Orange, Calif. — Fork & Salad, the Maui-based eatery with a mission to make healthy, farm-to-table cuisine accessible to the masses, plans to open its third corporate location and first U.S. mainland store in Orange, Calif. The location, which will introduce the brand to the mainland U.S. and serve as a training store for future franchisee operators, is slated to open before the end of 2018.
restaurants
Atlanta — Tropical Smoothie Café, LLC is opening its 700th location in the system, which will open on August 24, 2018 in Hurst, Texas. This milestone showcases Tropical Smoothie Cafe’s rapid growth since launching in Destin, Fla., more than 20 years ago and gets the company closer to reaching its goal of opening 120 new cafes in 2018.
Dublin, Ohio — The Wendy’s Company has accepted an offer from Inspire Brands (owner of Arby’s®, Buffalo Wild Wings® and R Taco®) to sell its 12.3% ownership interest in the company back to Inspire Brands for $450 million. The agreement was approved by The Wendy’s Company board of directors.
Chicago — McDonald’s and its franchisees plan to invest approximately $186 million to modernize 240 restaurants located across Florida. The initiative is part of the fast food giant’s aim to invest $6 billion to modernize most of its U.S. restaurants by 2020.
Atlanta — McAlister’s Deli® is rolling out a new prototype restaurant in Atlanta this September that will be accompanied by a deeper, more community-centric brand positioning that guests can experience across the system, starting with a new kids and family program.
Cincinnati — Cincinnati-based Buffalo Wings & Rings has hired industry veteran Joe Dominiak as the brand’s new chief operations officer. Most recently executive vice president and managing partner at Skyline Chili, Dominiak brings a proven track record and expertise for growing the national footprints of restaurant companies to the role as Buffalo Wings & Rings continues its mission to strategically expand across the country.
Los Angeles — The Pie Hole, a fast growing gourmet pie and coffee shop, has solidified a multi-unit franchise agreement to bring its signature specialty pies to Saudi Arabia. The deal gives exclusive rights to the territory to local franchisee Abdulrhman Alrajhi, who will begin with a 10-unit development plan. Alrajhi has sights set on opening the first location of The Pie Hole in Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, but is looking for additional sites in territories throughout the entire country.