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Lessons from restaurants that cut ties with underperforming vendors and others who used bankruptcy as a sign for reinvention prove one thing: a reset done right can spark big comebacks.👇

What’s on tap in this issue:

• Lessons from vendor breakups
• Bankruptcy makeovers worth stealing
• How to turn vendors into VIP partners

Industry news

What’s cookin’ in the industry? 

From unfortunate vendor breakups to brands using bankruptcy as an opportunity for reinvention, restaurants are proving that messy challenges harbor potential for beautiful comebacks. ✴️

A lesson learned from vendor breakups

Vendor breakups are awkward, messy, expensive, and can throw your ops into a tailspin. At the 2025 NRA Show, Ivar’s and Kidd Valley shared how they parted ways with 11 tech vendors. 

Here’s what the panelists learned the hard way (so you don’t have to):

📏 Make expectations clear from the get-go. Ambiguity kills partnerships. When service starts to slip, many vendors might not even realize there’s an issue. Setting performance metrics and reviewing them regularly could have saved several of those relationships.

📝 Document everything. Ivar’s logged every hiccup: support delays, downtime, even security scares, tracking which locations were hit and how long it took to fix. Those receipts helped them sort out whether the vendor had truly dropped the ball or if internal misalignment was part of the problem.

🔄 Give vendors a shot to improve. Before cutting ties, Ivar’s used a “fix or replace” framework. Vendors received a clear rundown of what wasn’t working and an opportunity to turn it around. Some did. Others didn’t. But the process gave promising partners a chance to course-correct before the plug was pulled.

Four fast-food chains that bounced back better from bankruptcy

Bankruptcy isn’t just about financial restructuring. Take notes from the brands below, who used it to rethink, reset, and relaunch. And their results are already showing up on the scoreboard.

From buffets to burritos, 4 brands turned Chapter 11 into a comeback story,  proving a reset can be the best growth strategy.

🍕 Cicis Pizza went back to basics. When COVID tanked its buffet model, Cicis filed for bankruptcy, but used the crisis to reset. The team dug up OG ’90s recipes, replaced its tech stack, and doubled down on quality ingredients via its in-house distribution arm. Their work paid off with the launch of a new loyalty program this year, store remodels, and a 35-unit development pipeline.

🌱 Clover’s lightspeed transformation. Filing under Chapter 11 Subchapter 5 forced Clover to strip down and rebuild. Fast. Leadership cut costs, clarified its climate-conscious mission, and even rebranded (farewell “Food Lab”). With a simplified operation and a fresh look, Clover is now expanding its restaurants, catering, and meal box delivery.

🎉 Chuck E. Cheese leveled up the experience. After filing for bankruptcy, the brand underwent an experience upgrade. With a $350M investment, the chain overhauled everything: store remodels, tech upgrades (back of house and guest-facing), and added new attractions like trampolines and obstacle courses. Frequent town halls and open communication helped rebuild trust and keep GM turnover at an all-time low.

🌮 Tijuana Flats found its flavor again. Under turnaround veteran Jim Greco, the chain zeroed in on “authentic Mexican” as its core identity. They reworked recipes with a family-owned Mexican food company, refined operations, and listened closely to guest feedback, course-correcting before small issues spiraled.

Timely tips

How to set your vendors up for success

📝 Write better work orders (your vendors will thank you)
A missing gasket isn’t an emergency. A walk-in door that won’t lock? That is. Flag urgency, safety risks, and job scope. Include photos, asset IDs, and instructions to cut back-and-forth.

📍 Assign a point person at every location
Vendors shouldn’t spend time searching for the person in charge when they roll up. Have one go-to contact who knows the equipment, can greenlight next steps, and provide the right info fast.

🤝 Don’t treat vendors like a dispatch number
The best techs want relationships, not just work orders. Pay fast, communicate clearly, and give clear, honest feedback. Want vendor loyalty? Build trust before the ice machine breaks.

ResQ makes communicating with vendors straightforward with work order management software.

From the community

Baking up bagels & drilling down operations to a science

H&H Bagels has been a New York icon for 50 years, but today, the brand isn’t just making bagels, it’s rewriting the playbook on operational excellence.

Before ResQ, Head of Operations and Managing Partner Ryan Klepper was stuck navigating a maze of private repair solutions. He was chasing multiple quotes, second-guessing whether the prices were fair, and often shelling out extra cash just to get urgent fixes done quickly. 

Vendor management added another layer of stress, especially when some vendors slipped through the cracks and delivered less-than-stellar service.

Enter ResQ and with it, a second line of defense.

ResQ now advocates for H&H Bagels when vendor costs don’t line up, and helps filter out bad vendors and poor quotes.

“Just having that backup so I’m not getting on the phone, getting stressed out, is incredibly helpful,” Ryan said.

This isn’t just about smoother ops for H&H’s 8 stores today. With 50 new locations planned in the next 3 years, the vendor support system is critical for franchisees:

Because when a new unit is opened where H&H doesn’t have relationships with vendors, they can rely on ResQ’s vetted trade vendor network.

With ResQ, H&H Bagels now has proactive maintenance schedules, better data for budgeting, and vendor accountability baked into every decision. All of which frees the team to focus on serving up the city’s finest bagels while scaling up for the future.

Break time

When you realize the only thing this vendor came fully equipped with was confidence

Because confidence is cool, but experience actually fixes the fryer in a flash.

- Kareem at ResQ 

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Shameless plug

What does ResQ do?

ResQ is the most trades-friendly facilities management platform that streamlines restaurant R&M operations, while providing value to the trades industry.

Operators can efficiently track assets, create work orders quickly, and choose from a network of quality vendors to work with.

Love free samples? Same here. Schedule a FREE demo to learn more about ResQ.

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