After success at McAlister's Deli, Phil Friedman bought Salsarita's with a plan to revive the struggling burrito brand. It's come a long way from the ‘washout' days, but there's plenty of hard road ahead.

Salads are ‘very, very low margin,' one CEO says, but nonetheless a bevy of choose-your-own-greens concepts are competing for investors and customers. We provide a rundown of a leafy bunch.

Better quality of life, such as two consecutive days off, is an attraction for restaurant workers. And Chipotle tried to hire 4,000 workers in one day this fall, serving notice that the competition is on.

With extreme and hard-to-predict gyrations of global stock markets in recent months, it seems that many place greater emphasis on the slightest turns of phrase by the Federal Reserve and ignore the fundamentals.

Some senior services franchises simply provide basic care. But a handful are partnering with the likes of Harvard Medical School and a prominent Alzheimer's expert to invest in cutting-edge research. Will it pay off?

7-Eleven is testing delivery. The Cube is all about the drive-thru. How c-stores are trying to give customers ‘what they want, when and where they want it,' as the grandfather of the business commanded.

Although they're not magic boxes, site selection tools can cut the risk considerably to operators seeking real estate. Massive data-crunching, right down to the number of dorm rooms on a college campus, is the driver.

You've heard about the seven stages of grief. As the Affordable Care Act lurched its way into being, franchisees took a similar emotional journey. This June's Supreme Court ruling sealed the deal.

One Jersey Mike's operator gets 20 percent of her sales through an outside delivery service, a nice bump. As third parties compete for No. 1 status, some wonder how to maintain their own image.

Fast-casual restaurants are still new-ish, but they've been around long enough to develop some trends of their own. Our writer decided to analyze six items and declare their hotness—or notness.