Eatery Pulse Team 
With more than 2 million restaurant employees out of work and 17 percent of restaurants having closed permanently or on a long-term basis, the National Restaurant Association once again urged lawmakers for more relief for restaurants. It also indicated it supported this month’s potential compromise funding that would be provided to Americans and small businesses, but as a “down payment” until a larger package could be approved next year.
Ted’s Montana Grill launched a new Butcher Shoppe online, providing American bison and premium beef. The online platform will feature steak cuts, grinds and specialty boxes for the holiday season.
Starbucks Corporation will see Mellody Hobson become the non-executive chair of the Board of Directors effective March 2021. Hobson became an independent director in 2005 and began serving as the Board’s vice chair in 2018.
Award-winning chefs have joined to form a coalition to call for the end of tariffs on European food, wine and spirits through executive order by the Biden administration. The group, called Coalition to Stop Restaurant Tariffs, suggests that tariffs on goods from Europe, which were implemented by the Trump administration, and were initially meant to punish Europe for subsidizing aircraft manufacturers, has backfired and done more harm than good.
White Castle has brought on the comfort foods, as it returns the Sloppy Joe Slider and Mac and Cheese Nibblers, and adds a new Smoky Joe Slider. Customers will be able to mix and match sliders in the burger and slider chain’s newly-released six-pack, which is priced at $6.
The Subway sandwich-shop chain named Chef Paul Fabre senior vice president of Culinary and Innovation. He joins Subway’s culinary and product development team, equipped with two decades of restaurant experience, as the QSR chain seeks to find its renaissance amid a national health crisis and on-and-off battles with franchisees over discounts.
Jamba partnered with Blendid for the first-ever co-branded kiosk, Jamba by Blendid. The robotic invention, located in the Dixon Walmart in California, features Blendid’s autonomous and contactless food platform operating with Jamba, a fast-casual chain of blended smoothies made from fruits and vegetables.
Hot pot chain The Dolar Shop opens its first Manhattan restaurant today in the East Village. The 3rd Avenue opening is the second among a potential four New York units of the Chinese-Macanese, one-person, hot pot chain that are arriving in the market. The 55-unit, global restaurant venture previously expanded to Sydney, Vancouver, Seattle, and Flushing, New York.
El Pollo Loco launched a redesign of its restaurants, aiming to take its off-premise business to the next level. The fire-grilled chicken chain has reimagined the layout, known as L.A. Mex, based on new consumer habits to create its restaurant of the future. Moving forward, the digital and contactless experience—of primary interest to consumers due to COVID-19—are front and center in the new prototypes.
November restaurant industry comp(arable) sales decreased 10.3 percent from last year. Comp traffic also dropped 16.3 percent, according to new data released by data-analytics firm Black Box Intelligence. Comp sales results are down nearly 3 percentage-points from October, when the industry posted a 7.5 percent decrease from last year. Starting with May’s sales results, each month had been sequentially better as 2020 progressed.
