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.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com talks to Geoff Henry, president of bubble tea brand Gong Cha.

"The bubble tea category has been around for quite some time," Henry said in the podcast. "It kind of started back in Asia, typically in Taiwan in the early 1990s. Taiwan is known for its night markets where people can walk around and try different food cuisines that are up and coming."

Gong Cha is in 27 countries around the world. To learn more about Gong Cha's focus on quality, its employees and customers, click the link above.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler, editor of Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb, talks to Tom Gordon, CEO of Slim Chickens. The brand launched in 2003, has more than 280 units and is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

"We open about a store a week," Gordon said. "We do 50 to 60 domestic stores every year, and we do international stores every year, too. We do business in the U.K., and 54 of those stores are in the U.K."

The brand recently opened its first store in Berlin as well.

Gordon said the food is the hero at Slim Chickens, and is paramount to the brand's success as it grows.

"The food has to be the thing that draws people in," he said.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler interviews Rob McColgan, brand president and co-founder of Modern Market Eatery, at the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit about how the brand has evolved since its launched in 2009 in Boulder, Colorado. The brand now has just over 30 units in six states.

McColgan admits launching a brand was more difficult than he and his partner thought, "but we were passionate about eating well, and we felt like there wasn't a brand out there — certainly not at scale — where we felt like we could eat at every day," he said.

In this episode of the Restaurant Operator Podcast, host Mandy Detwiler talks to Amanda Millikan, vice president of chicken chain Bonchon. Millikan oversees the growth strategy for the United States and has been with the company for a year and a half.

The Korean fried chicken brand has been in the U.S. since 2006. The chicken is double fried and hand brushed, making it a standout in the competitive chicken market. "It's amazing and addictive, but then we also have Korean comfort food dishes to complement our fried chicken. It's very approachable to the American palate," Millikan said.

The brand has 137 locations in the United States and 445 globally.

The food truck industry isn't an easy one. Food truck operators need capital to get a truck, get it set up for food production, get branding set up and more. That's not to mention meeting all regulatory rules and finding the best place to park. And lastly, they need to be able to generate a customer base willing to follow their trucks and purchase their food. How can food trucks generate profits in light of all of this?

Bradley Cooper, editor of Food Truck Operator, spoke with Chris Ruff, CEO and president of Glympse Inc. to discuss more about how food trucks can generate profits, with a particular focus on location tracking in today's episode of the Restaurant Operator podcast.

In order to create a loyal customer base, food trucks need to communicate their location clearly with guests, especially when they are constantly moving around to different events and locations. During the podcast, Ruff shared insights including:

• Business insights from Glympse.
• How Glympse' location tracking services can help food trucks.
• What makes it different from Google.
• Success stories with clients.