Columbia Restaurant, founded by the Gonz-mart family in Tampa, Fla., in 1905, has survived challenging times that included two world wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression. But today, the ability to thrive as an independent restaurant in an...
Of all the school memories that alumni later recount with a nostalgic fondness, their dining experiences in the cafeteria traditionally haven’t ranked high among them. Anecdotes of mystery-meat casseroles, ossified sandwiches, mushy vegetables and...
On the surface of things, the tip should not exist—at least not as the main source of income for servers in North America. In this capitalist yet thoroughly regulated society, how can the wages of a significant chunk of the labor force be at the...
When people tell Randy Akerson they’re interested in opening their own restaurants, his initial reply is simple: “Don’t do it.” Akerson, who has run Burrito Bros. Taco Co. in Gainesville, Fla., for more than 30 years, explains why: “Too many...
During the third season of the acclaimed HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the show’s creator, Larry David, and real-life actors Ted Danson and Michael York were portrayed as they struggled to open a trendy, celebrity-owned eatery in Los Angeles...
Seattle restaurateur Tom Douglas went to a local meat purveyor last month to buy chicken and was stunned at the $54 tab for two organically grown birds.“I had no idea what they cost, or I would have never bought them,” he says, “and the people...
Don’t tell Jim Sahene restaurant work is a dead-end job. Once the manager of a lone TCBY store in Little Rock, Ark., he is now chief executive of Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, a Bridgewater, Pa.-based premium ice cream purveyor with more...
