"food" is slightly more than a step up from fast food. main course Items are delivered frozen and reconstituted in a high speed sous vide system. Fries or any fried finger food are frozen, and depending on the franchise owner there is a specified hold time of up to 2 hours. My location ignored this because 'we sell so much food!' when in reality we're ignoring it because wastage is logged and reported to corporate and the franchise owner wasnt interested in lectures from the suits.
Other items like specials and anything that read 'grill' was placed in one of four high speed commercial microwaves, then sent to a 'finisher' which resembled a grill but simply imparted the markings on the food in about 20 seconds. Hamburgers didnt receive this treatment as they arrived fully cooked in many cases, with the exception of the angus burger, which was one of 2 items on the menu that was actually thawed and cooked on a real grill.
The bar isnt operated on a razor-thin margin of profit, its just flat out greed. items are chosen for hold time and markup. Frozen margaritas/anything can be held for up to 2 weeks, as the mix from corporate is largely preservatives. distributer orders do not specify a brand, only a negotiated price for a specific liquor. Beer provided almost for free, as corporate aggressively negotiates the terms and in some cases, owns major stake in distributors. all poured alcohol is underpoured partly because the establishment is cheap, and partly because the only thing that can shut down these shitty chains is an alcohol violation or poor customer experience because of an 'over-service event' at the bar. they just reopen in a week 'under new management' anyhow.
If you're wondering how franchise owners play into the restaurant, theyre basically nonexistent. Our franchise owners only visible presence was a plaque on the wall with their names, and occasional half-hearted sentiments from the managers on things the owners would like us to do which were basically restatements of what corporate wanted us to do. It wasnt until my last year of employment when I learned they were in their early eighties, and confined to a nursing home somewhere out of state. Power of attorney rested with their son, who had been in and out of drug treatment programs somewhere in california. We were eventually purchased as a franchise package by a venture holdings company in chicago.