Ask a restaurant general manager how the technology sea change is affecting them, and they’ll show you the incredible new tools at hand—as soon as they remember the password.

Google's AI phone operator just got a little smarter.

The first permanent chief executive since the founder left is on the job at Another Broken Egg Café, and new CEO and President Paul Macaluso is touting one key feature of the breakfast and brunch concept.

Amy Arnold and Jessica Stanley met at Bible study in Austin, Texas, both with “little bitty kids, and we were trying not to join the 9 to 5 workforce,” says Arnold, co-founder of Card My Yard, which has just reached five years in business and topped 150 units in 32 states.

Before he was president and CEO of Property Management Inc., Steve Hart lived in the niche of building high-end custom homes. Business was booming in the real estate and construction industry as realtors prospered. Then it all ended as the economy crashed in 2008. Luckily, Hart had a friend that wasn’t willing to let him throw in the towel.

Franchisors are putting “a lot” more conditions on franchisees these days before they will approve buy-or-sell transactions, some of them burdensome, according to a panel on mergers and acquisitions at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference on November 12.

“When you wake up early every morning, it is a gift, and the day that God has given us,” said Major Dan Rooney at a rousing keynote speech at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference Nov. 13.

When Jim Ilaria joined Uno Pizzeria and Grill in November 2018 the management team was working on a 6,500-square-foot prototype restaurant with the intention of using it to bring the brand into new markets. “And I said that’s not going to work, not where the industry is going, it’s too big,” recalled Ilaria when I sat down with him last week at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference.

Show your enthusiasm for the best franchises in the industry with the Franchise Times Zor Awards, recognizing the best companies in 10 hot industry segments.

The year-old Corlex Capital is taking its second brand to the franchise market: This is It Southern Kitchen & BBQ, an Atlanta-based Southern home-style restaurant chain founded 35 years ago by the Anthony family and now with 11 restaurants in Georgia and two franchise deals signed.

A 10-year trek has Modern Market Eatery ready to launch a franchise program in 2020. “We’ve been reinventing the concept from the kitchen out,” said CEO and co-founder Anthony Pigliacampo in an interview at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference last week.

In a surprise shake-up, Krystal has a new COO who is leaning on his deep operational background to continue pivoting the company toward growth.