LongHorn Steakhouse

More than half of the restaurant industry’s $491 billion in sales come from the Top 500 chains. And these giants grew at a modestly stronger rate, both in terms of sales and store counts, than the industry overall. Restaurant Business focused on the leading 250 performers to identify trends for our first-ever special report delivering lessons from Technomic’s annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. This special package includes lessons for all operators from the largest chains by segment, menu category and more.

The investor pushing for a breakup of Red Lobster and Olive Garden’s parent has released a comprehensive rationale for doing it. Here’s a look at the reasoning and the plan.

It’s not that George McKerrow hates computers. He just hates what computers do to restaurant workers. A 30-year industry veteran, McKerrow, founder of Longhorn Steakhouse and, more recently, co-founder (with Ted Turner) of Ted’s Montana Grill, remembers taking restaurants public as late as 1990—without the help of computers.