Health magazine surveyed chain restaurants and found 10surprisingly healthy standouts.
All the restaurants were judged on healthy food preparation,whole grains on the menu, limited or no trans-fats in all dishes,low-sodium options, portion control and how easily the customercould access nutritional information.
The top 10 sit-down chain restaurants were:
Uno Chicago Grill
Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes
Mimi's Cafe
P.F. Chang's China Bistro
Bob Evans
Ruby Tuesday
Romano's Macaroni Grill
Chevy's Fresh Mex
Live Garden
Denny's
The top five fast-food restaurants were:
Noodles & Co.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Cosi
Panera
Au Bon Pain
KFC eyes name change
Nation's Restaurant News is reporting that KFC Corp. will givefranchisees the option of rebranding their stores 'Kentucky Fried &Grilled Chicken' as part of the scheduled rollout of a non-friedproduct that is now in widespread tests.
The grilled chicken is available at units in Colorado Springs;San Diego; Oklahoma City; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Austin, Texas.
In San Diego, some 45 corporate KFC branches are offeringKentucky Grilled Chicken as a no-extra-cost replacement for friedchicken in all meal combos and variety buckets.
The Kentucky Grilled Chicken product, depending on the part ofchicken, has as much as 50 percent fewer calories and half thesodium, and up to two-thirds less fat than KFC's fried chicken.
Jamba serves up breakfast
Jamba Juice has launched its breakfast menu nationwide.
The Nation's Restaurant News reports that among the new breakfastitems are granola-topped smoothies, a 'chunky' smoothie and bakedgoods.
The Granola Topper is made with blended fruit, low-fat yogurt andsoymilk, and is topped with organic granola.
The Chunky Smoothie is a combination of fresh bananas,strawberries, organic granola and peanut butter, which is blendedwith soymilk and nonfat yogurt.
Jamba operates or franchises more than 700 smoothie shops.
Property changing hands
Nearly 1.2 billion square feet of commercial space changed handslast year.
The International Council of Shopping Centers says that afteroffice properties, shopping centers were the second most-activeproperty type, with 17 percent of the total.
2007 was a busy year for retail property investors worldwide,with about $173 billion worth of retail real estate changing hands,according to Real Capital Analytics' annual Global Capital Trendsreport.
About $69 billion of that activity involved U.S. properties. ButEurope saw the most action, with eight of the top 10 most activeretail markets belonging to the union.
The United Kingdom was especially hot, with an average salesprice per square foot of $755, more than double the global averageof $283 per square foot. In the United States, the average was $197per square foot.
The average cap rate for global retail properties was 6.2 percentduring 2007. In the United States, it was 6.5 percent. Germany hadthe highest average cap rate at 6.9 percent, while the U.K. had thelowest average cap rate at 4.8 percent.
Dick's inks soccer deal
Dick's Sporting Goods is now the Official Sporting Goods Retailerof Major League Soccer, as well as 10 of the 14 teams playing in theleague.
Dick's Sporting Goods also will become the Official SportingGoods Retailer of U.S. Soccer, including the U.S. Men's and Women'sNational Teams.
The five-year agreement between Dick's and Soccer UnitedMarketing is designed to correspond with the growth plans of thecountry's largest sporting goods retailer, allowing Dick's to becomean official sponsor of each of the remaining teams as it beginsopening stores in those markets, culminating during 2011 when thesponsorship will cover every team in the league.
Domino's pizza tracker
Ashley Elskoe of Houston was the 1 millionth customer to placeher Domino's order using the Domino's Pizza Tracker, which wasintroduced during late January.
She was rewarded with $1,000 worth of Domino's Pizza giftcertificates.
Domino's Pizza Tracker allows its customers to follow theprogress of their order online from the time they click the 'PlaceOrder' button or hang up the telephone until the Domino's deliverdriver leaves the store.
Pizza Tracker is available at more than 3,600 Domino's Pizzastores in the United States.
Joan Johnson covers retail for the Colorado Springs BusinessJournal.
