What are the restaurant industry’s biggest concerns right now?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Scott Redler, the co-founder of Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers.

We spoke with Scott at the National Restaurant Show in May and we chatted on a variety of issues. We wanted to talk with him about some of the bigger concerns in the industry right now, given regulatory efforts such as the $20 fast-food wage in California and other issues. I also wanted to talk about the overall operating environment, as many restaurants are struggling with weak traffic.

Scott has been busy in the three years since he and his co-founders sold a majority stake in Freddy’s to Thompson Street Capital Partners. We talk about what he’s been doing since then, including his role as the former chair of the National Restaurant Association.

It’s a wide-ranging conversation with the co-founder of Freddy’s on A Deeper Dive so please have a listen.

How can restaurant chains survive in this market?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features longtime industry executive James Walker.

At the moment, Walker has multiple titles. He is the chief culinary and concept officer for Experiential Brands, a concept creation engine that has created brands such as the Original Hot Chicken, Inked Tacos and Pinsa Roman Pizza.

He is also the CEO of Frisch’s Restaurants, the family-dining brand.

We talked with Walker at the National Restaurant Show last month, and it was a wide-ranging conversation. We talked with him about Frisch’s and his new concepts.

But we also got into a discussion on the state of the industry. Traffic has been down throughout the industry amid high prices, but plenty of chains, like Wingstop, Sweetgreen and many others, have done just fine. And plenty of hot independent restaurants remain tough to get into.

We talk about that and what differentiates the winners and the losers.

We’re talking all things restaurants on A Deeper Dive so please check it out.

What is the future of Red Lobster?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Victor Fernandez, the vice president of insights and knowledge at GuestXM.

GuestXM provides industry performance metrics, notably the Black Box index of industry sales and traffic.

I wanted Victor on the podcast so we could talk about the state of full-service restaurants, particularly a certain seafood chain that is filing for bankruptcy. We talked during the National Restaurant Show in Chicago.

Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy last month and has already closed 100 locations. It could close a lot more than that if it can’t renegotiate leases.

There are plenty of reasons Red Lobster is in this situation, but we wanted to get an assessment of the full-service climate, and how much that might have contributed. We talked about a host of other topics during the conversation as well, so it was a great snapshot of the state of the restaurant industry right now.