News-press.com - Dallas-based Twin Peaks Restaurants signed a multi-unit development agreement to open four locations in Fort Myers, Sarasota, Naples and Bradenton over the next several years, with the first restaurant opening in Naples as early as next summer.

WARM Restaurants, based in Miami, will open all locations planned for Southwest Florida. The WARM group is led by Mexico City native and longtime Miami resident and restaurateur, Ricky Warman, who currently owns and operates 31 Papa John’s pizza restaurants in the Miami area, and two Genghis Grill locations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Continue

Now.msn.com - You can boil lobsters alive, but you can’t put them in an arcade-style claw-grabbing tank. That’s what the Carolina Ale House in Doral, Fla., discovered after diner Christina Fernandez took offense to the game, which allowed customers a chance to nab a lobster for $2. "The animals were swimming in filth," recalled Hernandez. "It was cruel and it was inhumane. When I was growing up those machines had stuffed animals." When she approached manager Andy Dunkes, he was receptive. "The last thing we want to do is offend anybody," he stated, and he's not only removed the claw tank but dropped lobsters from the menu. Fernandez's efforts on the behalf of tasty shellfish earned her a Lobster Defender award from PETA. And the gratitude, no doubt of the greater lobster community. Continue

Citizensvoice.com - McDonald's is fighting back.

The class-action lawsuit against a local McDonald's franchise for paying employees with debit cards has no merit because the pay method is legal and workers agreed to it when they were hired, attorneys for the company argue.

They also claim the lead plaintiff has no standing to bring the suit because she never activated the card or incurred any fees.

Attorneys for Albert and Carol Mueller, whose company owns 16 regional McDonald's restaurants, contend the payroll cards "are the functional equivalent of cash or checks" and that employees "consented to the conduct about which they complain."

The company recently filed its response to a class-action suit initiated by attorneys for Natalie Gunshannon, a 27-year-old from Dallas Township who briefly worked at the Shavertown McDonald's early this year. Her suit challenged the company's controversial practice of only paying employees with debit cards, which she said illegally burdened employees with fees for transactions. Continue

Newstfeed.time.com -First, babies weren’t allowed in first class. Now they’re being banned from some restaurants.

La Fisheria, a Mexican restaurant in Houston, Tex. is the latest eating establishment to put the kibosh on little munchkins who insist on wreaking havoc on fellow patrons. Starting this week, the restaurant will begin enforcing a rule that prohibits any child under the age of eight from dining at the establishment past 7 p.m.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/08/texas-restaurant-bans-kids-after-7-p-m/#ixzz2bTwRfViH

CBSnews.com - The life of a restaurant worker can be resemble the rhythm of a soldier at war, with long periods of boredom interrupted by moments of panic. Waves of customers can pour in all at once, sending kitchens into chaos. Patrons can be demanding, demeaning and cheap. Supervisors can be dismissive and petty.

Enter smartphones and social networking, which give wait staff, cooks, bartenders and hosts a global forum for expressing their frustration. But giving in to temptation often has a stiff price -- getting fired. Continue

WFTV.com -Downtown Orlando appears to be getting its groove back.

Although restaurants and bars have gone out of business in downtown Orlando, the vacant storefronts aren't staying empty for long.

Just a few years ago, a restaurant closing in downtown Orlando meant a vacancy of several years.

That is no longer the case. A good example is the newly opened Don Jefe's Tequila Parlour, formerly Antigua. Continue

AJC.com -A south Georgia man who spent a night in jail after calling police on a McDonald's employee says he didn't know he was abusing the emergency communications system.

Bigstory.ap.org - An operator of TGI Fridays restaurants in New Jersey has agreed to pay a $500,000 fine for serving customers cheap booze when they paid for top shelf.

Acting Attorney General John Hoffman said Wednesday that the fine levied against Livingston-based Briad Group, as a result of an investigation dubbed Operation Swill, should send a message to every bar and restaurant in the state that customers should always get what they pay for. Continue

Restaurantnews.com - There were only 3,045 more restaurants in the U.S. in Spring 2013 than there were in Spring 2012, according to a recent U.S. restaurant census conducted by The NPD Group, a leading global information company. The total number of U.S. restaurants is now 617,505, a slight .5 percent increase over last year, based on NPD’s Spring 2013 ReCount, which is a count of commercial restaurant locations in the United States compiled in the spring and fall each year. Continue

Dailyjournal.net - A middle Georgia man has been sentenced to life in prison in an armed robbery that to his accomplice's death.

Ronnie Holder of Milledgeville pleaded guilty to charges including armed robbery in Chatham County Superior Court Wednesday.

Authorities have said Holder and an accomplice robbed a Wendy's restaurant on Wilmington Island in late December of 2011. Officials have said they were involved in a shootout with the restaurant's manager after taking an undisclosed amount of cash from an office.

The manager wounded Holder and fatally shot his accomplice as they fled the scene.

District Attorney's spokesman Daniel Baxter says a Wendy's employee who was there the night of the robbery was also arrested on charges of being a party to the crime. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.