Leslie Patton

A Panera Bread Co. sandwich and chips in Tiskilwa, Illinois, on Oct. 22, 2015.

Panera revamps kids menu, CEO slams McDonald’s ‘inauthentic’ changes

June 10, 2018 at 12:42 p.m.

Panera Bread Co., seeking an edge in an increasingly cutthroat fast-food industry, is removing artificial ingredients from its kids menu and calling out other chains for targeting young diners with...

Chipotle executive charged in cocaine-delivery bust

June 10, 2018 at 3:09 p.m.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.'s Mark Crumpacker, one of the beleaguered company's top four executives, was placed on administrative leave following reports that he was linked to a cocaine bust in...

Burger King is taking mac and cheese, deep-frying it, adding Cheetos

June 10, 2018 at 5:41 p.m.

Burger King, the restaurant chain backed by 3G Capital and Warren Buffett, will begin selling deep-fried sticks of macaroni and cheese encrusted in Cheetos-flavored breading, part of a trend toward...

Chef Dan Coudreaut, executive chef and vice president of culinary innovation, makes a hamburger in McDonald's test kitchen at Oak Brook headquarters on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.

Tweaking McMuffins speeds McDonald’s ahead of breakfast rivals

June 12, 2018 at 3:40 a.m.

The slowest part of fast food? Adding new menu items or changing existing ones. It took McDonald's four years to conceive, test and roll out McGriddles in 2003. So the...

Florence, right, and Michel Pouzol pose by the first meat vending machine installed in the French capital, in Paris, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. On-demand food options like this are growing in popularity, bucking a trend of handmade foods.

Sushi robots and vending-machine pizza will reinvent the automat

June 10, 2018 at 6:02 p.m.

Decades from now, historians may look back on 2016 as the year Earthlings ate pizza from vending machines, bought burritos from a box in New York's Grand Central Terminal and...

Sandwich chain Subway is moving ahead with calorie labels at its restaurants despite another delay in a federal rule requiring the information.

Subway revenue drops as it closes hundreds of U.S. restaurants

June 10, 2018 at 8:31 p.m.

Subway Restaurants revenue fell in 2015 for the second straight year, a sign one of the fast-food industry's stalwarts is losing ground to newer chains. Revenue dropped 4.3 percent to...

Taco Bell’s incredible two-year quest to melt cheese perfectly

June 11, 2018 at 7:03 a.m.

A cheese lover on Twitter expressed less than complete satisfaction with the Quesalupa, Taco Bell's newest and cheesiest menu item. The company's social-media team was on it. "Dear @tacobell, Why...

McDonald’s is making gains — but has to convince customers to stay with it for the long haul

June 9, 2018 at 3:27 a.m.

McDonald's is having a moment. Actually, it's been having one for a while. Analysts may find no shortage of things to fret about -- from rising labor costs to lousy...

Barista Sean Smoot prepares a beverage on a high-end espresso machine at the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle. Behind him, coffee silos store freshly roasted coffee beans that were transported by copper pneumatic tubes from the roastery. Starbucks plans to open its biggest store yet, a 20,000-square-foot Roastery that will open in New York in 2018, the company said.

Starbucks plans to open biggest store in its history in New York

June 11, 2018 at 8:01 a.m.

Starbucks Corp. is opening a sprawling new Roastery-branded store in New York's Meatpacking District, part of a push to bolster growth with larger locations that offer experiences to customers. The...

Customers drink coffee at a Tim Hortons restaurant in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. A cult favorite in its Canadian homeland, Tim Horton's is making a bigger push into the United States.

Tim Hortons faces tall order as it expands on Starbucks turf

June 11, 2018 at 11:30 a.m.

Tim Hortons, a cult favorite in its Canadian homeland, is making a bigger push into the U.S., betting it can win over Americans addicted to Frappuccinos and Dunkin' Donuts. The...

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