A mother of four children, Jan O’Connor wanted to make extra cash when she applied for a waitress job at a Monical’s Pizza in Bradley, Ill. That was 27 years ago. Today she’s still a Monical’s server. “I didn’t think it would last this...

Think of “American food” and there’s a good chance you will visualize a hamburger, French fries and a milk shake. But why? Why have chopped beefcakes on buns paired with strings of fried potatoes and ice cream puréed with milk and syrup become the...

Centuries ago, as traders crossed thousands of miles to secure spices and food products from faraway lands, they nurtured a desire for the exotic that is still strong today. “Globalization set sail on spice-scented galleys and sailing...

Last year was brutal for pizza operators like Ron Berger, chief executive of Figaro’s Italian Pizza, but you’d never hear it in his voice. Foreign demand for dairy products sent cheese prices through the stratosphere, and domestic...

Last year was brutal for pizza operators like Ron Berger, chief executive of Figaro’s Italian Pizza, but you’d never hear it in his voice. Foreign demand for dairy products sent cheese prices through the stratosphere, and domestic...

Despite the well-publicized slips and falls his company has experienced, Shakey’s Pizza operator Chuck Wilburn is glad he chose to remain a franchisee rather than become an independent restaurateur.Franchising, he says, “is the way to go because...

The invention of radio did not kill newspapers, as doomsayers of the time predicted. Nor did television kill movies any more than the Internet killed television.The only thing that happened as each medium became popular was that advertising found...

The invention of radio did not kill newspapers, as doomsayers of the time predicted. Nor did television kill movies any more than the Internet killed television.The only thing that happened as each medium became popular was that advertising found...

International Dairy Queen chief executive Chuck Mooty laughs when asked why, to some observers, half of all Dairy Queens look like they are barely surviving. “That reason is a big part of why we are reinvigorating and becoming...

There are a lot of ways to describe a 50-year tenure in the industry. For IHOP, the journey can be best measured in the growth from one location to 1,344 units, and annual servings of more than 700 million pancakes, 1.5 million gallons of syrup...