Dunkin’ Donuts plans 26 new California locations

Dunkin’ Donuts will continue its California expansion by building 26 new locations in San Francisco and Fresno, the operator said Monday.

The Canton, Mass.-based quick-service chain announced two deals with franchisees to build the new California units.

Aharon Aminpour, who has a location in Encino, Calif., plans to develop 17 locations in Fresno and the surrounding areas, including Clovis, Visalia and Tulare. Aminpour had previously signed a deal to build 10 locations in the San Fernando Valley.

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Shiva Developments has a deal to build nine locations in San Francisco. Shiva is owned by Nick Bhatt, who has a location in Springfield, Ill., and is heading west with his sister and brother-in-law, Disha and Yogesh Tivedi, to develop the locations.

The first restaurants under both of the deals are expected to open in 2017.

“We are thrilled these existing franchisees have chosen to expand their presence in the California market, and know these new restaurants will satisfy a growing consumer demand for Dunkin’ Donuts in the Fresno and San Francisco communities they will serve,” Grant Benson, vice president of global franchising and business development for Dunkin’ owner Dunkin’ Brands, said in a statement.

For Dunkin', the deals bring the number of locations the operator is planning to open in California to 275. California is a key market for the chain largely based on the East Coast.Dunkin' Donuts currently has California locations in Downey, Encino, Laguna Hills, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Modesto, Santa Ana, Santa Monica, Upland and Whittier.

The 65-year-old brand has more than 11,300 locations in 37 countries, including more than 8,000 units in the U.S., where it is the fourth largest restaurant chain based on unit count. Dunkin' Donuts has said that it could build as many as 17,000 locations in the U.S., but doing so will require it to continue to thrive in a place like California, where it says it can have as many as 1,000 locations.

Contact Jonathan Maze at jonathan.maze@penton.com

Follow him on Twitter: @jonathanmaze

Via: Restaurant News

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Far-Left Boston Globe Calls On Biden To Apologize For “Chains” Remarks…

When Vice President Joe Biden warned a Virginia rally of hundreds of African Americans that Republican efforts to loosen bank regulations meant “They’re going to put y’all back in chains,” Stephanie Cutter, Team Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said the president would have “no problem with those comments.”

But imagine if Republican Paul Ryan uttered comments like that. Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president would be pilloried for racial insensitivity — and so would Romney. In the fight for civility and substance over pointless hyperbole, Biden may not be the worst offender. But he’s an offender nonetheless, and he should apologize.

Biden has a history of making remarks that would rile up liberals if they were spoken by a conservative politician. Back in 2008, when Biden was running against Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, he had to apologize for saying, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

He once told an Indian American, “You can’t go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” During a January 2012 speech in New Hampshire, he briefly drifted into a foreign accent while imitating a Indian call center worker. At that same rally where he made the “back in chains” crack, Biden also imitated the sign language woman and said, “You’re gonna have trouble translating all this! That poor lady, she’s gonna have tendonitis by the time she finishes this.”

Liberals routinely dismiss Biden’s gaffes as the rhetorical excesses of an overly exuberant speaker — it’s “Joe being Joe.” And there can be something appealing about a politician who throws caution and the script that goes with it to the winds. Yet when conservative speakers get overly exuberant and cross a rhetorical line, they are presumed racist or culturally insensitive, rather than refreshingly free-spirited. One standard should apply.

Via: Boston Globe

Romney’s Bain saved site of Obamas’ first kiss

Bain Capital, the investment firm that Mitt Romney made famous, made a leveraged buyout that saved the site of Barack and Michelle Obamas’ first kiss.

In 2005, Bain and two other private equity firms purchased Dunkin’ Brands Incorporated for $2.425 billion, according to a 2006 company press release.

Dunkin’ Brands is the parent company of Baskin-Robbins, at whose Hyde Park, Chicago location the president and his future wife Michelle went on their first date — and shared their first lip lock.

President Obama took the first lady out on a date in 1989 when the two worked at the same Chicago law firm, according to a Chicago Tribune article.

A 3,000-pound granite boulder now occupies the corner of Dorchester and 53rd Street, outside the ice cream parlor, bearing a quote about the couple’s first date.

“On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb. I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate,” the inscription states.

In 2011, Dunkin’ Brands raised $400 million for its IPO, according to The Associated Press. The IPO allowed it to pay off most of its $475 million in high-interest debt.

Via: The Daily Caller

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