Industry WIKI

A&W Restaurants, Inc. is an American fast food restaurant chain distinguished by its "Burger Family" combos, draft root beer and root beer floats. A&W's origins date back to 1919 when Roy W. Allen set up a roadside drink stand offering root beer at a parade honoring returning World War I veterans in Lodi, California. Allen's employee, Frank Wright, partnered with him in 1922 and they fo

ABP OPCO, LLC, doing business as Au Bon Pain, (French pronunciation: [o bɔ̃ pɛ̃], meaning "at the good bread") is an American fast casual restaurant, bakery, and café chain headquartered in Richardson, Texas, which as of 2025 operated 34 locations in the United States as well as several outlets in Thailand. The company is owned by the Yum! Brands franchisee management company AMPEX Brand

Benihana (Japanese: 紅花; "Safflower") is a chain of Japanese restaurants. Originally founded by Yunosuke Aoki as a cafe in Tokyo in 1945, Benihana spread to the United States in 1964 when his son Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki opened its first restaurant in New York City.

Birds Eye (also named Iglo in some countries) is an international brand of frozen foods founded in the United States and now owned by Conagra Brands in the United States, by Nomad Foods in Europe, and Simplot in Australia.

Bob Evans Restaurants is an American chain of family style restaurants based in New Albany, Ohio, and owned by Golden Gate Capital until 2026 when 4×4 Capital bought it. After its founding in 1948 by Bob Evans (1918–2007), the restaurant chain evolved into a company with the corporate brand name "Bob Evans Farms, Inc." (BEF), and eventually established a separate food division to handle

Bojangles OpCo, LLC., doing business as Bojangles (known as Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits until 2020), is an American regional chain of fast food restaurants that specializes in Cajun-seasoned fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits and primarily serves the Southeastern United States. The company was founded in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1977 by Jack Fulk and Richard Thomas.

Bonmarché ( bon-mar-SHAY) is a British clothing retailer founded by Singh Chima in 1982. Since April 2019, the retailer has been owned by The Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

Boston Market Corporation, known as Boston Chicken until 1995, is an American fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in Newtown Township, Pennsylvania. Since 2020, it has been owned by Engage Brands, LLC, a company of Rohan Group. From 1985 to 1995, Boston Market was known as Boston Chicken, which rapidly expanded to over a thousand locations. By the late 1990s, the chain filed for b

California Pizza Kitchen, Inc. (CPK) is an American casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza. The restaurant was started in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax in Beverly Hills, California, United States. California Pizza Kitchen introduced and popularized BBQ Chicken Pizza.

Change Healthcare Inc. (previously known as Emdeon) is a healthcare technology company that provides revenue cycle management and payment processing services for healthcare providers and insurers in the United States. The business was acquired by Optum in a $13 billion deal in 2022, in an effort to combine their service operations with the aforementioned technologies that Change Healthca

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc. is an American fast food double drive-through chain franchise in the United States. The company operates Checkers and Rally's restaurants in 20 states and the District of Columbia. They specialize in hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, milkshakes, and drinks.

Church's Texas Chicken is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in Southern fried chicken and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The chain was founded as Church's Fried Chicken To-Go by George W. Church Sr. in April 1952, in San Antonio, Texas, across the street from The Alamo. Church's Texas Chicken trades as Texas Chicken or Church's Chicken in many countries.

CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. (an acronym for Carl Karcher Enterprises) is an American fast food corporation and is the parent organization for the Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito brands. CKE Restaurants is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee.

Best Cafe Enterprises, LLC, doing business as Corner Bakery Cafe is an American chain of cafes that specialize in pastries, breads, breakfast dishes, gourmet sandwiches, homemade soups, salads, and pasta. Corner Bakery Cafe is considered to be a part of the fast casual market segment of the food service industry, offering a higher quality of food and atmosphere than a typical fast food

CBOCS Properties, Inc., doing business as Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. The company's headquarters are in Lebanon, Tennessee, where Cracker Barrel was founded by Dan Evins and Tommy Lowe in 1969. The chain's early locations were positioned near Interstate Highway exits in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States, bu

Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some locations' signage) is an American table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,400 restaurants in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and several other international locations.

The Disney Dining Plan is a prepaid meal package that guests staying at Walt Disney World hotels can purchase to receive discounts of up to 30% on food in the complex. It was first introduced in 2005 and has developed in complexity over time, so there are now many different plan forms. The Disney Dining Plan allows guests to eat at park restaurants without needing to have cash on their p

Dreams Limited is a United Kingdom-based bed retailer and manufacturer specialising in beds, mattresses, bedroom furniture and bed linen. The first Dreams store was opened in 1987 by Mike Clare, and today there are over 200 stores nationwide. The company has its own purpose-designed mattress factory, and currently employs around 1,500 people, across a network of retail showrooms.

Fazoli's System Management, LLC., or Fazoli's is an American quick-service restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. Founded in 1988 in Lexington, Kentucky, the company owns and operates 137 restaurants across 24 states in the United States, with additional locations in Canada, and Puerto Rico. Its menu includes pasta dishes, sandwiches, pizza, salads, desserts, and brea

Friendly's is a restaurant chain on the East Coast of the United States. The first location, selling ice cream cones, opened in 1935 in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was founded by brothers S. Prestley Blake and Curtis Blake. It has 10,000 employees. George Michel is the CEO. It offers diner-style cuisine and highlights its 22 ice cream flavors. Many locations offer an ice-cream onl

Grandy's Country Cookin' (shortened to Grandy's) is a homestyle cooking and comfort food restaurant chain based in Nashville, Tennessee.

HireRight is a global family of background screening companies based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, and registered in Delaware. In 2012, its HireRight Solutions Inc. entity was the first employment background screening firm the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ever charged with violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Hooters is the registered trademark used by an international restaurant chain Hooters, Inc., based in Clearwater, Florida and its associated franchise group Hoot Owl Restaurants LLC. The Hooters name is a double entendre referring to both an American slang term for women's breasts and the logo (a bird known for its "hooting" calls: the owl).

Il Fornaio is a chain of twenty (as of 2019) Italian-themed fine dining restaurants operating primarily in California (16 locations of its 20) in the United States.

Jimmy John's Franchise, LLC, commonly referred to as Jimmy John's, is an American multinational sandwich chain, headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The business was founded by Jimmy John Liautaud in 1983. After Liautaud graduated from high school, his father gave him a choice to either join the military or start a business. Liautaud decided to start a hot dog business, which changed to

The Johnny Rockets Group Inc., commonly known simply as Johnny Rockets, is an American restaurant franchise whose themed decor is based upon 1950s diner-style restaurants. As of April 2024, the company operates 90 locations in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New

LevelUp was an American white-label platform for restaurants offering mobile ordering, QR-code payments and loyalty/CRM tools. It was created by Boston-based startup SCVNGR. Grubhub announced its acquisition of LevelUp for US$390 million in July 2018 and closed the deal on September 13, 2018. Post-acquisition, LevelUp’s technology was integrated into Grubhub’s restaurant-facing products,

LifePoint Health is an American company that provides healthcare services in growing regions, rural communities and small towns. It was established in 1999 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. As of November 16, 2018, it operated 89 hospital campuses in 30 states with more than $6 billion in revenues. In 2011, the company was included in the Hospital Engagement Network by the U.

Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon is an American casual dining restaurant chain with a single independently owned and operated franchise still in business in 2021 on the island of Guam. The chain served steak, seafood, salad, and similar food items. Lone Star opened its first restaurant in 1989 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In March 1992, Lone Star became a public company with eight rest

Long John Silver's, LLC is an American chain of fast-food restaurants that specializes in seafood. The brand's name is derived from the character of the same name from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island.

Marsh Supermarkets was an American retail food chain headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with a peak number of 86 stores in 2013 located throughout central Indiana and parts of western Ohio (including metropolitan Cincinnati). Its eventual parent company was Sun Capital Partners, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fictional, representative spokespeople for consumer products.

McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants Inc. is an American seafood restaurant chain, formerly based in Portland, Oregon. As of December 2024, the company operates 15 locations and one catering service in the United States and one Canadian location that operates under the Boathouse name. A sale to the parent company, Landry's, Inc., was completed in January 2012. Landry's corporate hea

Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) was an American company created by a consortium of U.S. retail companies to develop a merchant-owned mobile payment system, which was to be called "CurrentC." The joint venture was announced on August 15, 2012.

Mrs. Fields' Original Cookies Inc. is an American franchisor in the snack food industry, with Mrs. Fields and TCBY as its core brands. Through its franchisees' retail stores, it is one of the largest retailers of freshly-baked-on-premises specialty cookies and brownies in the United States and the largest retailer of soft-serve frozen yogurt in the country. In addition, it operates a gif

Newk's Eatery is an American chain of fast casual cafés which operates over 100 restaurants in 13 states.

Darden Concepts, Inc., doing business as Olive Garden, is an American casual dining restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. It is a unit of Darden Restaurants, Inc., which is headquartered in Orange County, Florida. As of 2022, Olive Garden restaurants accounted for $4.5 billion of the $9.63 billion revenue of Darden.

P. F. Chang's China Bistro is an American casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang that serves Asian fusion cuisine. Centerbridge Partners owned and operated Chang’s until acquired by the private equity firm TriArtisan Capital Advisors on March 2, 2019. P. F. Chang's is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

PizzaExpress (Restaurants) Limited, trading as PizzaExpress (also called Pizza Marzano or Milano), is a British multinational pizza restaurant chain based in Uxbridge, England. It also ran the brand Za between 2019 and 2023.

Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and Richard Schaden ten years later. It then grew to nearly 5,000 restaurants; by 2013, Quiznos was the second-largest submarine sandwich shop chain in North Ameri

Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States (including Puerto Rico), and Canada, as well as in Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, and Thailand. Golden Gate Capital was Red Lobster's parent company after it was acquired from Darden Restaurants on July 28, 2014. Seafood supplie

Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard (originally and now informally known as Rita's Water Ice) is a privately owned and operated American quick service restaurant chain originating in the Philadelphia metropolitan area that expanded into 30 states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic region. The chain is known for its Italian ice, or water ice, and frozen custard but also offers multiple other typ

Roti (stylized as rōti) and formerly known as Roti Restaurants, Inc., Rōti Modern Mediterranean and Rōti Mediterranean Grill, is an American fast casual restaurant serving Mediterranean cuisine. The firm was founded in 2007, and at its peak prior to the COVID-19 pandemic it had 42 locations in Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Houston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. It filed for bankrup

Darden Concepts, Inc. doing business as Ruth's Chris Steak House, is a chain of over 100 steakhouses across the United States, Canada and Mexico. On May 22, 2008, the company underwent rebranding and became part of Ruth's Hospitality Group after its acquisition of Mitchell's Fish Market. The group's headquarters are in Winter Park, Florida. Darden Restaurants later acquired the chain.

Shark fin trading in Costa Rica, or shark finning, is an illegal practice in the country. It poses a serious threat to shark populations besides the organized crime involvement in the practice within Costa Rica. The trade in Costa Rica is vigorously controlled by the Taiwanese mafia because of the high value of shark fins in restaurants in the Pacific Rim countries such as Taiwan, Hong K

Shoney's is an American restaurant chain headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. As of October 2026, the company operates 45 locations in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Barbeque Integrated Inc., doing business as Smokey Bones Bar and Fire Grill (or simply Smokey Bones) was an American casual dining restaurant chain owned by FAT Brands. Its franchise headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California. In January 2026, Smokey Bones had 31 restaurants in 15 Eastern states. Under its previous owner, Smokey Bones had as many as 128 restaurants across most of the

JVL Ventures, LLC d/b/a Softcard (formerly Isis Mobile Wallet), was a joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon which produced a mobile payments platform known as Softcard, which used near-field communication (NFC) technology to allow users to pay for items at stores and restaurants with credit and debit card credentials stored on their smartphones. The partnership was first annou

Sweet Tomatoes, which operated as Souplantation ( SOO-plan-TAY-shən) in Southern California, is a United States–based chain of all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurants. The first location opened in 1978 in San Diego, California, where the company was headquartered. The company was incorporated as Garden Fresh Corp. in 1983. The company went public in 1995 but was taken private in 2004. T

Sun Capital Partners, Inc., is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts. Sun Capital was founded in 1995 by Marc J. Leder and Rodger Krouse, former classmates at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and investment bankers at Lehman Brothers.

Darden Concepts, Inc. doing business as The Capital Grille, is an American restaurant chain of upscale steakhouses owned by Darden Restaurants. The brand has locations in twenty-five states, the District of Columbia, and Mexico City. There are 74 locations, including one location in Costa Rica.

The Limited is an American clothing brand sold exclusively through Belk. The Limited began with operating retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. In 2017, it became a brand owned by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

VitaNova Brands, based in San Antonio, Texas, was an operator of a number of American national buffet chain restaurants including subsidiary company Furr's. The company owned and operated Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, and Ryan's Buffet, along with Curry House.

VPS Convenience Store Group was an American convenience store chain headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina that could trace its roots to the founding of the first Village Pantry convenience store in 1966. VPS was sold in two parts in 2013 and 2015 to GPM Investments.