Many thousands of restaurants around the country close every year, from fast-food outlets to acclaimed fine-dining venues. It’s the nature of the business. Rising rents, legal struggles of various kinds, and changing tastes all…
On June 24, auto industry review site J.D. Power released its annual Initial Quality Study (IQS) for 2020. The survey, which measures the number of reported problems new vehicle owners experience within the first…
Virtually every cuisine around the world has a tradition of enclosing sweet and/or savory ingredients in dough of some kind — Spain and Latin America with their empanadas, China with its dumplings and baos,…
It’s human nature (and makes good sense) to stock up on necessities as natural disasters like hurricanes or blizzards approach. It’s hardly surprising, then, that people also did exactly that as the pandemic approached,…
With the coronavirus pandemic shattering case records, local government officials are rolling out a patchwork of restrictions on social distancing and gatherings. Public health experts advise us to stay home as much as possible,…
November has brought mixed messages about the fate of the American restaurant industry in the coming months. A report by capital market company BTIG suggests that the situation is “less dire” than has been…
The Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, or the CMAs, are one of country music’s most distinguished events. Along with recognizing the talents of specific artists, songs, and music videos, members of the CMA honor…
In 1896, the highest peak in North America was named Mount McKinley after presidential candidate William McKinley, who’d never once set foot in Alaska. There was only one problem — the mountain already had…
Thousands of years before Leif Erikson and Christopher Columbus arrived in North America, a different group of people came to the continent. While there are different theories as to how people first came to…
For some, breakfast is the favorite meal of the day. It’s no wonder; going without food for 12+ hours can leave a person feeling a bit famished. But waking up to an incessant grumbling…
For most of us, turkey is a Thanksgiving essential, even more definitive of the holiday than cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. Some of us insist on fresh birds, perhaps bought at a farmers market…
Names are meant to describe and distinguish one place or person from another. While long names might be unique and better differentiate a place — take the Welsh village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, for example —…
Even though restaurants across the nation are now permitted (at least provisionally) to serve indoors — with customer limits ranging from 25% to 100% of their total seating capacity and with social distancing rules…
No segment of the pandemic-battered food service industry seems immune to the financial devastation that has resulted in thousands upon thousands of restaurants nationwide closing their doors permanently. While a small number of fast…
Over the past 100 years, we’ve witnessed some of the most profound changes in human history. Between a pandemic, wars, technological developments, progress in civil rights, and breakthroughs in science and medicine, the old…
Years ago, most packaged supermarket coffee — nearly always pre-ground — was sold under such brand names as Folgers, Maxwell House, Yuban, Hills Bros., Eight O’Clock, and Chock Full o’Nuts. More recently, though, smaller…
Some 96% of the restaurants surveyed around the country in July by industry newsletter Restaurant Dive reported that they required their employees to wear masks while working. Many supermarket chains had similar rules in…
When cities and states around the country began imposing lockdowns and closing places of business in March, most restaurateurs probably assumed that they’d be taking only a temporary break. With that in mind, many…
Spending as much time as possible outdoors has become synonymous with staying healthy, especially in the age of COVID-19 (as Americans are being urged to exercise out in the open air to prevent infection-optional).…
Americans love beer. In 2018, we quaffed about 6.3 billion gallons of it in all, which works out to an average of roughly 26.2 gallons per adult of drinking age (not that adults of…
