Restaurants

Subway has passed McDonald’s in number of restaurants and is on pace to add 2,000 North American locations this year alone. Among the “alternative” locations with Subway stores is a construction site at the World Trade Center near Ground Zero; as the building rises, so does the restaurant. Subway also has locations at a Jeep assembly plant in Ohio, an auto showroom in California, a church in upstate New York, a high school in Detroit and a tanning salon in Wisconsin.

Among Subway’s rivals, Wendy’s/Arby’s Restaurants has made plans to spin off Arby’s, and Darden is spending $350 million to refurbish its 700-unit Red Lobster group even as it spends money to grow the smaller Longhorn Steakhouse chain. Burger King will lower the number of company-owned units to well under 10 percent as it proceeds with licensing the locations to franchisees.

YUM! Brands’ Taco Bell scored big after a lawsuit alleging the chain misled consumers about the amount of beef in its tacos was withdrawn sans settlement, changes in menu recipes or alterations to advertising. YUM! also is in the process of shedding its A&W and Long John’s Silver units.

Starbucks has put on a new face by, among other things, revising its logo to remove both the word “coffee” and the Starbucks name. “Even though we have been and always will be a coffee company and retailer, it’s possible we’ll have other products with our name on it and no coffee in it,” says Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.