2002 The Year in Review

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 23, 2002 by Ron Ruggless

After the terrific tumult of 2001 this year was one of relative calm, even though the United States was still officially a nation at war.

Federal agencies even enlisted restaurant operators and suppliers on the front lines in the war on terrorism giving them the mission of being foot soldiers in the effort to protect the nation's food supply. And operators took on those duties as well as commanding the usual battles that come with foodservice competition: the day-to-day challenges of providing new tastes to new customers in new surroundings.

Amid all the mergers, acquisitions bankruptcies and growth successes the battlefield also saw rules about smoking being tightened across the nation from state to state and city to city court cases that challenged the way restaurants operate and new ideas popping up from the heart of the house to the hostess stand.

Of course no year would be complete without its share of odd, unusual and wholly unexpected happenings and 2002 was no exception.

It was the year when restaurant operators found themselves being sued for an alleged role in making the ever-fattening nation more obese with a number of fast-food chains being accused of enticing customers to go against their lean natures. Those lawsuits provided fodder for late-night comedians and water-cooler chuckles.

Those and other weightier matters make up Nation's Restaurant News' Year in Review for 2002 which unfolds on the following pages.

JANUARY

The year started with several major legal cases in the nation's highest court.

The Supreme Court ruled that a former Waffle House grill cook's agreement to settle job disputes through arbitration does not prevent the federal Equal Employment Opportunity commission from going to court to seek compensation for damages under anti-discrimination provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The court said Eric Scott Baker could press his claims that he was wrongfully fired by a Waffle House in South Carolina in 1994 after suffering an on-the-job seizure.

The high court also ruled, in a unanimous decision, that a disability cannot be measured exclusively by a person's ability to perform specific work-related tasks. The ruling made it more difficult for partially disabled workers to seek special treatment under the ADA.

Separately, the Supreme Court declined to hear Taco Bell Corp.'s appeal of a decision in 2001 that said a trial was needed to sort out claims that the Tricon Global Restaurant-owned chain stole the idea for a talking Chihuahua marketing mascot.

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store of Lebanon, Tenn., vowed to defend what it called the "color blindness" of its 440-unit company in the wake of a $100 million class-action lawsuit on behalf of 21 blacks. The suit, filed in federal court in Rome, Ga., alleged that the customers were denied service, treated poorly and even segregated in seating.

Food sales nationwide were expected to reach $407.75 billion for the year, an increase of 3.9 percent over the figure for 2001, according to the National Restaurant Association. The slow economy and Sept. 11 terrorist attacks slowed growth, but 2001 still yielded positive results for eating and drinking establishments, according to Steven C. Anderson, president and chief executive of the NRA. "We barely made it into the 10th straight year of positive growth, but we did make it," he said.

The Food and Drug Administration urged every business in the food industry to adopt a more aggressive posture in safeguarding crops, factories, food inventories, salad bars and foods in "open display areas."

Houlihan's Restaurants Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.

Buca Inc. of Minneapolis purchased the nine-unit Vinny Testa's Italian dinnerhouse chain of Massachusetts for $18.5 million.

R. David "Dave" Thomas, one of the most beloved and recognizable leaders in the restaurant industry, died because of complications from liver cancer Jan. 8. The founder of the Wendy's burger empire was 69.

Media mogul and buffalo rancher Ted Turner partnered with George McKerrow Jr., founder of the Longhorn Steakhouse chain, to create a prototype of Ted's Montana Grill in Columbus, Ohio.

After a four-year test in Chicago, the Al Tazaj group of Saudi Arabia opened a Taza restaurant in Orlando, Fla. Taza features a Middle Eastern-style menu with wood-grilled chicken.

Trader Vic's, the theme-dining pioneer, unveiled a new prototype in Palo Alto, Calif.

Technology that allows restaurateurs to use a guest's personal cellular phone as a wait-list pager was introduced by the Johnny Carino's Country Italian chain of Austin, Texas.

In management shifts Jim Skinner was promoted to president and chief operating officer of McDonald's Restaurant Group.

Sonic Corp. of Oklahoma City promoted Pattye Moore to president of the 2,300-unit chain.

Burger King Corp. promoted Andre Lacroix to president of Burger King International.

Applebee's International Inc. promoted George D. Shadid to chief operating officer. Steven K. Lumpkin was named chief financial officer.