Mystery meat

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. – A diner at a T.G.I. Friday’s in upstate New York says he got a little something extra with his broccoli – a severed snake head.

Jack Pendleton says he was at the restaurant in Clifton Park on Sunday when he spotted something gray mixed in with his vegetables. He realized it was a snake head the size of his thumb, with part of the spine still attached.

Pendleton says he snapped a photo with his cell phone camera and called the waiter over. He says he has no plans to sue.

A spokeswoman for the Carrollton, Texas, chain says it’s investigating. It wasn’t immediately known what kind of snake it was.

Pendleton and his girlfriend weren’t charged for their meals.

Pendeleton

CHICAGO – The news is hitting Chicago deep dish pizza makers’ eye like a big pizza pie.

President Barack Obama is having 140 people over to the White House Friday night for a some deep-dish pizza — St. Louis deep dish pizza.

It seems during his campaign he had pizza from a restaurant called Pi in St. Louis. That’s the story Pi assistant manager Lindsey Tornetto tells.

Whatever happened, the restaurant says the owner and his partner packed dough, cheese and pizza pans in their suitcases and flew to Washington.

It all has Marc Malnati — owner of 30 Lou Malnati’s Pizzarias in the Chicago area — shaking his head. He says he likes Obama’s economic policy, but thinks the president’s pizza policy should change.

NEW YORK – A woman who wanted a job as a bikini-clad barmaid at a New York City eatery says managers rejected her because she has a “Latin accent.”

Melody Morales has sued seeking unspecified damages and saying she applied 15 times for a job at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone restaurant and bar. She says managers always denied there were any openings even though other employees said there were.

Her lawsuit says one manager told her her “Latin accent” would ruin his business. She says another told her “You don’t speak white.”

Morales says she was born in New York to Dominican and Puerto Rican parents. And she says she looks good in a bikini.

A Hawaiian Tropic Zone spokesman, Patrick M. Smith, issued a statement saying Morales’ lawsuit was baseless.

In the midst of one of the restaurant industry’s worst downturns, thousands of restaurants nationwide will do something on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or New Year’s Day that they’ve never done before: open the doors.

While consumers are used to some chains like Denny’s and IHOP keeping units open on Christmas, it’s been rare for most restaurants – from burger joints to those with white tablecloths – to stay open on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

This year is an exception. After a terrible 2008, there is growing sentiment to keep the doors open on Christmas. “It makes perfect sense,” says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president at the National Restaurant Association. “This is the toughest environment since the early 1980s.”

The NRA projects that restaurant sales nationally will grow an anemic 2.5 percent in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, sales will actually decline 1 percent, says Riehle.

Many restaurant owners will stay open over the holidays. Here’s why:

• To nudge sales. Mitchell’s Fish Market, which has 19 locations in nine states, will for the first time open all units on New Year’s Day. “It will provide additional revenue given today’s challenging times,” says Tom Burmane, operations vice president.

Atlanta’s Parish Foods & Goods will be open Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. “We want to capture sales that we didn’t think would be there,” says Sean Gray, general manager.

In Raleigh, N.C., Irregardless Cafe will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas. “We’re looking for the holiday to give us a boost,” says owner Arthur Gordon. Business is off 20 percent this year and he expects a 20 percent drop in 2009.

To pick up extra sales, Mom’s Hamburgers, a 24-year-old burger joint in Mansfield, Ohio, will be open Christmas Eve for the first time, says owner Steve Reed.

• To make up for a lousy year. For the past 12 years, the Payard Bistro in Manhattan has never been open Christmas Eve. It will be this year, with a $45 meal that would sell for $65. “Every restaurant is down 20 percent to 30 percent this year,” says owner Francois Payard. “This will put a lot of people through the door.”

• To meet demand. Crab Landing Seafood & Steakhouse in Half Moon Bay, Calif., is one month old. Owner Andrei Soen says there’s demand since “a lot of people want to check out a new restaurant.” It will be open Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Fenicci’s of Hershey, of Hershey, Pa., has never been open on Christmas. It will this year, says owner Phil Guarno, “because the area demands it.”

The transition from vice president of marketing at a software firm to running three restaurants isn’t a typical career path, but it’s proved to be a fruitful one for Laurie Thomas. Lured into software by an opportunity to manage people, she found that an introduction to the restaurant industry led to a new career.

Thomas earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in industrial engineering and later, after earning an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, she moved to Silicon Valley and worked her way up the ranks of several software companies, including Fulltime Software and Successfactors.com.

She’d always wanted to do work that allowed her to teach other people, and at each software firm she built on that responsibility. In her eight-year career, she became a turnaround specialist – repackaging and relaunching failing companies. But, she says, “the traditional marketing aspect of my job wasn’t exciting.”

It was 1995 when the door to her second-act career opened. A friend introduced Thomas to Reed Hearon, a chef who was arranging funding for the soon-to-be-launched San Francisco restaurant Rose Pistola, operated by Hearon’s Nice Ventures. As she got to know Hearon, she knew she wanted to be involved and invested $200,000. Over the next three years, she invested in two more of his restaurants.

Then, when Hearon asked her to help sort out some financial challenges the restaurants faced in 2001, Thomas realized that she was using the base of skills she’d developed in software – evaluating business plans, marketing and managing people – in an area that she had grown to love. “The closer I got to the restaurants, the more I realized it was a perfect fit,” she says. She purchased the company and became its CEO and owner the following year.

Thomas, 42, says she has tried to create a different kind of work environment than what’s typically experienced in restaurants, even though it’s costlier. “I don’t believe in an 80-hour workweek, so we carry two extra managers on staff so that we can target 40 hours a week for each employee,” she says. She also sets financial targets that she shares with her staff, and pays out bonuses when the company meets its goals “so that the people actually making the business a success are sharing in the profit.” Nice Ventures now has three restaurants and a booth at a popular farmer’s market.

There is a downside to this approach. “At the end of the day, I’m responsible for the well-being of my staff,” she says. That means she makes payroll even if – as happened after Sept. 11, 2001 – she has to write checks from her personal account.

The current economic environment has been tough, says Thomas. “People are cutting back on dining out, and ingredients are steadily increasing in cost,” she says. “We’re trying to run things as tightly as possible, but we have had to pass some price increases.”

Still, Ms. Thomas says her personality is well-suited to the restaurant industry. In both careers, she has relied on her personal and operational management skills, as well as her ability to coach her staff.

Thomas earns less than if she’d stayed in a software firm, but she has an equity stake. The love of the job keeps her going, she says: “On any given day, I could do 10 different things, which keeps me interested.”

Steve Wynn's new restaurant, Encore, which opens Dec. 22 in Las Vegas, is a tribute to his late friend, the legendary Frank Sinatra, shown in a 1995 photo.

LAS VEGAS – Steve Wynn is having a ball as he prepares to open his newest joint, mostly because it’s bringing back memories of Frank Sinatra that date back 30 years when “The Chairman of the Board” and the young entrepreneur forged a friendship out of a business relationship.

Track by track, song by song, the casino billionaire shows himself to be a formidable historian as he talks about a former vocal coach who trained Ol’ Blue Eyes to sing lower notes, and rattles off names of songwriters, arrangers and musicians who composed the details of the entertainer’s career.

The singer’s name and much of his personal memorabilia will grace a Sinatra-themed Italian restaurant when Wynn’s latest resort-casino, Encore, next week in Las Vegas.

“I didn’t plan on it, but voila,” Wynn said as he sat at a table in his executive office with Oscar, Grammy and Emmy awards won by Sinatra. In 1953 Sinatra received an Academy Award for his supporting role in “From Here to Eternity.”

“To me, that Oscar and what it stands for in Frank’s life, is as priceless as anything that I’ve ever witnessed and I’ve seen the Mona Lisa and the Statue of David,” said Wynn, the chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd.

Wynn, 66, has become a steward of his old pal’s legacy as he prepares to open the $2.3 billion Encore on Dec. 22. The resort was planned in 2005, but Wynn and the Sinatra family agreed to the collaboration just two months ago.

“This isn’t simply some Italian eatery somewhere with a picture of Sinatra on the menu and some bologna,” Wynn said after skipping through a four-hour disc of Sinatra cuts with never-released audio of the crooner introducing most tunes. “This is the real deal.”

Tina Sinatra, Frank Sinatra’s youngest daughter, said the family had rejected similar plans from 12 restaurateurs previously. Some of the ideas she squashed herself, she said.

“It was always more of a difficult decision than anything I’ve ever had to consider, really,” said Tina Sinatra, 60.

But she said Sinatra the restaurant exists because the family believes Wynn truly cares about their father.

“He loves him,” she said. “He was his friend and he loves and protects us.”

Wynn and Sinatra worked together and were friends in the early 80s, when Sinatra sang for Wynn at the Golden Nugget hotel-casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J. Wynn was in his early 40s, Sinatra was in his 60s.

“I ended up being his friend because he said ‘Steve does everything right. The kid pays attention. I like that,’ ” Wynn said. “I wasn’t his son, I was too young to be his crony – that was Dean (Martin) – I didn’t run with Frank or chase girls with Frank or anything like that.”

The public caught glimpses of the pair’s relationship through a series of humorous commercials promoting the Nugget casinos. Wynn was usually the butt of jokes, treated as a bellhop or other low-level employee by Sinatra.

“It was hijinks, which was very Sinatra-ish. If you’re secure enough to act silly, then you must be OK,” Wynn said.

The first commercial, filmed on Wynn’s 41st birthday for the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, features Wynn on the casino floor talking about the place being a dream casino to run when he is interrupted by Sinatra.

“Hey kid, which way’s the showroom?” Sinatra says.

Wynn points in silence and Sinatra responds, pinching Wynn’s cheek: “That way? You’re all right, baby.”

As Sinatra walks away, Wynn mouths the word “baby,” with a slight wince.

Wynn says the popular gag that led to a string of 14 commercials might have never happened if Sinatra hadn’t been boiling mad the night of the filming. Wynn never planned to be in the spot, it was supposed to be all Sinatra.

But Sinatra was upset because he had been denied credit in the casino to play baccarat. New Jersey gambling laws required him to be preapproved, Wynn said. An employee denied Sinatra the chips and the entertainer was left steaming for 20 minutes before Wynn was informed.

“He was sitting up in the dressing room . . . and I said ‘Are you ready?’ He said, ‘I am not yet cold,’ meaning ‘I am still hot,’ ” Wynn said.

Sinatra delivered the spot as written, but the producers felt his delivery didn’t work, Wynn said.

So they ad-libbed the other version, and Wynn later took both to Sinatra to see which he thought was better. Wynn said Sinatra was a harsh self-critic.

“He says, ‘The spot with me is icy, I don’t like it,’ ” Wynn said. “He says, ‘There’s no warmth in it. The one with you and I is sort of cute, funny gag.’ ”

After that, Sinatra started getting calls from friends who enjoyed the first commercial, so he asked Wynn to make more, telling him “don’t let it get stale.”

Wynn said the spots showed how Sinatra felt responsibility for the Nugget, where he earned money from performing and stock options.

“He didn’t like just being a singer,” Wynn said.

That led to Wynn and Sinatra traveling around the country and abroad to host parties, timed around Sinatra’s performances in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Wynn said he and Sinatra weren’t as close after Wynn sold the Atlantic City Golden Nugget and moved on to design The Mirage and other hotel-casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

Wynn said they kept in touch occasionally, and he attended Sinatra’s funeral in 1998.

“I thought that was it,” Wynn said. Bringing back the memories of Sinatra has been a bonus he never expected, he said.

The restaurant was originally going to be named Theo’s, after executive chef Theo Schoenegger, who is well-known in culinary circles as executive chef of Patina at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Schoenegger said he’s not sure other chefs would have been happy to back away from their own signature restaurant, but he thinks the change will bring more customers and challenge him as a chef. Not all fans will be fine diners, but the place aims to be a high-class destination.

“I need to create food that everybody likes,” said Schoenegger, who shares the singer’s birthday, Dec. 12.

The space itself, tucked in a corner of the resort near the high limit tables and VIP check-in, channels Sinatra through his memorabilia. There are large photos of him in the dining room, bar and leading into the kitchen, and another of Sinatra and Wynn together in a private room known as the Chairman’s Room.

Wynn said when he picked up the memorabilia from Sinatra’s family in Los Angeles, he brought it back to his office and was instantly reminded of his old friend.

“I got the Oscar in my lap, I lit up a cigar and I turned on Sinatra, and I was by myself at 9 o’clock at night I was sitting here I was about to cry I was so happy,” he said.

Wynn says a Sinatra steakhouse might be included in the company’s planned $700 million Macau Encore in the Chinese gambling enclave. He said he and Sinatra’s family want to build it to continue sharing Sinatra’s music and life with the world.

“The children and I are in our 60s. The calendar and the clock – the chronology – is running on all of us,” Wynn said. “Frank and Dean are gone, and Sammy – but these memories and these relationships were real.”

———

On the Web

Encore Las Vegas: www.encorelasvegas.com

PHILADELPHIA – The city that invented that monument to gluttony, the cheesesteak, is ordering something new for the menu: one of the strongest restaurant labeling laws in the nation.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on Thursday signed a bill that orders most chain restaurants to display calorie, fat and other information.

Nutter signed the bill at the Center for Obesity Research Education at Temple University.

Gary Foster, the center’s director, spoke in favor of it before its 12-5 passage by City Council last month. Some people don’t want to face reality while dining out, but, for many, that information “might be very valuable,” Foster said this week.

The law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2010, and follows similar legislation in New York City, California and elsewhere.

The Philadelphia ordinance applies to restaurant chains – including coffee shops, ice cream parlors and convenience stores – with a total of 15 or more stores, whether in the city or elsewhere. It will require their outlets in the city to tell customers about calories, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates and sodium.

Because it covers more items and has fewer exemptions, it is stronger than laws passed in other places so far, according to Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“This is one of the few places in people’s diets where in a split-second decision they can save hundreds, even thousands, of calories,” Wootan said.

Wawa Inc., a regional convenience store chain, will post the information on in-store menus, and perhaps even on the touch screens customers use to place their orders.

“The advantage of getting it on the screen is people could add up all those (sandwich) components,” spokeswoman Lori Bruce said.

Most of the city’s famed cheesesteak joints are standalone shops or small chains and won’t be subject to the labeling requirements.

But cheesesteak fans who go to Quiznos, for example, will learn the ugly truth: According to its Web site, a large cheesesteak – prime rib, Swiss cheese, sautéed onions and mayonnaise on bread – has 910 calories, 32 grams of fat and 2,400 milligrams of sodium. The company notes that it has several small sandwiches with less than 500 calories.

Ray Wallen, 58, of Philadelphia, has lost nearly 70 pounds this year through the Temple obesity program. His Type 2 diabetes is now “almost nonexistent” and his high blood pressure has moderated.

Wallen equates the nutrition labels to the health warnings on cigarettes.

“You can read them if you want, you can ignore them or not,” Wallen said. “But it will be nice to have.”

But Chris Coloracci, 46, thinks the city should keep out of the kitchen. Coloracci debated the new law with a co-worker Wednesday as he left a downtown deli.

“People will turn around and blame the restaurants for serving crap that they shouldn’t be eating,” he said. “It will be like any other government thing that will be more expensive than it’s worth.”

Philadelphia, once labeled the fattest city in the land by Men’s Fitness magazine, is known for its love of unhealthy foods. Along with cheesesteaks and salt-laden soft pretzels, it has come to embrace an extreme chicken-wing-eating contest known as Wing Bowl. Upwards of 20,000 spectators turn out for the midwinter food orgy.

NEW YORK – If you’re dreading the next time you’re forced to grab a meal at an airport, take heart. Foodandwine.com is recommending eateries at 10 U.S. airports at www.foodandwine.com/articles/ airport-dining-guide.

The recommendations are:

• JFK (N.Y.) International Airport: JetBlue Terminal 5 has nine new places to dine, including Aeronuova;

• Los Angeles: Try mushroom ravioli with grilled asparagus at Encounter Restaurant or sandwiches from La Brea Bakery at terminals 1, 2 and 7;

• San Francisco: Perry’s (Terminal 1, Gate 42);

• Logan in Boston: Legal Sea Foods Test Kitchen (Terminal B);

• Miami: Try the Cubano pork sandwich (La Carreta, Terminal D);

• Denver: brews from New Belgium Hub (Concourse B gate area);

• Washington Dulles: burgers and fries at Five Guys (terminals A – gate 3 – and B – gate 71);

• Philadelphia: Chickie’s & Pete’s crab house (Terminal A);

• Dallas/Fort Worth: smoked brisket, ribs, sausage and pinto beans at Cousin’s (terminals D – gate 28 – and B – gate 27);

• Charlotte (N.C.) Douglas: Yadkin Valley Wine Bar (between terminals D and E).

Encore in Las Vegas plans

restaurant named Sinatra

LAS VEGAS – Fans of Frank Sinatra will get a kick out of a new Italian restaurant planned for the Las Vegas Strip.

Casino mogul Steve Wynn tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal that a restaurant at Encore, his newest resort, will be named Sinatra.

Wynn says the singer’s family has loaned him Sinatra’s Oscar and Grammy Awards, which will be featured prominently in the restaurant.

He says Paul Anka has promised the gold record that he won for writing the English lyrics for “My Way,” which Anka wrote with Sinatra in mind.

Encore is scheduled to open Dec. 22.

Famous NYC food critic

loses job in sour economy

NEW YORK – One of New York City’s most famous food critics is out of a job.

New York magazine confirmed Thursday that Gael Greene – known for her flamboyant hats and influential opinions – is no longer working for the publication.

Magazine spokeswoman Lauren Starke says that in a “tightening economy, our company is simply no longer able to support four separate restaurant critics.” Three other critics remain.

There was no immediate response to an e-mail sent to Greene.

Greene was the magazine’s chief restaurant critic from 1968 to 2002. After that, she wrote a weekly column called “Insatiable Critic.”

Starke says Greene’s last review ran in Monday’s issue.

St. Louis bids farewell

to local A-B ownership

ST. LOUIS – Few American cities are as closely linked to a company as St. Louis is to Anheuser-Busch, making for a difficult day for some here when Belgium-based InBev closed its $52 billion buyout of the brewer.

The Anheuser-Busch-InBev combination completed earlier this month creates the largest beer company in the world, and one of the top five consumer product companies.

The brewer employs about 5,700 people in the St. Louis area and pays roughly $32 million in state and local taxes and fees. The city will remain InBev’s North American headquarters.

The company said in a statement that it has not made any additional changes to its work force, adding that “InBev has affirmed its commitment to the community.”

Brewery tours that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the red-brick Anheuser-Busch complex in the Soulard neighborhood are expected to continue, as are symbols long associated with the brewery, like its famed teams of Clydesdale horses.

Robert Archibald, president of the Missouri Historical Society, said he has heard people are worried about “the loss of one of the last St. Louis icons,” but he thought the city’s strengths will allow it to “do just fine.”

Brewing has historically been an important industry in St. Louis, brought about by waves of German immigrants who came to the region before the Civil War. Beer, which would not have been pasteurized at the time, was often stored underground in area caves to keep it cold.

Anheuser-Busch had its roots in the Bavarian brewery, which Eberhard Anheuser acquired in 1860. His son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, in 1864 joined the company that would later become Anheuser-Busch.

There used to be dozens of breweries in St. Louis, but Archibald noted Anheuser-Busch developed its reputation through its marketing genius.

In St. Louis, the brewery’s name is commonplace, glowing on signs at Busch Stadium where the baseball Cardinals play and marking the business’ many corporate sponsorships of area programs and events.

In Archibald’s view, there was a certain inevitability that the long-standing business, closely associated with a family, would change into a larger company and operate on a global scale.

But all the economic realities in the world can’t sway St. Louis residents, for whom the loss of local A-B ownership feels personal.

“It’s kind of a shame we’re losing local control of it, but I expect I’ll still like the beer,” said Jerry Venverloh, 85. He and classmates from his 1937 graduating class from Our Lady of Sorrows elementary school gathered there for lunch.

Venverloh said he expects changes will come to the brewery in St. Louis, including a reduction in jobs, now that the deal is complete.

“In my working life, I’ve been in situations where new owners come in, and say they’ll keep everything the same. Six months later, everything changes,” he said.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the company’s chief executive, Carlos Brito, phoned him Tuesday afternoon. Brito said he and a team of employees will spend several months making changes at Anheuser-Busch, but Slay sounded a positive note.

“Closing the Anheuser-Busch InBev deal, of course, means that thousands of St. Louisans will now be sharing one of the largest infusions of wealth into this region in our history,” Slay said in a statement. “Given the state of the national economy, it probably could not come at a better time.”

If your next fast-food order at the drive-thru has the right food in the right bag you may have something rather surprising to thank: the bad economy.

Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, says that over the past six months, Carl’s Jr.’s 478 locations in Southern California in particular have been able to recruit crew members more fluent in English, and thus able to process drive-thru orders more accurately.

That’s because, with layoffs on the rise, particularly in hard-hit Southern California, the chain can be more selective in hiring.

“When times are tough, people are willing to take jobs for which they’re over-qualified,” says fast-food researcher Bob Sandelman.

At drive-thrus, botched orders are the No. 1 problem, says QSR Magazine editor Sherri Daye Scott.

“Speed is less important to consumers than getting orders right,” Scott says.

QSR does an annual ranking on order accuracy.

QSR’s statistics show Carl’s accuracy clearly is improving – up to 93.6 percent in the QSR study conducted this spring versus 89.3 percent in the accuracy study it conducted in spring of 2007. When QSR did its research in 2007, “language barrier” was an issue for 3.8 percent of its drive-thru purchases at Carl’s versus to 1.2 percent this spring.

Carl’s is not hiring fewer Latinos or other minorities – those numbers are the same, Puzder says. But it is hiring more crew members with more skills. “I can’t believe this is unique to Carl’s,” he adds. “We’re all hiring from the same labor pool.”

Also, he notes, employee turnover is down as folks hang onto jobs.

Denny Lynch, a Wendy’s spokesman, says the chain “intuitively” sees what Puzder means. Wendy’s turnover is down, and it is seeing “an improved quantity and quality” of job seekers.

“With a larger labor pool of applicants to choose from, we are able to more efficiently fill positions with qualified candidates,” says Deborah Martin, a rep for Burger King.

Executives at the League of United Latin American Citizens say they want to be sure Hispanics have fair opportunities, but they see the effects of the economy. “The importance of language skills varies job to job,” says Darryl Morin, a LULAC director. “With the expanding labor pool, you’re able to find candidates with better training.”

———

BEST, WORST FOR ACCURACY

Carl’s ranked seventh with 93.6 percent in accuracy in 2008.

Top five best and worst drive-thrus for order accuracy:

Chick-fil-A: 97.1 percent

Church’s: 82.5 percent

Culver’s: 95.2 percent

Popeyes: 84.2 percent

Del Taco: 95.1 percent

Bojangles’: 85.6 percent

Jack In The Box: 94.8 percent

Whataburger: 87.0 percent

Krystal: 94.6 percent

Dairy Queen: 87.4 percent

Source: QSRz

NEW YORK – The original Carvel shop served its last cones Sunday, more than seven decades after becoming the suburban New York birthplace of an ice cream empire.

Customers flocked to the 1950s-style store in Hartsdale, about 25 miles north of Manhattan, snapping photos and lamenting the shutdown, owner Abdol Faghihi said. Even as the doors were closing around 10:30 p.m., a last-minute customer rushed in for two cones, he said.

The shop, which the owner said had struggled with rising taxes and other expenses, was shuttered to make way for a new restaurant.

“I’m sad that it ends, but at the same time I’m happy that it was a good thing I did in life,” said Faghihi, who bought the franchise more than 20 years ago.

Tucson’s only Carvel opened in late 2006 at 1150 N. Silverbell Road.

Original plans envisioned the possibility of maintaining a small Carvel shop on the Central Avenue property, but Faghihi said the redevelopment was scaled back during as the owners sought local government approvals. He and a partner bought the property from the Yonkers-based Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation for about $3.5 million two years ago.

Tom Carvel’s ice cream truck got a flat tire on Central Avenue in 1934. He was forced to pull over and did such brisk business that he opened an ice cream stand on the spot two years later.

The brand became famous for its soft-serve swirls and ice cream cakes with such themes as Fudgie the Whale and Cookie Puss, promoted in television commercials the founder did himself before his death in 1990. The Atlanta-based company’s products are now sold in more than 500 Carvel stores and 8,500 supermarkets nationwide.

A Carvel corporate spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a telephone call Sunday about the original store’s closing.

Faghihi runs two other Carvel stores in nearby communities. He said the venerable brand still sells well, but mounting expenses squeezed profits at the sizable Central Avenue store.

Customers on its final weekend were sad but understanding, Faghihi said.

“They all say that, well, the economy dictates what we do,” he said.

He planned to sell off some machinery at an auction at the store Monday.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Jerry Grubb cares so deeply about the future of his former diner that he is offering to give away the 1950s-style restaurant for free.

He has one stipulation: The new owner must move it and reopen it.

Locals called it the end of an era when Grubb’s Diner shut its doors last year to make way for a pharmacy. Grubb, the manager and cook for 52 years, decided it was time to hang up his spatula, but he didn’t have the heart to demolish the restaurant.

Instead, he dismantled it and paid a moving company to haul the 68-foot-long silver diner a mile up the road from its original location in the central Pennsylvania town of Huntingdon. It now sits on two flatbed trailers, empty except for the original light fixtures, booths and bar.

David Zinczenko was not surprised by the report this month that found most kids meals at popular chain restaurants are far too high in calories.

“There’s a lot more that needs to be done to get smart and healthful choices at restaurants for kids,” says Zinczenko, best-selling author of “Eat This, Not That! For Kids!” with Matt Goulding.

The book offers color photos of good and not-so-good choices at fast-food and chain restaurants, as well as comparisons of processed and home-cooked foods.

It’s a natural sequel to “Eat This, Not That!” which has been in the top 150 books on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list for 34 weeks.

His new book comes on the heels of a report from the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest, which found that some children’s meals contain more than 1,000 calories, almost as many as some kids need for the entire day.

Children eat an average of 167 restaurant meals in a year, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.

Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men’s Health magazine, and his colleagues singled out the kids offerings at the most popular chain restaurants. When kids meals weren’t available – or the choices weren’t very good – he selected items from the regular menu.

“A lot of times the adult menu was better than all the beige items being served to kids – french fries, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese,” Zinczenko says.

Some of the “Eat This” choices may not suit nutrition-conscious parents. For instance, he recommends fried chicken strips from KFC, a breaded Pepper Pals corn dog with mashed potatoes from Chili’s, and onion rings with a Whopper Jr. from Burger King.

Not exactly health food.

Sometimes “it comes down to the lesser of several evils,” he says. “The average American driving down the highway doesn’t have any place that offers a wide variety of low-calorie, highly nutritious foods.

“Our goal isn’t to advocate or legitimize any fast-food diet but rather to help families make the smartest decision possible in any given eating situation including the rather grim ones that many chain restaurants offer.”

Some rankings from the book:

• Worst kids meal: Chili’s Pepper Pals country-fried chicken crispers with ranch dressing and home-style fries: 1,100 calories, 82 grams of fat, 1,980 milligrams of sodium. Instead, try Pepper Pals grilled chicken platter with cinnamon apples: 350 cal, 11 g fat, 870 mg sodium.

• Worst dessert: Uno Chicago Grill’s kids sundae: 840 cal, 36 g fat, no sodium listed. Instead, try fat-free kids slush: 140 cal.

• Worst Mexican meal: On the Border’s kids beef soft taco Mexican dinner with rice and refried beans: 840 cal, 35 g fat, 2,760 mg sodium. Instead, try kids grilled chicken with black beans: 310 cal, 9 g fat, 1,230 mg sodium.

“The best part of the book is the section about menu options at chain restaurants,” says Keith Ayoob works with overweight children and their families at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “Parents can take this book with them when they go out to dinner.

“But some information in the processed-food section seems ill-advised. For instance, the book says, ‘Get your kids hooked on dark chocolate at an early age.’ I don’t think that’s something parents want to do.”

He points out another section – “11 foods that cure” – where the authors sound more like they’re giving medical advice. He cites their suggestion of using clove oil to treat kids’ toothaches.

“For toothaches, kids may need dental attention, not something out of the pantry,” Ayoob says.

Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, was in charge of the recent report on kids meals, says the book’s readability and abundant tips can help parents “in our junk-food culture.”

“Until restaurants stop keeping parents in the dark about the nutritional quality of their offerings and start listing calories on the menu,” she says, “this book can help parents find substitutions that can save a significant number of calories.”

By USA Today, Nanci Hellmich

NEW YORK – Looking to entice those hungry for a healthier option, Dunkin’ Donuts is offering a new slate of better-for-you offerings.

The menu, which debuted in stores Aug. 6, features two new flatbread sandwiches made with egg whites. Customers may choose either a turkey sausage egg-white sandwich or a vegetable one. Both are less than 300 calories with 9 grams of fat or less, the company said.

The new DDSmart menu has all old and new items that either have 25 percent few calories, sugar, fat or sodium than comparable products or contain ingredients that are “nutritionally beneficial,” the company said.

“We just felt it was important to provide some choice in our menu,” said Will Kussell, its president and chief brand officer.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Restaurant chains Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and stores owned by its parent company will shut their doors.

The companies owned by privately held Metromedia Restaurant Group of Plano, Texas, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in the Eastern District of Texas, less than two months after Metromedia said it was not preparing to do so.

Bennigan’s one Tucson location, 350 S. Freeway Road (882-7701) is now The Terrace Grill. It’s adjacent to Riverpark Inn.

The companies owned by privately held Metromedia Restaurant Group of Plano, Texas, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in the Eastern District of Texas, less than two months after Metromedia said it was not preparing to do so.

In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing, a company seeks to liquidate its assets and shut down.

Locations owned by franchisees were not part of the bankruptcy filing and will not be shut down, said Larry Briski, president of the Bennigan’s Franchise Operator Association.

“They will be open today, tomorrow and months and years to come,” Briski said of the franchise locations.

He said there are about 160 domestic and international franchise locations and about 150 company-owned Bennigan’s restaurants.

Meanwhile, employees at what appeared to be a company-owned Bennigan’s in Plano, Texas, were greeted by a sign Tuesday on the front door reading “WE ARE CLOSED. THANK YOU.” Next door, a Steak & Ale sat empty in a deserted parking lot but there was no sign posted.

A waiter named Steve, who wouldn’t give his last name, said the staff got a phone call Tuesday morning telling them the restaurant was closing.

Neither Bennigan’s nor the Metromedia Restaurant Group returned calls for comment. A lawyer listed in the filing, J. Michael Sutherland of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal LLP, did not return a call.

According to a recorded message on the law firm’s answering system, not all stores using the Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale trade names have filed for bankruptcy and some franchise locations were not included in the filing.

The filing lists 38 separate entities that it classified as “debtors” but does not include a list of locations that are shutting down.

All restaurants have been struggling as consumers cut back on discretionary spending to better deal with high gas prices, the weak housing market and inflation. The hardest hit have been casual dining chains and bar and grill restaurants, which charge higher prices than fast food and other quick-service chains.

Bar and grill restaurants have also suffered from intense competition. Morningstar analyst John Owens said several chains expanded quickly, making it more difficult for customers to differentiate between them and forcing many companies to cut prices to lure diners.

“Bennigan’s was the weakest of the major players,” Owens said.

Meanwhile, commodity costs have soared, forcing chains to either raise menu prices or see profits plunge.

Credit has also been tight, making it difficult for companies to restructure their debt.

In June, Metromedia Restaurants said it was formulating a proposal to present to its lenders to restructure its debt, but said it was not preparing to file for bankruptcy.

In the filing, the company indicated that it has up to 49 creditors and owes less than $50,000. It said it will have no funds left after administrative expenses are paid to repay its creditors.

The news appeared to be a shock to most of the company’s employees, but some may have had an inkling that the company was not doing well.

Steve, the Bennigan’s waiter in Plano, said he recently went from making $30 on a good lunch shift to only $10.

“Business has been slow,” said Steve, who said he relies on tips. “I went from making a lot of money on a shift to making very little.

Neither Bennigan’s nor the Metromedia Restaurant Group returned calls for comment.