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Top Stories - 6.16.2022

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How Digital is Transforming the Restaurant Dining Experience

How Digital is Transforming the Restaurant Dining Experience

For the past two years, restaurants struggled to regain their footing amidst a digital revolution focused on off-premise dining. Now, the industry is pushing past these growing pains and into new territory: using digital not only to survive, but to thrive in the age of personalized customer journeys. From in-app customizations that put customer preferences front and center to expressing …
Panera Opens the First of Its Restaurants for Digital-Only Pick Up and Delivery

Panera Opens the First of Its Restaurants for Digital-Only Pick Up and Delivery

Panera Bread, which operates 2,118 bakery-cafes in 48 states and in Ontario, Canada under the Panera Bread or Saint Louis Bread Co. names, has opened its first “Panera To Go,” a new restaurant format offering digitally-enabled convenience for pick up and delivery orders. The Chicago-based restaurant is the first of three so-called "Panera To Go" test locations scheduled to open …
Robots Come to Life at the National Restaurant Association Show and Beyond

Robots Come to Life at the National Restaurant Association Show and Beyond

There was a vast array of next-generation technologies on display at this year's National Restaurant Association show, which took place May 21-24 at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago. But no technologies made a bigger splash than the robots that were whirling and twirling around the exposition floor. While the robots came in a variety of different shapes, colors and …
Five Ways Electric Detection Technology is Advancing Commercial Kitchen Fire Protection

Five Ways Electric Detection Technology is Advancing Commercial Kitchen Fire Protection

Now more than ever, success in the commercial kitchen and food service space is tied to facility safety. The effects of global lockdowns have hit the hospitality sector especially hard, and restaurants continue struggling to make up for lost business or to stay in business at all. With owners and operators forced to put time and resources towards addressing new …

Bastard Burgers Partners with Oracle to Boost Customer Service and Expand Restaurant Locations

Bastard Burgers Partners with Oracle to Boost Customer Service and Expand Restaurant Locations
Since its start in Luleå, Sweden in 2016, the New York City-inspired street food chain, Bastard Burgers, has been on a mission to go global. To support its rapid growth and expand its digital ordering capabilities, Bastard Burgers has chosen Oracle MICROS Simphony Cloud Point-of-Sale (POS). With Oracle’s help, the company now boasts 67 restaurants across Sweden, Norway, and most recently at The …

Illegal Pete’s Taps Paytronix to Launch New Loyalty Program and Gain Insights Into Customer Purchasing Behavior

Illegal Pete’s Taps Paytronix to Launch New Loyalty Program and Gain Insights Into Customer Purchasing Behavior
Illegal Pete’s, a Colorado-based, fast-casual, Mexican restaurant and bar, has launched its new Paytronix-powered loyalty program, V.I. Pete’s, which is supported by a mobile app also from Paytronix. The new loyalty program will help Illegal Pete’s reward their best customers and learn more about their purchasing behavior, while ensuring that those same guests can interact with the brand in ways …

Spotlight Interview: Bill Bellissimo, Founder and CEO of CrunchTime

Spotlight Interview: Bill Bellissimo, Founder and CEO of CrunchTime
Bill Bellissimo is the Founder and CEO of CrunchTime! Information Systems, a back-of-house restaurant operations platform focused on helping restaurant chains of all sizes make timely, fact-based decisions to reduce food costs, drive labor efficiencies and better manage the quality and consistency of their foodservice operations. Bill has firsthand experience as a restaurant operator. Prior to founding CrunchTime in 1995, …
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