TL;DR
Rick Vanzura shares lessons from his career in brick-and-mortar brands, including his experiences with Borders, Panera, and Wahlburgers. He explains why certain brands thrive while others fail, and shares his framework for developing emerging restaurant concepts.
Rick Vanzura draws on a career spanning Borders, Panera, Wahlburgers, GameStop, and GrowthFactor to explain why certain brick-and-mortar brands thrive while others lose their way. He breaks down Cava’s advantage over Sweetgreen and Chipotle, how Panera “optimized itself to death,” and why the majority of value in restaurants accrues to the category winner.
Rick also shares remarkable stories from his career, including Borders turning down an agreement that would have included 5% of Amazon and working closely with Mark Wahlberg to scale Wahlburgers. The conversation closes with Rick’s framework for developing emerging restaurant concepts, choosing great locations, scaling without compromising the brand, and why aspiring restaurateurs should prioritize becoming an exceptional 100-unit business over an average 1,000-unit chain.
In this story
This story was originally published by Patrick Buckley in Empires Weekly on September 2, 2026. Burnaze summarizes and links to the original reporting.
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