In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of QSRweb.com and PizzaMarketplace.com, chats with Scott Deviney, CEO of Chicken Salad Chick.

The brand was started by two entrepreneurs in Auburn with one making varieties of chicken salad out of her home. The first Chicken Salad Chick location opened in Jan. 2008 with drive-thru and carryout only. The founders made 40 pounds of chicken salad to sell, opened at 11 a.m. and by 1 p.m. were sold out.

"The business took off. It had a cult following," Deviney said. "Eventually they expanded that first location from just drive-thru and takeout."

Franchising began in 2012.

To learn more about Chicken Salad Chick, click the link above to listen to the podcast in its entirety.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Rush Bowls founder Andrew Pudalov, who started out in finance before trading dollar signs for menu items.

Pudalov said 9/11 was a trigger for leaving the financial world. His wife worked in the Twin Towers and her first day back from maternity leave was the day the towers came down. He moved his family to Boulder, Colorado, and looked for something "dynamically different," he said.

"I loved entrepreneurship and I was pretty darn good at what I did," he said, "so it afforded me the opportunity, quite frankly, to try something very different and kind of fine tune my skillsets."

He said living in Manhattan 20 years ago, there was little thought to health and wellness in the restaurant industry. He launched Rush Bowls in Boulder.

"When I started this idea of a meal concept, I wanted to go somewhere near a college where students would be more adept at testing and trying new things than a more mature clientele," Pudalov added.

To listen to Pudalov's journey as he launched Rush Bowls, click the link above.