If you a fan of McDonald’s, you’ll like its upcoming improvements.

But if you’re hoping its food also is part of that upgrade plan, you’ll be disappointed.

In a recent investor analyst call, the world’s largest burger chain announced it is spending $6 billion from now through 2020 to remodel many of its restaurants, add self-order kiosks and curbside pickup points. That’s $6 billion earmarked for window dressing, a reduction in human interaction and incentivizing customers to not leave their cars.

From a business perspective, this is good news.

• Remodeled stores—including exterior and interior improvements—move the comparable sales needle an average of 10-15 percent in the first three months after completion. Fact of life: Customers are drawn in by new and shiny things.
• Self-order kiosks also are proven means of reducing traffic jams at the counter and improving order accuracy.
• Curbside pickup is a great service that lowers transaction times and makes the buying experience entirely convenient.

Yet from a cultural perspective it raises some concerns:

1. McDonald’s plans include nothing about making its food better tasting or more healthful or its ingredient sourcing more sustainable. The brand is and will remain one of the world’s largest cheap food delivery machines.
2. How any customer sees a gussied-up restaurant and thinks, “Hey, there’s something exiting going on in there, let’s go!” is beyond me. It’s like a publisher changing the dust jacket on a mediocre book and seeing sales take off. It implies that people really don’t care about what they’re eating as long as the food is served within pleasant surroundings.
3. I really like customer-facing kiosks where human input isn’t essential, such as in airports. But when it comes to the hospitality industry, I prefer humans. Machines may respond correctly to your touchscreen prompts, but you can’t have pleasant associations with them. Engaging with other humans is a key reason I eat out. McDonald’s and many other chains are eliminating human-to-human interaction through kiosks to improve inherently error-prone order processes. Kiosks also address the significant and ongoing labor shortage in foodservice. Machines that never go home, never call in sick, ask for health insurance or trade shifts to go on a date are more reliable “staffers.”
4. Like drive-thru, curbside pickup ensures traditional McDonald’s customers never leave their cars. The industry calls these “line-busting” service tools, which, ironically, given what I mentioned about kiosks, requires an added layer of staffers moving food to idle customers. I love good service and I’ve enjoyed this feature at other restaurants … so maybe my opinion is mixed on this.

The easy summary is McDonald’s is spending an enormous load of cash to leverage its ability to compete on looks and improved service. Few restaurant chains understand their customers’ purchasing habits better than this one, so it’s a safe bet these will work.

But not with me. When I eat out, I like seeing people, other customers, servers or counter workers with whom I can have a brief conversation or at least exchange a smile. Restaurant food and people are, in my mind, inseparable.

And I’m not dragging my carcass to eat any place where the food isn’t as least as good or, ideally, better than the chow I prepare at home. Mediocre and massively processed food, no matter if served in a sexy or modern building, isn’t incentive enough to visit.

I suppose I’ll just have to learn secondhand how well these changes work.

The James Beard Foundation (JBF) announced Louisville as one of 10 cities two which it’s bringing its Taste America national culinary tour. According to a news release, the tour will run from Sept. 28 through Nov. 17, and include a dinner on Oct. 19 outside Louisville at Ashbourne Farms.

This year’s traveling series brings a unique partnership of culinary greats, dining experiences and educational opportunities to cities including Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle. In addition to spotlighting the nation’s great food, Taste America will focus on amplifying JBF food waste and sustainability initiatives and will directly contribute to the Foundation’s Scholarship programs.

JBF chief operating officer Kris Moon made the announcement, along with comments from Mayor Greg Fisher and Decca chef and co-owner, Annie Pettry.

The dinner will be held at the 2,250-acre farm (at 3810 Old Westport Rd. in La Grange) and feature a collaborative work of local chefs including Anoosh Shariat (Anoosh Bistro), Paco Garcia (Con Huevos), Ouita Michel (Woodford Reserve Distillery), Ming Pu (502 Bar and Bistro), and Mike Wajda (Proof on Main), and host chefs Jason Jones and Patrick Roney of Ashbourne Farms.

Top right in the photo is Annie Pettry, chef and co-owner of Decca, who will serve as the Taste America Local All-Star for the October James Beard Foundation dinner. Photo by Steve Coomes

The evening will begin with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres followed by a seated dinner orchestrated by Pettry—the JBF Taste America Local All-Star—and a to-be-announced Taste America Visiting All-Star chef. The two will curate that evening’s menu.

Capping off the night will be a dessert reception featuring Damaris Phillips (Food Network’s The Bobby and Damaris Show), Kathy Cary (Lilly’s Bistro), Emily Luchetti (Big Night Restaurant Group, San Francisco), James Adams (Brown Hotel) and Nokee Bucayu (Ashbourne Farms).

JBF will donate a portion of the evenings’ proceeds to the Taste America Scholarship Fund, which helps culinary students in this year’s 10 participating cities and states.

“Taste America exemplifies the Foundation’s mission of shining a spotlight on the rich diversity of America’s food culture and the communities that comprise it,” said Clare Reichenbach, chief executive officer of the James Beard Foundation. “Taste America highlights local foods, beverages, and artisans, offering food lovers the opportunity to have unique dining experiences, engage directly with amazing chefs, and to support the Foundation’s mission to drive towards a better food system for all.”

Also during the conference, Woodford Reserve announced a new multipart partnership with JBF that will see the whiskey brand served as the premier sponsor for Taste America, sponsor an annual Woodford Reserve Beverage Studies Scholarship for aspiring beverage professionals, and present an Outstanding Bar Program award annually at the James Beard Awards each spring. All Taste America events this year will feature Woodford Reserve cocktails.

Tickets are now on sale for JBF’s Taste America 2018.

For more information about Taste America events in Louisville, please contact Estes Public Relations at sarah@estespr.com or 502-614-5996. Visit jamesbeard.org/tasteamerica for more details.

Thanks to the flow of ever-questionable words flowing from his mouth, John Schnatter’s role as a leader of Papa John’s Pizza, the company he founded in 1984, is officially over.

Late Wednesday night, he tendered his resignation as chairman of the word’s fifth-largest pizza chain, a move following his resignation from the University of Louisville’s Board of Trustees earlier in the day. Both withdrawals came on the heels of his use of the “n-word” during a role-playing press conference—which, ironically, his company’s PR team had set up to help Schnatter tame his tongue.

John Schnatter, founder, Papa John’s Pizza. Photo courtesy of Papa John’s

That now-wasted effort was in response to a similar misuse of his mouth last year when speaking out negatively about the National Football League not stopping its players’ protests of pre-game National Anthem singing. That misplayed card saw the pizza chain’s longstanding and profitable sponsorship-relationship end abruptly, and triggered an ongoing slide of Papa John’s normally rock-solid stock.

To any reporter who’s interviewed Schnatter, his abrupt departure is as surprising as it isn’t. Teflon John has always said too much, commonly criticizing people within his company, its franchisees and nearly always those who left Papa John’s to work elsewhere.

And yet, as constant and uncomfortable as his words were, it never seemed to hurt him, never seemed to jeopardize his status as the iron-fisted ruler of the pizza empire he created.

But in what the now-infamous Forbes.com story reported about Schnatter’s use of the “n-word” to articulate Col. Harland Sanders constant use of it, his stepping down doesn’t surprise me a bit. I have no sense whatsoever that Schnatter—whom I’ve interviewed at least a dozen times—is a racist. What I know for sure is he lacks an understanding of conversational propriety and nuance, which necessitated a company gatekeeper be on hand to monitor most conversations we had. With some regularity he struggled to tap his mental brakes when an inappropriate thought arrived at his vocal chords.

Smart reporters know not to report everything that’s said by their sources—even when dastardly—because if you do, those sources cut you off. Launching a long run reporting on the pizza industry exclusively, I knew that while some things he said ranged from questionable to rude, I needed to keep that line of communication open, so I let a lot slide. And if you’re wondering, none of those would have had any impact on any story I was writing. But they did leave me thinking, “Really? Why’d ya say that?”

I got my first glimpse into how often Schnatter did such things the first time I met him at a PR event staged by the company. Discussing a controversy with another pizza chain, he indulged in a bit of name calling that was truly petty. Knowing I wasn’t going to report it, I still called a high-level Papa John’s official to share that mouth bomb in hopes he’d guide his boss not to repeat it. When the person’s secretary told him who was calling, he simply picked up the phone and asked, “OK, what did he say now?” He was obviously used to the drill. I told him and he thanked me. And, as expected, he rewarded me access to Schnatter and other Papa John’s officials for years to come.

Enigmatically, there were years when Schnatter acknowledged in private interviews that he’d been too hard on his franchisees. As pizza sales lagged category-wide in the mid-1990s, he criticized them publicly in analyst conference calls. Years later, when the company was back on course, he accepted some of the blame, saying the company had made some mistakes like signing on franchisees who were well heeled-enough to land a Papa John’s franchise, but who had no interest in or skill for store-level operations.

“We also weren’t measuring our performance correctly,” Schnatter told me in 2004. “And if we can’t measure what we’re doing or what franchisees are doing, then we can’t guide them or blame them. I take responsibility for that.”

Such concessions were rare, of course, and just when outsiders like the press were getting used to a humbler Schnatter, he’d resume firing off bracing and critical comments. Over the years I covered the company, such swings just became de rigueur.

But his April 2017 resignation from the U of L Athletics Board seemed to signal trouble was coming: I couldn’t tell if he was taking a principled stand regarding the unfolding mess within the university’s sports department or just storming off in a huff because the legendarily opinionated and forceful leader wasn’t getting his way.

Then came last year’s dustup with the NFL—definitely the point when it became clear that Teflon John had stepped in it up to his knees. By saying the NFL’s lack of control of its players was harming TV ratings and, ultimately his company’s sales, he’d gone too far. Offending his highest-profile sponsorship partner and powerful, popular black athletes to boot was monumentally unwise.

So, when I read the Forbes.com story yesterday, I wasn’t surprised at all. It was proof that Schnatter has yet to learn to say little, say less and—if at all possible—say nothing questionable when reporters are near.

Should the Forbes reporter have ignored what Schnatter said, like I did 19 years ago?

Not in 2018, and not when the reporter was among others who heard it as well. Someone listening needed to hold Schnatter accountable for that.

Fact is, reporters, Papa John’s officials and employees—not to mention loyal friends who grumble about him quietly—have grown bone weary of Schnatter’s negative bloviating. Hopefully for Papa John’s Pizza, this will put a stop to it.

Oh, Mario. Boy, oh, boy, Mario.

For years, industry talk trickling southward said you were a bad boy. But until last night’s episode of “60 Minutes,” I had no inkling of just how bad. I’d heard stories about what men in the restaurant industry call normal horseplay, but I’d never heard the debased tales of what viewers of the nation’s most respected news show heard last night:

• The unwanted remarks
• The forceful grabbing
• The drugging of drinks
• The implied forced sex

Molto terribile, capucuoco.

But it was all in fun, right? Just life in the restaurant biz; stuff that happens.

Or was it more a power play, say your right as an employer to paw whomever whenever?

I’m not motivational expert, but I’m not seeing that as a staff morale booster, Mario.

No wonder they nicknamed you the Red Menace.

Seems like your buddy, Ken Friedman, owner of The Spotted Pig, thought he was entitled to it. According to the women interviewed, he simply preyed on who he chose to and dared those women employees to retaliate; blackballed them if they quit to work elsewhere.

Reckon what clever nickname Friedman got?

On second thought, I don’t want to know.

For those who don’t follow the restaurant industry closely, this merely is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the rampant problem of sexual harassment. Batali and a handful of other star chefs are just the famous ones. It happens at every level of the industry.

Harassment was common when I was in the biz: lewd remarks and groping—and that was just the women on the men—which dudes didn’t seem to mind or didn’t claim to. That wouldn’t be macho. Happened even to me: two different women and one gay man. Strange and alarming every time.

Of course, that was small potatoes compared to what men did to women: the endless remarks, the constant bumping into and pawing, the cornering in cramped spaces, the creepy leering, the “Oh, come on, let’s go out, get some drinks, smoke some pot, you and me, baby,” variety of perverted nagging.

But I never saw or heard of what was mentioned in the 60 Minutes piece. Ever.

And I never saw it from the owners I worked for. Ever.

Did they know it was happening in their restaurants? I can’t say for sure. I know for certain that I never heard a woman on staff say they any owner did or said anything like what Friedman and Batali are accused of. I think they were (and still are) decent, high-integrity men.

Call me lucky, I guess, because I’ve read a couple of dozen books by chefs and restaurateurs who remark casually—sometimes triumphantly—about the sex, drugs and rock and roll culture of restaurants.

Reckon if they’re wondering now whether they should have written those stories?

But all that’s starting to change, especially with the momentum triggered by the #metoo movement.

Such change is long overdue, and as abused and harassed women speak out, stars like Batali will fall from the foodservice firmament. And there will be hell to pay.

Mangia that, Mario.

WATCH THE EPISODE BY CLICKING HERE.