Can EV charging and menu innovation put a jolt in restaurant foot traffic? How did full-service restaurants fare in 2024? Answers to these questions and more This Week in Foodservice.

Bojangles begin to rollout EV charging stations in the fourth quarter of 2025.With electric vehicles becoming more prominent, some restaurant chains see an opportunity to use this trend to literally help drive traffic to their locations.

Take, for example, Bojangles. The Southern-themed, quick-service restaurant chain plans to install electric vehicle charging stations at a variety of locations. The charging stations will vary between level two (medium) and level three (high) speed charging efficiency with more than 97% uptime, per a release. Bojangles will install a minimum of four charging spots per restaurant.

The rollout of EV charging stations at Bojangles will begin in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Foodservice News

• Smoothie King received a minority investment from private-equity firm Main Post Partners. This is not Main Post Partners’ first foray into the restaurant industry. Rather, it has worked with chains like Jimmy John’s and franchisees like Flynn Group.
• Lovers of the card game UNO may soon have a hospitality option just for them. The Palm Casino Resort in Las Vegas opened the first UNO Social Club, per this Newsweek story. Mattel, which owns UNO, plans to open more locations this year in “bars and venues in major U.S. cities.” In doing so, these UNO Social Clubs “will transform everyday hotspots into the ultimate game night destination with UNO-themed drink menus, tournament-style play, photo moments, and more."
• The universe of full-service chain restaurant locations shrank a bit in 2024, per data from Technomic reported by Restaurant Business. A total of 348 full-service locations affiliated with chains closed in 2024. This accounted for 1.3% of all the full-service locations on Technomic’s Top 500 ranking of the largest U.S. restaurant concepts. The bulk of those closures came from TGI Fridays, which closed 134 restaurants, and Red Lobster, which closed 131. Both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.
• Fast-casual restaurants remain an industry focal point for a variety of reasons, including their designs. As restaurant development + design points out, these restaurants combine style, speed and authenticity all under one roof. When paired with their high-quality food and beverages they offer, the allure becomes too great for consumers to ignore.
• Looking to avoid a hostile takeover, Jack in the Box has implemented a poison pill, per a Restaurant Dive story. Activist investor Biglari Capital has increased its holdings in Jack in the Box to 9.9%, leading to speculation that it is trying to take over the company or drive specific changes. The poison pill would function as a deterrent.
• US Foods has a healthy appetite for acquisitions. Last week, word spread the Illinois-based broadline distributor had shown an interest in acquiring Performance Food Group, also a broadliner. This rumor is notable for several reasons. First, the combination of US Foods and PFG would create the largest broadline distributor in the country, per a Restaurant Business story. Second, US Food has traveled this road before, but as the concept that was targeted for acquisition, when Sysco tried to buy it a few years back. That deal faced significant scrutiny from government regulators, which contributed to its demise. No doubt, this possible acquisition will likely face scrutiny from regulators, too, making it far from a done deal.
• Whitsons Culinary Group opened a culinary and production and distribution center. The 125,000-square-foot, Berkley, Ill.-based facility also serves as a contract feeder’s Midwest regional corporate office. The center will support Whitsons in making meals as well as introduce new product lines, including chef-crafted sauces, grains, and custom proteins, while maintaining the flexibility, consistency, and customization, per a company release.
• Looking to jumpstart consumer foot traffic, McDonald’s is leaning heavily into menu innovation, per a Nation’s Restaurant News story. The chain continues to develop new menu items that span multiple dayparts and McDonald’s is looking to cash in on the current beverage boom, as well.
• Cracker Barrel is attempting a balancing act that many restaurants must address. Notably, Cracker Barrel is trying to understand how to appeal to newer customers while not alienating its current core customer base, as this Food Institute story points out. As part of these efforts, Cracker Barrel has updated the interiors of its stores and even added more lighting.
• Hot dogs will fall from the sky at an upcoming professional baseball game. The Joliet Slammers plan to drop 2,600 hot dogs from a helicopter between innings of the team’s July 22 game. Why? To set a world record for most hot dogs dropped from the sky in an hour and to help Pabst launch its new light beer in “the most delicious way possible,” per a Slammers release.
• Is someone willing to pay more than $3,400 for a tavern-style pizza? One Chicago pizza operator hopes so. Crust Fund Pizza is set to auction off one pizza that includes such ingredients as caviar, Italian beef shaved from a 60-day dry-aged steak and giardiniera, per a Chicago Eater story. This is part of Crust Fund’s larger effort to raise money the Friendship Center, a Chicago food pantry. Crust Fund is rapidly approaching its goal of raising more than $100,000 for charity and hopes this special pie will push it past the finish line.

Economic News

• The Consumer Price Index increased 0.3% in June, which is 0.2% greater than in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Over the last 12 months, the CPI increased 2.7%. Food prices increased 0.3%, including a 0.3% increase for grocery prices and a 0.4% restaurant food prices. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, increased 2.9%. Some analysts attribute the larger-than-expected increase to the impact of the U.S. global trade war starting to take effect, per various published reports, including this one from the New York Times.
• Initial jobless claims decreased by 5,000 for a total of 227,000 for the week ending July 5, 2025, per data from the U.S. Department of Labor. This is the lowest level of initial claims in seven weeks, per various published reports. It also beat expectations, with many economists projecting initial claims would come in at 236,000. The 4-week moving average was 235,500, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week.