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When it Comes to Wine, Weird is the New Normal – and That’s For the Better

Two telling things happened in spring 2008: In March, JP Morgan acquired Bear Stearns for $2 per share, to stabilize a Wall Street giant, and about a month later, a cohort of wine collectors gathered at Cru restaurant in New York for an auction that marked those swaggery days. Laurent Ponsot, proprietor of Domaine Ponsot,…

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When it Comes to Wine, Weird is the New Normal – and That’s For the Better

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Two telling things happened in spring 2008: In March, JP Morgan acquired Bear Stearns for $2 per share, to stabilize a Wall Street giant, and about a month later, a cohort of wine collectors gathered at Cru restaurant in New York for an auction that marked those swaggery days. Laurent Ponsot, proprietor of Domaine Ponsot, one of Burgundy’s most important domaines, appeared at Cru and stopped the sale of bottles from his property, claiming among other things a bottle of 1929 Clos de la Roche was fake, as the domaine didn’t produce the wine until 1934.

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GLP-1 users cut grocery spend

GLP-1 users cut grocery spend

PwC and Acosta Group data show GLP-1 users are spending less on food and changing what they buy. PwC reported GLP-1 users spent about 11% less across most food categories, and the steepest pullbacks were in sweet and salty snacks and baked foods. Acosta Group found users report buying more fresh and high-protein items while reducing purchases of sweets, salty snacks and sugary beverages.

  • 01The operational risk is mix, not traffic: surveys from PwC and Acosta Group point to snack and sugary beverage softness alongside protein and produce lift, a pattern worth validating in loyalty and POS data.
  • 02Pack architecture becomes a supply-chain decision: when 47% of users report smaller portions (PwC), right-sizing case packs, planograms, and menu portions can prevent margin leakage from shrink and waste.

Sep 6, 2026

Restaurants are buying more customer tech even as visits stay 7% below 2019

Restaurants are buying more customer tech even as visits stay 7% below 2019

U.S. restaurant operators are budgeting more customer-facing technology for 2026, with 60% prioritizing customer experience investments, according to the National Restaurant Association data reported by Restaurant Business. The push comes while average chain restaurant occasions remain 7% below 2019 levels, a gap Restaurant Business says has persisted even as kiosks, digital menu boards, loyalty programs, and AI tools proliferated. Bar & Restaurant’s reporting on high-volume staffing shows why the timing matters operationally: with labor still tight and peak periods exposing process friction, operators are trying to shift guest decisions earlier, improve scheduling discipline, and free managers to coach instead of firefight. The near coin-flip in consumer sentiment, 41% saying tech improves hospitality versus 38% saying it hurts, indicates deployments that reduce staff burden without making the guest feel “sent to a screen” will be the ones that hold up in 2026 traffic conditions.

  • 01A useful benchmark for 2026 tech budgeting: 60% of operators plan to invest in customer-experience tech, but that category only outpaces front-of-house tech (54%) by six points, so many programs will compete for the same dollars and implementation bandwidth, according to the National Restaurant Association data reported by Restaurant Business.
  • 02The metric mismatch is becoming a planning risk: Restaurant Business says kiosks can lift sales per transaction, but operators still lack a clean way to measure whether customer-facing automation quietly suppresses visits, especially when chain occasions are already 7% below 2019.
  • 03For high-volume concepts, the highest-ROI “tech” may be workflow discipline: Bar & Restaurant reports operators leaning on forecasting, clear labor rules, and centralized reservation and add-on decisions to reduce peak-hour conflict, which can make customer tech feel like convenience rather than a substitute for hospitality.

Sep 1, 2026

Outback’s 600-manager reset puts kitchen discipline back at the center

Outback’s 600-manager reset puts kitchen discipline back at the center

Outback Steakhouse brought managers from roughly 600 restaurants together for its first systemwide conference since before the pandemic, signaling that the brand is again prioritizing operational standardization as it works its turnaround. Restaurant Business reported Outback posted 1.4% same-store sales growth last quarter, its best in more than three years, along with improving guest scores and a higher mix of premium items. Two QSR Magazine analyses outline areas operators are focusing on: kitchen-equipment discipline through asset lifecycle management and total cost of ownership, and store design as a factor tied to repeat visits, with the National Restaurant Association estimating QSRs get about 71% of revenue from repeat customers. For multi-unit operators, the practical takeaway is that repeatable execution often depends on standardized specifications, maintenance data, and remodel programs that protect retention and throughput, not only pricing actions.

  • 01The return of large-scale manager conferences is an operational tell: brands are re-centralizing standards and training, which makes equipment specs, service models, and maintenance playbooks easier to scale.
  • 02For chains that still buy equipment on sticker price, QSR Magazine’s push toward total cost of ownership reframes procurement as an uptime and utilities decision, not a capex line item.
  • 03QSR Magazine, citing the National Restaurant Association’s estimate that about 71% of QSR revenue comes from repeat customers, frames store design and the in-restaurant environment as part of the discussion around repeat visits.

Sep 1, 2026

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