A formula restaurant is a type of formula retail business. It is characterized as a restaurant regulated by contractual or other arrangements to standardize menus, ingredients, food preparation, interior and exterior design and/or uniforms. The term refers to the characteristics of the restaurant rather than its ownership, following a business model controlled by an overseeing corporation. Most formula restaurants are chain restaurants, though this does not have to be the case.
In legal definitions, there may be a minimum number of "substantially identical" restaurants for them to be considered formula restaurants. This number varies across jurisdictions. [1] [2] [3]
Formula retail is a type of sales activity required by contractual or other arrangements to offer a standardized array of services and/or merchandise, trademark, interior or exterior design and/or uniforms. [4] This applies to the restaurant industry where menus, ingredients and food preparation may be standardized according to the overseeing corporation's business model, intended to maximize marketing potential.
Although there is considerable financial overlap, "chain restaurant" refers to ownership or franchise while "formula restaurant" refers to the characteristics of the business. A formula restaurant does not need to belong to a chain but it generally does. Nevertheless, most codified municipal regulation relies on definitions of formula restaurant or formula retail (although non-codified restrictions will sometimes target "chains").
Some chain restaurants are not considered formula restaurants because the chain does not maintain a formulaic or monolithic character at different locations, or has few enough locations that they are substantially dissimilar to what is commonly considered to be a formula restaurant. In addition, the term "chain restaurants" generically describes a business arrangement, whereas formula restaurants describe the aesthetic characteristics and customer experience.
In some cases, a chain may establish a set of formula restaurants but attempt to present each venue as unique. This is common with hotel chains, which rely on centralized meal planning and management, but want to avoid the appearance of their in-house dining facilities being formulaic. Generally, the local manager is encouraged to modify the corporate menu so as to present the appearance of a unique character, while still building the menu around a corporate model (e.g., several entrees based on frozen chicken breast in accordance with a corporate formula). [5] [6] Disguised formula restaurants may be recognized by marketing indicators: intense use of staged photographs on the menu, frequent use of marketing buzzwords (or marketing terms) such as "add" listed under multiple menu items. [7]
Concerns have been expressed that formula restaurants detract from the unique characteristics of cities and towns. [8] [9] [10] The standardization of menus can mean fewer choices for consumers. Formula restaurants tend to be marketing centric or based on perception.
Formula restaurants can harm local independent businesses. [8] [11] [ further explanation needed ] Formula restaurants accelerate gentrification but deteriorate quality of life. [11] [ how? ]
Formula restaurants often rely on an economic model that encourages the use of disposable tableware. [12] This can create a negative economy in waste [12] and food distribution, in part to support the business model of the controlling corporation.
In the United States, legal restrictions on formula restaurants (and formula retail in general) have been challenged as an impermissible restriction on interstate commerce, and as exceeding municipal zoning authority. [16] [17] Restrictions are generally held permissible if they are not arbitrary, and directed to the character of the business and not the ownership. [18] [19] [20]
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit. Retailers are the final link in the supply chain from producers to consumers.
In marketing, a product is an object, or system, or service made available for consumer use as of the consumer demand; it is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy the desire or need of a customer. In retailing, products are often referred to as merchandise, and in manufacturing, products are bought as raw materials and then sold as finished goods. A service is also regarded as a type of product.
A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many parts of the world. A franchise retail establishment is one form of a chain store. In 2005, the world's largest retail chain, Walmart, became the world's largest corporation based on gross sales.
LoDo is an unofficial neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, and is one of the oldest places of settlement in the city. It is a mixed-use historic district, known for its nightlife, and serves as an example of success in urban reinvestment and revitalization. The current population is approximately 21,145.
A&W Root Beer is an American brand of root beer that was founded in 1919 by Roy W. Allen and primarily available in the United States and Canada. Allen partnered with Frank Wright in 1922, creating the A&W brand and inspiring a chain of A&W Restaurants founded that year. Originally, A&W Root Beer sold for five cents.
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. It operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under the Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux Cafe brand, not including the number of restaurants operated under the North Italia nor any of Fox Restaurant Brands' names. The Cheesecake Factory also operates two bakery production facilities—in Calabasas, California, and Rocky Mount, North Carolina—and licenses two bakery-based menus for other foodservice operators under the Cheesecake Factory Bakery Cafe marque. Its cheesecakes and other baked goods can also be found in the cafes of many Barnes & Noble stores.
Thomas M. Tunney is an American politician and entrepreneur from Chicago, Illinois. Since 2003, he has served as an alderman on the Chicago City Council. He represents the prominent 44th Ward of the city, which includes major tourist destinations, Northalsted and Wrigleyville neighborhoods. He was appointed vice mayor in 2019.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a special economic zone in Dubai covering 110 ha, established in 2004 as a financial hub for companies operating throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA) markets.
Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some degree physically and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development may be applied to a single building, a block or neighborhood, or in zoning policy across an entire city or other administrative unit. These projects may be completed by a private developer, (quasi-) governmental agency, or a combination thereof. A mixed-use development may be a new construction, reuse of an existing building or brownfield site, or a combination.
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district significant. Government agencies, at the state, national, and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts. The first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was enacted in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931.
In the United States, zoning includes various land use laws falling under the police power rights of state governments and local governments to exercise authority over privately owned real property. Zoning laws in major cities originated with the Los Angeles zoning ordinances of 1904 and the New York City 1916 Zoning Resolution. Early zoning regulations were in some cases motivated by racism and classism, particularly with regard to those mandating single-family housing. Zoning ordinances did not allow African-Americans moving into or using residences that were occupied by majority whites due to the fact that their presence would decrease the value of home. The constitutionality of zoning ordinances was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co. in 1926.
NH Hotel Group is a Spanish multinational hotel company headquartered in Madrid, that operates over 350 hotels in 28 countries, currently under the Anantara, NH Collection, nhow Hotels, Tivoli, NH Hotels, Elewana Collection and Avani brands. The company is a subsidiary of a Thailand hotel group, Minors International.
An automated restaurant or robotic restaurant is a restaurant that uses robots to do tasks such as delivering food and drink to the tables and/or cooking the food.
The National Policy and Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity, or NPLAN for short, is a nonprofit organization funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and which, according to its website, plays an important role in the Foundation's effort to reverse the obesity epidemic by 2015, a commitment that was announced in 2007. Their partners include, in addition to the RWJF, Active Living by Design and the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. They are run by ChangeLab Solutions, originally known as Public Health Law and Policy, which focuses not only on obesity but also on tobacco regulation. The NPLAN advocates for a soda tax, specifically an excise tax, and have published model legislation which earmarks the funds raised to go to programs to prevent and treat obesity. According to the American Public Health Association, they provide "legal technical assistance focused on childhood obesity prevention policy." The Network has also "developed model menu labeling ordinances, requiring chain restaurants to post calorie and other nutrition information on menus." NPLAN has advocated for the use of licensing and zoning laws to "shape the way land is used and how businesses operate," and has praised regulations requiring nutrition standards on foods sold in snack machines in schools. According to their website, they "work on four broad issue areas: healthy community food systems, healthy schools, healthy land use planning, and food marketing." The American Bar Association's director of public health and policy Marice Ashe wrote the following soon after the NPLAN's founding was announced: "NPLAN will serve as an incubator where lawyers, policymakers, advocates, and scientists collaborate to produce legal and policy tools and resources. As research and products are developed, NPLAN will also operate as a national one-stop source for access to practical, efficient, and effective legal technical assistance products."
Cheshire Bridge Road is a mainly north–south thoroughfare of Atlanta, Georgia, USA traversing the Morningside-Lenox Park and Lindridge-Martin Manor neighborhoods from Piedmont Avenue to Buford Highway just north of Interstate 85.
A Greek restaurant is a restaurant that specializes in Greek cuisine. In the United States they tend to be a different affair, varying in types of service, cuisine, menu offerings, table settings, and seating arrangements. Their menu may also feature dishes from other cuisines.
D.P. Dough is an American chain of calzone restaurants started in Amherst, Massachusetts, and now headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. D.P. Dough restaurants are located in twenty-seven college towns across the United States, offering late-night food delivery primarily marketed to local student populations.
A virtual restaurant, also known as a ghost kitchen, cloud kitchen or dark kitchen, is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick-up based on phone and online ordering. It is a separate food vendor entity that operates out of an existing restaurant's kitchen. By not having a full-service restaurant premise with a storefront and dining room, virtual restaurants can economize by occupying cheaper real estate. The reduced space lowers overall overhead and operational costs, thus yielding higher profit margins, as the price of the food provided is typically not changed. The ghost kitchen's lack of a retail presence allows for multiple restaurants and brands to buy into it.
