the Risks Restaurants Face? If you’re new to running a restaurant, you’ll want an agent who is highly knowledgeable about the restaurant industry and who can provide insight into the risks you’ll face. Restaurants are complex businesses; the risks they face are unique and often change rapidly. Choosing an insurance provider who has risk analysts that know what to look for when checking your restaurant is important. They should be able to explain why the risks are important to take care of or could potentially cause big issues for your restaurant. You also need to be aware that if your agent can’t elaborate on the specific types of coverage you could need, you may be better served by an agent with restaurant industry knowledge. If you work with an agent lacking that knowledge, you could be leaving yourself vulnerable to unnecessary levels of risk. Between their training and from other similar clients, they should have the confidence to answer your coverage questions…
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Alert
WE SELL RESTAURANTS!
If you are looking to buy or sell a restaurant property or any other hospitality type property, not any New Jersey Commercial Real Estate broker will do. Confidentiality is a precondition when considering a sale. Therefore, the sale of a restaurant demands the engagement of professionals who are experienced in the hospitality business and real estate marketplace. Such professionals can be found within the commercial real estate firm of Bielat Santore & Company, serving the business and real estate interests of restauranteurs since 1978. At Bielat Santore & Company, we understand that the sale of an operating business must be handled in a discrete and confidential manner. Our specially-designed selling system ensures that each transaction is managed from listing to closing by a qualified member of our firm, working in direct contact with the finest legal, accounting and banking minds in the business. Our mission statement is three-fold:
- Provide each client with the highest level of personal service and support;
- Manage each real estate transaction placing our clients’ interests before ours; and
- Build relationships that will last, far after each deal is closed.
Bielat Santore & Company is committed to providing professional expert service for your real estate and business brokerage requirements.
See what our clients are saying…
Contact Richard Santore, 732.531.4200 for additional information.
We invite you to visit our website, where you will find all our current listing inventory, a library of helpful industry resources and a collection of client testimonials expressing their assessments of our work and our service within the restaurant industry.
A voice for our industry. If you find these weekly bulletins informative and beneficial, we kindly ask that you write a brief Google review providing a vote of your appreciation. Simply click this link and leave a review. Thank you.
Once Anti-Delivery, Darden Now Sees it Fueling Double-Digit Growth
Olive Garden’s same-store sales lifted 6.9 percent in Q4 2025. Darden was once vehemently opposed to delivery. However, it turns out the company is pretty good at it. With delivery available nationwide for all of Q4, Olive Garden saw order volume increase week to week while retaining higher-than-average sales per transaction compared to curbside pickup orders. Keep in mind, this is through Uber Direct, meaning customers pay for delivery through Olive Garden’s first-party channel, not on Uber’s platform. At the end of Q4, Olive Garden launched a campaign to promote delivery across multiple advertising channels, including TV. The offer was 1 million free deliveries, partially funded by Uber. Backed by a lot of incrementality, average weekly delivery sales per store nearly doubled during the final two weeks of the fourth quarter. Thanks to the growth of delivery—in addition to catering and to-go orders—off-premises sales lifted almost 20 percent year-over-year in Q4. Delivery helped Olive Garden post 6.9 percent same-store sales growth in Q4, making it the best-performing brand in the Darden portfolio. The comps increase in Q4 outperformed the industry benchmark by 390 basis points. Pricing was about 2.7 percent, and traffic increased close to 3 percent. Quarterly sales grew 8.1 percent to $1.38 billion. Olive Garden also delivered a 23.8 percent profit margin, 100 basis points higher than Q4 2024. For the year, Olive Garden’s sales were $5.21 billion, up from $5.07 billion. The casual giant was also aided by its Buy One, Take One promotion, which returned after five years. With a starting point of $14.99, guests were able to choose one entrée and take another one home for free. During Buy One, Take One, Olive Garden same-restaurant sales gap versus the industry increased to 450 basis points. “The Olive Garden team continued to execute at a high level, which led to an all-time high guest satisfaction score for the quarter,” Cardenas said during Darden’s Q4 earnings call. “I am extremely proud of how Dan Kiernan and his team managed the business throughout the year and the strong momentum they have generated heading into the new fiscal year”…
How Restaurant Owners Can Get the Most from Their Food Distributors
You should keep two to three competitors bidding on your business each year… When you treat your food distributor like a strategic partner you unlock a whole new level of support. If your food distributor is just dropping off boxes and invoices, you’re leaving money on the table. Too many owners treat their distributor like a vending machine. Instead, you should treat them like a strategic partner. Why? Because when you do, your margins improve, your consistency gets stronger, and your peace of mind follows. Let’s talk about one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tools in your restaurant: your food distributor. Build a relationship with your distributor. Start by scheduling regular check-ins. Whether it’s with your salesperson or a regional director, these face-to-face conversations matter. In a world of online ordering and automated systems, we lose the human touch—and that’s where the real value lies. When your distributor understands your “why,” they can recommend products that align with your brand and support your goals. Tell them your challenges, concerns and what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, if you mention that your steaks aren’t cooking properly, they might identify that you’re using the wrong spec product and suggest alternatives. That’s the kind of partnership that improves your guest experience. Negotiate and monitor pricing. Distributors are in business to make money, and if you’re not careful, you can get taken advantage of—intentionally or not. Don’t accept price creep without a conversation. Use your buying guide to know what your costs should be and rely on food and beverage software to flag price increases when they happen. When cheese jumps in price, you should know immediately. That gives you a chance to ask your distributor why and whether it’s justified. Stay vigilant and keep the pressure on to maintain fair pricing. Get competitive bids—but don’t cherry-pick. You should keep two to three competitors bidding on your business each year. But I don’t believe in “spreadsheeting”—that is, getting weekly quotes on every item and picking the lowest prices. It’s a time-waster, and you’ll likely miss the mark on smaller categories like janitorial supplies or paper goods…
What to Do About Predictive Scheduling
A growing number of jurisdictions have enacted predictive scheduling laws. Adaptability and flexibility are key elements of success in the hospitality industry—and especially for QSRs. Restaurants’ flexibility, however, is directly impacted by scheduling and the influx of various predictive scheduling laws present a unique challenge for quick-service operations. We have asked our New York based law partner, Seth Kaufman, who regularly counsels employers with compliance and defends against government investigations and private lawsuits alleging violations of predictive scheduling laws, to provide his recommendations for how QSRs can comply with predictive scheduling laws and best practices to ensure minimal impact to the business. What is predictive scheduling, and what’s the point of it? Predictive scheduling laws require employers to take certain actions that provide their employees with a more predictable set of shifts and an improved work life balance. The idea is that because of these laws, employees can better plan their lives and arrange for things like child-care, school schedules, transportation, second jobs, and even social plans. There are generally five components to predictive scheduling laws, although these can vary by jurisdiction:
- providing a good faith estimate of an employee’s schedule and hours worked, usually at time of hire;
- posting and/or transmitting actual schedules to employees in advance, usually at least 14 days;
- requiring written consent from an employee to work hours not on their schedule;
- premium pay for schedule changes/closing/openings; and
- requiring employers to offer shifts to current employees before hiring new employees (called “access to hours”).
A growing number of jurisdictions have enacted predictive scheduling laws. They generally apply to hourly employees at large businesses, but they can also apply to smaller franchisees and other businesses that are part of a chain.
Value Stars On Summer Menus
Consumers are looking for meal deals and restaurants are putting value front and center. The summer of value is in full swing, as chain restaurants continue to compete with meal deals and discounts to lure customers. From breakfast packages to bottomless appetizers, menus are bursting with money-savers. But there’s also a lot of other menu news, with summer flavors getting plenty of play and frosty treats and drinks ready to beat the heat. Beginning Friday, Buffalo Wild Wings is offering Bottomless Apps, starting at $9.99, for a limited time. Choices include Fried Pickles, Mozzarella Sticks, Onion Rings, Chips & Salsa, and Hatch Queso. BWW’s unlimited appetizer deal is available for dine-in only, all day, every day, for parties of four or less. Larger parties can also partake at additional charge. Breakfast is a bargain at Denny’s these days, with four of the chain’s Slams selling for under $10, all served with two eggs and two strips of Applewood-smoked bacon or two pork sausage links. In the lineup are the Red, White and Berry Everyday Value Slam with buttermilk blueberry pancakes topped with fresh strawberries, cream cheese icing and a dollop of whipped cream; the Choconana Everyday Value Slam with chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes topped with fresh banana slices and more chocolate chips; the Super Slam with two buttermilk pancakes; and the Everyday Value Slam with two buttermilk pancakes, two slices of brioche French toast or a biscuit and gravy…
How Restaurants Are Building Invisible Support Teams
With AI chatbots and smart cameras. Restaurants are increasingly deploying virtual assistants and AI bots to handle routine inquiries like menu details, loyalty queries, and order tracking, freeing up human staff for more complex service tasks. Enterprise platforms like Salesforce Agentforce and Microsoft Copilot are being embedded into customer-facing chat windows, apps, and call centers. These systems can resolve common questions, log loyalty credits, update delivery status, and escalate issues or create internal helpdesk tickets, all without routing customers to human agents. Some operators have reported cutting simple inquiry volumes by as much as 50%, while guest satisfaction rises thanks to faster, more consistent responses. Salesforce Agentforce leverages Service Cloud and Data Cloud to deliver a conversational concierge experience. In hospitality applications, it assesses each customer’s history—past orders, loyalty status, open cases—and offers immediate answers or flags issues. Case examples include ezCater, where Agentforce enables natural language order creation, and OpenTable, which has used it to scale customer support globally, reducing reliance on human agents for basic inquiries. Microsoft Copilot is increasingly showing up behind the scenes in restaurant operations. Partners like Smartbridge specialize in configuring Copilot Studio for the F&B industry, integrating it with POS, CRM, and supply chain systems. Copilot helps managers complete daily check-ins, create staff schedules, monitor inventory, track orders, and even file tech-support tickets when sensors detect equipment issues. Its new “Actions” feature now enables Copilot to autonomously book reservations or order inventory through web interfaces, which is a promising development for future restaurant workflows. Beyond customer-facing chatbots, AI-powered operational support is advancing rapidly, helping restaurants streamline workflows and stay ahead of service disruptions. One of the most promising developments is in computer vision. Using camera-enabled systems from providers like NVIDIA NIM platform, Ultralytics, and emerging solutions built on platforms like Viso Suite, restaurants are now able to monitor dining areas, kitchen zones, and back-of-house spaces in real time…
Did You Know?
Little Palates, Big Flavors: Reinventing the Kids’ Menu. Kids are no longer subsisting on chicken tenders and fries alone as parents are increasingly demanding more diverse, nutritious, and high-quality meal options. This shift is fueled by more adventurous young palates and a desire for children’s dining experiences to reflect the culinary sophistication enjoyed by adults. From independent eateries to major chain restaurants, chefs and operators are getting creative, introducing innovative dishes and customizable options for younger diners…
Employee Tip
5 things parents do at restaurants that most annoy servers. A restaurant server is sharing the worst ways parents misbehave at restaurants. “The phrase, ‘The customer is always right’ is dying out,” Alana Fineman, a comedian and server in Southern California who posts restaurant skits on TikTok, tells TODAY.com. Dining out with young kids is draining, between picky eaters, spilled food, whining and restless wanderers. Fortunately, kid-friendly restaurants are equipped with coloring activities, playful decorations, and the swift delivery of kids’ meals to quell complaints. Sometimes, it’s parents — not their children — who misbehave. “Servers don’t want to shame families or discourage them from going out to eat,” says Fineman. “Parents are usually … trying their best.” Here are five mistakes families most often make at restaurants, according to this server…
