Restaurant Business illustration using AI
The restaurant industry is never boring. It does not matter what year it is, what the economy is like, who the president is, which team won the Super Bowl or whether there was a “Fast and Furious” movie out. There’s always something going on.
That’s a good thing, because it keeps restaurant journalists busy, and if you know what restaurant journalists are like, you know that it’s preferable that they remain occupied and not getting into shenanigans.
This year, the team at Restaurant Business remained plenty occupied covering the business from all angles. They produced some excellent work in the process. And this is the time of year when we like looking back at our best content. Many of these stories are for subscribers of RB Plus, which you can subscribe to here. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Here’s our annual look at some of the year’s best restaurant journalism.
COVID 5 years later
I still can’t believe that the pandemic was five years ago. Actually, I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that 2000 is here, and that was 25 years ago. Also, COVID was now nearly six years ago. I feel old now.
There’s no question that the event was a seminal one in the restaurant industry. Our full team examined that impact from every possible angle. We talked with a lot of people, some of whom recounted their experiences over video. The result was one of the best packages this team has produced in my eight years with the publication.
Check it out here.
The impact of AI in restaurants
You couldn’t stumble out of bed in the morning without hitting an AI software program, and approximately 100% of financial news reports included something about the technology. It’s all over the restaurant industry.
In another group project, this one for my podcast A Deeper Dive, we looked at how AI is making its presence felt in restaurants big and small. Myself and colleagues Joe Guszkowski and Pat Cobe talked with a number of people on the topic. Our esteemed podcast editor Kimmy Spoons Kaczmarek put it all together with the help of Kimberly Pellikan.
Check it out here.
Immigration
The Trump Administration kept its promise to limit illegal, and in many cases legal immigration, using federal agents aggressively to raid restaurants and other businesses. The result has sent shudders through much of a restaurant industry that both employs and caters to a large number of immigrants.
Executive Editor Lisa Jennings deftly captured this issue, despite many operators’ reluctance to talk about the topic out of fear. This is an excellent story.
Check it out here.
Hooters
Hooters is one of the most interesting restaurant chains in the U.S. The bankruptcy filing of Hooters of America was the year’s biggest. But there may well be a silver lining, as the buyer of the company was a company run by the brand’s original owners.
This gave Senior Editor Joe Guszkowski an opportunity to explore Hooters’ interesting history, from its first days in Clearwater, Florida, to its explosive growth to the bankruptcy filing. This is a superb profile on an important brand.
Check it out here.
Dirty sodas
Beverages were everywhere in 2025, particularly the “dirty soda,” a concoction combining soda and cream or other flavorings. A lot of restaurant chains started adding dirty sodas to their menus this year.
Senior Editor Pat Cobe wrote the definitive history of the dirty soda, from its beginnings in the beverage chain Swig to its rise into a national phenomenon. Don’t know what a dirty soda is by now? Just read Pat’s story.
Check it out here.
Kevin Hochman
One of the year’s biggest stories—OK, one of the biggest stories in the restaurant industry since the pandemic—was the rise of Chili’s.
We gave CEO Kevin Hochman our Restaurant Leader of the Year award and we feel as good about that selection as any since we created the award. I spent an awful lot of time with Kevin as a result, so you can read what makes him tick.
Check it out here.
The Week in Restaurants
We decided that the world does not have enough podcasts and so we started another one. This one features myself, Jennings and/or Guszkowski, talking about the week’s biggest stories. This is a fun one to do, frankly, and I don’t care if anybody actually listens. But you should because sometimes we get animated about stuff.
Check it out here.
The Top 500
I’m a nerd. You probably figured that out by now. But I’m a particular data nerd. So I relish the prospect of our annual look at the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. We wrote a LOT of stories about that topic over the course of the year.
Check it out here.
Fancy new Technomic pricing data
Speaking of myself and nerdy data, I was super excited when our sister company Technomic came out with its Price Pulse data. Given consumer concerns about pricing, this data has proven to be absolutely invaluable. And not just me. It gave me the opportunity to do cool stories like one examining just how much McDonald’s would lower its combo meal prices.
Check it out here.
Bonus!
Like many of you, I’ve been messing around with AI all year, largely to produce dumb poetry for social media. But we’ve also been playing around with creating images, and the hero image at the top you see was, indeed, created by a robot. With some prompting by me.
Let me say that AI image generators aren’t necessarily adept at, say, spelling. Among other things. So you can check out this early version of that artwork.
In any event, thank you all so much for reading us this year. We promise a lot more superb content in 2026. Have a great new year!
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