Restaurant Industry News Page 2

Panera Bread Company (NASDAQ: PNRA) reported adjusted net income of $42 million, or $1.42 per diluted share, for the thirteen weeks ended December 27, 2011, before a one-time pre-tax charge of $5 million.

Pizza Patrónannounced the opening of its seventh store in San Antonio on Monday. The store, located at 6700 S. Flores St., is the company's newly developed 'double drive-thru' model, the first of its kind in the chain.

In continuing with its trend of strong sales performance, Chick-fil-A®, Inc. announces that it exceeded $4 billion in annual sales in 2011.

Company-wide comparable restaurant sales increased 7.0%, due primarily to traffic and led by the Benihana Teppanyaki concept, which reported 8.2% comparable restaurant sales growth and a 6.4% increase in dine-in guest counts;

Real Mex Restaurants, Inc. said its board has approved a bid to acquire virtually all assets of the Company and its subsidiaries from a newly created entity associated with certain of the Company’s noteholders including affiliates of Tennenbaum Capital Partners, Z Capital Partners and J.P. Morgan Investment Management.

Saladworks is opening its second Virginia location, in the Plaza America Shopping Center, 11692 Plaza America Drive.

As part of its wide scale campaign to tell Congress of the importance of tax certainty to restaurateurs, the National Restaurant Association today called on Congressional members to act swiftly on two tax provisions critical to the restaurant industry – the 15-year depreciation schedule for restaurant improvements/new construction and the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.

The worldwide wine business is a good case study in free trade, given that there are many producers and few restrictions on commerce. In recent years, the cost of wine has reflected this generally free global market in two ways — one good and the other bad, as George M. Taber argues in this op-ed piece. Taber is the author of four books on wine. His latest is titled, A Toast to Bargain Wines: How innovators, iconoclasts, and winemaking revolutionaries are changing the way the world drinks.

The weakest links in food safety are found closest to the plates of Canadian diners, according to a Conference Board of Canada report, released on the second day of the Canadian Food Summit 2012.

A new restaurant will open its doors in downtown Pensacola on February 10, 2012. City goers are invited to experience Rodizio Grill’s unique dining style with new flavors never before seen on the streets of Pensacola. Located one block from the Civic Center on Gregory Street, Rodizio Grill will add a touch of diversity to the community.