5 must-know restaurant news stories: May 2, 2014

Ex-insider sounds alarm on hotel and restaurant data security (Forbes)
A new company and website, PrivacyAtlas.com, aims to provide a registry of merchants who comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standard. Founder David Durko says, “The hospitality industry as a whole, and restaurants in particular, are rife with theft and misappropriation of consumer’s card data.” However, Rich Jeffers, spokesman for Darden Restaurants Inc., whose brands include Red Lobster and Olive Garden, said: “I have doubts about the way he is trying to go about insinuating that we don’t do what we are required to do, and I look at is as a guy saying I have a business, this guy ought to be on my registry and I’m going to try to scare him into doing it.”
 
—Ron Ruggless

Portillo’s founder considering sale of restaurant company (Chicago Tribune)
Saying he would like to “take life easy a bit” but carry on the 38-unit restaurant company he has built over 51 years, Dick Portillo told the Chicago Tribune his Portillo Restaurant Group would seek financial alternatives, including a possible sale. The company has hired Piper Jaffray & Co. as its adviser. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company operates high-volume fast-casual restaurants in Illinois, Indiana, California and Arizona. According to Nation’s Restaurant News’ Top 200 report, Portillo’s Hot Dogs had U.S. systemwide sales of $224.8 in its 2012 fiscal year, with estimated sales per unit of $6.5 million.

—Mark Brandau

Diners think food tastes better if it’s expensive (Time)
Restaurant-goers who pay more at restaurant buffets think the food is tastier than the same food offered at a lower cost.

—Marcella Veneziale

Don't count out these legacy brands (Technomic)
Technomic's Darren Tristano looks at six faltering chains, what went wrong with them and what they're doing about it

—Bret Thorn

Jobs report blows past forecasts (USA Today)
The national unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent from 6.7 percent, the lowest rate in more than five years. While largely seen as very good news for the economy, the numbers from the U.S. Labor Department Friday also indicated that the labor force has shrunk.

—Lisa Jennings