A look at rising menu prices

The challenges of rising commodity costs, paired with an improving consumer environment, are together giving restaurant operators some needed justification to raise menu prices.

In the recent round of fourth-quarter earnings reports, many companies indicated their plans for price increases in 2011, from a small 0.5-percent uptick to a 6-percent hike. It would be some of the first significant moves to take price after many operations have held prices steady through the recession, fearin